I stopped smiling.
He watched the smile fade and his eyes moved to mine. “Shit,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what’s more disturbing, you playin’ euchre with Vito Zano on Thanksgiving or thinkin’ Lorenzo Zano is ‘more hot’ than Dominic Vincetti.”
“Dom’s a mean, cheating, scum-of-the-earth, rat-bastard but that doesn’t stop him from being hot.”
Luke stared at me a beat then dropped to his side, taking me with him, all the while saying, “And you think I’m nuts?”
“You are nuts.”
His hands slid up my back and his chin tipped down to look at me. “I’m goin’ out. Do I have to cuff you to the bed?”
“No!” I pulled back but his arms went tighter. “I’ve got a shed load of work to do and with all this nonsense, I’m way behind. You cuff me to the bed, I’ll miss a deadline and lose a client.”
His eyes narrowed on me. “Can I trust you not to do anything stupid?”
“Of course.”
Without hesitation, he asked, “Can I trust you not to lie to me about not doin’ anything stupid?”
“Luke!”
His hand went into my hair, his head slanted and he kissed me, hot and deep. Then he did it again, hotter and deeper. When I’d pulled his tee out of his cargos and was running my hands up the muscles of his back and pressing myself full frontal into him, his lips detached.
I stared at him in a total and complete Luke Lip Fog.
“That’s how I like it,” he muttered against my mouth, moved up to kiss my nose then he was gone.
Chapter Eleven
That Didn’t Go Too Good
After Luke left, I had, what I found out much later, was a very stupid idea.
After that, I had what Luke would consider a very stupid idea (if he knew about it, which I was not about to tell him). I had to admit, the way it turned out, if he had known about it and given me his opinion, he would have been right.
*
See, I figured if I took care of myself then I wouldn’t get so hot and bothered all the time when Luke kissed me. I hadn’t had an orgasm in awhile and I thought if I had one then no way would Luke affect me so much. I’d be oblivious, unmoved and I could resist him.
Not to mention, after Luke’s wakeup call and his recent kiss, I was way turned on.
So I lay in his bed and waited for awhile to make certain he wouldn’t come back. Then I unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans and slid my hand inside.
What I did not know was that’s when, not far away, a guy named Jack, sitting in the surveillance room at Nightingale Investigations leaned forward and flipped off the switch that activated the cameras in Luke’s loft that Luke just called him and told him to switch on.
*
As I mentioned, it had been awhile (and it was helped by the fact that I was in Luke’s bed) so my self-gratification didn’t take long to achieve.
After as I was lying in bed, pleased with myself (very pleased), a thought came to me. A way out of this mess.
Uncle Vito.
If I got to Uncle Vito first, before Luke, taking Sissy with me, and told him what was happening with Dom, he’d deal with it. He’d even probably help Sissy out in the divorce. He was Italian, he was Catholic but he also thought Dom was a dickhead (like everybody else). And since he loved both Sissy and me, if we double-teamed him we couldn’t go wrong.
That way I wouldn’t owe Luke and I could move out of his house. All my problems solved!
I don’t think this is a good idea, Good Ava commented, wringing her hands.
I think it’s a GREAT idea, call Sissy right now, Bad Ava yelled, jumping up and down with excitement.
I called Sissy.
“Hey,” she said.
“Yo. Listen, you know who kidnapped me?”
“Mister Zano,” she answered.
“Vito Zano,” I said.
“Uncle Vito?” she sounded shocked as if there were five thousand “Mr. Zanos” in Denver. However, I didn’t blame her, I would have been shocked too if at the time I knew Uncle Vito kidnapped me, he loved me. “Who told you that?” she asked.
“Luke.”
“I don’t believe it. Uncle Vito wouldn’t kidnap you, he loves you.”
See!
“I have a plan,” I said then I told her the plan.
“I’m in,” she agreed immediately, as bestest best friends do.
“We have to hurry, we have to get there before he meets with Luke.”
“Come get me. I’ll be ready.”
*
I was in the Range Rover just blowing out of Luke’s parking garage when my phone rang.
It said “Shirleen Calling”.
I flipped it open and put it to my ear. “Yo.”
“Yo mama. I called this morning early ‘cause I know these boys like their mornin’ piece of ass. You didn’t answer. Please tell me you didn’t lose me another fifty bucks,” Shirleen said.
“I didn’t.”
“All right, girl,” she sounded pleased. “You got to hold out until tomorrow then you and Luke can do the nasty. It has to be tomorrow.”
“Shirleen, Luke and I are never going to do the nasty.”
“Unh-hunh.” Now she sounded like she didn’t believe me.