Chapter Five
Violet
I’d been sitting at my desk in the room I used as an office, for almost four hours, but I’d hardly done any work.
I couldn’t concentrate on a damn thing.
I loved designing websites. There was something so rewarding about turning a rough idea from a client into a beautiful, workable site that they were proud to show off. But on that morning, feeling sorry for myself because I was suffering from the effects of a slight hangover not to mention the fact that I was dying with shame, I simply couldn’t get into it.
Every time I pulled up a page and tried to focus on the design or the layout, the events of the previous night would flash through my mind and I was unable to concentrate on my work for any length of time.
I couldn’t believe I’d slept with Luke.
What the hell had I been thinking?
I don’t suppose I had been thinking, though, that was the point. When I opened the door and saw him standing there, looking as sexy as ever, I hadn’t been able to turn him away. Had that been because of the alcohol I’d consumed or would I have slept with him anyway?
It was impossible to tell, but I suspected our moment of madness had been inevitable. I mean, I hadn’t exactly been drunk or incapable of making a rational decision, but I’d been tipsy enough that I’d lost my inhibitions and slept with him when In all likelihood, I would have talked myself out of it if I’d been completely sober.
However, to say that I’d slept with him was a bit of a stretch, wasn’t it? We hadn’t even made it farther than the hallway.
I cringed.
When had I become such a slut?
I’d never behaved like that before. It had taken over three months of dating before I’d had sex with my husband and even then I’d worried that I was being too easy and that it had been too soon. And yet I’d fucked Luke within minutes of opening the door to him.
I’d even initiated it for God’s sake.
I sighed heavily.
Luke’s words from the night before kept running through my mind
“Make no mistake. There’s going to be a next time. And a second and a third and a twentieth. You can’t get rid of me that easily. This thing between isn’t ending anytime soon.”
What the heck had he meant? What thing between us? Did he honestly believe there could be something more going on with us—something deeper and more meaningful than a one night stand?
If that was what Luke was looking for then I was going to have to set him straight. What had happened between us wasn’t going to happen again.
It couldn’t.
I was in danger with Luke and I knew it.
The attraction between us was too powerful. If I continued to have sex with him, I would quickly grow attached. I wasn’t the type of woman who could have a casual relationship and switch off my feelings. I just wasn’t wired that way. If I was seeing someone it was because I was into them and if I was into them, then I could fall for them.
No, Luke was on my stay the hell away from list from there on out.
For my sanity’s sake, he had to be.
When the knock came on the front door, I was partly relieved for the interruption but mostly annoyed. I needed to work, but in truth, I didn’t think I’d have actually got any work done anyway. I took off my reading glasses then massaged the bridge of my nose before getting up to answer the door. I pulled it open to greet my visitor only to come face to face with the man I’d been thinking about just moments before.
I blinked.
“What are you doing here?”
Luke threw his head back and laughed. “I’m getting déjà vu here. Are you going to say that every time you open the door to me? Because, hello you sexy stud would be preferable.” He lifted the brown paper bag he held in his arms. “I brought you lunch.”
I was too stunned to reply.
While I stood there, dazed, Luke brushed past me then strode down the hall towards my living room.
“It’s this way, I take it?”
I snapped out of my stupor, closing the door quickly before hurrying after him. “Hey! Wait!”
When I walked into the room, I stopped dead inside the door. Luke was busy unloading the contents of the bag onto my dining room table.
“I didn’t know what you liked so I brought a selection,” he said, screwing the bag up into a ball. “I forgot drinks though. My bad. You got any soda?”
He strode to the refrigerator then opened the door and peered inside.
“These will do.” He pulled out two cans of Mountain Dew then brought them to the table before returning to the kitchen and methodically opening the kitchen cupboards. “Glasses?” he asked over his shoulder.
I hadn’t uttered a word since I’d entered the room because at that moment I didn’t think I was capable of speech. My mouth hung open as I watched him move around the kitchen as if he owned the place.
“What are you doing?” I asked when I was finally able to engage my mouth and brain enough to utter a coherent sentence.
He looked over his shoulder at me and frowned. “Looking for glasses.”
“No. I mean, what are you doing?”
His frown deepened. “Huh?”
“Oh, Jesus,” I snapped, marching to the table and pointing at the food that sat on it. “What’s all this, Luke? What are you doing here?”
He grabbed two tall glasses from the cupboard his nose was currently buried in then brought them to the table.
