Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (2 page)

He took out his phone; putting in the number she gave him.

She dug in her purse for her keys, unlocking the door slowly. She wanted to invite him in. Her mom and stepdad wouldn't be home for another two days.  But what if one of the nosy neighbors mentioned something she thought?  She gave him a quick kiss instead.

"I'll see you."

Luke gave her what could only be called a cocky grin. "Definitely."

Chapter 4

And he did call her, the next weekend.

She told her mom that she was going out with friends; and instead walked down the street to his house.

Sierra started spending more and more time with Luke.  She spent many afternoons with him as he was pretty good at math and history. She thought that it was nice to have someone help her study, though his attractiveness was a constant distraction. His habit of lounging around the house in nothing more than a pair of jeans drove her crazy.

Before long, they were having sex on a regular basis and she found herself initiating it more and sometimes sharing a cigarette with him afterwards. She felt herself almost forgetting about Austin.  Spotting him in the halls at school, always seemingly with Ilana at his side; no longer held the sting that it once had.  Her mom quit asking about him at home.

She'd begun telling her mom that she was spending time with a former junior high friend named Amy on the days and nights she was with Luke.  She was glad that her mom trusted her enough not to question her further or simply didn't care.  Sierra figured that it was some combination of both.

Time passed and she found herself closer to graduation, wondering what exactly she was going to do with her life.

She'd decided that she wanted to go into early childhood education, probably teach at a preschool.  But she found herself thinking more and more of putting college off for a year. Though she didn't really think of him as her boyfriend, was too stubborn to put into words what she really felt for him besides the lust, she felt herself not wanting to leave Luke so soon.

Luke supported her decision to put college off, though she claimed it was more to save money for school than to be able to stay by his side.  If he sensed that he had anything to do with her decision to stay in town for another year he was discreet enough not to mention it.

He hadn't told her he loved her.  She wasn't sure if he thought of her as his girlfriend.  They simply let things go the way they were and didn't talk about it.

Chapter 5

One night a few weeks before graduation her mom stopped her when she was leaving to go to Luke's.

"I know you haven't been with Amy. You've been with that boy, that man. I can't believe you broke up with Austin for someone like that."

Sierra turned towards her mother angrily. She wondered what right her mother had to lecture her about anything to do with men. She'd married Timothy when Sierra’s father was hardly cold in his grave.  She had always believed that it was because he had money.

"First of all Mother, Austin broke up with me because he knocked up the head cheerleader. I don't know what you think you know about Luke, but you're wrong. He's only a few years older than me.  He's not a drug dealer or a pimp or any of the other bullshit the people around town seem to think.  They're too stupid to take the time to really find out about people. I'm eighteen years old which makes me an adult. So what do you have to say about anything anyway?"

Her mother looked at her for a moment, seeming almost shocked. "Sierra," she started and then stopped herself, the angry gleam coming back to her eyes. "You may be an adult.”  Sarcasm dripped from her words.  “But you still live under my roof and therefore under my rules."

"Last I knew you hadn't worked in how long? Shit Mom, did you ever work? You lived off of Dad, a man who I barely knew because he was so busy working to support your lazy ass; and you let it kill him. Then, you married Timothy simply because he had more money than Dad could have ever given you. So this is Timothy's house the way I see it. And he never cared enough about me to set any damn rules. I could be screwing the whole damn town for all he cares. If you don't want me under your roof anymore, I'm sure I can arrange that."

Sierra stopped, and took a breath; not daring to look at her mother. Had she gone too far she wondered?

She suspected that underneath all the frivolity, the yearning for material possessions, the plastic surgeries to hide the wrinkles, her mother did love her. She just chose to show it on very rare occasions.

Her mother stood there silently, glaring at her.

Sierra grabbed her purse and back pack from the table and headed to the door. "I won't be coming home tonight."

She slammed the door behind her.  Part of her wanted to go back and apologize to her mother.  Part of her was satisfied that she had finally told her mother off after all those years of remaining silent.

It had hurt to be left behind when her mom and step dad took their quarterly vacations for the past four years.

