Savor (27 page)

or he couldn’t believe the audacity in my response. I couldn’t believe myself either. When it

came to Luka, I was beginning to think nothing made sense. He pushed off the tree and

dropped his arms to his sides. I held my breath. In five steps, he had his hands wrapped

around my arms, and with the strength I knew he possessed, pushed me up against another

tree. Before I could say anything, he slammed his thigh between my legs until he kneaded the

spot that had begun pulsing since his arrival. I thought I’d done so well ignoring it until Luka forced me to focus on that particular spot on my body.

“See, I don’t believe you.” He tilted his head. “If it was an itch, you would have woken me.

Instead, you take your pleasure and leave.”

My heart pounded so hard against my chest that I was pretty sure Luka could hear it.

“About that…”

His eyebrow rose, taking the sexy bolt with it.

“I honestly don’t know what I was thinking.” Partially the truth. If I was in my right mind,

I wouldn’t have pounced on Luka the way I did. “Then when it was over, I didn’t want to draw

attention to it. Consider it payback for touching me in the car.” I couldn’t believe I just said that. From the widening of Luka’s eyes, he couldn’t believe it either. Every smart reply I

thought I had went out the window.

He leaned in and whispered over my lips, “I’ve never been made to feel so cheap in my

whole life.”

I breathed in his words, tasting the apple he’d bitten into at lunch. “It’s not going to

happen again. You have my word.”

“Your word means nothing to me.” He pushed his tongue into my mouth and explored the

deepest corners until I whimpered beneath him. He pulled back the second I melted into the

kiss. I swallowed his sweetness, my gut twisting in a pathetic yearning for more. “I left you

alone because you asked me to. Then you come into my room at dawn and have your way

with me while I sleep.”

With every word that left his lips, my guilt grew. Ashamed, I dropped my gaze. “I’m sorry,

okay?”

“What are you apologizing for?”

Shocked, I looked into his eyes for confirmation that he was shitting me. The seriousness

there hadn’t changed. “I thought—”

He laughed—husky, throaty. “Dakota, you misunderstand me.” He punctuated his words

by grinding his thigh harder against my center. My breath caught in my throat. A part of me

knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with just dry humping anymore. If Luka didn’t take this further,

I’d go insane.

“What are you saying?” I stammered out, trying to think with my head and not with other

more carnal parts of me. I should really give my pussy a good talking to. It was humiliating

how hot it got just by its close proximity to Luka. Where had my self-respect gone?

“What you did…” He paused, licking his lips. “I liked it.”

Without thinking twice, my knee jerked up, catching Luka right between the legs. Breath

exploded out of his lungs as he cupped himself and fell to the ground. He groaned, curling

into the fetal position. Snorting down at him, I walked away. Liked what I did my ass.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Distraction

Staring at the gallery photos I’d taken for the day spread out on my laptop screen, I rested

my chin on one hand and drummed the fingers of the other on the desk. The knot on my

brow got so tight I feared I needed Botox to smooth it out.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, finally unable to ignore the blond-haired rock

star on the couch.

“Working,” he said.

I tore my gaze from the screen to scowl at him. Luka bent over the coffee table, marking

musical notes on a sheet. He’d been camped out in my room since dinner ended. At first, I

went about my business without acknowledging him. I should have known better. Having

Luka in the room supercharged the air. Periodically, goose bumps rose all over my arms when

I thought he was watching me. Yet when I glanced at him, he seemed not to have moved from

the couch, his back to me. Once in a while he’d pick up his guitar and strummed a note then

scribbling followed.

I thought an hour max and he’d leave. Three hours later, I’d reached my limit.

“Work? Work!” My voice rose. “
I’m
doing work. You are just being annoying.”

As if he let my mounting aggravation roll off him, Luka shrugged. “Besides finding the

right note? I don’t think I’ve made any noise to disturb you since I got here. Just keep doing what you do and I’ll do the same.”

