“Tell me and, I swear to God, I’ll make it so you won’t be scared ever again,” he promised.

I blinked at him. “Tell you what?”

“You know what.”

“I don’t know what.” After I said it, I knew what and my body went tense.

“Babe, I’ve been waitin’ since that day your family breezed into town.”

That’s when I knew that he knew all along. How he knew I did not know but then again, he knew everything.

“Do I have to say it?” I asked quietly.

He gave me a half-grin and an arm squeeze. “Yeah, you have to say it.”

I sighed.

He did another arm squeeze.

My hands slid up from his shoulders to his jaw and I looked him in the eyes.

Oh well, I had been waiting since I was eight. I had created extravagant daydreams about it. I had dreamed of it at night. I had written about how I would do it in my diary. I had hoped for a chance to do this, for over twenty years. I had even prayed for it.

There was no reason to wait any longer. If I waited any longer I’d be a serious wuss.

And there was one thing I knew about myself after the last couple of months, I was no wuss.

“Lucas Stark,” I whispered, “I love you.”

I hadn’t let my mind move forward passed the actual saying of the words to process what I thought his response to my telling him I loved him would be.

However, even in my wildest imaginings it wasn’t what I got.

His arms did another squeeze, this one so tight it crushed me to him. He kissed me, the kiss was so hot, so hard, so deep, it bruised my lips (truth be told, I didn’t really mind).

Then he let me go and I was in such a Luke Lip Fog that I went back on a foot, my hand curling around his upper arm to steady myself but I didn’t have to do that. Mainly because, all of a sudden, I was no longer on my feet. Instead, I was thrown over Luke’s shoulder, his arm wrapped around the backs of my thighs. He turned and started walking back toward the party.

Oh… my… God.

He was not carrying me to the party! Was he?

“Luke!” I hissed. “Put me down.”

He kept walking.

“Luke! Everyone is going to –”

Too late, we hit the open area, people were chatting, laughing, glasses were clinking.

As Luke walked through, the chatting, laughing and clinking glasses stopped and I looked around from my position hanging over Luke’s back, my hands at this waist, my head lifted up and I saw everyone stare.

“You the man!” Sniff shouted at us and there were a few low laughs.

I decided, in that moment, I was going to kill Luke.

“We’ll be back,” I heard Luke say to someone then he walked through the door and I saw he was talking to Vance and Jules who were both watching us go. Vance wearing his shit-eating grin, Jules’s eyes wide.

I gave them a lame wave.

Jules burst out laughing.

Luke kept on walking.

* * * * *

I sucked back the last of my champagne, slammed the glass on the table, turned my head and shouted, “Waiter! Fill ‘er up!”

Luke, who was lounging next to me in one of the lovely, little, linen covered chairs had his arm draped on the back of mine. His hand curled around my neck, he twisted me toward his body and his mouth came to my ear.

“How drunk are you?” he whispered.

I jerked my head back, gave him a glare and crossed my arms on my chest. Luke chuckled.

With his he-man, tough guy, macho man antics, he had bought himself an undefined period of the Ava Barlow Silent Treatment.

Okay, so he had whisked me back to the loft in his Porsche, dragged me in, made love to me slowly and told me he loved me right before I had my second Luke-induced orgasm of the night and that was all good. Very good. Super good. Ultra good.

Then he had taken us back to the party and I knew that everyone totally knew I had just been laid and good. That meant I was embarrassed for the second time that night by Luke.

The waiter came up with another glass of champagne.

“Thank you,” I said with feeling, smiling sweetly at him.

“Sugar, don’t you think you need to eat somethin’, considerin’ you’re drinkin’ enough for all of us?” Daisy asked, sitting across from me.

“I’m not hungry,” I answered.

“She’s pissed off,” Shirleen, sitting beside me, smiled.

“Damn straight,” I returned.

“Girl, I don’t know what you’re pissed about. A fine man carted me off to give me the business, and good, if your face and hair was anything to go by, I’d be doin’ fuckin’ cartwheels,” Shirleen replied.

Luke’s thumb started stroking my neck. I turned and glared at him again. He burst out laughing.

He was so annoying!

I turned back to Shirleen. “You say that now. It happened to you, you might not say it. You might do what I’m doing. I think a sentence of at least a week of Ava Barlow Silent Treatment is too nice. Maybe I’ll make it two.”

“Silent Treatment!” Daisy cried then giggled her tinkly-bell giggle. “Girl, you wanna get back at him, you cut off his water, comprende?”

Intrigued, I leaned toward Daisy. “Cut off his water?”

“No nookie, none, nada, no fingers, no mouths, no tongues, no kisses, no nothin’. Complete cut off. Works for me every time,” Daisy replied.

I sat back nodding somewhat drunkenly. “Daisy, you are the shit. I like that idea.”

Luke’s hand curled around my neck again, he twisted me toward his body and his mouth came back to my ear again. “You try to cut off access to that sweet body of yours, beautiful, you’ll find yourself cuffed na**d to my bed for a week,” he hesitated, “maybe two.”

Ee-yikes!

He lifted his head, our eyes caught, we got into an Ava Barlow and Lucas Stark Glare to the Death Contest and, per usual, I lost.

I jerked away from him, gave him another good glower but turned back to the table and shared, “I don’t think cutting off his water is gonna work.”

Shirleen threw her head back and laughed.

I, personally, didn’t think anything was funny.

Roxie and Hank came up and Roxie collapsed in a chair while Hank grabbed a couple of glasses of champagne.

Roxie looked up at Hank. “You’re next for Lee’s job.”

“What you mean, girl?” Shirleen asked.