“Sounds good.”

I nodded and poured coffee.

“Do you take sugar or milk?”

“Black.”

I nodded again and handed him his coffee without looking at him. Then I went to the fridge to get his fruit and the yogurt, all the while gabbing.

“Sofia tried to start drinking coffee at twelve, she thought it was cool,” I told him just for something to say because I was flipping way the hell out. I set the bowl down, grabbed a spoon from the drawer and opened the yogurt. “Mom told her, if she did she would grow chest hair.” My eyes moved to his chest then lifted to his face. “When did you start drinking coffee?” I asked.

“When I was twelve.”

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it, it was funny.

I started to pile globs of yogurt on his fruit still smiling.

“Babe,” he called.

“What?” I kept my head bent to my task.

“Ava.”

I turned to him still smiling. I should have paid attention to what was happening with Luke and not the yogurt.

His face was hard but his eyes were ink.

Uh-oh.

“Luke –”

He pulled the yogurt out of my hand, put it on the counter and then took the spoon and tossed it in the bowl.

I moved to take a step back again reacting too late. He leaned in, his arm went around my waist and he drew me to his body. His other hand went up my back and into the hair at the base of my head.

I pulled back and his arms tightened, moving me forward.

“This isn’t a good idea,” I whispered, watching his lips come toward me.

“This is a f**king great idea,” he muttered.

Then he kissed me.

For your information, the hard kiss Luke gave me to shut me up was nothing like this.

Yes, his lips were hard but they were also effective.

Coupled with his tongue, they were ultra effective.

It took like two seconds before my knees buckled. He took my weight and I lifted my arms to wrap them around his neck, the fingers of one hand sliding across his spiky hair.

At first he teased me with his tongue, playing with me, making me want it and then taking it away so I went after it. The minute my tongue entered his mouth, he sucked it in deeper.

Ho-ly, f**king, shit.

I didn’t mean to but I moaned into his mouth, got up on tiptoe and pressed myself against him full frontal.

When I did that, his head slanted and he leaned in. His hand in my hair moved down so that his arm was wrapped around my shoulder blades, fingers at my armpit, the other one still sliced around my waist. Both arms tightened and my back arched with his lean, pressing my whole torso and h*ps into his.

The kiss went wild. He didn’t tease anymore, he meant serious business and I liked Luke’s serious business and so did my body.

Finally, he tore his mouth from mine and stared at me, his eyes so beyond warm and inky it was not funny. They were molten. I was in an uncontrollable Luke Lip Fog, mainly because his lips had been on my lips so I was staring at him eyes half-mast, lips parted.

“Christ,” he bit off tersely, his hands going down over my ass. He lifted me up and I threw my legs around his h*ps and tensed my arms around his neck. Before I could think a single thought, he kissed me again and started walking.

I didn’t know how someone could kiss someone while carrying them and walking through three rooms but he did it. I thought we were going to my couch in the living room (that’s where I would have headed) but he walked straight through my living room to the stairwell entry.

I didn’t care where we were going. Lucas Stark was kissing me; his tongue in my mouth, my special girl parts pressed against his hard boy parts. He could have taken me to the moon and I wouldn’t have given a shit.

He had one foot on the bottom stair when there was a pounding at the door. Not a knock, a pound.

He stopped walking, stopped kissing me and his head jerked back while mine lifted up. We looked at each other.

The pounding came again, louder and more insistent this time.

“What the f**k?” Luke muttered.

“Ava, open the door! I know you’re on the back porch!” Sissy shouted and then pounded again while my mouth dropped open. What on earth was Sissy doing there? “Don’t make me walk back there, I have suitcases!” she yelled.

Oh shit.

“Jesus Christ,” Luke mumbled and dropped me to my feet.

“That’s Sissy,” I told him over the pounding.

“No kidding,” he was joking but he wasn’t laughing.

Eek.

Someone was not happy to be interrupted.

I’m not happy either, Bad Ava complained.

Good Ava had no comment.

I skirted passed him to the door but before I could open it, he pulled me back, arm at my waist.

“What are you doing?” I asked still over the pounding as he shoved me behind him, unlocked the deadbolt and the chain and opened the door.

Sissy was standing there, arm up, hand in mid-pound. She stopped dead when she caught sight of Luke and gawked. Full on, mouth-opened, eyes bugged out, gawked.

“Holy crap,” she breathed.

“Sissy, what are you doing here?” I asked, peeking around Luke’s body.

Sissy (and I could see the effort it took her) tore her eyes from bare-chested Luke and looked at me. She took in my messy hair, the glasses I wore only at home (if I could help it) and pajamas and shouted, “Holy crap!”

I slid in front of Luke, grabbed Sissy’s still-upraised wrist and pulled her into the entryway.

“What are you doing here?” I repeated.

She was looking between Luke and I and blinking slowly.

“What?” she asked in a dazed voice.

“You’re supposed to be in Wyoming.”

She focused on me. “The cops called, said you were kidnapped. Since it had to do with Dom and they thought whoever it was might come after me next, the Denver boys warned the local authorities in Wyoming and they came by my Mom’s house to talk about protection. I packed up early this morning and hauled ass down here.” Then realizing where she was and the current scenario of our lives her eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were kidnapped?”

Uh-oh.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were kidnapped.”

“Sissy, honey –”

“When a girl gets laid, she tells her best friend. When a girl finds a lump, she tells her best friend. When a girl finds a kickass shade of nail polish, she tells her best friend. And, I might add, when a girl gets kidnapped, she tells her best friend!” Sissy was shouting when she finished.