“Good,” I answered, moving with her to the next rounder of shirts. “He’s having an amazing season. Setting some records already. Other than the muscle strain, he’s been great.”
“I watch every game. I know every stat. That’s not what I’m asking about. How is Luke, my brother? Not Luke Archer, the baseball player.”
“Oh.” When I held up a shirt with a baseball on it, she held out her hand to take it. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because you’re on the team with him. You two must spend a lot of time together.” Her eyes met mine and stayed there a moment. “And I maybe haven’t missed the way you two look at each other.” She glanced out into the mall where Luke was stationed, his gaze intent on us. “And the way you act around each other.”
Maybe I should have been panicking that Luke’s sister had just called us out, but then again, maybe I shouldn’t gave gotten involved with a player on the same team I worked for. My should-have radar was seriously misfiring lately. “You just met me. How do you know that’s not how I look at and act around everyone?”
“I don’t.” Alex lifted her shoulders. “But I do know the way my brother looks at and acts around people, and this isn’t how he acts around everyone else.”
I felt a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Really?”
“Really.”
“That obvious?”
“If it makes you feel better, I am especially observant.” She lifted her hand at her sisters when they popped out of their dressing rooms and waved her over. Then she faced me with an expectant expression.
“He’s good,” I answered. “This is my first season with the team, so we’re really just getting to know one another, but he seems good. Happy.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. That’s a relief. Luke’s been through a lot. Our parents. His career.” She paused, her eyes moving to her brother. “Other stuff.” I was just about to ask her what other stuff she was talking about when she added, “He spends all of his worry on us, but then who worries about him?”
“You do?” It wasn’t a guess—it was obvious.
“Don’t tell him.” She lifted her finger to her lips. “He likes to think the three of us have nothing more to worry about than what color we want to paint our toenails and turning our homework in on time.”
“Not a word,” I promised.
As she headed for the dressing rooms, she waited for me to come up beside her. “So you guys are seeing each other?”
I guessed my long inhale was all the answer she needed.
“Can I talk in hypothetical terms?” she asked.
“If I can answer hypothetically.”
“Fair’s fair.” She nudged my arm. “If you were seeing him, I’d tell you you’re dating the best guy in the whole world.”
“Yeah? Why would you say that?” Not that I was arguing, but I was curious to know why a teenage girl thought her big brother was the best guy in the world. Most girls her age thought some magazine-cover dude with tattoos and supposed swagger was the height of the male species.
“Because it’s the truth. Luke takes care of people. He’s loyal. He does the right thing.” She squinted like she was trying to focus on something. “Sometimes to a fault.”
I nodded. “I’ll take that under advisement. Hypothetically. Anything else?”
A sales associate was helping Alex into a dressing room beside her sisters, but before she closed the curtain, Alex stuck her head out. Those same hazel eyes I’d seen on her brother locked on mine. “Yeah, if you hurt him, you’ll have three sisters to answer to.”
WE WERE BOTH exhausted. Spending twelve hours at a mall with three girls had a way of doing that to two people as averse to malls as Luke and I were. So would trying to eat as much mall food as one’s stomach could hold without erupting. If I never saw another salted pretzel, tub of cheese sauce, or ice cream cone again, I’d be good.
We had just dropped the girls off at the airport after packing and picking up their luggage at Luke’s apartment and were heading back to his place, both of us looking like we were in a state of mall shock and sleep deprivation. But as soon as we came within a block of his apartment building, our energy zapped to life.
He was still in the Ray’s get-up, although he’d tossed the hat in the garbage can back at the airport, claiming he didn’t give a shit if anyone recognized him without it. He just couldn’t take another second of it on his head.
I’d never been so keenly aware of a man and his desire for me pulsing in waves over me. I’d never been so keenly aware of my own desire for a man, to the point of feeling like I was swallowing my heart with every breath.
Instead of pulling up to the front of the building as I had last night when dropping him off, I pulled into the garage. I told myself it was because wheeling him back to his apartment would take time, but I knew it was because I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Especially now that we were alone.
Turning off the ignition after pulling into his reserved parking space, I sat there, staring out the windshield, wondering if he could hear my heartbeat.
From the smirk I could see out of the corner of my eye, I guessed he could.
“So I kept my promise for the day, and if my ass never has to sit in one of those things again, it will be too damn soon.”
I nodded. He had been a good sport about it, leaving me surprised all day. From the quid pro quo insinuation in his tone, I guessed I knew why he’d been so accommodating.
“So?” I shrugged like I didn’t know what he was alluding to.
“So it’s time for you to uphold your promise.”
Damn. Just his voice was making me wetter. Or maybe it was the image of what his voice was hinting at.
“I didn’t make you a promise.”
“Just because you didn’t verbalize it doesn’t mean you didn’t make one.”
My hands wrung the steering wheel. “Mind telling me, exactly, what promise I nonverbally made you?”
He leaned in, sliding my hair over my shoulder. His fingers brushed my bare skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps behind. “The one you made on your knees this morning.” His fingers worked down to the roots my hair, giving it the slightest of tugs.
