stare right at Gia, giving her the attention she wanted until something inside her twisted and broke to pieces every shred of confidence she’d managed to force.
He held her gaze and she was frozen by the shift of it over her, how it lingered on her stomach, how that stare heated, the muscles around his mouth tightening the lower he moved his stare, then softened when he watched her face.
Then, Luka Hale slipped his thick tongue across his bottom lip, denting the center with his teeth and Gia’s clit throbbed, her nipples peaked and hardened. He worked a special kind of magic over her. Sometimes she thought he’d put a curse on her. One look and he’d turn her legs to jelly. That was about as close to the sensation she felt just then as Luka watched her.
As they watched each other.
Maybe Gia would have approached. Maybe she would have nodded Luka over, but it was just at that moment that the Sigma that had been ogling Gia chose to slug Mimi’s date, Mick Willis, and then…the crowd went a little crazy.
Gia brought her attention away from Luka long enough to avoid Mick and the Sigma falling into the table at her left before Claire ran toward her. Then more people descended, and Gia stepped back, avoiding the two tussling idiots.
“Careful,” she heard, feeling someone jerk her out of the way of a few of Mick’s roommates as more Sigmas weaved through the crowd.
“Thanks.” Gia had half a second to say the word, then to look up at the man who’d pulled her out of the way and notice it was Luka before Claire grabbed her, hurrying them both from the party.
In the distance sirens sounded and the crowd began to fracture as Claire tugged on Gia’s hand, running away from Luka, from the fighting idiots and whatever might have happened if Mick and the Sigma could have acted like adults.
“Come on,” Claire yelled, her grip tightening when Gia looked over her shoulder, shooting one final glance back, Luka’s slow stare and half smile getting lost in the mass of faces as they ran away.
3.
LUKA
The field was empty by the time Luka finished the extra sprints he decided to run after the end of practice. Kona was probably already back on the Northshore ignoring their mother’s demands he help out with the food prep she wanted for Thanksgiving dinner. The woman should have known that Keira Riley had taken over his brother’s head. Her fit little body and whatever else she’d done to get him so sprung took precedence over their mother’s commandments. Kona was a dumb bastard most of the time, but, Luka thought, he did have good taste.
Two janitors from the night shift nodded a greeting to Luka as he pulled off his wet shirt and headed toward the showers, thinking of nothing really but a shower, and a cold beer before he was forced to pick up his twin’s slack and do whatever bullshit his mother needed.
Kona would owe Luka one, but then, Kona was always owing Luka something.
It was Kona and Keira, for some reason, and a million other things that didn’t make sense or matter at all to Luka that he thought of as he made it to the locker room, stripping off his clothes, ready to hit the shower and drown himself under that spray. The regular season was nearly done and Luka looked forward to the rest afterward, all three weeks of it. His brother would drill him and work him and push him just as hard as Luka would do for Kona to keep themselves in peak performance during the season. But for three weeks, three long, blissful weeks, Luka intended on enjoying the rest.
He tugged off his shorts and grabbed a towel, slipping it over his hips when he heard the shower on ahead of him, the room already filling with steam. Luka thought maybe Brian had kept back, likely still whining about the workout coach had given them for the almost-too close game they’d played two nights before. Whoever it was in the shower, Luka didn’t care. He was sore and sweaty and didn’t think any of his teammates gave a single shit about sharing the room-sized shower with Luka.
Then, he gripped the loose fold of his towel and stood still as he came to the shower entrance.
Gia Jilani.
At least, that’s who Luka thought he saw, arms stretched, hair pulled up in a messy bun on the top of her