Steal My Breath (Elixir #1) (8 page)

All the energy blazing around her dissipates when I bring up her mother. Her body slumps, and it’s clear this is not a topic she likes to discuss. “As far as my mother is concerned, I’m average at everything I try in my life. I’ve never measured up to my sister. Melissa is good at every-fucking-thing and was into all the same shit as Mum. She’s like a bloody clone. They both love the same fashion, music, TV shows, movies… Fuck, Melissa probably hates sex just as much as my mother for all I know.”

“So I take it you’re not close to your sister either?”

She shakes her head. “No. I mean, I wish we were, but that never happened for us. Mum took away any opportunity we had at an amazing friendship.”

“What do you mean?”

“Anytime I started to get close to Mel, Mum swooped in and dragged her away. She took her shopping or to the beauty salon or some other girly thing she knew I wouldn’t be interested in. I was always invited, but I’m convinced Mum knew I’d say no.” She leans forward. “As well as never being smart enough for Mum, I’ll never be girly enough for her either.”

“Callie, I’m a man, so I have no fucking clue what women classify as girly, but as far as I’m concerned, you’ve nailed it.”

A smile sparks in her eyes and travels to her lips. “You can come for roast dinner anytime, Mr Hardy.”

I smirk. “Should I cook it at home first?”

She scrunches her face up at me. “That would be acceptable. And you can also do the dishes, smartass.”

As I sit laughing, I pray that I will one day be this woman’s everything. Though, when your life has been turned upside down in ways you never imagined, and you’ve lost most of the hope you ever had, it’s hard to believe a prayer will be answered.

“
I
bought you gifts
,” I say as I step through Avery’s front door.

“Coffee and Chupa Chups. Best friend ever,” she replies as she swipes them out of my hands.

Exhaustion clothes Avery today and my worry over her intensifies. I follow her into the lounge room and am surprised to find a huge mess of products and packaging supplies scattered across the floor. Avery is usually OCD about her setup.

She waves at the mess and mutters, “Sorry, we’ve got some sorting out to do first.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “What’s going on, A? First, you cancelled on me the other day for this, and now you’re in a mess, and you’re
never
in a mess. Is Helena worse?”

Avery stops and stares at me blankly as if she’s fighting through the jumble in her mind in order to answer my question. “My family’s falling apart. More than we already had. Dad’s been diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, Helena’s depression has spiralled into a dark place and Beth is fucking self-harming.” She blows out a long breath. “After sixteen years of looking after them, I’m not sure I have it in me to cope with all this. Not all at once. I could have done each one on its own, but fuck, for it all to land on me this week, it’s too much, Callie.” Her voice breaks and tears slide down her face.

I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly in a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

She clings to me, and I hold her until she lets go. We don’t speak. Avery and I don’t need words. We just need to know each other will be there, and in the three years we’ve been best friends, we’ve never let the other down.

Wiping madly at her tear-stained face, she says, “This is going to sound awful, but I feel like I lost my life to my family the day my mum died.” Her face crumples as more tears fall.

“You did. And it’s not awful for you to say the truth out loud. You were ten for God’s sake. And you took on the care for your family. I know he wasn’t coping, but your dad let you down, Avery. A parent is supposed to hold everything together when life screws up their family. That’s not a child’s job.”

Her sobs grow louder, and she slumps against me again. My heart breaks for everything she’s been through. I wish I could take her burdens from her. Avery deserves the chance to chase her dreams. If I could give her anything, I’d give her that.

When she moves out of my embrace, she takes a deep breath and says, “Okay, that’s enough complaining. We’ve got a shitload of work to do here today. I hope you’re up for it.”

I know this is her way of telling me she doesn’t want to discuss her problems anymore. Avery hates going over problems incessantly. She’s a fixer rather than a grumbler, and I always respect that. I never try to force her into talking about something she’s not ready to tackle.

I reach into my bag and pull more lollipops out. Smiling, I say, “I came prepared.”

A smile slowly spreads across her face. “I love you.”

We spend the next five hours sorting through her orders and packaging them up for shipping. Avery sells a wide range of women’s products from hair accessories to make-up tools, handbags, clothes and phone accessories. Over the last few years, she has amassed a large customer base and sources anything they ask for. If she didn’t have the expense of caring for her family members, she’d be able to live off her earnings from the eBay shop alone.

“I think that’s all for today,” she says after collapsing onto the couch once we finish packing the last order.

I join her. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do to help? I’ve got the whole day off.”

