Good Girls Don't Page 7

  Luke groaned and his fingers finally tightened against the back of her neck. The roughness of his hands only made her hotter. She was wet already, aroused as all hell, and they’d only kissed. Tessa wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her fingers in his hair so she could press her body more firmly to him. The hand that had been holding her shoulder slid down until his fingers framed her ribs.

  Now, finally, his kisses grew rough. Gorgeously rough. His mouth tasted of heat and wine, and the scent of his skin clung so tightly to him that she had to press closer and closer to get enough of it. Her shifting proved that she wasn’t the only one aroused. But when she rolled her hips into him, Luke jerked his head back, breaking the kiss.

  “Wait,” he gasped.

  Tessa froze. What the heck? “We can’t…”

  “Can’t what?” she asked with a frown that felt decidedly grumpy.

  “Can’t…do any of this.”

  Tessa scooted back a little so she could meet his gaze. “Do you have a girlfriend? Not your partner, but someone else?”

  “No. That’s not it. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  “Good.” She started to scoot forward again, but Luke’s hands gripped her hips and held her back. He shook his head, his eyes going wider as each second passed. He looked…scared?

  “What’s wrong?” Tessa pressed.

  “Nothing! I just… I should go. That’s all.”

  “You’re kidding. You need to leave right now? In the middle of this?”

  He didn’t answer, just watched her as if she might grow tentacles at any moment.

  Tessa shrugged. “Just give me a few more minutes.” She leaned in and kissed him before he could say no. Her ploy worked for a moment. He moaned when their tongues met and immediately picked up the kiss where they’d left off.

  She would’ve smiled if she could have, but Tessa didn’t want to frighten the man. She had him just where she wanted him: under her and falling fast.

  And it felt good. It felt good and that was all she wanted right now.

  NO, NO, NO, Luke’s brain was chanting, but the message broke up before it reached his body. Her mouth was so hot. Just pure wet heat. He wanted to get deeper. Deeper inside her fiery body. Good Christ, what would that feel like?

  Stop! his brain bellowed. Luke’s body jerked at the command, and he managed to pull away. “Stop,” he groaned.

  This woman was a virgin. He had no intention of taking her virginity, so there was no point going any further. His resistance was more effective this time. Tessa scrambled off his legs and stood in front of him.

  “What is wrong with you?” she demanded.

  So many things. But he wasn’t going to add “deflowerer of innocent women” to his list of dubious accomplishments, so he croaked out, “Nothing,” and pushed to his feet.

  Tessa backed up and crossed her arms. “Well, you look like you were having a good time.” Her eyes dipped down to aim her gaze at his lap.

  He fought the urge to shield himself from her sight. She probably understood what happened down there, anatomically speaking. Her brothers hadn’t mentioned anything about a convent education.

  “I’m sorry, Tessa,” he said, holding up his hands in surrender. “I shouldn’t have come over. I’m honored, but…” He backed away, heading for the door.

  “Honored? What the heck are you talking about?”

  “Look,” he finally said. “I know, okay? I know.”

  “Know what?”

  “About your…” He made a vague gesture toward her middle.

  Tessa shot an impatient glance down her body. “This is getting really weird, Luke. Just go.”

  She’d given him permission to escape, but now he couldn’t move. Tessa’s sweet face was creased in a frown of confusion. He’d rejected her, and she didn’t know why. If she’d really wanted to have sex… Surely that kind of rejection could scar a virgin for life. What if he permanently damaged her blossoming sexuality? His mind spun with horror.

  “Go,” she said. “I won’t jump you when you turn your back on me. Shoo. You’re free!”

  He should never have come over. This was too much pressure. Luke turned up his palms in a helpless plea. “Maybe we could just watch a movie or something. Get to know each other as friends.”

  Tessa drew herself straight and gave him a tight smile. “You seem like a really nice guy, Luke. Honestly. But I’m starting to get a weird Madonna-whore-complex vibe from you. And I don’t feel like watching a movie. Or pretending to be a saint. So I’ll see you around, okay?”

