Everything You've Got: Anything & Everything, Book 2 (2 page)

“True. But the rest… Well, it’s understandable that I would be expecting more than something like—oh, I don’t know—a set of DVDs for instance.”

There was a stunned moment of silence and he imagined she was staring at him in shock. No, she was probably frowning.

“How did you know?” she finally asked.

He chuckled. “A good guess. I hope it’s
Burn Notice
.” It was their favorite show. They discussed the current episode every week.

And he would love the DVDs. Just like he’d loved the first three seasons of
House
, another favorite, she’d given him last year and the boxed set of
Seinfeld
the year before that.

He liked to think she gave him their favorite TV shows to prove that she was paying attention to what he liked because she cared. But this was Kat Dayton. If Kat wanted or felt something, everyone knew it. Instead, she had to come up with an annual gift for a friend. Period.

“You think you’re pretty smart, huh?” she finally asked.

“Sorry,” he said with a shrug. “I know how much you hate being predictable.”

She really did. She wore black all the time, preferred tight, fitted clothes, loved boots and had a number of piercings. She also used dramatic eye makeup and body paint and her short dark hair was styled and colored differently almost every day.

“I might still have a few surprises left.”

He felt her move in closer and heard her rustling in her bag.

“I can’t wait.”

“Not nervous at all?” she asked.

“Definitely not what I’m feeling.” He was feeling…intrigued. Excited. Amused. Optimistic.

She had feelings for him and he had her undivided attention. There were only a few ways—a few very specific ways—this could get better.

It was common knowledge that when one sense was removed the others became stronger. He felt like he was completely tuned in to every move she made. There was a soft metallic
clink
and the air around him grew warmer as she leaned in.

“Were you predicting this?”

He felt her hands slide down his left arm to his hand and he took in a deep lungful of vanilla. Then he felt cold metal around his wrist followed by a
click
.

No way.

“Handcuffs?” he asked. He lifted his arm and found his left wrist connected to the arm of the chair.

“Handcuffs.” She still leaned close. “So, if you have different expectations of a birthday involving a blindfold, how do you feel about one with handcuffs?”

He grinned. “Kat Dayton wants me at her mercy? I’m liking it a lot.”

“I’m…flattered.” That had sounded more like a question.

He chuckled. “Being the first guy you handcuff? Me too.”

There was a pause and he felt her straighten away from him. “How do you know you’re the first guy I’ve handcuffed?”

“I’ve heard about your strip poker games, your skinny-dipping…somebody would have definitely been talking about being handcuffed
.
”

“I played strip poker
one
time with Greg Matthews and skinny-dipped
one
time with Travis Nelson. Here I thought I was dating gentlemen.”

“You did not. You’ve known these guys since third grade,” Luke said with a grin.

She blew out a breath. “Well, you know that both of them likely did some embellishing. You probably shouldn’t base your expectations on what Greg and Travis said.”

“You’re right. I should definitely find out for myself.” Even without exaggeration he knew that a few minutes with Kat, skinny-dipping or otherwise, would be better than a whole season of
Burn Notice
.

“Find out?”

“What a great kisser you are.”

He heard her little intake of air. Okay, so maybe he had some surprises for her too.

“You want to…” She cleared her throat. “Did you just say you want to kiss me?”

He chuckled at that. He’d kissed her once in college and he hadn’t been able to completely forget it. Even though he’d tried when it became clear that she didn’t want to do anything more about it. He wanted to kiss her again. Tonight. Now.

“Definitely. And you have to give me what I want—it’s my birthday.”

He held his breath, waiting for her to laugh, or say
you’ve got to be kidding me
, or something similar.

“They say the memory is the first thing to go as we age,” she said softly.

He heard the hurt in her tone and reached instinctively with his free hand, snagging her fingers as she tried to move away. “I remember the kiss, Kat. Vividly and often. I’m just teasing you.”

There was an excruciatingly long pause. He’d told the truth. He thought about that kiss. A lot. More and more all the time. Like the more she kissed
other
guys. Like he’d seen her doing at Marc’s wedding…

He loosened the hold he had on the arm of the chair and forced himself to relax. She wasn’t kissing anyone else tonight. He had to focus here. There wasn’t another guy with her tonight. He didn’t need to worry about being an ass to a guy he’d known his whole life, like he had at the wedding. All the guy had done was agree to be Kat’s date to the wedding. He really hadn’t deserved Luke’s glares or refusal to engage in conversation or the beer down the leg of his pants.

Anyway, she wasn’t kissing anyone else tonight.

Finally he heard her pull in a slight breath just before she asked, “Does Marc still have his appendix?”

He frowned. What the hell did that mean? “I’m, um, sure he does.”

“Okay, good.”

She pulled free of his hold but just as he was grabbing blindly, she leaned in and put a hand on each arm of the chair.

That was better.

“You ready?” she asked, her breath on his cheek.

“Is anyone ever really ready for you?” he asked.

“Aw, you say the sweetest things.” Then she touched her lips to his.

The contact was relatively chaste, and the heat and want that washed over him was completely out of proportion. But one taste and he had to have
more.

When she started to pull back, Luke reached up with his free hand, cupped the back of her head and opened his mouth.

She didn’t even hesitate. She groaned as she leaned into the kiss, meeting the stroke of his tongue with hers. The next thing he felt was her straddling his thighs and climbing onto his lap.