“No, I’m all caught up now. Thank you so much for helping. It feels like a huge weight off my shoulders.” Her lips curl up into a smile. “What you can do, though, is tell me how things are between you and Luke.”

“Oh, God, I tried to cook him a roast last night. Epic fail. And when I say epic, I mean fucking epic with a capital E.”

Her smile morphs into a frown. “What, the date was a fail? Or the roast?”

“The roast! You know I can’t cook to save myself. I don’t know what I was thinking when I told him I could cook.”

She laughs and doesn’t stop. Tears are soon streaming down her face again, but these ones are happy at least. “This is too funny, Callie. Thank you for the laugh. I needed it.”

“I’m pretty sure Luke was holding his laughter back last night.”

“So what did you eat instead? Or did you starve the man?”

“He resurrected the roast and then cooked the gravy and veggies. It’s so embarrassing. I’m never cooking for a man again.”

She’s still laughing. “It will go down in your history. You guys will remember this for years to come, and that’s something pretty special. But yeah, maybe let him cook in future.”

I love the way she talks about our future as if it’s a given. “I hope we’re together that long for it to become a favourite memory,” I say softly.

“Am I allowed to know Luke’s big secret yet?”

Smiling, I say, “Yes. I asked him last night if it was okay to tell you. He was kind of weird about it at first; he muttered something about women having to know everything. But he did agree that so long as you don’t broadcast it around the bar, he’s okay with it.”

Her eyes light up, and she practically bounces on the spot. “So spill!”

I share everything I know about Luke and his family with her as she sits in complete silence. It’s unlike Avery not to butt in with questions, but she doesn’t. I think I’ve stunned the shit out of her with this story.

When I finish, she says, “Fuck me. If you weren’t the one telling me that, I’m not sure I’d believe it. That sounds like something off a TV show more than real life.”

“You’re telling
me
. It’s taken me ages to wrap my head around this. And besides the wife stuff, I was almost speechless when I met his son. Luke never struck me as a father.”

“Me either, but I can see it now. He’s a bossy man. I can imagine him bossing a kid around.”

My phone sounds with a text, interrupting us.

L
uke
: Are you free for me to call?

Me
: Give me a minute. I’ll call you.

L
ooking up at Avery
, I say, “It’s Luke.”

She moves off the couch. “You go, babe. I’m going to take a nap before I have to head over to Helena’s and check on her. Thank you so much for today.”

I hug her goodbye. “Stop thanking me. I’m here whenever you need me.”

We finish up our goodbyes, and I head outside, dialling Luke as I walk. The cold air catches me by surprise, and I pick up my pace so I can shelter in the warmth of my car. This winter has been colder than usual. We’ve also had a lot more rain, and I almost slip on the muddy driveway.

Luke answers just as my foot slides through the mud. He catches me muttering an expletive, and chuckles. “Your day isn’t going so well?”

I unlock the car door and slide in before slamming the cold out. “Bloody mud. I am so sick of this rain! You need to do a sun dance or something. Anything to make it stop!”

“A sun dance?”

“Yeah, to make the sun shine,” I say. “Seriously Luke, how do you not know what a sun dance is?”

His laughter brings a smile to my lips. “Callie, I’ve never heard of a sun dance. You’ll have to demonstrate it for me the next time I see you.” His voice has the sexy cheeky tone to it that I’m growing to love.
God, I’ve wasted a whole year arguing with him when I could have been listening to this instead.

“Nuh, uh. You only want to see that so you can imagine sexy times. You’ll have to wait until those sexy times can actually happen before I demonstrate anything.”

He groans. “You have no idea how often I think about you.” The need I hear matches my own, and I squeeze my thighs together and say yet another prayer that his divorce hurries up.

“Okay, we need to move off this topic. What did you call for?”

“Are you free for dinner tonight? It’d just be a quick one during my break, which I know is not perfect, but I need to see you.”

“As in, you need to tell me something? Or, you just really, really want to see me?”

“As in, if you don’t get your ass over here tonight, this friends thing might get thrown out the damn window.”

Oh, boy.

That voice.

So gravelly and demanding.

Bossy Luke has reared his head. I’m starting to really like bossy Luke.

“What time?”

“Seven.”

“I’ll be there. I can stop and pick some dinner up on the way. What’s your favourite takeaway?”

“Chinese.”

“Ooh, I know an awesome Chinese place. I’ll grab their omelette and fried rice—they’re the best I’ve ever had.” I hesitate for a moment. “Unless you want something else.”

“No. I like everything, so whatever you get will be good.”

“Okay, well I’ll see you tonight.”