“I want you to leave.”

“Not gonna happen.” He rubbed out a line on a song he’d been working on and scribbled in

a new one.

His response propelled me out of my seat to stomp to the opposite couch. I used the coffee

table as a buffer because I couldn’t be sure I could keep myself from grabbing him and

physically throwing him out of my room. I tapped my foot, hands on my hips.

“Luka, I like to work alone. You being here infringes on my privacy. Now, can you please

leave so I can go back to what I’m doing?”

He glanced up at me without straightening from his bent position over the sheets of paper

scattered all over the coffee table. “What part of ‘not gonna happen’ don’t you understand?”

I threw up my hands. The seriousness in his voice deflated my temper. Another thing I

began to understand? How much of a pushover I’d become since coming to Lunar Manor.

Shoulders drooping, I sank down into the couch.

“What? A knee to the family jewels not enough of a deterrent for you?” I challenged half-

heartedly.

He merely snorted, returning his attention to the music sheets. “I’d say low blow if it

didn’t sound so pathetic right now.”

I sniffed, crossing my arms and legs. Yup. I kneed everyone’s precious Luka Visraya in the

groin and left him for dead. I had no idea why it happened exactly. He said he liked what I did then, as he leaned in to kiss me again, my knee when up and laid down the hurt.

“Why don’t
you
leave?” he asked nonchalantly after a minute.

“Because one, this is my room. And two, I get the feeling you’ll just follow me to wherever

I decide to go.” The truth in my words grated at my insides.

I caught the tiny grin tugging at one side of his lips even with his head ducked. “I like that you think these are your rooms.”

An exasperated breath whooshed out of my lungs. I untangled my arms and slapped the

couch on either side of me. “Luka, you’ve got to be kidding! I really have work to do and

you’re just getting in the way.”

“How?” He pinned me with a level stare and sat back, spreading his jean-clad legs wide.

His arms rested at his sides, relaxed.

“How what?”

“How am I getting in your way?”

A suffocating blush rose from my neck to my face. “I’m not dignifying that with a

response.”

As if he’d cornered me, the grin he’d been suppressing finally made a full appearance.

“Then I’m not really getting in the way.”

I noted the lateness of the time. “I suppose you’re sleeping here too?”

Mischief mixed with his triumph. “You’ll let me?”

“Hell no.” I pushed off the couch and marched back to the desk. Luka chuckled at my

defeat. If he wanted to stay in my room, it was his prerogative. Lunar Manor was his house.

The way I saw it, he could squat wherever he liked. Like a stray, the more attention I gave

him the more he’d hang around. Surely, if left alone, he’d get bored eventually and leave.

After five minutes of pointless staring at Dray’s fishing picture, I twisted in my seat. “Are

you punishing me for this morning? Is that it?”

“I told you, I liked what you did,” he answered absent-mindedly.

“Then why are you doing this?”

I hoped it was more the question rather than the desperation in my tone that got him to

stop working. He dropped the pencil and it rolled over the music sheets. Sitting back again, he leaned his neck over the lip of the couch so he looked up at the ceiling. His eyes closed when he reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. For the first time, Luka actually looked

exhausted. It confused me.

“Look,” he said as a sigh. “Avoiding you isn’t working. When I’m not near you, all I can

think about is you and how much I want to touch you.” The blood in my body divided

between my face and my crotch. He continued without opening his eyes. “I’m done listening

to what you want. What you did this morning opened the floodgates for me. Now you have to

deal with the consequences.” My breath hitched because he’d hit the nail on the head.

I twisted back to face my laptop, dazed. How could I respond to that? This morning I was

all for facing the consequences, but I expected his ire and continued avoidance, not his

attraction. Damn it all to hell. What had I done? I opened the floodgates? What the hell did

that mean? I pushed back until I could thump my forehead against the desk’s hard wood. I

groaned as if in pain.

The desk muffled my voice when I said, “This is not what I signed up for.”

