Still I fought it. “We’ll talk about it later. Maybe tomorrow,” I stalled.
“I need you to tell me now.”
“It wasn’t as bad as you probably think.”
His face dipped closer to mine. “My beautiful Ava,” he whispered and my stomach got tight. “Please, tell me now.”
I couldn’t help it. He called me his beautiful Ava and he said “please”.
I told him.
Almost everything.
I left out the part about it happening while he was in the house. I figured that could wait for later (read: never).
As I told him, he showed no reaction. He kept me close, his thumb stroking my jaw, his eyes never leaving mine.
When I was done talking, he kept looking at me without saying a word.
“See,” I said. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” Luke responded in a matter-of-fact voice that said he was indeed, going to kill Noah.
It was my turn to go rock solid. “Luke!”
“He’s dead.”
I grabbed fistfuls of Luke’s tee at his sides. “Please don’t. Please, Luke. It happened to me, not you. I don’t want you to do anything gonzo.”
His thumb quit stroking and his fingers tightened at my neck. “Yeah, Ava. It happened to you and you’re handlin’ it great, babe. You’re doin’ great,” he said softly, bent down and brushed his mouth against mine. I closed my eyes and relaxed into him.
Then his head came up and I opened my eyes again. “But that’s right now, beautiful. Later tonight, tomorrow, a week from now, it’s gonna hit you, it’s gonna haunt you and I won’t be able to stop it. It’s done. And you’re mine. You’re mine to watch over, you’re mine to take care of, you’re mine to protect. I didn’t protect you. I gotta live with that and it’ll make it a whole f**kuva lot easier to live with knowin’ he paid a price. Someone hurt you, someone touched you,” he said this between his teeth, losing hold on his control for a moment then I watched him gain it back again before he went on. “And that someone is not gonna get the chance to hurt you, or any woman, again.”
“I’m asking you Luke, please leave it alone.”
“I’m telling you, beautiful, I can’t. It just isn’t in me.”
I burrowed deeper into him and shared what was really on my mind. “What if you get hurt? He said he had a gun.”
“Only one’s gonna hurt is Dexter,” I opened my mouth to interrupt but he kept talking. “Ava, beautiful, I won’t get hurt. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about.” His mouth came to mine. “Nothin’ to worry about,” he repeated.
My arms went around him and he kissed me. It was light, gentle and only hurt a little bit. When his mouth disengaged, his forehead came to rest on mine again, our noses side-by-side.
“You wanna sleep here tonight or at the loft?” he asked.
“The loft,” I answered.
“Then let’s get you home.”
He moved away from me but put his arm around my shoulders and started moving to the door. I halted and looked up at him.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” I asked.
“No police. This is gonna be off the radar.”
A chill went up my spine.
Then I remembered something. “But, Hank and Eddie are police.”