The ragged breath it elicited from me wasn’t so slight. “This is your place, Luke. Your home—not some impersonal hotel room. Are you sure you want to do this, be together, like this?”
“I want to be together with you wherever I can be.” His fingers curled beneath my chin, tipping it toward him. “But I especially want to be together with you like this tonight.”
When my head bobbed, his door flew open.
“Not so fast.” I shoved open my door, unlocking the back hatch. “Wheelchair.”
His groan echoed through the basement parking garage. “I’m not going to have to stay in the wheelchair for what happens when we get into my apartment, am I?”
“Only if you’re lucky.” Coming around his side, I patted the back of the wheelchair and waited.
“I’m planning on getting lucky. All night long.” His eyes sparked as he crawled out of the SUV into the chair. “Does that count?”
“It counts for something.” Locking his SUV, I wheeled him toward the elevator.
I couldn’t help the smile that spread on my face—the day had been amazing. Malls and mall food aside, I loved getting to spend time with Luke in such a normal way, meeting his sisters and seeing the roles they played in each other’s lives. I adored the stolen glimpses, the private jokes, and the sense of belonging that seemed to come so naturally with the Archer siblings.
They laughed at my jokes, they shared licks of their ice cream cones, and they had no qualms about giving me the same hard time they gave each other. Growing up without siblings and having to split my time between two parents both as a child and now, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed that sense of unity a healthy family had at its core. Even with the Archers losing their parents, the four of them had a s
trong sense of cohesion I’d never experienced with the closest of family or friends.
“You’re thinking,” Luke stated once the elevator doors closed us in.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re not talking.”
“So therefore I must be thinking?”
Luke’s shoulder lifted. “That’s generally the way it works.”
“I’m thinking I just spent more time at the mall today than the sum total of every mall visit of my life, and it’s been one of the best days of my life.”
“I’m thinking today’s been pretty damn great, but it’s about to get even better.”
“Thank you for sharing today with me, Luke.”
His hand wrapped around my wrist. “Thank you for sharing your life with me.”
My reaction was to recoil, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I was scared of being hurt or hurting him. But I fought my instinct. I fought it until I’d chased it back into the dark, stagnant place it resided.
I fought it until all I could feel was the place where my head and heart came together, the spot where reason and logic lived in harmony with whim and feeling. It was a place I’d never visited before, but experiencing it made me want to take up permanent residence.
Whatever this was, wherever it took me, I wasn’t going to hold back. I was all in, to whatever end we found ourselves in.
Feeling that was staggering. Accepting it was freeing. But living it was redefining.
“Still with the thinking,” Luke muttered good-naturedly, glancing up at me.
“All done. I’m all thought out.”
“Good, because as brilliant as that mind of yours is, I have immediate plans that involve your equally brilliant body.” His hand tightened around my wrist when the elevator doors chimed open on his apartment’s floor.
“Before you get me behind a locked door, I need you to agree to give me a few minutes before you throw, bend, or spread me over whatever surface you have in your depraved, albeit also brilliant, mind.”
Luke pulled his key out when we stopped outside his door. “I’ll concede to that. Since I can’t get this damn jersey ripped off and in the incinerator fast enough. If you need any more time than I do to strip, I’ll wait semi-patiently. Dick in hand. Thinking about dick in you.”
Heat spread through my body, originating in the spot between my legs. “Sounds like you’ve got your whole night planned.”
“I plan on spending my whole night buried inside you.”
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“And I’ll hold you to me while you hold me to it.”
“Do you have a comeback for everything I say?” I laughed as he kicked the door open after unlocking it.
“I have a come on for everything you say to me. Does that count?”
“Would you care if I said it didn’t?”
“No.” His head shook.
“Then there’s your answer.” When I closed the door, the lock sliding over echoed through the quiet space. At the same time it was locking the rest of the world out, it was opening an entire world to me. Before I could change my mind or Luke could change it for me, I rolled him into the living room. “Bathroom?”
“Do you want me to show you where it is?” His mouth took a crooked slant.
“I want you to tell me where it is.” Snagging my bag hanging off the end of the wheelchair’s handholds, I put some space between us.
“Down that hall. First door on the right.” Luke watched me back away, a storm of conflict rolling across his face.
“I’ll be back. Don’t get started without me,” I said before turning my back on him.
Luke’s chuckle followed me down the hall. “Too late.”
That was when I felt the caress of his jersey brush down my body. Apparently he was serious about not being able to wait another second to have that thing off of him.
Once I was in the bathroom, my hands wouldn’t work right. I fumbled my bag, spilling the contents onto the tile floor. At least that made finding what I had in mind that much easier.
After that, my dexterity took another detour from inhibited to inefficient. Trying to peel my dress over my head proved challenging. Unhooking my bra was a damn feat. My panties were easier, but that probably had something to do with gravity’s assistance.
