“Quiet, Luke,” I replied, rolled into him until he was on his back, climbed on top, guided him inside me and settled.

God, he felt nice.

I was chest to chest with him, my face pressed to his neck. “I could sleep like this,” I whispered.

“I know,” he replied and there was humor in his voice and my head came up so I could smile at him in the dark.

His hands slid up my back, one stopped midway to wrap around and the other one kept going and went into my hair.

“You mind movin’?” he asked.

“I guess I could do that,” I answered and I started moving, slowly, savoring it, letting it build. I would kiss him, he would kiss me, our hands would roam but it was as if we had all the time in the world. Luke let me control it completely, didn’t even try to take over. When I was close, I slid my hand down his arm and took his in mine then guided it between our bodies, straight to the target.

“Ava,” his voice was back to sounding rough and my name in that voice made my stomach turn (more) melty mixed with a shiver going through my body. His fingers pressed and rolled which made the melty stomach and shivery body intensify significantly.

“Yes,” I breathed.

I kept moving, he kept pressing and rolling, we kept kissing (in between panting) and eventually it hit me and when it did it was slow, long and nice. Seconds after mine was over, his hands went to my hips, holding me down on him tight, and it hit him.

He kept me where I was by wrapping his arms around me.

I pressed my face in his neck. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“Babe, I’d do just about anything for you but you gotta know, that was no sacrifice.”

Wow.

He would do just about anything for me?

Ho-ly crap.

After he said that, I couldn’t help myself, I nuzzled into him.

Then because he said that, I took a huge risk and told him, “I’ve decided you’re a good guy.”

He pulled my hair away from my neck and replied, “About f**kin’ time.”

* * * * *

I woke up and it was just dawn. The sunlight was still weak and I woke because I felt I was alone in bed.

I sat up and looked around the room to find Luke sitting in an armchair wearing his black cargos, shirtless (as usual), leaned forward with elbows on his knees, head in his hands.

I could tell this was an unhappy position of masculine reflection.

For a second I got scared. Then I got out of bed, found the Triumph tee and tugged it on. He watched me move toward him and when I got close he pulled me into his lap and sat back in the chair. I felt a moment of relief that his unhappy masculine reflection didn’t include something that would mean he would never pull me into his lap again so I let my body relax and settled into him.

“Do you want to share what’s on your mind?” I asked.

“Don’t you have to brush your teeth?” he responded.

I smiled at him before I wrapped an arm around his abs, stuffing my face in his neck.

“I’d rather know what’s on your mind,” I said softly.

One of his arms was curled around my back, hand resting on my hip. The fingers of his other hand slid back and forth, from knee to tee, on my thigh. My only thought was that I could wake up like this every morning of my life.

Then Luke spoke. “What’s on my mind is that I’m responsible for what happened to you.”

All morning dewy softness flew out the window, my head jerked up and I stared at him.

“What?” I asked, somewhat loudly.

“I’m responsible,” he repeated.

I narrowed my eyes, not because I was angry, but because I didn’t have my contacts in or glasses on and I was trying to focus so I could read his face (this didn’t work).

“How on earth are you responsible?” I asked.

“I went after him, he retaliated. That’s how I’m responsible.”

Oh for goodness sakes.

“Luke, that’s just crazy.”

“It isn’t, Ava. I should have seen it coming and prepared, especially when the info started to come in on him.”

Uh-oh.

This didn’t sound good.

“What info?”

Luke didn’t hesitate before sharing. “His name isn’t Noah Dexter, he’s got a record, he’s wanted in two states and he’s been connin’ women, like he conned you, for a long time.”

I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I was surprised by it.

“I still don’t see how that makes you responsible,” I said.

“You didn’t tell me about the jewelry.” Was Luke’s strange reply.

“What about it?”

“It was worth over sixty-five K.”

I sucked in breath at another demonstration of his freaky ability to know everything.

“How did you find that out?” I asked.

“Your aunt’s will. The jewelry was worth over sixty-five K when appraised for the will, seven years ago.”

“I’m not sure I’m following.”

“Dexter didn’t steal five grand, he stole over seventy grand. That’s a big difference. You were a larger mark than I first thought. This guy isn’t a small time con man. Far as we could tell, he was running two cons simultaneously. The one with you and some other woman, much older, disabled, in her early seventies. He got her jewelry, stole her car and wiped out her retirement account. Between the two of you, he pulled in over three hundred large.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed, incapable of wrapping my mind around this news. I was, however, able to septuple my vow of revenge against Noah.

A disabled lady in her seventies? What a jerk!

“I underestimated him,” Luke went on, interrupting my mental tirade. “He gets caught, his picture hits the news, women come forward who didn’t report him and he’s f**ked even more than he was f**ked. He’s not gonna let that happen and he would be desperate enough to do about anything to make certain it doesn’t. Including f**kin’ with my woman, somethin’ not a lot of people in Denver would have the balls to do.”

Okay, so, it was safe to say this was not good news. I felt like an even bigger idiot now than I felt when Noah took off with my money.

Time to focus and not on me being an idiot.

“Luke, you aren’t responsible,” I said. “I’m responsible. I let him in my life in the first place.”

“Lotta women do.”

“That doesn’t make it any better.”

“Probably not but it’s the truth.”