“That’s me,” he said.
“I’m Ava,” I introduced myself though he probably knew who I was. Still, I didn’t want to seem rude.
“I know that, darlin’. I manage the surveillance room. We monitor Luke’s loft and we monitor Fortnum’s. Seen a lot of you.”
My mouth dropped open. Monty smiled. I felt the heat hit my face. Monty’s smile got bigger.
“You monitor Fortnum’s too?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Monty said. “You can thank me later.”
I blinked before I asked, very, very stupidly, “For what?”
“For not showin’ Luke the video of you crawlin’ on all fours down the side book aisle.”
It was then Luke laughed.
Okay, abort plan, time for a new plan.
I turned to Shirleen. “I’m done here. We can leave. I need cookies. STAT.”
“Girl, I did not traipse around town, droppin’ off Tex, goin’ to your house to get your perfume –” Shirleen started.
“My house is two blocks from Tex’s,” I cut in.
“So? Then you had me callin’ everyone and their brother,” Shirleen shot back.
“You just called Olivia!” My voice was rising.
“Well, I didn’t do all that for you to give up at the first hurdle. Shit, girl,” Shirleen finished.
Argh!
I turned back to Luke. “Can we please speak privately?” I tried again.
He pressed his lips together, not with anger, more like he was trying to stop them from twitching. Then he said, “You got five minutes.”
He motioned toward the door and I walked through it then stopped. He passed me and I followed him to a door down the hall I’d never been through before. We went in and I saw it was an office, big desk, chairs in front, couch on the back wall; the same décor as the reception area. I stopped inside, close to the desk, and turned to Luke who’d closed the door behind us.
“You can’t stop yourself, can you?” he asked before I could say anything.
“What?”
“Cleared your debt this morning, less than eight hours later, they’re pilin’ up again.”
My eyes got wide. “What do I owe you for now?”
“Arrangin’ for Smithie to be taken out of a tree.”
Oh. That.
“That’s just one little thing,” I told him. “And you did that for Smithie more than for me.”
“Smithie was in the tree because of you.”
That was kind of true.
Hell and damnation.
“What else do I owe you for?”
“The debt you bought for struttin’ in here dressed like a man eater.”
“I’m not dressed as a man eater.”
His eyebrows went up.
Okay, so I was dressed as a man eater.
“Why do I owe you for that?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Ava Babe, I know the game you’re playin’ and you’re gonna pay for playin’ it.”
I crossed my arms on my chest. “And what game is that?”
“The same game you played this mornin’. You don’t want me to do somethin’ I want to do and you’re usin’ your sweet body to get it. As much as I like the view, babe, the intent behind it pisses me off.”
His words angered me so much I looked around for something to throw at him. Before I could find anything, Luke demanded, “Ava, look at me.”
My eyes went to him but I didn’t look at him, I glared at him.
He ignored my glare and went on. “We aren’t playin’ your game. You get your word with Dexter, then –”
I interrupted him. “For your information, this dress is not for you. It’s for Noah.”
That got a reaction.
At first I saw I surprised him which surprised me because I didn’t think Luke could be surprised. Then the surprise faded fast and I saw he was ticked off. I knew this because his eyes narrowed, his brows drew together and the air in the room started closing in because his ticked off energy was electrifying it.
“Come again?” he said low but I was too angry myself to be scared of him.
“See,” I started to explain. “I had vowed revenge against Dom. Every time Dom would do something jerky, I’d double it, triple it, whatever. I kept a running tally. Then once Noah hurt me, I transferred my revenge to him because he deserved it more. Then I started adding on whenever I’d find out he did something bad. I got up to octuple revenge.”
I twisted, dropped my purse on the desk, came back around, lifted up my hands and held my left pointer finger with my right hand and started counting down my plan.
“One, I walk in there looking fine. Not looking beat up and broken but looking good. That way, he sees what he gave up. He could have had me but he used me and threw me away. He might be too coldblooded to care but it’ll make me feel better.” I added my middle finger to my hand. “Two, I’m in there with you and he knows we’re together. You’re better than him, hotter than him, richer than him, everything more than him. I want to rub his face in it.” I added my ring finger. “Three, I’ll say what I have to say. I don’t know what that is yet but I’m winging this as I go along, I’ll figure it out.” I kept adding fingers. “Four, he has to see Winnie. He may be a snake but he can’t be so low that he won’t flinch when he’s confronted with yet another one of his victims especially when she’s in a better place with good people around her no matter what he did to her. Five, Winnie gets to have her say. Six is whatever you’re going to do to him. I don’t have a seventh and eighth part of my revenge yet but I figure I might kick him. With these pointy shoes, that’ll hurt like –”
I stopped talking because one second Luke was three feet away, the next second he was using his hard body to back me up until my thighs hit the desk and he was pressed in full frontal.
“What are you doing?” I cried, grabbing his upper arms in order not to stumble on my teetering heels.
His hands were on me, his head bent and his lips went to my neck. “I’m gonna f**k you, right here on Lee’s desk.” His voice was low again but not with anger this time, with something entirely different and a shiver slid across my skin. “The eighth part of your revenge is you walkin’ in there with your face soft, satisfied and sexy as hell like it is after I make you come.”
Ho-ly shit.
My special girl parts went into full spasm.