“I already told you. I brought you lunch. Can you get the cutlery? I haven’t got time to look for it. Got to be back in work soon or my boss’ll be pissed.”
I was halfway across the room, heading for the cutlery drawer when I realized what I was doing. I turned back to him and scowled.
“Luke. You can’t do this.”
He pulled out a chair then sat down and started to unwrap all the different meats and cheeses.
“Do what?”
“This!” I said, sweeping my hands around in frustration. “You can’t just turn up at my house when you feel like it. And you can’t just bring me lunch. Look, I don’t know what’s going through your mind right now, but we are not an item.
“You’re not my boyfriend, hell you’re not even my friend. We’re not dating. We’re not anything, okay? Last night was a mistake. It’s not going to happen again and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to show up at my house like this anymore.”
“You done?” A shadow of annoyance crossed Luke’s face. He rounded the table then strode towards me, his presence so overwhelming that I found myself taking a step back. When he spoke, there was an edge to his voice.
“Listen up and listen good.” He held my gaze with the utmost of ease. “Last night wasn’t a mistake and you know it. It happened because we both wanted it to. Are you going to stand there and deny that you’re attracted to me?”
I opened my mouth to do just that but Luke wasn’t done so I closed it against the lie.
“If this is what we both want, why are you trying to push me away? Why not give into it? You want me. Be honest about it. If I was to kiss you right now, I guarantee I’d have you flat on your back in two minutes tops.”
I gasped. “How dare you! Is that what you think of me, that I’m some sort of slut?”
I guess I couldn’t blame him for thinking of me that way considering the fact that I sure had acted like a slut the night before. Still, his assessment of me hurt.
His expression turned thunderous. “Slut? What the hell are you talking about, woman? I don’t think you’re a slut.”
I got up in his face. “You just said you’d have me on my back in two minutes tops!”
“I would!” he roared. “But that’s not because you’re a slut.”
“Then why is it?” I shouted back at him.
“It’s because you want me, every bit as much as I want you! And if I can’t resist you, I don’t think you’d be able to resist me!”
“Oh.”
I couldn’t think straight when he was in my personal space like that so I took a step back to give myself some breathing room.
“Well, that’s still very presumptuous of you,” I informed him. “And arrogant. Let’s not forget arrogant.”
He shrugged. “Is it arrogant if it’s the truth? Now, can we please eat lunch before I have to get back to work? I’m starving.”
I bit my tongue against a retort and went to get us some cutlery. When we were both seated at the table, I handed him a knife and fork and a paper towel.
“This doesn’t mean anything, you know,” I said sulkily before staring at the feast on the table. I did a double take. “Wow, this looks amazing.”
Luke’s mouth twitched but didn’t lift into a full smile. “I’m glad you approve. Mary at the deli said these were the most popular choices.”
I could believe it.
There were a couple of different types of cheeses, plus a small selection of meats and a loaf of bread that smelled so good it made me want to drop to my knees and worship at Mary’s feet.
“You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” Luke asked.
I scrunched my brow in distaste. “Hell no.”
We split the loaf of bread then I speared some of the meat and cheese onto my plate. The first mouthful made me moan.
“Wow, this is so good.”
Luke nodded. “I know, right? It’s nice to meet a woman who’s not afraid to eat.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “I went on a date with a woman who wouldn’t order anything more than a salad. Her stomach was growling so loudly she had to be starving, but she sat there picking at a lettuce leaf.” He rolled his eyes. “What the hell is all that about?”
I shrugged. It had never bothered me to eat in front of a man. “Maybe she was shy.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “Who has time to deal with that?”
I’d just about cleared my plate when I thought about what he’d said again and I smiled to myself.
“What?” he asked between mouthfuls.
“I just can’t imagine you out on an actual date, that’s all.”
“I haven’t been on many,” he admitted. “They’re exhausting.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that he obviously hadn’t been out with the right woman, but I closed my mouth before I blurted it out.
I didn’t want him to think that I was referring to myself.
“Speaking of dates,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
I didn’t like where this was heading.
“How about I pick you up tomorrow night to take you to dinner?”
I sighed and put down my fork. “Luke, we’re not dating.”
“We are,” he countered.
I stared at him. “No, we’re not.”
“Have you got something against dating? Or is it that you don’t want to date me, specifically?”
He leaned back in his seat and adopted a casual pose with his arm slung over the back of the chair, but the look on his face was anything but casual. I’d always thought that beards could hide a person’s expression, but there was no mistaking the intense light in his eyes or the slight pull to his brows which gave away what he was thinking.