  “Madonna-whore complex?”

  “It’s a psychological term for men who—”

  “I know what it is and I don’t have it!”

  “Oh, come on. You think I’m nice. You’re honored that I’m sexually interested in you? And then there’s the pregnant woman you want to save. The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

  He’d been cursed. He was sure of it. Cursed to never have a simple, straightforward relationship with a woman. But he was a willing participant, wasn’t he? He’d come over here knowing damn well that he shouldn’t. Then he’d kissed her because…just because he’d wanted it so badly. And she was way off base about his interest in her. He thought she was nice and he wanted to fuck her all at the same time.

  Tessa growled and squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, just go already! You look so cute standing there. It’s not fair.”

  He could not leave like this. There were too many rumors floating around about him as it was. He’d be damned if he’d add sexual deviant to the list. Luke took a steadying breath, and he said it. “You’re a virgin.”

  Her jaw dropped and she took a step back. “What?”

  “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but…I can’t pretend I don’t know. I’m sorry. This is incredibly awkward.”

  Tessa uncrossed her arms and held her hands up in a calming motion. He recognized it because he’d used it a thousand times in his career. “Okay, I’m not sure what kind of fantasy you’re creating here, but I don’t want any part of it.”

  “Fantasy?”

  “Yeah, it’s a little early in this relationship for role-playing.”

  “Are you kidding me? I stopped you!”

  Her eyes slid to one side and then the other, as if she were searching for answers in her living room. “I don’t understand. Why would you think I’m a virgin?”

  “Because your brother told me!” he snapped.

  Tessa inhaled so loudly that even she seemed startled. She slapped a hand over her mouth and stared at him with wide eyes. “You’re kidding.” The words were muffled by her fingers.

  “No. Jamie told me to stay away from you because you’re a virgin. I tried, but—”

  “I’m not!” she yelped.

  “What?”

  “A virgin!”

  He cocked his head and raised a doubtful eyebrow.

  “Oh, come on! If I were, do you think I’d have waited twenty-seven years just to lose it on a couch to a man I barely know?”

  “Er…I thought maybe you liked me a lot?” He wasn’t sure how he felt about her laughter, but Luke chose to feel relieved.

  “Well—” she giggled “—the look on your face when you pushed me off really takes on new meaning.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You looked fucking terrified.”

  He was so shocked at hearing her say the F word that Luke burst into laughter.

  “Need another glass of wine?” she asked.

  Jesus, did he ever. But he glanced toward the back door as if he had a brain in his body and it had finally kicked in. “Thanks, but I think I’d better go.”

  She said, “Wait!” but he was already moving toward the kitchen.

  “I’m sorry, Tessa. But this is just…” He shook his head. “Too much.”

  “I know,” she said as he opened the heavy pine door. “I know it’s crazy, but it was my brother. Not me.”

  He opened the screen door and started
to step out.

  “Actually,” she said sharply, “it was my brother and you. I had nothing to do with this. If you leave now, you’re just going to give me time to decide you’re too complicated.”

  Luke froze, one foot hovering over the threshold. She had no idea. Actually…she did. She knew more about Simone than he’d told anyone.

  “Or…” she drawled, “you could stay. And convince me to give you another chance.”

  Hand braced on the doorjamb, Luke bowed his head and tried to calculate the correct decision. On one hand, his life was too complicated, and hers wasn’t very far behind. He didn’t need this right now. And she didn’t need to be dragged into his mess. On the other hand, he liked her. He liked talking to her. She made him feel better. And she wasn’t a virgin.

  But no. That was exactly the reason he shouldn’t stay.

  Luke made the best decision he’d made in years. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said, and he walked out into the night alone.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  LUKE EMBRACED the next day with a foul attitude and fierce scowl. He managed to get through the two-hour monthly meeting without biting anyone’s head off, but it was a close call. And being civil to Simone was beginning to strain his sanity. When the Denver P.D. called and gave him an excuse to get out of the office, he jumped at it.

