Seduced by Three (13 page)

The following night, after the job of burying the spikes was finished, Luke sat alone on the back steps enjoying the cooler weather. After some time, Grace joined him. She sat close to him. The baby wipes she’d used to clean herself made her smell delicate and inviting. He drew in a deep breath. It was provocative.

“Thanks for last night,” she said, looking away from him with a far-off expression.

“My pleasure,” he drawled. It was nice to see that the tense atmosphere wasn’t dragging her down too much. It said a lot about who she was. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “What’s my reward for being such a good boy?”

As they had worked together that afternoon under the careful watch of Van, their interactions seemed to take on an air of perpetual flirtation. He knew it was a way for Grace to get her jabs in and hurt Van back for what she considered his betrayal, and Luke didn’t mind that at all.

Grace’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “What does my good boy want?”

“Beautiful, I don’t think you could handle what I want.”

“That sounds like a challenge,” she smirked, “but I don’t think you’ve got any moves I haven’t seen before.”

“Try me.” He practically growled the dare at her. In the space of a second, he leaned into her until their lips were a breath’s space apart.

Grace’s face changed from devilish to serious. “I don’t want you to be in the mix with the other two,” she whispered, pulling back, separating them from the intimate nearness of their lips and the rush of blazing lust that came with it.

“I warned them,” she said so softly it was as if she was talking to herself. “They still couldn’t handle it.”

Abruptly Grace seemed to shake her way out of the place she’d momentarily gone in her head, and she smiled at him with bright eyes and a mischievous smile. She leaned even closer and breathed her next words into his ear. “I don’t think you can handle it, either.”

He hit her with a high-impact stare. “Oh now, Grace, we’re going to have to prove that misconception wrong.”

Their eyes locked, and he could practically hear the thoughts whispering through her brain, weighing the pros and cons of putting another man into the very complicated dynamics of the shelter.

Her face fell. It was almost imperceptible, but Luke caught it right before she spoke again. “I made mistakes with them and lost friends in the process. I’m not going to make another one. It’s a bad idea, Luke.” She moved to stand, but his arm tightened around her and kept her in place.

“Come on. Sit with me for a few minutes. You can’t run away. I’d just follow you.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a long while. No doubt she was turning around ideas in her head, getting a look at them from all sides, just as he was. Something was changing inside him. It was as if the soft spot he had for this woman was transforming, mixing with the lust, and changing into something richer, more meaningful.

Luke cleared his throat. “So, I’ve decided on a nickname for you.”

“Why on earth would you do that?” Her cute little girl voice made the corners of his mouth quirk up.

He shrugged. “That’s what I do. It’s a part of my charm.” He flashed her his most debonair grin.

“Oh, this ought to be good,” she muttered sarcastically under her breath.

“You haven’t even heard it and you’re already complaining.”

“I’ve had enough derogatory opinions about my personality lately. I don’t need a snide nickname to go with it.”

Luke covered his heart with both his hands. “You wound me, ladybug.”

“Ladybug?” She rolled her eyes.

“I had a few that I picked out, but ladybug was by far the best considering how you bug Sarge so much.”

She snorted. “What were the others?”

“I thought you’d never ask. Hmm let’s see…Lady Godiva, Iron Lady, lady-in-waiting, ladyfingers, Lady Luck, Lady Gaga, ‘Lady in Red’…” He smirked. “Dragon Lady…”

She laughed. “You’re a lunatic.”

“Thank you. I strive for unique, but I’ll take lunatic.”

Luke’s thoughts turned toward what he’d wanted to discuss with her tonight. He took in a long, slow breath. “I want to talk to you about something.” She shot him a wary look as he turned to look at her face-to-face. He held up a hand. “Just hear me out. I know you think that if you can keep us all at arm’s length from now on, you can keep this weird situation under control, maybe prevent getting hurt or hurting someone else.

Grace turned away from his scrutiny.

