“Come again?” Luke asked.
I took in a breath, scared of sharing, not wanting another episode but thinking, because he had bled for me and might even carry a scar for me (even if it really was his own damned fault, it was also partially mine, I knew better) that he deserved an explanation.
“Ren had just told me if you weren’t keeping Sissy safe, he would. I was grateful to know he was a good guy, there aren’t many out there.”
When I saw Luke’s eyes turn intense and felt his body go still, I rushed on. “Then Stella sang ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’. It’s a beautiful song. Ren put his arms around me and I didn’t even think.”
Luke’s mouth got tight which I took as a warning sign (finally, I was learning) so I continued. “Anyway, something weird was happening. It seemed like she was singing it to Mace. What with the song being so pretty and my mind on Mace and Stella –”
“Mace had a thing with Stella,” Luke told me.
My gossip antennae perked up. “Really?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“None of my business, none of yours either unless Mace or Stella want to share.”
One thing I knew for certain, Mace was never going to want to share. That meant Stella’s name was scratched on my list of people to call that day.
“Babe.”
My unfocused eyes re-focused on Luke and he hadn’t lost any of his intensity.
“Let’s get back to Zano.”
“I still feel you,” I blurted in an effort not to talk about Ren.
Luke just looked at me.
Crap.
In for a penny…
My thumb moved to trace his bottom lip and I watched it go, my eyes on his fantastic mouth and it hit me that I knew, intimately, how that mouth felt on practically every part of me. That knowledge made my stomach feel funny and my voice sound lower and kind of raspy when I spoke again.
“Between my legs,” I whispered, my gaze lifting from his mouth to his eyes. “I still feel you.”
His eyes turned to ink, right before he muttered, “Jesus.”
“I really love your mouth,” I told him. Do not ask me why, I was having a moment.
“Ava.” Now his voice sounded lower and kind of raspy.
I took a deep breath and pulled back a bit, dropping my hand from his face and purposefully breaking my moment before I said something ultra stupid.
“Just thought you’d want to know,” I said.
Luke didn’t feel like having the moment broken. He brought me back to him and gave me a quick but hard kiss.
“Beautiful,” he said when he was done, his eyes on mine and his intensity had changed to something that made me shiver in a good way. “You just demonstrated exactly why I would fight and bleed for you. Zano knows that’s what I’ve got and he wants it and I’m not gonna let him anywhere near it. I’m askin’ you to help me with that and I’m askin’ you to help Zano by not giving him mixed signals.”
Was I giving Ren mixed signals?
I was giving Ren mixed signals.
Shit!