Rock Chick 05 Revenge (73 page)

His eyes scanned my face for a beat then he put his forehead to mine and, close up, I watched his eyes smile.

By the way, it was fascinating to watch, let me tell you.

Jet moved around one side of the room, Ally the other, they were carrying baskets of big, white tissue disks of confetti. Everyone took a massive handful then, en masse, we all closed in on the door, forming a semi circle. There was Tod and Stevie, Daisy and her husband Marcus, Smithie and one of his women LaTeesha, Olivia with Winnie sitting by her side, Tex and Nancy, Jet and Eddie, Hank and Roxie, Big Bobby and his girlfriend Carol, Matt and his girlfriend Daphne, Shirleen and Darius, Hector and some blonde I hadn’t yet met, Mace (alone), Monty and his wife Gillian, three guys named Zip, Heavy and Frank that I met when I arrived at the party, Duke and Dolores, Ally (alone too, just as Shirleen predicted, she’d broken up with her boyfriend when he had gone to FBI training), and Luke and me.

The doors opened and Jules’s Uncle Nick walked in beside an older Native American lady. They smiled, Jet stuck her basket out, they grabbed a handful of confetti and assumed their positions in the circle.

All eyes moved back to the door.

May walked in, looking lovely in baby blue, complete with huge hat. She was carrying a small bouquet made entirely of peonies, so deep pink they looked like velvet. She grinned, grabbed some confetti and took her place in the circle.

Two young boys walked in. I had met them a few times before, one short, skinny and white, one tall, filling out well and black. They went by their street names, Sniff and Roam. They looked uncomfortable in their suits (but handsome) but even more uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the crowd. Their eyes found Luke and they walked straight to him, ignoring the confetti basket, and shoved through to stand behind Luke and me.

Indy and Lee walked in, Indy looking amazing in a mint green dress that was even more girlie than mine. Lee had a pink rose pinned to his lapel and, it must be said, he looked hot in a suit too. They grabbed their confetti and just managed to get into position when the couple of honor walked in.

Everyone sucked in breath.

Jules’s gleaming jet-black hair was down, slightly curled in massive waves falling around her shoulders. She wore an ivory silk, sleeveless dress, empire-waist, cross-over bodice with hint-of-cleavage vee. It fit snug all the way down to her knees so you could clearly see the slight bump at her belly. She had on a pair of baby blue, high-heeled sandals, a wide leather strap across her French manicured toes, a soft, satin ribbon coming up from the side of the shoe, wrapping around and tied in a bow at her ankles. She was carrying an enormous bouquet of white peonies and roses and she was, quite simply, glowing. She had a diamond at her neck and some kind of chunky, cool as shit silver bracelet on her wrist, a gorgeous promise ring on her right hand not to mention the huge rock on her left ring finger, nestled now with a wedding band.

Vance was at her side, white rose at his lapel, dark suit, dark shirt, and dark tie, his black hair pulled back in a ponytail. I didn’t know what the masculine form of glowing was but whatever it was, Vance looked it.

“Congratulations!” Daisy shouted, breaking the silence. She jumped forward and threw her confetti.

We all followed suit, shouting and confetti flew so thick in the air it seemed to be snowing. It drifted around slowly, floating softly as it fell around the newlyweds.

I saw the tears glimmering in Jules’s eyes as she looked around at her friends then she turned, Vance’s arms closed around her and she shoved her face in his neck.

That’s when I felt my throat close.

“Shit,” Indy, standing close to me, muttered and Lee mumbled, “Honey,” and slid his arms around her. She pressed a red, trying not to cry face into his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck.

That’s when I felt my throat begin to burn and I took a step back, for some reason, needing to escape.

So I looked to escape as fast as my purple shoes would take me.

I whirled and ran, dodging well-wishers and waiters, and made it halfway down the middle aisle of books before an arm caught me at the waist and I was turned to face Luke.

My head tilted back and my gaze met his. His face was soft, his eyes were searching. My eyes were filled with tears.

“Babe,” he murmured. “Talk to me.”

I shook my head and took a step back. Both his arms went around me and he pulled me close. Therefore, no retreat.

Eek!

“No running,” he said, voice soft but firm. “Talk.”

“I don’t think –” I started, then stopped.

Get it out, get it out, get it OUT, girl,
Good Ava demanded.

Yeah, for goodness sake, let’s get this over with. I need more champagne,
Bad Ava sounded bored.

“Ava –” Luke said low when I didn’t start talking.

I cleared my throat, took a deep breath, straightened in his arms and said, straight out before I could stop myself, “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy.”

His head jerked back and I knew that was not what he was expecting to hear.

Then his face changed, he looked at me in a way he had never looked at me before and whatever was in his face made my lungs seize.

His arms moved, one went low, very low, passed my waist, his hand going lower, pressing into my behind so my hips were fit snug into his. The other arm slid up my back so it was wrapped just under my shoulder blades and I felt his fingers against the side of my breast.

“I’m scared,” I told him in a small voice and I felt a shiver slide through my body. I felt suddenly cold, so I pressed in close and put my hands on his shoulders. I closed my eyes tight then opened them and whispered, “Luke, I’m scared to death. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”

“Tell me and, I swear to God, I’ll make it so you won’t be scared ever again,” he promised.

I blinked at him. “Tell you what?”

“You know what.”

“I don’t know what.” After I said it, I knew what and my body went tense.

“Babe, I’ve been waitin’ since that day your family breezed into town.”

That’s when I knew that he knew all along. How he knew I did not know but then again, he knew everything.

“Do I have to say it?” I asked quietly.

He gave me a half-grin and an arm squeeze. “Yeah, you have to say it.”

I sighed.

He did another arm squeeze.

My hands slid up from his shoulders to his jaw and I looked him in the eyes.

