Page 45 of Rock Chick Bonus Tracks

But they had a lot of times like these.

Cooking together. Doing the dishes together. Walking down the street to Wynkoop’s, hanging and sharing a couple of beers together.

They fought. This was him and Ava. Their spark never blinked out and it manifested itself in a variety of ways.

But he loved fighting with her, and not just because he loved how they made up.

There was history. There was passion. There was fire. Even in the quiet times like now, it simmered below the surface, ready to blaze however that came about between them.

He loved it. Got off on it. Fed from it.

It was going to be a good life with her. No other woman existed who could give him that. What he needed to keep his shit in line. What he needed to be the man he wanted to be. What he needed to be the man he had to be for her.

But he waited until after she loaded him down with a gut busting amount of delicious food (and whatever recipe she found did not lie, those baked potatoes were the best he’d had). After they sorted out the kitchen. But it was before she unearthed the napoleons when he guided her to the couch, sat in it, and then pulled her to straddle his lap.

“Oh boy. Looking at your face, I’m not thinking this is a lead in to hanky-panky,” she noted.

His brows went up.

Christ, his woman.

“Hanky-panky?”

“Sex,” she explained something he already knew.

“I know, babe. But I fuck.Wefuck. We do not engage in hanky-panky.”

“My word choice wasn’t a hit to your manhood, Luke.”

“You referring to it as hanky-panky, I may never get it up again,” he joked.

She made a face and replied, “Oh my God. You’d turn into Lukezilla and take out half of Denver if you went even a day without getting the business.”

“Correct,” he confirmed, then advised. “Don’t forget that.”

She rolled her eyes, but her lips were tipped up.

“Babe.”

She stopped rolling her eyes, and he knew she’d read his change in tone when they landed on him.

So her hands landed on him too, at both sides of his neck. “Oh God, Luke. What’s the matter?”

Total concern. It was in her face, the line of her body, the feel of her gaze, everything about her.

He gripped her hips harder where he had hold on her. Then he took one hand and slid it along the side of her neck to curl it around the back.

“I got somethin’ to share.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

“I will be, once I tell you and I know you’re okay.”

Her head tipped to the side.

“Your dad showed at the offices today.”

Her head righted with a snap. “What?”

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