Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,82

in himself.

But — they had things to do and they had to eat something because she knew first-hand what happened to your mind when you forgot to eat. Plus, she really did want to check in with Felicity.

And they’d be going to bed later anyway. Together. To have sex. Again. What an amazingly delicious thought. Mainly, her sexual encounters had been of the one-and-done variety. Both parties reluctant to repeat the experience. Not here. With Luke, it looked like sex was on the agenda for a long time to come. Sort of on tap. Like beer, only better.

She shivered with delight. She was uncovering such darkness, even evil, in her past. A pall cast over her life by either her father or her grandfather or both. A curse. It would take time to clear everything up and she would do her damndest to bring whoever had killed her mother and tried to kill her to justice. To shatter the shackles that had been holding her down all her life and to set herself free.

She was absolutely set on bringing the second half of her life into the open air and the sunshine and freeing herself. Because the future was going to be different. A new city, a new job, a new life and above all a new man, awaited her.

She’d been shocked by the video recording and yet she hadn’t been. Some part of her, maybe even at the cellular level, knew that something in her life was askew. Her earliest memory was of a shiny red bike in Boston for Christmas. She knew she’d been sick but she had no memory of it. She was better and had begged for a bike and there it was — under the small Christmas tree the Ellises — the Sandersons really — had erected. She’d been five and she had no memories at all before that moment.

Like lightning illuminating a landscape until then cloaked in darkness, Frank Glass’s video shed shocking light over the bleak past. But at least now she knew. Something sad and mysterious had always kept her back, kept her separate from other people. Her only friends had been Felicity, Emma and Riley, and they’d had strange upbringings too.

But the dark, sad past felt now like a heavy carapace she was shedding, pieces falling to the floor, leaving her light and free. The past couldn’t be changed, but the future could.

And there it was, her future, right there, opening the bathroom door and walking out. Rumpled, not elegant, exactly her type. She distrusted men who cared too much about how they looked.

His clothes were clean but not pressed. A slightly wrinkled long-sleeved black tee, black jeans, black boots, hair up in damp spikes. Clean shaven, without the blond scruff softening the angular planes of his face. She preferred the scruff and made a note to herself to tell him.

Heartbreakingly beautiful. And, cherry on top, a good guy. A really good guy. The kind who ran into burning buildings to save people.

Life had fucked her up and then, in a bid to gain her forgiveness, had thrown Luke and a new life her way.

Okay. Yeah, she’d take it.

Luke walked up to her, eyes fixed on hers the entire way, tilted her face up to his with a finger under her chin, and kissed her gently. Warmth coursed through her, under her skin, like honey. She closed her eyes and savored it. One of many many kisses to come.

She opened her eyes to see him looking down at her.

“My turn in the shower. And after —” She smiled. “I heard talk of pancakes. Were you serious or were you just blowing smoke?”

Oh God, when he smiled widely there was a dimple in his cheek that had been hidden by his beard! A dimple! Wild overkill! He didn’t need a dimple to be insanely attractive, but there it was.

“Yes, ma’am. Pancakes are definitely in your future. Would I lie to you?”

“No,” she whispered, looking him directly in the eyes. Suddenly serious.

He sobered, face drawn. “No. Damn right. I won’t ever lie to you. You’ve had enough lies in your life. And enough injustice.” He held out his cell to her. There was a message from Felicity. Got the vid. Forwarded to your FBI friend. Also forwarded to Bud. He’ll raise hell.

“Bud? Who’s Bud?”

“Remember I told you about my boss? How he was willing to go to the wall for me before I called him off? He never forgave me for that because