Alone again with Luke.

Shit.

I walked into the loft not looking at Luke and planning my defense.

He’d mostly touched my hair, not me. I was going to argue that hair didn’t count.

I put the bags on the counter at the back wall not looking at Luke and heard Luke say into the phone, “Call me when you have an update on his condition.”

At his words, I turned to him woodenly and heard him beep the phone off. My eyes moved to his and I wished they didn’t.

He was way pissed off. Super pissed. Ultra pissed.

Still, I had to know. “Bobby?” I asked.

“Found him,” Luke answered. “Fractured skull, major head trauma.”

I closed my eyes and opened them again. “Is he going to be okay?”

“We’ll know more tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry, Luke,” I said quietly, meaning every word.

“You didn’t smash him in the head.”

This was true. I still felt like shit, Bobby got hurt looking after Sissy and me.

“I don’t know what to say,” I told him.

“Nothin’ to say.”

He was likely right about that.

“You wanna tell me why you brought Ren Zano to my loft?” he asked, his voice had changed from matter-of-fact to lethal and I tried to find my immune and removed zone (and failed).

I turned away from him and started to unload cookies. “I told him about my troubles. He wanted to make sure I got in safely,” I tried to pretend it was nothing when I knew it was anything but.

“Ava, turn around and look at me.”

Not gonna happen. “I’m putting away the groceries. Some of it has to get in the freezer.” Like the three containers of ice cream.

“Ava, turn around.”

“Luke, no. I know you’re angry but you’re just going to have to get over it,” I shoved the ice cream in the freezer and slammed the door, all the while avoiding his eyes. “We just had dinner. We talked. Nothing more. That’s it. The end.”

I started unloading cookies. Double Stuff Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Nutter Butter, regular Milanos, Mint Milanos, orange-flavored Milanos…

“You stood right in front of me, wearin’ a f**k-me skirt and f**k-me shoes and let him touch you,” he said to my back.

All right. Enough.

I whirled on Luke. “He touched my hair.” There, I used that as my defense. It didn’t sound good but I was going to go with it. “He just took me out to a nice dinner. I could hardly bean him with a grocery bag full of cookies for touching my hair!” I snapped.

That’s when Luke moved.

One second, he was three feet away, the next second he was on me. Or I should say, I was in his arms and he was giving me an angry, shut-Ava-up kiss.

Then (I swear I couldn’t help it) my mouth opened under his, my tongue touched his fantastic lips, his mouth opened, my tongue slid inside and the kiss exploded.

In fact, it kind of felt like everything exploded.

After that we were all over each other. My hands pulled his tee out of his cargoes and up, his mouth disengaged and he took over, yanking the tee off and throwing it aside. His hands went to my ribcage then up, over my br**sts, one hand pulling down my shirt and one of the cups of my bra, exposing me to him. I did a swift half-shocked, half-turned on intake of breath and his hands slid around my back, pressing in, arching it, his head came down and his mouth closed around my nipple and he sucked deep.

I gasped then moaned, shock gone, now only turned on. My hands went to his head, holding him to me when he did the same to the other side.

His lips started gliding up my chest and I went for his buckle, yanking at it, losing patience, wanting a feel of him now. I gave up and slid my palm down his hard crotch. When I did his mouth came back to mine kissing me hotter, deeper than before and pushing me into the back counter. He tore his mouth from mine, leaned to the side, did an arm swipe at the counter and cookies went flying.

He captured my lips again, his hands going down, tugging my skirt up to my h*ps then yanking down my panties. I shimmied out of them and he lifted me, hands at my ass, and planted me on the counter. He spread my legs and moved his h*ps between them, all the while his lips on mine, his tongue in my mouth.

His hand went between my legs and hit dead on the target and it felt so good, my back arched, my head dropping back, losing contact with his lips. His mouth went down my neck, my chest, back to my nipple as his hand worked me, thumb rolling on the target while a finger slid inside.

“Luke!” I gasped, close, oh so close, I was nearly there and I knew it was going to be good.

Upon hearing my gasp, his hand and mouth instantly went away. I gave a small cry of protest as his other hand fisted in my hair.

“No you don’t,” he growled and picked me up, one hand at my ass the other one still in my hair. I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he carried me to the bed with his face buried in my neck, his tongue sending shivers sliding straight from the skin under my ear on a no fail trajectory to my special girl parts. He set me on my feet beside the bed and released me.

At that point, it was all go, go, go. Not because I thought we would get interrupted but because I wanted him inside me and I wasn’t going to wait one f**king second longer.

My hands went back to the buckle of his pants. As I worked it, I got up on tiptoe and my mouth went to his neck, tasting him with my tongue. He tasted great, he smelled great, everything about Luke was great. I got the buckle free, undid the button and slid down the zip as he unzipped my skirt at the back and shoved it down so it fell at my feet.

My mouth now at his throat and working my way around, he pulled my shirt up, foiling my plan to stick my hand down his pants. Without a choice I leaned back, lifted my arms and he whipped it over my head. He picked me up, hands at my ass again, my legs went around his h*ps and he put a knee to the bed, planted me in it and covered me with his body.

Now we were getting somewhere.

During this maneuver, wanting to be ready for anything, I slid his cargoes over his tight ass. I dipped my chin and looked at him, my eyes hooded, his molten. His hands went to my hips, lifted them, I felt him there and, eyes on mine, without hesitation he slammed inside me, burying himself to the hilt.

I closed my eyes, arched my neck and breathed, “Yes.”

He felt good, he felt hot, he felt hard.

He felt right.

I lifted my knees and pressed them against his sides as he drove in again and again and again hard, hot and totally out-of-control. While he slammed into me, he kissed me. When I started panting, his mouth went to my ear and I lifted my head and pressed my lips to where his neck met his shoulder, wrapping my arms tight around his back, my legs around his h*ps like I was never going to let go.