It had been a long time since she felt that her mother was glad to have her around. She'd never felt that her mom was proud of her, no matter how good her grades were, or whatever else she accomplished.

She was out of breath by the time she made it to Luke's house. He opened the door and taking one look at her face, immediately pulled her into his arms, absentmindedly shutting the door behind them.

"What's wrong hon?"

"Gimme a cigarette." She slumped down onto the couch.

He complied, digging one out and lighting it for her.

He sat back lighting a cigarette of his own and watching her.

"So," he said, after letting her remain silent for several minutes. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

She sighed, putting the cigarette out in an overflowing ashtray on the coffee table. "I had a fight with my mom. She found out about that I’ve been seeing you and tried to give me some shit about rules and it not mattering if I was eighteen because I still lived under her roof."

He took her hand. "Sierra, baby, you couldn't expect your mom to be thrilled about you spending time with me. Not a lot of mothers of eighteen year old girls would be celebrating them hanging out with a guy like me." He comically raised an eyebrow at her, trying to coax a laugh out of her.

She pulled her hand away, picking a pen up off of the table and twirling it between her fingers.

"She doesn't care Luke. She doesn't want her reputation sullied by her daughter screwing around with someone like you." She laughed harshly. "I can't believe she let me go out with Austin for so long.  It's not like his family lived up to her and Timothy's precious standards. Austin's mom works.  His dad is the manager of a grocery store. They live okay, but they're not exactly in Timothy's income level."

"Hey." He pulled her head against his chest. "I'm sure your mom loves you honey."

"But that's just it Luke. Sometimes I don't know. It's not like she ever tells me."

To her embarrassment, Sierra found herself crying softly. Luke held her for a long time; saying nothing.

After a while she sat up. She took the tissue that he handed her from the box underneath the table, and blew her nose.

"You want to go out tonight? Go to a movie? See something stupid?"

She shrugged her shoulders. They didn't usually go out together, usually watched movies or TV at his house, or listened to music, and ordered take out.

He kissed her lightly, brushing her hair out of her face. "C'mon, it'll be fun.  You can take your first ride in my car. I finally got it back."

He'd finally given up on the idea of restoring the old mustang himself and had sent it out to be done professionally.

She brightened a little. "Okay."

He went to the bedroom, coming back out in a tight black t-shirt.

"Ah," she teased, feeling her mood lighten. "Do you really have to put that on? I like you so much better without it."

He laughed. "If I went out in public like that I'd have to beat the women off me with a stick."

She scowled at him. "Like you don't anyway."

He kissed the side of her neck. "I don't need any other women."

She felt a little thrill go through her at his words, but again wouldn't let herself read too much into it. Even if she was staying in town another year, all that meant was that they'd have that year together.  She couldn't let herself think of anything beyond that.

He grabbed his keys off the hook in the kitchen and pulled her out the door with him.

"By the way, I'm spending the night."

"Mmm. I can think of all kinds of interesting things we can do with all those extra hours."

She slugged him lightly in the arm as he came around the car to open to door for her.

"You asked for it." He grinned.

"Nice car," she said as he slid into the driver's seat.

"Yep.  Got myself a nice car, and a pretty girl to spend the whole night with. Life is good."

She laughed.

"And you don't know the best part yet, love. I haven't told you what I'm giving you for graduation."

She raised an eyebrow. "And what is that exactly?"

"A weekend of hot sex with me of course."

She rolled her eyes at him as he made the turn to pull into the crowded parking lot of the mall. "What makes you think I'd want that?"

"Nah, seriously, I'm taking you away for the weekend. How much of it we spend in bed is up to you."

She gave him a quick kiss as he opened the door for her, taking his hand.

"Let's go find a movie to watch.  Something that will keep your mind out of the gutter for a couple hours."

"Nothin' keeps my mind out of the gutter for long darlin."

They were on their way to check out what was playing at the theater when Sierra stopped.  She felt her breath catch in her throat.

"Sie." Luke noticed she had stopped unexpectedly in front of the food court. "You want to get something to eat before we see a movie?"