Oh well, I had been waiting since I was eight. I had created extravagant daydreams about it. I had dreamed of it at night. I had written about how I would do it in my diary. I had hoped for a chance to do this, for over twenty years. I had even prayed for it.

There was no reason to wait any longer. If I waited any longer I’d be a serious wuss.

And there was one thing I knew about myself after the last couple of months, I was no wuss.

“Lucas Stark,” I whispered, “I love you.”

I hadn’t let my mind move forward passed the actual saying of the words to process what I thought his response to my telling him I loved him would be.

However, even in my wildest imaginings it wasn’t what I got.

His arms did another squeeze, this one so tight it crushed me to him. He kissed me, the kiss was so hot, so hard, so deep, it bruised my lips (truth be told, I didn’t really mind).

Then he let me go and I was in such a Luke Lip Fog that I went back on a foot, my hand curling around his upper arm to steady myself but I didn’t have to do that. Mainly because, all of a sudden, I was no longer on my feet. Instead, I was thrown over Luke’s shoulder, his arm wrapped around the backs of my thighs. He turned and started walking back toward the party.

Oh… my…
God
.

He was not carrying me to the party! Was he?

“Luke!” I hissed. “Put me down.”

He kept walking.

“Luke! Everyone is going to –”

Too late, we hit the open area, people were chatting, laughing, glasses were clinking.

As Luke walked through, the chatting, laughing and clinking glasses stopped and I looked around from my position hanging over Luke’s back, my hands at this waist, my head lifted up and I saw everyone stare.

“You the man!” Sniff shouted at us and there were a few low laughs.

I decided, in that moment, I was going to
kill
Luke.

“We’ll be back,” I heard Luke say to someone then he walked through the door and I saw he was talking to Vance and Jules who were both watching us go. Vance wearing his shit-eating grin, Jules’s eyes wide.

I gave them a lame wave.

Jules burst out laughing.

Luke kept on walking.

* * * * *

I sucked back the last of my champagne, slammed the glass on the table, turned my head and shouted, “Waiter! Fill ‘er up!”

Luke, who was lounging next to me in one of the lovely, little, linen covered chairs had his arm draped on the back of mine. His hand curled around my neck, he twisted me toward his body and his mouth came to my ear.

“How drunk are you?” he whispered.

I jerked my head back, gave him a glare and crossed my arms on my chest. Luke chuckled.

With his he-man, tough guy, macho man antics, he had bought himself an undefined period of the Ava Barlow Silent Treatment.

Okay, so he had whisked me back to the loft in his Porsche, dragged me in, made love to me slowly and told me he loved me right before I had my
second
Luke-induced orgasm of the night and that was all good. Very good. Super good.
Ultra
good.

Then he had taken us back to the party and I knew that everyone
totally
knew I had just been laid and good. That meant I was embarrassed for the second time that night by Luke.

The waiter came up with another glass of champagne.

“Thank you,” I said with feeling, smiling sweetly at him.

“Sugar, don’t you think you need to eat somethin’, considerin’ you’re drinkin’ enough for all of us?” Daisy asked, sitting across from me.

“I’m not hungry,” I answered.

“She’s pissed off,” Shirleen, sitting beside me, smiled.

“Damn straight,” I returned.

“Girl, I don’t know what you’re pissed about. A fine man carted me off to give me the business, and good, if your face and hair was anything to go by, I’d be doin’ fuckin’ cartwheels,” Shirleen replied.

Luke’s thumb started stroking my neck. I turned and glared at him again. He burst out laughing.

He was
so
annoying!

I turned back to Shirleen. “You say that now. It happened to you, you might not say it. You might do what I’m doing. I think a sentence of at least a week of Ava Barlow Silent Treatment is too nice. Maybe I’ll make it two.”

“Silent Treatment!” Daisy cried then giggled her tinkly-bell giggle. “Girl, you wanna get back at him, you cut off his water, comprende?”

Intrigued, I leaned toward Daisy. “Cut off his water?”

“No nookie, none, nada, no fingers, no mouths, no tongues, no kisses, no
nothin’
. Complete cut off. Works for me every time,” Daisy replied.

I sat back nodding somewhat drunkenly. “Daisy, you are the
shit
. I like that idea.”

Luke’s hand curled around my neck again, he twisted me toward his body and his mouth came back to my ear again. “You try to cut off access to that sweet body of yours, beautiful, you’ll find yourself cuffed naked to my bed for a week,” he hesitated, “maybe two.”

Ee-yikes!

He lifted his head, our eyes caught, we got into an Ava Barlow and Lucas Stark Glare to the Death Contest and, per usual, I lost.

I jerked away from him, gave him another good glower but turned back to the table and shared, “I don’t think cutting off his water is gonna work.”

Shirleen threw her head back and laughed.

I, personally, didn’t think anything was funny.

Roxie and Hank came up and Roxie collapsed in a chair while Hank grabbed a couple of glasses of champagne.

Roxie looked up at Hank. “You’re next for Lee’s job.”

“What you mean, girl?” Shirleen asked.

“Lee was Vance’s best man, Hank’s Lee’s best man. Indy and Lee are getting married in a few weeks,” Roxie explained.

Shirleen blew out a sigh. “Gonna be an expensive year for the friend of a Rock Chick. You all see Jet’s finger?”

Everyone turned to look at Jet’s finger. On it was a princess cut diamond with an unmistakable meaning.

“Oh my God!” I mini-screamed.

“She didn’t say anything to me,” Daisy’s voice was stunned and she sounded upset.

“Eddie asked her a couple of days ago,” Roxie explained. “I only know because I dragged her into the bathroom and made her spill. She didn’t want to take any of the limelight from Jules.”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “That’s Jet’s way, she’s not big on attention.”