He wasn’t happy.
I toyed with my fork. “Look, Luke—“
“So it is just me, then. What, I’m good enough to fuck, but not good enough for anything else, is that it?”
“What? No, that isn’t…” I shook my head. “Jesus, I’m not even divorced yet. Do you honestly think I’m ready to rush back into another relationship? And even if I was…”
“And even if you were?” he prompted. “Come on, don’t stop there, Vi, not now that we’re getting down to the real reason you don’t want to go out with me.”
I sighed. “I just don’t think that you’d be the best person for me. That’s all.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re you,” I said as if that explained everything. “I mean, everyone around town knows what you’re like, Luke. You’re a womanizer.”
“Shit.” He glared at me then scrubbed a hand over his beard. “I thought we’d settled this last night. But as you clearly either didn’t hear me or what I said didn’t get through to you, I’ll say it again. I am not a player and I don’t cheat. Is that gonna sink in this time?”
“How would you even know that?” I countered. “Have you ever even been in a relationship? And I’m talking about a real relationship now, in which you see a woman for longer than a couple of dates!”
“I know what a relationship is and it’s irrelevant. Do you think I don’t know my own mind?”
He checked his watch and then got up from the chair. “I haven’t got time to discuss this with you now. I need to get back to work. We can talk about it tomorrow night, over dinner, okay?”
When he headed for the door, I got up from the table and rushed after him down the hall. “What? No, wait! We’re not—“
He opened the front door and stepped outside only to come face to face with my ex. I groaned inwardly. Really? Now?
“What the hell are you doing here?” Luke asked, his tone snippy and his expression severe.
I glared at him. “Luke! This is none of your damn business!” I turned to Adam and asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”
Luke chuckled.
Adam looked from me to Luke and then back again. “Can we talk please, in private?”
“Hell no,” Luke answered for me. “She’s got nothing to say to you.”
He was stealing all my lines, damn it!
I couldn’t decide if I was angrier about that or the fact that he was being an overprotective, overbearing jerk.
“She’s my wife,” Adam snapped, looking down his nose at Luke.
“Soon to be ex,” I corrected.
Luke eyed him with disdain. “And you’re soon to have a broken nose if you show up here again, bothering my woman.”
“Your what?” Adam and I said in unison.
I glowered at him.
I didn’t like that we’d had the same thought.
Luke rounded on me. “Oh, I’m sorry. Must have been some other woman I was balls deep in last night. My mistake.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, feeling heat rise in my cheeks. “Jesus, do you have to be so crude?”
“You’re sleeping with him?” Adam asked, eyeing Luke as if he was something he’d just stepped in.
Luke got up in his face again. “Yeah, she is. And let me tell you something for nothing. I didn’t hear any complaints last night when she was screaming my name.”
Adam sniffed, ignoring the last comment then smoothed down the front of his tailored suit jacket. “I can see that you’re busy, Violet, so we’ll have that talk some other time, okay?”
He turned on his heel then strode back to his car.
“Yeah, I don’t think so!” Luke shouted after him. “Hell will freeze over first, buddy!”
I was so angry, my entire body shook as I watched Adam drive away. I mean, I would have sent him on his way myself, but that was my right. He was my soon-to-be-ex-husband. What business was it of Luke’s?
I glowered at him.
“How dare you!”
He leaned in and when he spoke, it was in a quiet voice—so quiet I had to lean in even closer to make out the words.
“If you think for one minute that I’m going to let that asshole come around here bothering you, you can think again. Now, I got a job to get to. I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Seven sharp. Wear something suitable for a motorcycle, ‘kay?”
He leaned in then kissed me full on the mouth, thrusting his tongue inside like it belonged there. When he pulled back, he strode to his motorcycle without a backward glance. My mouth was still hanging open as Luke put on his helmet, threw his leg over the seat of his bike and started the engine.
Then he rode off down the street like his tail end was on fire.
I stood there inside the front door for several long moments, wondering what the heck had just happened.
I’d spent countless nights fantasizing about what it would be like to have sex with Luke Chase, but not in any of my fantasies had he brought me lunch the day after or told me he was taking me out to dinner, before calling me his woman and scaring off my ex.
I couldn’t decide if I was impressed by the size of his balls or completely horrified by his arrogance.
I decided on an even split between the two.
Either way, the old adage, be careful what you wish for, had never been more pertinent.