Despite Elise’s initial concerns, dinner had been enjoyable, and Luke hadn’t flirted much. Maybe she was right, and he had matured.
Right now, he was in a heated conversation with Sean and Joe about politics. They were all on the same side, but the conversation was still fairly animated. The women were talking about Shelly’s upcoming baby shower and birth, but Elise found herself catching bits and pieces of the things Luke had to say. She was impressed with his knowledge on the subjects they were discussing. He’d obviously done his research, and she was surprised. And rather turned on.
She’d always found intelligence sexy. Not that she didn’t find muscles and a hard body sexy because she was a living, breathing woman after all. It was just that she’d always been attracted to wit. But, right now, Luke was showing brains, and he already had brawn. And she was horny.
Although she’d had two beers with dinner, so that was probably the alcohol talking. That, and the fact that she hadn’t been with anyone for seven months, two weeks, and four days. Not that she was counting or anything, right?
God, she missed sex.
Thankfully, she wasn’t drunk, just tipsy, and she planned to keep her skirt and underwear right where they were. On her body.
But it didn’t stop her from stealing glances at Luke. His deep brunette hair was short and coarse, his coffee-colored eyes were round and large, and his lips were on the full side and naturally rosy. His eyebrows were dark and thick, as were the eyelashes that she would kill for because it would mean never having to wear mascara again. His skin had a beautiful golden tan that she couldn’t help but notice whenever his biceps flexed under his tight T-shirt. He was half-Caucasian and half-Asian—Chinese, if she remembered correctly—and that was where he got his dusky features from. She’d always been a sucker for brown eyes and brown hair. That described almost all of her ex-boyfriends. But none of them had been as good-looking as Luke.
Ugh.
She looked away from him and down at her beer. She should really stop drinking. Otherwise, she was going to go home, feeling sorry for herself, and end up masturbating to images of Luke going down on her while she grabbed on to his short hair.
She looked to her friends to see if they could tell what she was thinking, but they weren’t even paying attention to her. She turned to look at Luke, and he was staring at her with a smirk on his face. But there was no way he could know what she had been thinking, could he?
“Okay, enough talk about babies and politics. Joe and I don’t have many more kid-free nights,” Shelly said, turning Elise’s gaze away from Luke.
“What are you thinking, babe?” Joe asked.
“First, everyone needs to get another drink since I can’t.”
“Works for me,” Joe said as he raised his arm to catch their waitress’s attention. “I’m going to enjoy having a DD for as long as I can.”
“Uh…I’m not sure I should drink anymore,” Elise said.
“Why not?” Rachel asked. “Tomorrow is Saturday, and this is the first time you’ve come out with us since you moved back. We should be celebrating.”
Elise didn’t answer because she couldn’t tell the whole table her lame reason for wanting to cut herself off.
“Yeah, Elise, why not?” Luke joined in.
She couldn’t tell if he was mocking her or not, but she didn’t want to disappoint Rachel. Elise was certain she could stop thinking about Luke sexually, so she said, “Okay, order me another beer.”
“Woohoo!” Rachel said. “That’s the girl I remember from college.”
Elise laughed as their waitress approached.
“Refills for everyone,” Sean said. “And five shots of Jägermeister,” he added, wiggling his eyebrows.
Elise groaned. “Oh God. Jäger was my go-to shot in college. I used to get so drunk off that stuff.”
“And that is why I ordered it.”
“Your fiancé is evil,” Elise told her friend.
Rachel laughed. “Nah, we just want you to have fun with some reminiscing on the side.”
Their server brought back their five shots along with one shot of Coke. “I didn’t want you to feel left out,” she told Shelly.
“Aw, that’s so sweet,” Shelly said. After their waitress walked away, she added, “Someone’s getting a big tip.” She picked up her shot, and everyone else followed. “What are we toasting to?”
“Good friends.”
“Healthy babies.”
“Getting laid.”
“Sean,” Rachel chided.
“What? I’ve been gone all week on business. You know you’re going to be giving it to me later.”
Rachel set her full shot glass on the table. “Yeah, but you don’t have to tell everyone. I work with Shelly. I don’t want her thinking you’re a pervert.”
Joe laughed. “Babe, you wouldn’t think that about Sean, would you?”
Shelly shook her head. “Never.” She put her free hand on Rachel’s arm. “And, if it makes you feel any better, this baby was conceived in the back of Joe’s SUV at his brother’s wedding.”
Everyone laughed, except for Joe, his face serious.
