After awhile I could take it no more. I wanted to allow myself to sit next to Luke, pressed to his side, in a happy, pretend world of what it could be like with Luke. Instead, I was freaking out wondering what he was playing at.
I got up announcing I was going to bed. Luke let me go without a word. I went to the bathroom, got ready for bed, spent some time trying to decide if the Triumph tee was the way to go (I went for it, it was snuggly) and I came out of the bathroom.
Hmm. Conundrum.
I should sleep on the couch, make a statement. But Luke was watching the game on the couch. I figured I could move to the couch later and I got in bed.
Half an hour later, Luke switched off the TV and I heard him moving around the loft. He turned off the lamp and he took off his clothes (probably dropping them to the floor, argh!). The bed moved and he got in.
I tensed. He didn’t touch me.
I kept tense. He still didn’t touch me.
This made me tenser.
My mind whirled. Maybe he’d given up. Maybe he thought I wasn’t worth the effort.
I didn’t know what to think of that. I should have been relieved but I had to admit I was not.
You really messed things up this time, Good Ava sounded angry.
That’s okay. Ren’s taking you out to dinner on Tuesday and Theresa Bianchi said he was a GOD in bed, Bad Ava was moving on to new game.
We don’t want Ren, we want Luke. We’ve ALWAYS wanted Luke, Good Ava snapped at Bad Ava.
We’ll take what we can get. Ren Zano is hardly sloppy seconds, that man is FINE, Bad Ava informed Good Ava.
I forced my body to relax and my mind to go blank. I was drifting off to sleep when Luke tagged me around the waist, turning me to my back.
“What are you doing?” I asked, finding myself instantly alert.
He didn’t answer. He covered me with his body and before I knew it his hands were in the Triumph tee and it was up and over my head. He didn’t pull it off, he stopped it when my arms were up, the tee bunched at my elbows.
I was taking this as a sign he hadn’t given up.
Ho-ly crap!
“What are you doing?” I screeched.
He twisted his torso, nabbed something off the nightstand and came back to me. I heard a clink and realized what was happening.
“No you don’t!” I bucked, twisted, struggled against his heavy weight and tried to shove off the tee.
Luke “helped” and the tee was gone in a flash. Wordlessly, he seized my wrists, slapped a bracelet on one and then, without apparent effort and clearly with a good deal of experience working with struggling people, the other and I was cuffed to the bed.
I stilled, a tremor of fear (and excitement, I had to admit) ran through me and I glared at him in the dimly lit dark.
“Uncuff me,” I demanded.
He ignored my demand and declared, “Now, payment.”
Ho-ly shit.
Definitely not giving up. His mouth came to my neck and ran the length of it. A shiver shuddered through me.
At my ear he said, “We’ll save punishment for later. Coupla days,” he informed me conversationally before his lips moved along my jaw then to my mouth. “You gave me a f**kin’ great idea.”
Uh-oh.