Page 81 of The Hookup
“Let’s have a good morning, and not talk about him.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, reluctantly abandoning the list of questions she had about him. “You should try and make it up to Amanda, somehow.”
“Take her out to dinner, you mean.”
“You don’t do dinner.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Can we let that go?”
“Are you breaking all your rules for me?”
He looked away. It wasn’t the reaction she had expected.
“Forget I said that,” she added, hastily, not wanting to push things.
“It’s forgotten.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Maybe we could all go out as couples for dinner?”
She tried not to show her total surprise. “Amanda and her new husband, and you and me?”
“Didn’t realize you had to spell it out quite like that, but yes.”
“It feels as if I’m looking at a new you. It’s like your brain got partly rewired after the wedding.”
He was so full of surprises this morning, so nice, and loving, and caring. She much preferred this nice version of Luke, and now she found herself holding her plans in check. She had considered ditching him after the wedding because she couldn’t do this any longer, but she had seen that he could be different. That once she had probed deep enough, once he’d let her in, she had discovered his frailty, his softness, his decency. She understood that he sought comfort in his sexual interactions, but the way he was talking to her now made her feel less like a sex object and more like a girlfriend. It made what they had seem more like a relationship than a hookup.
He turned sideways on the stool, so that his entire body was facing her, reminding her of what it had been like to lie snuggled up against him last night. “The rewiring was nothing to do with the wedding,” he said.
“No?” She took another sip of her coffee, trying to suppress the hope rising within her.
“Seems like fucking you in every conceivable position did that.”
Her smile dropped as fast as her hopes had risen. He might as well have ripped her heart out.
“It’s your fault,” he continued, not noticing her silence, “you being so goddamn sexy. It’s hard for a man like me to keep his hands off you.”
She was speechless, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. His words had sucked the air right out of her lungs. “That’s what they all say,” she replied, finally, as her in-built survival tactics kicked in. “It’s a miracle I can walk straight this morning.”
“You weren’t complaining last night,” he replied, flashing her an I-can-make-you-come-all-night smile. Her heart had already plummeted to her ankles by the time she’d drained her coffee cup. “It was pure, filthy, dirty sex, and you know how much I love that,” she said, returning his wide, full smile, even though she was dying inside.
“We must do it again sometime,” he told her, the light in his eyes suddenly dimming as she stood up. His brows lifted, as if he didn’t quite understand something.
“I’ll see when I can next pencil you in,” she said, looking around for her handbag.
“You’re leaving?”
She couldn’t get out fast enough.
Chapter 26
“You look pale,” said Marie, sitting across the desk from him.
“Been a tiring weekend.” It could have been a lazy weekend. At least, a lazy Sunday, had Kay not rushed to leave so quickly yesterday. Maybe he shouldn’t have been as direct about the sex and about how she made him feel. He wouldn’t have, had she not reminded him that he was starting to break his rules for her.
“You shouldn’t have driven there and back,” Marie suggested, giving him a disapproving nod. She hadn’t been happy when he had told her that they had left soon after the wedding. “Not staying for your sister’s wedding reception. That’s unheard of.”
“I saw the wedding,” he maintained, trying to keep his cool.
“And would it have killed you to stay for the reception?” she asked, fueling his simmering anger. He’d been annoyed with himself before he’d come into work this morning. Sunday could have been so much better if it had worked out, if he’d managed, for once, not to lose his shit over things.
