So, how did you know he was in love? The way he said, ‘help me into the office’, of course. That’s the way women have been able to tell for centuries.
Suddenly furious, she pushed him back and found her clothing. Her jeans lay beneath her feet. Her underwear... well, it had seen better days. The boy was seriously bad for anything made of lace. Or silk. Or pretty much anything she wore beneath her clothes. She held the panties by the side that was still intact and gave him a look. He wasn’t having to wear jeans commando. It was hardly fair.
At least he was missing a button. Though she suspected the shirt he’d changed in to for dinner might have been David’s, which was why it had strained so hard to contain his barrel chest to begin with. He’d hardly care that she’d ruined something that belonged to her stupid brother.
She sighed and went searching for her shirt, finding it under the lamp on the floor. Or what was left of the lamp.
Her mother would be having fits if she’d seen what her daughter had done to this room.
No. She paused in stepping into her jeans. Her mother would have been proud that she’d been able to express her love in such a passionate way. Because, regardless of how they each thought of it, regardless of how either of them would describe this moment in years to come, Luke Milligan, or whatever the hell his last name was, might have gotten laid tonight.
But she had made love.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dani finished dressing, and straightened herself out as best she could. Jeans, while commando, felt a little weird, but it wasn’t the first time. She wriggled perhaps a little bit more than necessary getting things settled more comfortably, and noticed Luke watching her with smoky eyes that told her he wasn’t as unaffected by her as he liked to pretend. If that gave her a little impetus to wriggle just that much more because of the way he was looking, well, that was her business.
A discreet knock barely preceded the door opening. Slowly.
“Coming in,” Katie called from the hallway. “Two people who know what all the noise means...”
“It’s, uh, safe!” Dani called, trying not to blush and failing miserably. “Nothing to see here, folks—move along...”
Katie peeked around the door, and looked past the innocent couple at the small mound of chess pieces and bric-a-brac surrounding a lamp on the floor. “Had another earthquake?”
Dani lost her fight against blushing, and knelt to start reassembling the top of the credenza.
“You could say that,” Luke muttered.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that David was unable to look at Luke at all. For his part, Luke was looking through every drawer and half the books. He wasn’t looking for something to curl up to read with a cup of tea; he was searching through them for... what? Loose papers?
“Making sure that the books are properly aired out?” David asked him sarcastically as Katie dropped the chessmen on the board and began to rearrange them.
“Your copy of Grapes of Wrath is full of dust,” he said with a small grin. Katie barked a quick laugh. Luke paused, though, looking around the room as though trying to find a landmark or two.
“What’re you looking for?”
Luke glanced at David, who still seemed unable to confront the man who’d just fucked his sister. “I’m not sure... something... I think I’d like to go into the office for a while.”
“Wait, what?” David suddenly was able to move his focus to Luke. “You... we don’t go in there. Uncle Benny goes in there. He works in there.”
Okay, he was definitely losing it. Dani gave him a sharp look from the spot on the floor where she was trying to decide if the lamp was past salvaging. Hadn’t he been articulate just a week ago? Something was going on here.
“He said we have run of the house,” Luke temporized, setting a book back on the shelf and picking up the next. “What’s the problem?”
“Are you an idiot?” David finally glared at Luke. “What’re you going to do? Go in there and ask him to read us a story?”
“No.” Luke replaced the book on the shelf without looking at it. “I propose that I go in there when he isn’t, so I can look around a little. All by myself.”
“Hazard of the profession?” Katie asked. If she’d worn glasses, she’d have been looking over the tops of them to watch Luke. As it was, she managed the look quite well, staring up at him though lashes and wisps of bangs. It was almost... coquettish.
Dani fought a surge of jealousy. Was Katie seriously flirting with her pretend fiancé?
“Something like that.” Luke smiled, looking for all the world like he liked it. The rat.
“I’ll go with you.” Dani jumped in before this could go any further. Besides, if the question was between Luke and Benny, that was a no-brainer.
“I’m telling you!” David was nearly foaming at the mouth. “He’s practically living in there now! He brought in a refrigerator and a microwave, so he doesn’t have to leave.”
He reminds me of something. I’ve seen this before somewhere...
But try as she might, the idea hovered at the edge of her memories.
“So what does he do when he needs to pee?” Luke asked, and paused for effect before grinning wickedly and looking pointedly at David. “Or does he just... open a window?”
“Very funny.” David held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not going, that’s all. You want to get killed, you go right ahead.”
“David,” Dani said softly, needing to defuse this situation before the whole thing blew up any further. “We need someone we can trust to keep the coast clear.” She saw, from the corner of her eye, Luke’s expression when she said that. She glared him down, thinking the words she knew he could hear without her saying a thing out loud: Fine. I trust him!”
“Like what?” David’s eyes grew wider, and he glanced between her and Luke and Katie.
“Benny said he was going to be busy tonight,” Katie said, thinking it through, “but when he left the dining room he headed to the west wing, not to the office... meaning he probably was heading upstairs. Maybe to get ready before going out?”
“So all we have to do is wait.” David settled back on the couch, seeming suddenly much calmer. “He leaves and then you can go do... whatever.”
“We don’t know that he’s actually going out. We’re guessing.” Dani gave up on the lamp, and set the pieces on the credenza. Rising to her feet, she slapped the dust off her knees before straightening. “For all we know, he might have company coming in and wanted to freshen up first.”
Katie glanced over at Dani. “So let me go out there and ask for him; I’ll find out where he is. I can say that...” her voice lowered, and she sent a dark glance in David’s direction. “I can say that it’s my... time... and we don’t have any hygiene products.”
“Won’t he just tell you to use mine?” Dani asked, ignoring the way both men were reverting to sixth grade boys in the faces they were making.
“So? I’ll tell him you use tampons, I use pads.” She shrugged.