Rock Chick Revenge (Rock Chick #5)(158)

A steel-band-like arm wrapped around my waist and I was pulled back several feet, my body pressed tight against Luke’s.

I ignored Luke and his arm and hissed to Jeremiah, “Be nice.”

“Fuck you,” Jeremiah moaned and it didn’t sound all that convincing, probably since he had temporarily lost that particular ability.

I looked at Winnie. “Mrs. Conrad?” I called, sounding sweet as sugar. “Do you have anything to say?”

Winnie’s eyes were on Jeremiah but she answered me. “I think you covered it.”

There you go.

Time to move on.

I turned in Luke’s arm and lifted my eyes to his. “I’m guessing you’re not coming to dinner with the Moms.”

Luke just stared at me like I’d broken into a tap dance while singing “Mr. Bo Jangles”.

“All righty then,” I declared. “Don’t worry about getting blood on your clothes. I’m really good at stain removal.”

I leaned into him, hand at his chest, and gave him a quick lip touch. Then I pulled out of his arm but lifted my hand to wipe the lip gloss off his mouth with my thumb.

“Don’t be too late,” I whispered and I watched one side of his mouth go up in a half-grin.

Then all business, I turned to Mrs. Conrad and grabbed her wheel chair.

“Welp, better go. We don’t want to be around when Luke’s meting out gonzo retribution. It might get messy and this is a new dress. Do you want to go to dinner with my family and Luke’s Mom? My treat,” I asked conversationally as I wheeled Mrs. Conrad out of the room.

“That would be lovely. Would be a shame, we both got all dressed up but had nowhere to go,” Mrs. Conrad replied cool as could be, as if we were wheeling through a park, not exiting what amounted to a cell.

“We’re having steaks,” I told her. “You like steak?”

“Girl, I love steak. Who doesn’t like steak?”

“I like steak,” I agreed.

We passed a smiling Monty. We stopped outside the room and I turned to look in. Hector was already moving toward Jeremiah. Vance was watching me and he was wearing a very attractive shit-eating grin. My eyes slid to Luke, his were on me and my heart stuttered when I watched, fascinated, as he winked.

Then I shut the door.

* * * * *

“I’m Ava Barlow. I’m staying with Lucas Stark. Can I have my room key, please?” I asked the reception clerk at Hotel Monaco.

He tapped on his computer, something came up and he read it, smiled at me and gave me my key card telling me the room number. I took it with a return smile and headed to the elevators.

Dinner had been a blast. Marilyn and Sofia had opted out (still pouting). Olivia, Shirleen and Winnie had opted in and Sissy met us there with the Moms. We ate, moved the festivities to the Cruise Room meeting Indy and Jules. We drank martinis (of course Jules didn’t drink martinis seeing as she was preggers), enough to get loose, not enough to get drunk and Shirleen dropped me off at the hotel.

I exited the elevators, found the room and let myself in with the card.

The room was dimly lit with one lamp. Luke was in bed, on his back, hands behind his head, chest bare, covers to his waist, looking Zen.

“Hey,” I said, throwing my purse in a chair.

“Come here,” he replied softly and my knees got week.

I told my knees to behave and asked, “How’s Jeremiah?”

“Incarcerated,” he informed me. “Hank got an anonymous tip, sent a car out. Uniforms picked him up, took him to the hospital to stitch him up and now he’s behind bars. Winnie needs to go in tomorrow to press charges,” his voice dropped low and he continued. “Now, come here.”

I took in a deep breath, let it out and walked to the bed.

When I made it to the side, Luke’s hands came from behind his head, he did an ab curl, caught my waist and pulled me down on top of him.

When we had settled, his fingers sifted into the hair at the side of my head and slid back, taking the weight with it and holding it behind my head.

“I like your hair like this,” he murmured.

“Indy did it,” I shared.

His eyes came to mine. “We got plans tonight, you and me.”

“I already had dinner with the Moms.”

He gave me a half-grin. “I wasn’t talking about those plans.”

I knew he wasn’t.

Shit!

“Babe, move your foot, your shoe is about to pierce the skin on my shin.”

Shit again!

I moved my foot and muttered, “Sorry.”

“Take ‘em off,” he ordered.

“I can’t, the straps are too complicated. I have to wear them to bed then I have to wear them until they fall apart. I’ll never –”

He flipped me on my back then his hand slid down my side, my leg to my ankle. Within thirty seconds he had both shoes off.

“How did you do that?” I asked, eyes wide, thinking the wonders of Luke would never cease.

He didn’t answer, his fingers found the zip at the side of my dress and tugged it down.

“Luke, I want to hear about Jeremiah,” I told him.

Zipper down, he slid the dress up, up and then it was off. He tossed it aside, lifted up on his elbow and his head bent to look at me. One of his hands came back to my body, gliding across the bustier at my midriff.