Frisk Me(22)

Luc choked on his coffee.

“He even got change for a twenty,” she continued. “And let me tell you, there’s something oddly gratifying about having all those one-dollar bills slide against your skin when he tucks them into your G-string, you know?”

Luc coughed up the coffee that he’d aspirated. “That’s just…no words. I have no words.”

Helen returned to take their order.

Luc got a bacon, spinach, Swiss omelet with fruit instead of potatoes. Ava ordered the same, with the addition of mushrooms.

“Fruit, huh?” she asked when Helen had walked away.

“I like it,” Luc said with a shrug. “Not manly enough for you?”

“Yeah, because that’s what all women look for in a man. The right breakfast side-order.”

They both sipped their coffee, and Luc finally asked the crucial question. “What are you doing here, Sims?”

Ava took a deep breath, but to her credit, she met his gaze dead-on. “I wanted to get to know you.”

Well that was…blunt. And interesting.

He leaned in a little. “For the sake of the story? Or for you?”

“The story,” she said, the words coming out too quickly, despite the fact that his tone had been deliberately teasing.

Luc sat back and considered.

“Sims, we’ve spent every day of the past week together. You’re practically my second partner on the job, even if you’re in the way more often than not.”

“Hey!”

He held up a hand to stop the protest. “No. You are, and you know it.”

She huffed. “I just wanted to turn on the siren once. Just to try it.”

“Uh huh. You’re telling me it had nothing to do with the fact that it was rush hour and you had to pee?”

She waved this away. “Look, I know that I’ve been…annoying. But I’m just trying to do my job.”

He groaned. “Enough with that. We both want to do our jobs without the other getting in our way, but that’s not going to happen, is it? In order for me to do my job well, I need you to go away. For you to do your job well, you need me to kiss your ass.”

She leaned forward, her eyes as intense as he’d seen them. “You don’t have to kiss my ass, Moretti. Truly. I just need you to talk to me.”

“I do talk to you.”

“No, you grunt, growl, and lecture.”

Luc took a sip of coffee to hide his surprise at the accusation.

Luc was not the grunting, growling type.

Not to toot his own horn or anything, but truth be told, Luc had always thought of himself as being fairly, well…likable.

Of all the Moretti clan, Luc was the quickest to smile and according to his mother, the easiest to talk to.

That last one, of course, could have been due to his mother buttering him up so he’d come over and help her move her recipes from ragged index cards to “the cloud” on the new laptop his dad had bought.

But with or without his mother’s praise, Luc was sure of one thing:

This was the first time a woman had ever accused him of being an irritable prick.

And although he was tempted to snap back that it was only her that drew out this grumpy, unlikable version of himself, the truth was he felt a little ashamed of himself.

Like those *s who disdained all law enforcement for life because of one “undeserved” speeding ticket when they were seventeen, Luc had been making similar stereotypes about the media based on his own desire for privacy.

Ava was right. She was just doing her job.

And he may not like it, but that didn’t authorize being a complete dick.

After Helen had delivered their breakfast, Luc picked up his fork and made a decision. He wasn’t going to bend over backward for her.

He still thought this story was bullshit.

But…

“All right, Sims. I’ll talk.”

She was about to take a bite of egg, but her fork paused halfway to her mouth. “Seriously?”

“Today only,” he said, liberally adding pepper to his dish. “Don’t be expecting the welcome mat at the precinct on Monday, and this isn’t a free pass to turn on the siren whenever you get hungry, and you still have to pay that parking ticket. But I respect that you have three hours of stupid television to put together. So for today…shoot.”

He half expected her to go all rabid on him, pulling out a notebook or worse, a recorder, and firing question after question, but she merely chewed her omelet and looked thoughtful.

“Thank you,” she said finally.

“You’re welcome.”

She smiled. “We’re having a moment, aren’t we?”

“Sims, if this is your idea of a moment, your social life must be seriously up a creek.”

“Speaking of social life,” she said, plopping a piece of cantaloupe in her mouth.

Here we go…

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

The question was more direct than he’d expected, and Luc had to remind himself she was asking as a reporter, not as an interested party.

“Nope.”

“Ex?”

“I’m twenty-eight. I should hope I had a couple exes under my belt by now.”

“But anyone serious?” She took a sip of coffee.