“Really?” I whispered so low it was barely audible.
“Yeah.”
Then it hit me. “What would I owe you for that?”
He kissed my neck and his chin went back to my shoulder. “I would do that for free.”
I tried to put the brakes on it, tried to call “whoa” but I couldn’t. My body relaxed into his. His chin came up as he took my weight and the back of my head went to rest on his shoulder.
After awhile I said, “I don’t want you to find him for me. I don’t need another man f**king up my life.”
“Your call,” he replied softly.
I didn’t say any more. We sat there for a good, long while. Then he moved, pulling away, standing up. I looked at him as he leaned down, putting an arm around my waist, one at the back of my knees. He lifted me up and carried me to bed.
Once there he set me in it and followed me down, stretching out beside me. He took off my glasses and put them on the nightstand. Then he unzipped the sweatshirt and I pulled it off, throwing it on the floor by the bed. Then he lifted the tee over my head and threw it aside. Luke, I was learning, liked sleeping naked. He would tolerate panties but that was about it. Seeing as I liked the feel of his skin against mine I didn’t mind. He pulled me over his body, settled me on his other side and yanked the covers over us. He turned to me, hooking his hand behind my knee to wrap it around his hip.
“You could have put me in bed on this side,” I told him.
“That’s not as fun.”
I smiled in the dark. “You’re nuts,” I said. Finally feeling sleepy, I cuddled closer.
His arm closed around my waist and he pulled me deep into him but he didn’t respond.
When I was inches away from dreamland, I heard him say, “Ava.”
I was too close to sleep to respond, I just pressed closer.
And I was sure I fell asleep because, I swear, the next thing he said was, “Missed you.”
And I knew that had to be a dream.
* * * * *
I was sitting at my desk at the loft trying to get some work done. Sissy was lying on Luke’s couch preparing to see Stella and The Blue Moon Gypsies by listening to the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club singing “Ain’t No Easy Way” one of Stella and her band’s coolest covers. The crowd always went wild when Stella sang that but her signature song was “Ghostriders in the Sky”. She ended every gig with “Ghostriders” and people always went nuts.
It was early afternoon and I was beginning to feel like a Rock Chick Fraud. Nothing bad had happened to me in a while outside of finding out Luke was in love with Jules (something that I didn’t even tell Sissy about because I knew she would give me Good Ava-esque advice) but no getting beat up, kidnapped, shot at or cuffed to a sink.
The morning had been relatively normal. That was, if you didn’t count Luke waking up in an energetic mood. Luke’s energetic mood translated itself into us having sex, during which he gave me the business in three different positions. One I’d done before, one I’d heard of but never done and one I didn’t even know was possible.
If you asked me which was my favorite, I couldn’t tell you. I liked them all. A lot.
He’d left me face down and drained in bed while he showered. I fell into a doze but eventually felt the sheet slide down to my h*ps then Luke’s mouth at the small of my back sliding up my spine to my neck.
“Gotta get to work, babe,” he said there.
“Mm,” I mumbled.
I felt him smile against my neck before his hands rolled me and he lifted me up until I was sitting and my chest was pressed against his. His hand went into my hair and twisted.
“Luke, I’m still sleepy,” I protested, not sleepy at all. I was spent, in a good way.
“I want a kiss before I go,” he demanded before he kissed me, not giving me a choice in the matter (not that I would have said no). It wasn’t hot, hard and deep. It was hot, soft and sweet.
When he was done I stared at him in a new kind of Luke Lip Fog.
“I always want a kiss before I go to work, Ava,” he told me quietly.