“Callie?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t be late. I don’t want to waste a minute.”

Luke Hardy is trying to kill me. I know this for sure now. Soon I’ll have no heart left because he’ll own all the pieces.

M
y veins flow
with lust from the minute I step foot inside Elixir that night, until long after I leave. And I begin to seriously doubt I can last much longer being with Luke without having him completely as mine.

His eyes track me as soon as he sees me. They don’t let go, and I send yet another prayer to the heavens. This one is for help with keeping my hands off him. The man is dressed for the killing season. And it’s not just me he’s killing. He has his own posse of admirers sitting at the bar staring at him with probably the same look I have on my face.

My steps falter a little as I take in the gorgeousness of this man. When I finally reach him, he’s moved from behind the bar to meet me, and his arm slides around my waist so he can pull me close.

“You okay?” he murmurs into my ear.

I can’t think straight. Between his appearance, his warm breath on my skin, his masculine scent and his goddamn hand on my ass, I think I might finally be going batshit crazy.

Pressing my hand against his chest to try to put some space between us, I mutter, “What the fuck are you wearing, anyway?” I nod at his black shirt. “What is that? And why do you feel it necessary to torment me with it?”

He looks down at his shirt and appears genuinely puzzled, but then again, he’s a male, and what do men know? Lifting his face back to mine, he says, “What’s wrong with it?”

I lift my brows, ready to go to battle. “Well, I think maybe it’s way too tight. And cottony. And it’s definitely too thin. I mean, for all the muscles I can see through its thin, cottony material, you may as well not have worn anything. And that V-neck button opening is
bad
for womankind. The way it’s just flapping open there, exposing that skin, is shameful. I do not need to be seeing that skin and that chest and—
Jesus, Luke
—those goddamn muscles. Put them away.”

Amusement has crept across his face, and I clench my hands by my side in an effort not to smack him. “Is there anything else you’re not happy with tonight?”

“Yes! Those jeans need to be burnt. Tonight. Now. This very fucking minute.” I pause. “Actually, wait. Turn around.”

He smirks. “You wanna see my ass?”

“So what if I do?”

He leans close and brushes his lips across mine.
The bastard!
“Anytime you wanna see a body part of mine, all you gotta do is ask. I’d be more than happy to take the jeans off for you and burn them right now if that would make you happy. The shirt, too.”

I suck in a breath.

Oh, hell no.

No, no, no.

I press against his chest. “We need to go and eat. No more talk of clothes or body parts.”

He laughs as he reaches for the takeaway bag I’m holding and leads me to his back office. I haven’t spent a lot of time in his office, so I take the opportunity to inspect it in greater detail.

It’s small, but Luke manages to keep it tidy and uncluttered. It’s a theme I’ve noticed in his personal spaces. Not that I spent very long at his home, but in that time, I observed it was clean, open, and uncluttered.

Luke has a small desk facing the door. Besides the window behind it, the desk is the first thing you see when you enter. The wall to the left has a large dark wood bookcase—it’s made of the same wood as the desk. The wall on the right is bare of furniture, but frame after frame hangs on it. A quick glance reveals photos of him, Sean, Tyler, and Paris. There are also some with an older man, who I presume might be his father because of the way they have their arms over each other’s shoulders. And then there’s one of Luke, Sean and a woman of about forty. It could be his mother, but she looks too young. Maybe an aunt?

Luke cuts into my thoughts. “It’s my mother.” At my blank look, he nods at the photo I’ve been inspecting. “In that photo, it’s Mum with me and Sean.”

I sit in the chair he gives me. “She’s so young.”

“Forty-nine this year.” He moves the office chair from his side of the desk so he can sit next to me.

I take another look at the photo. “Wow, she’s aging well. I would have picked her for under forty-five.”

Passing me a plate, he says, “It’s amazing what plastic surgery can do.”

I’m so engrossed in the photo that I don’t realise Luke has served my dinner for me. “Thank you,” I say quietly when he gives me chopsticks. I’m fighting with myself over arguing with him. It seems ungrateful not to appreciate him doing things for me, but at the same time, I need him to know I still want to do things for myself.

He frowns. “What’s wrong?”

I take a moment before trying to make him understand. These words need to come out right. “I love that you want to do things for me, but I’m capable of doing them for myself.”

“I know you can. But, you’re just going to have to get used to me doing some things for you, because that’s who I am. I’m a man who likes to take care of his woman.”

His woman.

My tummy does somersaults. I try to ignore them, though because it’s important to me that Luke understands my needs.