Tremors shot through my body and my legs almost give out when Luke’s strong arm wraps around my waist and holds me tight against his chest.
“I love the little noises you make,” Luke whispers, his erection hard against my ass. He continues to kiss me, moving down my neck. I let him hold me captive until my strength returns.
I turn in Luke’s arms with a sedated smile on my face. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
“Your turn.” I move to push his pants down, but he stops me.
“As much as I want that, I need to get the kids up and get them to school,” Luke says taking my hands and bringing them to his lips. “Besides, I wanted to make this about you.”
“I should get them up.” I sag in his arms, exhaustion wanting to pull me under.
“Let me do it, you need your rest.” Luke kisses my cheek then pulls a shirt from his shelf and pulls it over my head.
“Thank you, Luke.” I sigh pushing my arms through the shirt sleeves. “I could use a few hours of sleep. Are you heading to the shop after you drop the kids off?”
“Yeah, but I’ll come back here around lunch time. We have some . . . things to discuss.”
“Uh-oh.” I step back and search his face. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“Go sleep, we’ll talk at lunch.”
“Luke . . ..”
“Go.” He kisses me, then opens the closet door and pushes me out.
∞∞∞
“Is that bacon I smell? I’m starving,” I say as I come around the corner into the kitchen and make an abrupt stop. “Eric.”
“Afternoon,” Eric says over his shoulder, standing over the stove. It’s uncanny how similar all the Colson brothers are—monstrously tall with sleek black hair and blue eyes. All similar, yet also different. Luke has a charming smile, Clint’s just plain scary, Eric is always serious, and Jax . . . well, Jax just looks wild.
Seeing Eric and his serious glance makes him hard to read. I never know how to act around him.
“I forgot you were here.” Maybe small talk will get him to warm up and maybe crack a smile. “What are you making?”
“BLTs,” he grunts before turning the burner off. “I’ll be heading out later this afternoon.”
“Oh, okay.” I plop my head in my hand and watch him scoop out the bacon and place it over a paper towel-covered plate.
“Luke is on his way.”
“Okay.”
An awkward silence fills the kitchen and I struggle with something to say, but Eric beats me to it. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.” I smile at him, but he just nods and pulls a mug from the cabinet and walks to the coffee maker.
“So . . ..”
“I’ve . . ..”
“You go.” I laugh, embarrassed and I know it sounds strained.
“Creamer?”
“Yes, please.” I suck in a breath before blowing it past my lips. “So, you were saying?”
“Can I crash here for Clint and Dawn’s wedding?” Eric asks, pouring a little too much creamer in my coffee then walking it to me.
“Of course, you don’t need to ask.” I take the coffee and blow on it before taking a sip. “Thank you.”
“Would it be too much trouble if I brought my dog Molly?” Eric stares down at me and I get the feeling he talks to everyone as if he’s interrogating them.
“Oh um . . . well, I don’t mind but you should probably run that by Luke.”
“I did, he said it was your call.” Eric nods, then pulls a tomato and a head of lettuce from the fridge. “I’ve been on the road a lot lately, and I don’t want to keep asking my guys back home to watch her.”
“Your guys?”
“The guys working for me.”
“Right.” I flash a small smile and again, we are surrounded by awkward silence. “So, tell me about Molly.”
“She’s a German Shepherd.” Eric pulls his phone from his pocket and taps in his code, scrolling through what I think are pictures of her but when he slides it over, its a video of Luke . . . and Henry? “Luke asked me to show this to you if he didn’t get here before you woke up.”
“What is this?” I ask and hit play to watch Henry pull some kind of bizarre macho man act on Luke. Did he seriously threaten Luke? “When did this happen?”
“Sunday when he dropped the kids off,” Eric says, slicing the tomato as if nothing is wrong.
“And I’m just now finding out?” I put the phone down and slide it back to Eric. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
Luckily, I don’t have to wait long for the answer. Luke walks through the backdoor into the kitchen.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” I get off the stool and point to Eric’s phone.
“Good, you’ve seen it. Sit down, I need to tell you more.”
“There’s more?” Luke stands in front of me, his hands wrap around my hips and he pulls me in for a kiss I meant to dodge.
“Henry told the kids they were going to be living with him.”
“He did what?” I rip from Luke’s hold, glaring up at him. “When?”
“I don’t know. Matt told me yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this yesterday?” I start to pace the kitchen. “That mother trucker!”
“I was going to tell you, but you were asleep, then everyone was over yesterday. I sent it to Sarah, and she said it could wait until today after you had some rest.”
“You should have told me, Luke!”
“I was doing what I thought was best. Sarah asked me to have you call her at noon.”
“She’s on the phone,” Eric interrupts, waving his phone up at us.
“Hey guys,” Sarah says over the speaker. “Amber, be calm. I told Luke to wait so you could be rested. Give the poor guy a break.”
“Whatever.” I roll my eyes but don’t stop my pacing.
“I reviewed the video, and we can use it against Henry in court. I also sent Henry’s lawyer an email letting him know we have evidence of Henry making a threat toward you Amber, and reminded him that nothing can be said to the children about the upcoming court hearing.”
“I told Matt he should talk to Amber about where he wants to live. Will that hurt Amber’s case?” Wait a minute . . . Matt spoke to Luke?
“You handled it perfectly, Luke. Just tell them that nothing is final, but their voice does matter.”
“I can’t believe that crud muffin,” I mutter, biting my thumb nail.
“It gets worse,” Sarah says, and I stop my pacing to stare at the phone. “I spoke with my friend Carl in Wichita who knows insurance law. He spoke with your insurance claim adjustor and learned that Henry had called him. Henry suggested you and Dad were possibly trying to commit fraud.”
“What?” I screech at the same time Luke swears under his breath.
“Carl is investigating, but he thinks that he can get your claim overturned. I don’t want you to worry about it for now. What I need from you is to help me understand what Henry’s up to.”