Chapter 22

Thursday night – Ellie

For some reason, I decided to dress up a little more for dinner. I tossed on a black mini skirt and a cute little black puff-sleeved sweater. I finished off the look with my signature pink lip gloss and a pair of gold hoops in my ears.

As I made my way down to the kitchen, I couldn't help but think how sexy it was to see Luke sing up close and personal this afternoon. Meg and I had gone to see their band at a couple of clubs in Milwaukee before, and I'd always—previously grudgingly—admitted their music was good, but the new song was sure to be a hit. And I hadn't been able to drag my eyes off Luke's Adam's apple as it moved while he sang with his eyes closed.

And his voice. It should be illegal to sound like that. All smoky and gruff and a little emo. I'd wanted to fan myself with my hand but thought that might be too much information for his bandmates.

And on the subject of his bandmates, Mindy had been right. Liam Dashwood and Christopher Wentworth were hot. There was no question about it. Nick Holt was good-looking too, but apparently, he had a girlfriend. So, totally off limits of course.

After seeing Christopher Wentworth, I remembered he was the same guy who dated Jeremy Remington's younger sister. They'd been a thing in high school, and it had carried on to college. But then they broke up. I honestly hadn't seen Christopher since high school, aside from the couple of times Meg and I went to see the band, but I'd kinda forgotten he was the same guy who'd once dated Ariana Remington. Now that Meg was closer to Ariana since she was with Jeremy, I remembered Meg had mentioned Ariana did not like to talk about her Christopher era whatsoever. Not even nosey Meg had managed to pry the reason for the breakup out of Ariana. Honestly, I just naturally assumed cheating. I hoped I was wrong though because Christopher seemed like a nice guy. He'd seemed really focused on the music and even a little shy.

Meanwhile Liam had been super flirty with me. But then Luke had gone all ruffled feathers on him, so he backed off. Honestly, it had been pretty cute to see Luke even the slightest bit jealous. Even though I knew he wasn't jealous. Not really. Players didn't get jealous. We might be kissing a little, and he'd been weirdly silent when Liam accused him of having a crush on me, but what was a crush, anyway? I probably had a little crush on Luke too. It didn't mean anything. And by warning Liam not to hit on me, Luke was probably just looking out for me. He didn't want me to fall for his charming bandmate who was obviously also a player. Luke knew I was anti-player. He had my back. That's what friends did for each other. Even kissing friends.

By the time I made it to the kitchen, Dolly was already wagging her tail and seemingly waiting for me at the doorway. I immediately leaned down and rubbed her brown and white head. "Did you have a good day, girl?" I cooed to the dog.

"She sure did," came Luke's voice from inside the pantry.

He came out holding a bottle of my favorite pinot noir and looking like a Greek god. His hair was just drying, and it was slicked back a little. He had on fitted jeans and a buttoned-down light-blue and white shirt paired with the latest fashion in navy-blue arm slings. I couldn't help the little smile that popped to my face. He'd obviously decided to dress up a little tonight too.

"I hope you like grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans because that's what Linda made for us tonight. Along with a salad."

"Sounds great."

"I guess she was in a comfort-food mood."

I shrugged. "Who doesn't like comfort food?"

Luke poured me a glass of the red wine without even asking if I wanted it, and it felt a little bit like a boyfriend/girlfriend thing to do. Like he knew me so well that he just assumed. I mean, I did want the wine though. Nope. No, Ellie. Stop thinking weird boyfriend/girlfriend thoughts. There's nothing boyfriend-girlfriendy going on here.

Except all the kissing.

"So, Meg texted," I said as Luke slid the wine glass across the counter to me. "She and Jeremy are coming back tomorrow morning."

"Yeah. She texted me too. Apparently, Mrs. Timms is doing better."

"Good news." Frick. Why was I bobbing my head again?

I immediately answered my own question…because all I could think about was getting through dinner and to the kissing part again. Which seemed wrong. Right? I picked up the wine glass and took a big gulp. Red wine didn't really pair with chicken and potatoes, but what did I care?

"What did you think of the guys?" Luke asked as he tipped a tall, chilled beer glass to the side while he poured light beer into it.

What did I think of the guys? Oh, boy. Loaded question.

"They were great. Which two did you say were single again?" Of course, I already knew, but I wanted to tease Luke. I hid my smile behind my wine glass.

His eyes narrowed on me. "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill them, and we need them in the band."

Ooh, was that flirting? "Well, Liam seemed nice." Okay. I was probably going to hell for saying that, but I couldn't help myself. So, what if I wanted to see if Luke was still a little jellie about Liam's interest in me?

"Yeah, well, he's not. Not to women," Luke growled.

I took another sip of wine, acting completely oblivious. "What do you mean? You're not implying that he?—"

"No. No. He's not abusive or anything like that. He's just got a new groupie warming his bed every night, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," I replied, doing my best to hide my widening smile and stop my laughter.

Luke cocked his head, an accusatory look on his face. "What? You're laughing at me?"

I shrugged. "I mean…it's a little bit pot calling the kettle black, no?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I'm not… I don't…" He paused for a few seconds before adding, "Fine. If you want to get hurt?—"

"Whoa. Who said anything about getting hurt? Besides, Liam didn't even ask me out."

Luke took a swig from his glass. "No. But he would have."

I held my wine glass in front of me. "Seems like you shut that down pretty quick. Thanks for that, by the way." I was kinda joking and kinda fishing for his reaction.

Luke scrubbed his right hand through his hair, making himself look even hotter, if that was possible. "Truth?" he asked, lifting his brows.

"Go for it," I replied.

"I wanted to punch Dashwood in the face this afternoon."

"Really?" My brows shot up this time. "That seems a little caveman-ish. Why did you want to punch him?" Okay. Okay. I wanted to hear him say it.

He set down his glass and moved around the island toward me. I set down my wine glass just in time for him to pull me against him and bury his face in my neck. I couldn't help my eyes rolling back in my head whenever he did that. And the scent of his cologne or whatever he was wearing made my knees weak.

He moved his mouth up to mine and kissed me long and deep before moving his lips to my ear. "I was jealous," he whispered, making me shudder. "I don't want anyone touching you but me. That's probably too honest, but there it is."

Okay. Fricking. Hot. I about dropped my panties right there on the spot and begged him to lay me on the countertop and?—

Wait. I could barely think as his tongue traced the outline of my ear, but Luke wasn't catching feelings, was he? No. No way. He probably said stuff like this to all the women he made out with. Only I honestly couldn't picture him just making out with anyone else. I mean, he was an adult. An adult who had women literally throwing their bodies at him. Why would he settle for only kissing? We just had a strange—and fully temporary—thing going here.

At any rate, all thoughts of what we were doing scrambled from my lust-hazed brain as Luke kept up the nuzzling, and before I knew it, he had shuffled us over to the couch where we forgot all about the grilled chicken.

Why and how had kissing become the hottest thing I'd done in years? And that included some mediocre sex I had with a guy I'd dated for a while a couple years back. Luke was ruining me. I was never gonna be able to kiss another man again, but do it for the plot, right?