“Lord!” Shirleen shouted, reaching the end of her tether. “Do I have to go out and whack this guy personally?”
Yikes.
Luke sliced a killing glance at Shirleen before he pulled me into him with pressure at my neck and kissed me softly.
“I want you to stay in the offices and I don’t want you to do anything stupid,” he warned when he was done.
The knee weakening I experienced with his kiss vanished and I glared at him. He gave me a half-grin, totally unaffected by the glare.
Then he was gone.
Jack peeled off and disappeared behind a door but Smithie and Shirleen remained.
I looked at them.
“Well?” Shirleen asked, as if she was expecting something.
And I knew what she was expecting. I also knew what I had to do.
I may have realized, finally, that I was Luke’s woman that I belonged to him and that he could be trusted with my heart, my body, my troubles and all my vulnerabilities.
But I still was a Rock Chick.
“I need to talk to the girls,” I told Shirleen.
“Oh shit,” Smithie muttered. “Here we go.”
“Oowee, that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Shirleen cried in glee.
Uh-oh, Good Ava murmured.
Yippee! Bad Ava hooted.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vibrator Ceremony
Shirleen walked Smithie and I into what she called the “Down Room”.
It was a big room. It had a couch, a TV, a treadmill, a weight bench and a bunch of weights. It also was filled with Rock Chicks, Tod, Stevie, Tex and Duke.
When we walked in, everyone turned to stare.
“Hey,” I said.
Sissy came forward and gave me a big hug. I hugged her back. She pulled away and looked up at me. I braced in preparation for her to say something that would make me cry.
“I’m thinking you aren’t f**k buddies with Luke anymore,” she said on a grin. Clearly my shouted diatribe in the kitchenette announcing my elevated relationship status with Luke superseded all my other dramas, including being duct taped to a steel support and then fondled by my con man ex-boyfriend.
I looked to the ceiling.
“I’m thinkin’ her vibrators are gonna get lonely,” Daisy noted.
I closed my eyes.
“I’m thinking we should have a vibrator ceremony. Maybe we can all stand around in the dead of night, carrying candles and chanting while she buries them in her backyard,” Ally added.
I made a low, frustrated sound in the back of my throat.