Frisk Me(35)

Because this time, she was thinking about him as a person instead of the story subject that could make or break her career.

She moved closer, and taking a risk, put her hand on his arm. “I’m not here to sell you out. Or your family.”

His eyes flitted briefly to her fingers against his arm, and she swore she wasn’t imagining that the air around them grew hot, even in the cool spring breeze.

A loud horn noise made her jump, and Luc took a quick step back, killing the moment. “Ferry’s here,” he said gruffly. “And it looks like Anthony’s on the same boat as us.”

She followed his gaze to the tall, gorgeous guy who watched them approach with a scowl. Good looks definitely ran in the family. So did the go-f*ck-yourself scowl.

“Anthony can be irritable; try not to piss him off,” he said out of the corner of his mouth.

“Sure, I’ll just tape my mouth shut,” she snapped, all warm feelings of before evaporating.

For a second, he looked hopeful. “That’s an option?”

She gave him a withering look before pasting a smile on her face for Luc’s older brother. Up close, the family resemblance was startling. Anthony’s eyes were brown instead of Luc’s deep blue, and he was taller by a couple of inches. But there was the same strong jawline, the same broad shoulders and sculpted torso.

Anthony Moretti was gorgeous.

“You’re staring,” Luc whispered in her ear.

Ava jumped, holding out a hand to Anthony.

He glanced down at it in amusement before giving his brother a look she couldn’t decipher. Only then did he shake her hand. “You’re the Sims woman.”

Luc rolled his eyes. “Nice, bro.”

Anthony shrugged, looking her over. “You know, I was trying to figure out how the hell you finagled an invitation to family dinner, but I think I get it now.”

The look Luc gave his brother was lethal. “Seriously.”

Ava smiled. “It’s all right. I came prepared. I’ve seen you in action. It makes sense that your brothers share your same…charm.”

Anthony’s eyebrows crept up. “Luca, do my ears deceive me? Is there actually a woman alive who hasn’t fallen all over herself in love with you?”

“Trust me,” Ava said before Luc could respond. “That is definitely not the case.”

Anthony smiled then, slow and sexy. And practiced, if Ava was reading it right. He offered her his arm. “Well then, Ms. Sims. Come. Walk with me. I think I like you already.”

“That makes one of us,” Luc muttered from behind them.

But when Ava glanced over her shoulder at Luc, he didn’t look as irritated as his words implied.

Instead he looked thoughtful.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN



It was a weird thing, watching your sexy enemy join forces with the people most dear to you.

Ava had all but charmed the pants off Anthony on the ferry ride over to Staten Island. Anthony, whose condescending, big-brother routine practically seeped out of his pores. Anthony, whose volatile temper and legendary glare had sent more than a handful of rookies to therapy.

Anthony who distrusted all women, everywhere.

Except, apparently, Ava Sims.

By the time they’d gotten to his parents’ house, Luc was grinding his teeth, and Anthony was in all-out charm mode (which Luc hadn’t even known was a thing), and Ava was practically simpering.

To punish her, he’d nearly left her in Anthony’s oh-so-doting care for the evening. That would show her.

But then Luc had seen it. He’d seen her, with the sassy layers stripped away.

It happened when Anthony opened the front door, and just as Luc was inhaling the familiar aromas of his mother’s cooking, he caught Ava’s expression out of the corner of his eye.

She hesitated, her bright, ever-present smile slipping, and she’d looked lost and completely unsure of herself.

Her description of her family flitted through his mind. After meeting Miranda, Luc had been hoping the bad vibes with her sister had been a fluke.

But the tension in her shoulders when she’d talked about her family looked decades old.

In other words, the Sunday dinner that had always felt like coming home to him was completely foreign to her.

Luc mentally sighed. He wanted to leave her to the sharks.

To let her sink or swim as she went about interviewing his family, sticking her nose where it didn’t belong, stalking his baby pictures to see if he fixed the wings of baby birds, or something she could use for her stupid hero story.

Her finger fiddled with the sleeve of her cardigan, as a loud burst of laughter came from the kitchen. White teeth nibbled nervously on the corner of her bottom lip, and Luc broke.

Before he realized what he was doing, he reached out a hand to her.

Ava blinked in surprise, staring in confusion at his outstretched hand. When her eyes lifted to his, they were confused and wary.

“Come on, Sims, it’s just a bit of kindness,” he said, intentionally keeping his voice light. “You’re about to be sucked into the Moretti vortex.”

“Is the rest of your family as cranky as you?”

Luc frowned. “You still think I’m cranky?”

“I think if there was a boarding school for personality makeovers, you’d probably get a scholarship.”