“Baby, we promised to never talk about that. If my mom ever finds out that I had sex in the church parking lot, she’s going to make sure this baby is baptized the minute it comes out, and she’ll make me attend confession every day for a year. At least.”
Shelly stopped laughing. “You’re right. She already thinks her Protestant daughter-in-law corrupted her Catholic son.” She pointed her finger around the table. “Not a word to anyone. I can’t even use the I-was-drunk-when-I-said-that, it’s-not-true excuse.”
Elise understood where Joe and Shelly were coming from. She hadn’t grown up Catholic, but her parents were religious.
“Don’t worry; we won’t say anything,” Rachel promised. She picked up her shot again. “Okay, where were we?”
“To good friends, healthy babies, and getting laid,” Elise said.
Everyone repeated the words, and they all clinked their glasses together and downed their shots.
“Who wants to play pool? There’s one table open,” Sean asked after they all deposited their shot glasses on the table.
“I’m in,” Joe answered.
“I’ll take winner,” Luke said.
The guys got up and headed toward the pool tables. Since their table was in the back of the room, the girls would have a clear view of the game without leaving their seats.
“How did Sean and Luke start hanging out again? I haven’t seen him since, like, junior year or something, and I haven’t heard you talk about him in forever,” Elise asked.
Luke and Sean were two years older in school than Elise and Rachel. The girls had met the guys their freshman year, but Rachel hadn’t started dating Sean until she was a sophomore. Sean and Luke had been roommates, and since Elise and Rachel were good friends, the four of them had seen a lot of each other. Both guys had finished their bachelor’s degrees and stayed on for graduate school, but by that time, Elise had started dating Tyler. She was ashamed now by how much she’d thrown herself into that relationship. She’d barely even seen Rachel their senior year because she was so caught up with her boyfriend.
After Elise and Rachel had finished their undergraduate degrees, they’d both stayed at U of M for graduate school. Elise had been going to school full-time, working as many hours as possible, and moved in with Tyler, so she still hadn’t seen Rachel that much although they both tried.
From what she remembered, the same thing had kind of happened with Luke and Sean. They had both gotten busy, seeing each other less and less, especially since Rachel and Sean lived together, until the two guys no longer hung out and then lost touch. Thankfully, that had never quite happened to Elise and Rachel, and they had remained friends, even when Elise moved to Colorado. It probably helped that Rachel was the shoulder that Elise had needed to cry on when she and Tyler broke up right before her move to Denver.
“I know. It’s kind of crazy. Sean ran into Luke at our local Home Depot, of all places. Did you know that Luke works at Southdale? I was kind of surprised when I found out.”
Elise knew Sean had gone to school for his MBA and worked for a big-box store. It wasn’t hard to believe that Luke had graduated with a master’s, too, and gotten a job at somewhere like Southdale Center, the mall in Edina. He was a womanizer, not an idiot.
She was just about to ask what Luke’s role was when Rachel continued with her story, “Anyway, that’s how we found out we only lived a few blocks away from him. Go figure. We’d practically been neighbors for about two years. After that, it was almost like the two of them had never been separated.”
“Good for them,” Elise said. “It doesn’t seem like Luke has changed all that much.”
Rachel laughed. “You mean, because he’s a flirt and a half? Yeah, he’s still kind of a man-ho. I swear, he dates a different girl every weekend. That’s probably the only thing I don’t like about Sean being friends with him. But Luke has never tried to push his singleness on Sean, and Luke seems genuinely happy that the two of us are getting married.”
“Joe and I have gone out with him only a few times,” Shelly said. “He is totally a flirt, and the women are always eyeing him.” She nodded her head toward the guys. “Like now.”
Elise looked over and saw a beautiful woman sliding up to Luke and getting as close as possible to him.
“But, to give him credit,” Shelly continued, “he doesn’t dog on women when he comes out with us. When he spends time with us, he spends time with us. I can’t even blame all the girls who hit on him. He’s hot. If I were single…”
The woman hitting on him put her hand on his arm. While Luke smiled politely at her, he was standing with his feet spread apart, and his hand on his pool cue, his body facing the pool table. Elise got the distinct impression that he wasn’t interested. The woman slipped a piece of paper in his back pocket and walked away. As soon as she turned, Luke took the paper out and chucked it into the trash can in the corner of the room.
Elise was impressed again because the Luke she’d known in college probably would have ditched them all and walked out the door with the woman without a backward glance.
Luke looked up from the garbage, his eyes colliding with Elise’s so swiftly that she turned back to the girls and took a couple of sips of her drink. She hoped he didn’t think she’d been staring at him.