  “Denver’s got seventy-five burglary files for us to go through. You want in?”

  Simone didn’t look up from her computer screen. “No, you take it.”

  He left without another word. He needed to get over his frustration with his partner, but today wasn’t the day. Today he was horny and pissed at the world, and he was better off working in another city. Not that he wanted time to think. He was sick of his own brooding, so he put on a Nirvana CD and cranked it up. Anyone else’s angst was better than his own.

  By the time he walked into the Denver P.D. headquarters, he felt marginally better. “Hey, Asher!” one of the guys called out. “Did you come down for some advice from real detectives?” Luke recognized the guy as someone he’d graduated from the academy with and gave him an affectionate one-fingered reply. The other detective didn’t let up. “Did someone steal some tofu from a health food store up there?”

  Shaking his head, Luke pushed through the doors to the records department and got to work. He wasn’t the least bit bothered by the jabs. He’d put in his time in Los Angeles, after all, and he’d take the relatively quiet streets of Boulder any day. He hadn’t been shot once since he’d moved back. Or stabbed. Or divorced. Maybe that would be his new mantra.

  He downed his cup of clichéd bad coffee and turned his mind to the cases in front of him. Every single one. And three hours later, he’d found something pretty damn interesting.

  Tapping his pencil against his forehead, he waited for a call back from his contact in the Denver property crimes division and paged through the files again, just to be sure he’d read them right.

  Detective Ben Jackson finally called back.

  “So you had a rash of similar robberies starting a year ago?”

  “Yep. Nine of them. You noticed that, huh?”

  “I did. Computers stolen. Identity crimes followed. And they stopped six months ago?”

  “You got it. We could never prove they were related. No fingerprints. No traceable accounts. But of course…”

  “Yeah, that’s awfully organized.”

  “That was my take.”

  Luke tapped harder. “And our break-ins started about a month after these stopped.”

  “Hell of a coincidence,” Ben said.

  “Yeah. Why don’t you go ahead and solve this case for me, Detective Jackson? Who do you like?”

  “I’ve got nothing. Do your own fucking work, man.”

  “Interesting,” Luke drawled. “What you’re saying is, Denver couldn’t handle it and you’re looking for a little help from Boulder.”

  “Taunt all you like. It’s your problem now. Maybe it was some high school kid who started at the U.”

  Luke hung up and tapped his forehead a few more times. He eyed the case files, trying to calculate how long it would take him to fill out all the paperwork to get copies sent to Boulder. Maybe he could just memorize them all.

  “Crap,” he groaned. This was going to be more painful than walking away from Tessa had been last night.

  An hour and a half later, he finally broke free of the records department, a stack of printed forms in his hand. The trip had worked, anyway. Right now, he’d give anything to be back in Boulder, in his car next to his secretive and pregnant partner, and not having sex with a nonvirgin woman who’d probably never speak to him again.

  But since he was only three minutes from his mom’s house, he decided to drop in and say hi.

  Yet another bad decision.

  Her door was open to the spring breeze and Luke could hear women’s voices from the kitchen. He knocked on the wooden frame of the screen door. “Mom? It’s me.”

  He hadn’t grown up in the little 1920s bungalow, so he didn’t feel comfortable walking in. His mom had bought it just five years before. Her first house. He was proud of her.

  But when the voices stopped and the two women walked around the corner of the kitchen wall, he stepped back so quickly he nearly fell off the stoop. Yeah, he’d known his mom and his ex-wife were still close, but he hadn’t realized how close.

  “Luke,” his mom said as she opened the door. Her round face was tight with a worried smile. “Eve is visiting from California.”

  “Yeah, I see that.” He didn’t have any choice but to step inside. Well, he had the choice of looking like a complete ass and walking away, but he was bigger than that. Or small enough not to want to give Eve the satisfaction.