From there everything went crazy. Her hands went to his hair, holding his head still. His hand went to her lower back, pressing her closer. His hips lifted and her pelvis pressed down, pulling moans from both of them.

Then her hands went to the front of his shirt while his hand moved to the back of hers. She unbuttoned buttons while his hands slipped under the stretchy fabric of her blouse and onto bare skin. Goose bumps broke out under his hand and she shivered as he ran his hand up her spine to her bra and down again.

And then the song “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s
Beauty and the Beast
erupted from her purse.

Kat tore her mouth from Luke’s. He felt her panting against his lips.

The song continued. Because it was Kat’s ringtone for Marc.

“Ignore him,” Luke said gruffly, once again cupping the back of her head and attempting to bring her forward.

But she pushed against his chest. “Hold on. I have to talk to him.”

Luke pulled the blindfold from his eyes. “It’s Marc. He’s got nothing interesting to say.”

She slid back and off his lap. “Let me just—”

“Put him off,” Luke said firmly. “Then get back up here. We’re not done.” Damn the handcuffs. Suddenly he realized they weren’t as great as he’d first thought. He couldn’t grab her as she was backing away.

She met his eyes and for a moment she froze. Now, without the blindfold, he could see it in her eyes—everything had just changed.

They had kissed. Really
kissed
. The kind of kissing that involved so much more than only lips. The kind of kissing that led to other things. The kind of kissing that changed friends into much, much more. Not the kind of kiss that had anything to do with
done
.

That was a just-getting-started kiss.

She grabbed her phone and quickly typed something in. A message to Marc, Luke assumed. Hopefully something like
leave us the fuck alone
.

Then she tossed Luke the key to the handcuffs. “I can’t believe we just did that.”

“It’s about damned time,” Luke returned, unlocking himself.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s about damned time you did that. Or something like it.”

Eyes wide, she propped a hand on her hip. “Me? What about you? You haven’t showed up on my doorstep with handcuffs either, you know.”

“When would I have done that?” he asked, stretching to his feet. “When you were dating Greg? Or when you were dating Travis? Or when you were dating Matt? Or when you were dating Derek?”

Kat’s other guys had been driving him nuts for a long time. Especially when they told skinny-dipping and strip poker stories. But those were the guys Kat chose to be with.

“So you were content to sit around and wait? You must not have wanted it too badly,” she said.

“I didn’t really have a choice, did I?” he asked with a frown.

“Some kind of guy code or something?”

Luke tossed the cuffs, key and blindfold onto his desk and strode toward her. She backed up until she was against the door. He put a hand flat on the door by her ear and leaned in. “You’re not like other women, Kat.”

“Thank you.”

He gave her a grin and a nod of acknowledgement. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“Do I?”

She did. He could tell. But he said, “If I had asked you out, you would have said no. Because you always say no when the guy asks without encouragement.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, focusing on his shirt collar.

What a liar. “I had to wait for the signal that you wanted me. You don’t always ask the guys out, but you do always make it really clear when you want a guy to make a move. The guys flirt, throw out hints that they’re interested, but no one officially asks until you make it clear you want it. If they ask and you haven’t given the signal, you shoot them down. Even I had to follow the rules.”

She swallowed hard and Luke wondered if she was surprised that he knew this. She liked control. She liked getting people—especially male people—to do what she wanted. Which was why she chose men she could boss around. They tended to be younger than her, but even if they were older they were totally into her before they even got to buy her a burger.

He was totally into her. He wasn’t easy to boss around, but they could deal with that when it came up.

“You’ve been paying attention,” she finally commented, looking up and meeting his eyes.

Yep. For years.

“And waiting,” he said.

“And when would I have given you the signal anyway? When you proposed to Sabrina the first time or the second time?” she asked.

He winced. Right. He knew Sabrina had been an obstacle. She was Kat’s best friend and he’d had a…complicated relationship with her for years. They’d been friends, they’d even been lovers once, Luke had bent over backwards for her, he’d been her protector, her haven, her rock.

But he’d never been her true love.

“I was never really hers and you, of all people, knew it,” he finally said.

His feelings for Sabrina had always been hard to explain. She’d needed him. That had been more powerful than her loving him for a long time. But she’d exhausted him.

Now he was done with all of that and Kat was the perfect choice. Kat didn’t
need
anyone. Which meant he wouldn’t go crazy trying to figure out how to meet those needs. And he wouldn’t fail at it.

“But you wanted to be hers,” Kat said softly.

“I wanted…” The life Sabrina was now living with Marc.

That realization had hit him when he’d first realized his best friend, the man who was practically his brother, was in love with the woman
he’d
intended to marry. He’d also realized it wasn’t losing Sabrina that hurt, but the idea that he still had to wait for the woman that was right for him. Sabrina clearly belonged with Marc.

Luke loved Sabrina. Like he should love the woman his best friend was married to. Like he should the woman he’d grown up next door to. Like he should a very close friend.

But not like he wanted to love someone someday.

Not like he might be on the way to loving Kat.

“I wanted her to be happy,” he finally said. “I thought I could make her happy. I was wrong. And now she’s happy with Marc. Completely.”

“She really is,” Kat agreed. “Completely.” She emphasized the word, meeting his gaze directly.

“I know.” And he did.

Kat just looked at him for a long moment. Finally she nodded. “Okay.”

He breathed in a sigh of relief. His relationship and feelings for Sabrina were important issues to resolve before they could move on to the issue of
them
.