She shook her head.  Her eyes were locked on the sight of Austin and Ilana coming towards them, hand in hand. He noticed the direction her eyes were taking and started to pull her towards the theater, but it was too late. Austin had already spotted them.

"Hey, Sierra. Long time no see."

She wanted to laugh.  It's not like she didn't see him in the halls at school every day and in class. "Hey Austin, hey Ilana."

Ilana was starting to look pregnant, and Sierra supposed she should be, being four or five months along now.

"Don't think I know your friend." Austin looked at Luke.

She almost dropped his hand then, feeling almost embarrassed to be seen with him.

He was nothing to be ashamed of she thought.  He was much better looking than Austin in all honesty.

Austin was about 5'7, with light brown hair.  He was a little on the skinny side, though he liked to think of himself as "wiry". Ilana was an inch or so taller than him.

Luke was six foot, muscular and had everything going for him, besides the stupid reputation that he still carried among the ignorant (which still seemed to remain predominant as her mother had shown her this afternoon) in town.

"This is Luke, my. . ." She paused, at a loss for words.

What exactly was he, she wondered? Her fuck buddy? She felt her face start to go hot.  Then Luke stepped forward, holding his hand out to Austin.

"I'm Luke, her boyfriend. Her boyfriend."

She wasn't sure if she repeated it for Austin's benefit, hers or his own.

"Oh, okay," Austin said.  There was a note in his voice, to Sierra it almost sounded like jealousy. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." Luke put an arm around Sierra's shoulders. "We'd better get to the theater. Wouldn't want to miss the movie. You two have a good one."

"Yeah, you too. Bye Sierra."

She could feel Austin’s eyes on her as Luke pulled her away.  She wondered what he was thinking. Then she wondered why she cared.  She hadn't truly thought about Austin in a long time, in anything more than a casual way.  And she had Luke so. . .

But it had been a shock to see him here with Ilana when she was venturing out with Luke for the first time in the months that they'd been what?  Sleeping together she wondered again?

She looked up at him as they neared the theater, pretending to be pondering the titles that were showing on the screen outside the ticket booth. "Boyfriend?"

His eyes were serious when he looked at her. "Would you rather I told him that I'm the guy you've been fucking for the last couple of months?"

She felt herself blushing, and was glad that there was no one near enough to them to hear what he had said. "No."

"Would it hurt to think of me as your boyfriend?"

"I guess not."

He got down on one knee then, taking her hand like he was proposing.

"Sierra Collins, will you accept my humble proposal of being your boyfriend?"

"Get up you jerk." She giggled as she helped pull him back to his feet.

"So what shall we see girlfriend?"

They decided on a romantic comedy; that ended up not only not keeping his mind out of the gutter but driving hers there as well. They decided to go back to his house and order a pizza.

By the time the half hour had passed that the pizza delivery promised they were both half out of their clothes on the couch.  He cursed when the doorbell rang.

"Shit.”

She grabbed her shirt and bra off the floor and hurried in the direction of the bedroom.

"Meet you in bed.”

He groaned as the doorbell rang again. "Just a minute."

He pulled open the door, pulling out his wallet and shoving a twenty at the startled delivery man. "Keep the change."

"Thanks," the pimple faced teenager said, putting the box in Luke's hand. With a little over five dollars for a tip, it wasn't bad at all he thought.

He tried to peek past the shirtless man before he shut the door, feeling that he had probably interrupted something interesting, but the door was unceremoniously shut in his face.  He had to step back in order to prevent himself from being whacked with the door.

He chuckled as he walked to his beat up Toyota, throwing the warmer onto the passenger seat; thinking that the guy must have a nice piece of ass waiting for him.

Sierra was waiting for Luke naked in his bed when he got to the bedroom after having thrown the pizza box onto the kitchen table.

He shed his jeans and boxer briefs, fumbling towards the night stand drawer for a condom.

She stopped him with a hand on his bare butt.

"Don't bother. I'm on the pill and I want to feel you."

"You don't have to tell me twice."