07 It Had to Be You Read online

  He’d been fantasizing about her, just like this, melting in his arms, taking everything he gave her and wanting more still. The reality of it was even better than the fantasy. She was warm and soft and eager. His. A ridiculous thought that didn’t stop him from taking, from slanting his mouth over hers more fully and cupping her breasts, sliding his thumbs over her pebbled nipples. He wanted her in his mouth, every part of her, and was tugging on the tie at the back of her neck toward that very goal when someone rang the doorbell.

  They broke apart and stared at each other.

  “Wait here,” he said, and gently nudged her aside to open the bedroom door.

  He took his time walking through the house so as to not open the door with a full-blown hard-on. But looking through the peephole took care of that.

  Ted Marshall stood on his doorstep.

  Chapter 14

  Ali followed Luke through the house and then went still when he opened the front door.

  Teddy stood there in a business suit that, unlike Zach’s, fit him perfectly.

  “What are you still doing here?” he asked her, looking just as shocked as Ali.

  What was she doing here? “Oh no. You first,” she said, going for polite, but not quite making it.

  “I’m looking for my backup cell phone,” Teddy said. “I was going to ask the new tenant if he’d found it.”

  “You sure you don’t want to accuse me of stealing it?” Ali asked, not even in the realm of polite now.

  “Did you?”

  Luke slid a hand to the nape of her neck.

  Right. She had no idea if Zach could defend premeditated murder. “You might want to close your eyes,” she said to Luke, “so that you don’t have to testify against me.”

  He smiled.

  “Oh for crissake,” Teddy grumbled. “For the last time, you were the only one in my office who had a motive.” He pulled off his expensive reflector aviator sunglasses, the ones she’d used to think made him look so hot, and stared at her. “So what’s going on here anyway? And what’s wrong with you? You’re all…flushed.”

  Extremely aware of her kiss-swollen lips and just-made-out hair, Ali stormed off to the kitchen, opened the junk drawer, and—shock—found Teddy’s spare phone. Grabbing it, she slammed the drawer and brought it to the front door. “I didn’t steal it, and for the millionth time, I didn’t steal that money either.”

  “Then who did?”

  “I don’t know!” She tried to take a calming breath. It didn’t help. “And I don’t even know why you thought it would have been me.”

  He sighed. “You need the money. You always need money.”

  Low blow. It took her a minute to catch her breath. “There are more important things than money,” she said. “And have you thought that maybe one of your other girlfriends might have done it?”

  Guilt flashed for a single beat on his face. “Look,” he said, “whatever Melissa and Aubrey have told you is—”

  “Aubrey?” Ali stared at him. “You had both Melissa and Aubrey on the side? Seriously?”

  Ted’s face had closed up. “All I’m saying is that you’ve been misinformed—”

  “Stop,” she said, lifting a hand. “You’re just reinforcing your ass-ness.”

  “Fine. I don’t have to explain myself to you anyway.” His gaze flicked to Luke. “And what’s going on between you two? You found a way to stay here, huh?”

  This time Luke tensed, and Ali grabbed his hand. “Don’t bother,” she murmured.

  Luke didn’t take his eyes off Teddy, but he kept his thoughts to himself, looking extremely dangerous to Teddy’s well-being. “You’ve got your phone,” he said quietly. “Leave now.”

  “I’m going, but I want to talk to you first,” he said to Ali. “Alone.”

  He was very brave, or very oblivious. Either way, Luke didn’t budge, and Ali was choking on all the testosterone. “Oh for God’s sake.” She turned to Luke. “It’s okay.”

  When he still didn’t budge, she stepped outside and shut the front door. “You have two seconds,” she said to Teddy.

  Teddy eyed the front door warily. “My attorney advised me to stay away,” he said. “But you really embarrassed me, Ali. At work. In town. I thought we were okay, that we had a good run and then it was over, no hard feelings. So I have to know—why did you do it? You had to know you wouldn’t get away with it.”

  “I didn’t do it—”

  “I’m trying to work my way up to council and then to mayor,” he said, “and you made everyone doubt and mistrust my judgment.”

  “Me? You were sleeping with half the town! You made yourself look bad.”

  “Ali, you broke into my office and stole back a stupid ceramic pot that you’d given me. That’s just ridiculously stupid. Stupid and childish.”

  “I didn’t break in.” But she flushed because he was right, on all accounts, and she hated that. “Yes, okay, it was stupid and childish. But I was hurt. You’d walked away without so much as a look back. You didn’t deserve the pencil pot.”

  “Forget the fucking pot!” he yelled, and then made a visible effort to relax. He even poured on a little Teddy charm. “Look, I was just trying to be nice, okay? You were cute and fun, and when you had to get out of your apartment, I wanted to help you out. So I offered to share a place.”

  This stunned her. “I thought we were a thing.”

  “Okay, yes, we had a thing. But you weren’t my thing.”

  She stared at him. “You could have told me,” she finally managed.

  “You’re right, I should have told you. I should have said that I’d made a mistake. That you weren’t my type.”

  “And what is that supposed to mean?”

  He sighed. “Forget it.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Fine,” he said. “We’re…different.”

  “You mean you’re a cheating bastard and I’m not?”

  He sighed again, the put-upon ex-boyfriend, suffering through the breakup talk. “That’s not what I meant.”

  No, actually, she knew what he meant, she knew exactly. He’d come from money and she’d come from nothing.

  “I want that money back, Ali. I mean it.” And with that, he strode off the steps like he owned the world.

  She’d have given just about anything to be holding the new key pot she was making so she could wing it at the back of his thick skull. In fact, she whirled around looking for something, anything, to bean him with.

  “Later,” Luke said, joining her on the porch after clearly having listened to the whole exchange. “I’ll hold him down for you.”

  “When?” she demanded.

  “When you don’t have witnesses.”

  She followed his gaze to Mrs. Gibson, who lived on the other side of Luke’s grandfather’s house. Fifty-something, she was a local teacher, soaking up the spectacle from her doorstep.

  Luke waved at her.

  Mrs. Gibson returned the wave and went inside.

  “We’ll make Facebook before the hour’s up,” he muttered.

  Luke could feel Ali vibrating with emotions.

  “I really want to hit him,” she said.

  “Bloodthirsty,” he murmured, taking her hand, running his thumb over the pulse racing at her wrist. “I like it.”

  She didn’t look at him, and he realized she was shaking. “Hey,” he said softly, pulling her inside, turning her to face him.

  She looked down, so he bent his knees to put them nose to nose. “What are you doing, letting him get in your head like that?” he asked.

  “I—” She pushed him. “I don’t know.”

  But he knew that she did know. She hated that someone believed she might have stolen that money, hated knowing that anyone thought she was a thief, even if that someone was the cheating bastard Ted Marshall.

  “Forget him, Ali.”

  She covered her face. When she shuddered, his heart stopped.

  “I’m not crying,” she said through her fingers.