Finally, I was naked. Halfway there. Go me for picking the night I felt like my hands had been attacked by a hive of bees as the one when I took the time to wear something special.
Sliding into the item I’d stuffed into my bag earlier, the buttons proved my final challenge before I was set to go. Like Luke, I’d been ready for hours, but being ready was different from getting ready. Now I was both.
Thank god.
I could have taken an extra minute to comb my hair or dab on a little lip gloss, but neither would last. Not to mention my fingers were still in a state of shock.
Opening the door, I stepped into the dark hall. The apartment was quiet. “You didn’t fall asleep, did you?”
When it took more than a second for him to answer, I started to worry that he might have.
“No. I’m definitely not asleep.” He was standing in the dark living room, totally naked, and totally ready to go.
My heartbeat drummed in my ears. “Good, because I didn’t get all dressed up for nothing.” My hands weren’t shaking anymore—my fingers no longer fumbling—as they moved to the top button of the jersey to pull it free.
“Seeing you like that almost makes up for what you made me wear all day.” His hungry eyes explored me, his shoulder muscles quivering like he was holding himself back.
“Almost?” I moved closer, sliding my finger under the hem of the jersey. “However will I make it up to you?”
Luke scrubbed at his face when I kept teasing the hem of the jersey, sliding it a little higher every few steps. “I’ve got a few ideas.”
I had to fight the smile I felt from seeing him so turned on and growing more impatient with every second I stalled moving closer. When I was only a couple steps away, I stopped. “So do I.”
I lifted an eyebrow then gave his hard chest a shove. He fell back onto the couch, landing with a sharp exhale.
“What did I tell you about being on your feet?” Moving between his legs, I stared down at him. Seeing him like this stole the breath from my lungs.
His eyes read a hundred different emotions, his body expressing one—desire. “Does it look like I’m on my feet anymore?”
Shaking my head, I nudged his legs open farther with my knees. They fell open without hesitation.
“You took my feet out from under me, right along with the rest of me.” Luke’s hands came around the back of my thighs as he stared up at me. “I don’t want any of it back either.” His finger skimmed around to the front of my thighs and stopped when it reached the bottom button. He worked it free, never breaking his stare. “This is going to make me sound like some lovesick kid, but I don’t give a shit.” He swallowed and pulled me closer. “Allie, will you be my girlfriend? I know we won’t be able to tell anyone, but I don’t care. I’ll know. You’ll know.”
He had me in his grasp, ready and willing for the taking, and he was asking me if I’d be his girlfriend? Even when I thought I was starting to figure him out, Luke Archer still surprised the hell out of me.
“Are you asking me to go steady?”
His hands returned to my thighs, disappearing beneath the shirt. “Well, I did already have a secret crush on you, pretend I didn’t like you, then I opened with the worst pick-up line ever, so my pride’s already gone.”
I was smiling from the reminder—at least right until his fingers reached the apex of my legs.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” His knuckles ran over me, his eyes darkening when he felt how ready my body was for his.
“I don’t know. Does this mean I get to wear your letterman’s jacket?”
Luke leaned his head over the back of the couch, watching me as he touched me, not missing
the slightest of gasps or the faintest lowering of my lids. From the way he was studying me, it was almost like he was taking mental notes to refer back to later. “It means you can wear whatever part of me, have whatever piece of me you want.”
God, what was happening? Luke Archer was asking me to be his girlfriend like he was some lovesick high school boy at the same time he was touching me in ways no boy would have the first clue about. Before the part of my brain that processed logical thought shut off, I considered my answer. Did I want to be Luke’s girlfriend? Did I want an official term? A defined commitment? Did I want to open myself up to the disappointment and heartache that came with a real relationship?
My experience told me I didn’t. My future told me I did.
“Honesty,” I whispered, sealing my eyes closed as I concentrated on what I needed to say. “I need it. All of it. The last serious relationship I had, he ruined me with a lack of honesty. I need to know I can be honest with you and that you are being honest with me.”
Luke’s fingers pulled back just enough to let my mind work more succinctly. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s behind me now.”
“Are you sure?”
My eyes flew open. “Of course I’m sure. Why?”
Luke’s hand found mine. “Because you’re bringing it up now. Is your fear of being hurt and betrayed and lied to really in the past? Or is it in the same room with us now, waiting for the chance to come between us?”
My forehead creased as I considered what he was saying. “It’s behind me.”
Luke nodded. “Good. Because I don’t want to pay for some other asshole’s mistakes.”
Here we were, having serious conversations when we both clearly had sex on our minds. I’d never been asked by a naked god to define a relationship, and I’d never hashed out my insecurities with a man who was so desperate to get laid, the veins running down his neck looked ready to pop.
Nothing about Luke Archer was what it seemed. I loved that about him. It was also what I feared about him.
At the same time I felt like I knew all I needed to know about the man in front of me, I wondered if I’d even scraped the surface. “That’s good.” I leaned over to splay my hands on his wide chest. “Because I don’t want to pay for some bitch’s mistakes either.”