“I guess it’s true that men can change,” she said, almost forgetting what they had been talking about.
“Nah, we don’t change that much,” a deep voice said in her ear.
She jumped in her seat and turned. “Shit, you scared me.” She hadn’t heard Luke come up behind her.
He was way too close for her liking. He smelled wonderful, a natural muskiness with a hint of aftershave that was utterly male. She wanted to bury her nose in his neck and breathe him in.
Had she mentioned that she missed sex?
She tried not to lean too far away because she didn’t want him to know that he affected her or how confused she felt when she was near him.
He tugged on a piece of her hair. “Another table opened up. Come play pool with me?”
She welcomed the distraction. Now, pool, she could definitely manage.
She raised her brow at him. “Are you sure you want to play against me?” she asked sweetly.
“Sure. You can’t be that bad.”
Elise just laughed.
“You kicked my ass.” Luke sighed, surprise showing on his face. “And here I thought, I was good with my stick and balls.”
Elise ignored his sexual innuendo and smiled. “I asked you if you wanted to play against me,” she said in a singsong voice.
Luke narrowed his eyes. “That was when I thought you were bad at pool.”
She shrugged innocently. “That’ll teach you to assume things about women.”
He snorted. “I didn’t assume you were a bad player because you were a woman.”
She put one hand on her hip. “Then, why did you think I was bad?”
“Because I remember you being kind of a fuddy-duddy.”
“What? I was not. Just because I didn’t fall into bed with you like every other chick does not mean I was a fuddy-duddy.” She swept her hair over her shoulder and stepped closer to him, looking him in the eye. “I’ll have you know, I had plenty of sexual conquests in college. You just didn’t happen to be one of them.”
He grinned down at her. “See, I know you’re trying to make me feel inadequate because we didn’t have sex, but all you’re doing is making me hard.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re hopeless.”
“Nah. Wanna play again?”
“Sure.”
She was actually having fun with Luke. She liked playing pool, and Luke was a good opponent.
“Do you want another beer first?”
She looked into her almost-empty glass. “That’d be great.” After all, she was drinking for the pregnant lady, and she’d managed to keep her hormones in check so far.
“You set up, and I’ll go get us drinks.”
Elise grabbed the triangle and began racking the balls, putting them in their proper place. She grabbed the one ball and put it at the apex when Rachel walked over and leaned against the side of the pool table.
“Are you having a good time?” her friend asked.
“Yeah. I’m glad you asked me to come. I totally kicked Luke’s ass.”
Rachel smiled, but it was hesitant.
Elise stopped what she was doing. “What’s wrong?”
Rachel stood up straight. “I think we’re going to take off. I don’t feel well. Shelly and Joe are leaving, too. Shelly’s tired, and she wants to go home and put her swollen feet up.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Rachel said, putting her hand over her stomach. “I think it was something I ate.”
Elise narrowed her eyes and studied her friend. “Liar. You just want to go home and get laid.”
Rachel blushed. “Guilty. I haven’t seen Sean for a week.” She stuck her bottom lip out.
Elise laughed. “I understand. Go have fun with your man.”
Rachel looked around the room, as if she was calculating the situation.
“What is it?” Elise asked.
“Nothing.”
“Rachel, just spit it out. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to leave you here with Luke.”
Elise shook her head. “I’ll be fine. We’re having fun. I’m not ready to go home yet.”
Her friend looked over her shoulder to where Luke stood at the bar, talking to Sean. They seemed to be having a serious conversation. She looked back at Elise. “I just want you to be careful.”
Elise tilted her head. “How do you mean?”
“It’s been over six months since you and Jason broke up. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”
Elise shook her head in confusion. “I still don’t get it. Why would I get hurt?”
Rachel sighed. “Just don’t sleep with Luke, okay? He’s grown up quite a bit, but he’s still Luke. I’ve never seen him get serious with anyone, and I don’t want your heart to get broken.”
Elise threw her head back and laughed. “We are just playing pool. Nothing’s going to happen.”
Rachel didn’t laugh. “I know you haven’t slept with anyone since before you and Jason broke up.” She leaned in close and lowered her voice. “And I know how horny you get when you’ve been drinking. I also know that sex with Jason was mediocre, at best, so you’re probably really jonesing for sex now. And let’s face it; we both know that Luke probably fucks like a rock star.”
Elise laughed again and shook her head. “Trust me, Rach, you have nothing to worry about. I am never going to sleep with Luke Long.”