  “Hi, Luke,” she said, holding out a hand.

  It felt damn strange shaking the hand of a woman he’d shared a bed with, but he shook it, anyway. “You look good,” he said. She did. Her hair was long again, and even back to its old auburn color. Her skin was bronzed and healthy instead of gray with illness. She looked…happy. He was startled by the shot of relief that mixed up with his anger.

  “You look good, too,” she said. “Really.”

  “Thanks.” Luke cleared his throat and tried to catch his mom’s eye, but she’d decided to take that moment to straighten the photos that sat on the nearest end table.

  “So,” Luke ventured awkwardly. “Are you in town for work?”

  “Yes, there’s a big natural foods convention in town, and I’m working the booth for Good Grains.”

  “Cool,” he said before they descended into an awkward silence. He hadn’t seen her since he’d left L.A., and he felt on fire with the strangeness of it.

  “Oh, God, come here,” she said suddenly, sliding her arms around his waist.

  Stunned, Luke put his arms around her shoulders and returned the hug. She smelled the same, and he couldn’t stop his vicious frown. It felt so damn weird to hold her. Familiar and totally wrong all at once.

  His mom mouthed, I’m sorry, from behind Eve’s back.

  “You really do look great,” Eve said, giving him one last squeeze. “Your mom told me you’re seeing someone.”

  “Tessa?” he said in utter confusion, then realized that his mom knew nothing about Tessa. As a matter of fact, her eyes widened noticeably, but Eve just smiled.

  “Is that her name?”

  “Uh, sure. Anyway, Mom, I just stopped in to say hi. But you’re busy and I need to get back.”

  Eve grabbed his arm. “No, don’t leave because of me. I’ll go.”

  “Really, it’s no big deal. I’ve got to go.”

  His mom twisted her hands together and gave him a wide smile that wobbled at the edges. “I’ll call you!” she said as he stole out the door.

  “You’d better,” he muttered.

  His skin burned from the focus of their eyes on him as he walked away. He got into his car without looking back, even though the compulsion was so strong he had to cl
ench his eyes shut as he slid into the car.

  Luke pulled away from the curb. He was heading the wrong way, but that was the least of his worries. “Jesus Fucking Christ,” he whispered, shaken to the core, as if someone had just knocked the wind from him.

  Eve.

  She’d once been his whole life, and their divorce had left him walking through fog for a long time. But now he was realizing he hadn’t seen her face for nearly three years and he’d been…fine. And now that he had seen her? He was still fine. His time in L.A., his marriage…that felt like another life. Like it didn’t have much to do with Luke anymore.

  He knew that wasn’t really true. After all, his stomach still hadn’t risen back to its normal place. But he wasn’t the least bit tempted to punch a hole through anything. He wasn’t fuming.

  In fact, by the time his mom called ten minutes later, he managed to answer with a clipped, “Hello,” instead of anything less polite.

  “Luke, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you’d come by today.”

  “So you knew she was coming?”

  “I… Yes. You know we still talk.”

  “I do.” It bothered the crap out of him, but he’d accepted it. Eve was the daughter his mom had never had, and she hadn’t stopped loving Eve after the divorce. But Luke had been pretty outraged at first. Eve had left him, after all, and he’d thought his mom should’ve been pissed off and protective. Apparently his mom was a better person than he was.

  “She’ll only be here one more night.”

  “She’s staying at your house?” he barked.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again.

  Luke sighed and rubbed his neck. “Look, I was just surprised. Okay? It’s no big deal.”

  “Good. I’m glad. You looked awfully sick for a moment.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “So if you’re fine…”

  “Yeah?” he asked warily.

  “Who’s this Tessa you mentioned?”

  If he hadn’t been on a busy freeway, Luke would’ve put his forehead to the steering wheel and groaned. Since that wasn’t an option, he just shook his head in complete disbelief. “Are you really asking me that right now?”