“Suck it up.” I heard the pencil scratch across the sheets again. “We don’t always get what

we want.”

I turned so my cheek rested against the tabletop. “When did you ever not get what you

wanted?” I meant the question as a “rich person” joke and didn’t really expect a response, but the loaded pause from Luka baffled me.

“Even I have things I don’t get, Dakota.”

The way he said it pinched at my heart. So sad. So filled with longing. Across from me sat a

complex yet bordering on melancholic man. He seemed to carry his emotion on his tight

shoulders. Did Luka ever really just let loose and relax?

“You know, Phoenix told me you were the fun loving type once. What changed?” I had no

clue what prompted me to ask, but if he was staging a sit in protest in my room then he might

as well answer my questions.

“Things change. People change.” He ran his fingers through his hair, the rings circling

them catching the light.

“Enlightening.”

“What more do you want?”

“A less vague explanation would be nice.”

“Well, there really isn’t one.” He shook his head. “One day you wake up and the world you

know shifts from its axis and you can barely stand afterward let alone cope. Shit happens,

Dakota, you of all people should know that.”

“How’d this suddenly become about me?”

He twisted around and eyed me. “That patch says you understand what I’m talking about.”

“Actually, no it doesn’t.” I made a fist, refusing to let him goad me into acknowledging we

had something in common by touching my patch.

“Are you telling me what happened to your eye doesn’t bother you.”

Of course it did, but I shouldn’t let those feelings define who I am, cripple me in any way. I told him so. He turned back to his lyrics and musical notes.

“Then you’re far stronger than I am,” he mumbled.

“You’re right, shit happens, but it doesn’t mean you can’t adapt.” I straightened and cued

up the picture of Phoenix and Demitri on the boat. A smile formed on my lips. They clearly

loved each other. It was way too obvious from the way they stared into each other’s eyes.

Demitri softened up near Phoenix; and Phoenix glowed when he was around. At the back of

my mind, I secretly wanted what they had—a love so strong it oozed out and everyone else

felt it.

“I hope you’re right.”

“I hope so too,” I whispered back.

Pretty soon—and I couldn’t tell you how this happened—Luka and I found a rhythm where

he worked and I succeeded in ignoring his presence. Nothing like touching up photos to

create the perfect distraction. My back hurt by the time I thought to stretch away from the

screen. How I hadn’t destroyed my one remaining eyeball yet was beyond me. I blinked

several times to moisten the dried up surface before giving in to the temptation to rub. I was far from done for the day, but I liked my progress.

I reached for the phone to call for a pot of coffee when the door to my room burst open.

My heart executed a backflip at the piercing wail. I dropped the headset back into its cradle

and turned to witness Yana kneeling in front of Luka with her head buried in his lap. I

covered my ears when her wails took on a pitch no one appreciated.

Even though I was afraid to know, I still asked through the racket, “What’s going on now?”

Rubbing the back of Yana’s head, Luka glanced toward me. “Poison just reached a million

downloads on iTunes.”

Eye wide, jaw dropped, I stared a long time before I could speak again. “And she’s crying

because?”

Yana lifted her head, snot running down her nose. “Because this stupid doodoo head

refuses to accept the interview every news outlet is offering. He has his pick of networks!”

“It’s not a big deal, Yana.” Luka sighed.

“Of course it’s a big deal!” Huge tear waterfalls spurted out of Yana like she was an anime

character. Add the harlequin black and white ensemble she had on, and she embodied

someone straight out of a cartoon. In this state it became really hard to take her seriously.

“You and the band just made history and you’re not even acknowledging it.” She got to her

feet and rubbed her eyes with the sides of her fists before she ran out of my room screaming

“I hate you!”

I wasn’t sure if she slammed the door or her high speed momentum slammed it for her.

Luka chuckle-snorted while I blinked in disbelief. Vicious reached a million downloads on

one song. Whoa! They did make history and Luka just laughed like he could do that on a daily