“But there’s more going on here than that, and I’m not even sure you’re aware of it.”

“Don’t try to tell me what’s going on inside my own head, Luke.”

“Ahh, ladybug, again, it’s what I do.”

“Well, don’t do it with me.”

“Too late,” he said with a husky voice. “I know why you refuse to admit your feelings—why you deny wanting a relationship.” He leaned in closer to her again, hoping the nearness of his body poked at her willpower. “You’ve always chosen bad boys, and before you deny it, don’t. Your father told me about the god-awful taste you have in men. He worried about you, you know. He wanted to help, but didn’t really know how.”

Grace closed her eyes tight. “Luke…”

“So I asked myself, why would such a smart, strong woman have such poor judgment regarding men. And then it hits me. You want—no, you need—someone more aggressive than you. Someone who’ll put you through the paces and not hold back. Someone who won’t treat you like a delicate china doll that might break if they pound their cock into you too hard.” He leaned closer. “Someone whose idea of sex is more than missionary with the lights off,” he growled. “True?”

Silence.

“But there’s a catch. This is the part that gets you into trouble. You don’t want that man to be aggressive with you in any other way. You don’t want him to tell you what to do outside of the bedroom…right? And that, my dear, is how things go terribly wrong for you because it’s very hard to find a man who’s got a completely different personality in the bedroom from the one he carries around with him the rest of the time.

“And I’m betting, you haven’t found that with Sarge, or Van either. Sarge is too controlling outside the bedroom, and Van isn’t alpha enough in the bedroom—am I right? Neither guy blows you away.”

Grace’s eyes were fixed on him, but they weren’t seeing him anymore. They were vacant. She was inside her own head. He saw her mind working, synapses firing, searching her experiences, her memories. Moment after moment passed, and it seemed like an eternity before she finally broke her stare and took a slow breath.

“You’re right,” she mumbled. “You are absolutely right. I never realized until you said it out loud.” She shook her head. “That’s it.” The tone of her voice was sheer incredulity. “That’s why I’m drawn to bad boys. I’m trying to find someone who looks like they might be man enough for me, and only the bad ones look the part. Ho–ly shit.”

She turned away from him and sat silent for a minute.

“For me, too sweet or too romantic is kind of wussy,” she murmured. “It gets old fast. I don’t want to be stuck having boregasms for the rest of my life.” She laughed softly. “And too many aggressive qualities outside of the bedroom push me away. It’s like an insult, an insinuation that I can’t make my own decisions or take care of myself.” She shook her head. “You’re so right.”

Grace visibly slumped. “Oh…that means that neither Sarge nor Van is totally right for me.”

“Probably not, but you knew that already.”

“I have feelings for them, you know.”

“I know, ladybug.”

Her eyes swirled with disappointment and confusion during the long, long silence that followed.

The night matured around them, growing darker and revealing the curves of the moon and other heavenly bodies against the blank of empty space. At least an hour had passed before she spoke again.

“And you think you can provide all that?” It was a direct challenge if he’d ever heard one.

“Oh, Ladybug, I know I can.”

Grace scorched him with a look so seductive, so perfectly wicked, it left no room for misunderstanding. “Show me.”

Luke chuckled. “Well there’s the first thing you’re going to have to give up control over. I don’t perform on demand, and I decide the where and when of it.”

Then, as if a switch flipped, Grace’s self-protective coping skills returned. “Sounds fascinating. You be sure to let me know when you’ve started your seduction so I can recognize it. Wouldn’t want to miss it completely.”

“You’re going to be very sorry you said that, ladybug,” Luke said and then stood, offering her a hand, and then pulling her to her feet.

Grace pushed him away playfully. “Whatever.”

The lights were out in the shelter when they made their way carefully down the stairs in the vast, overwhelming darkness. Luke silently made his way to the air mattresses. He assumed that Grace went toward the bed. He wondered if Sarge would be awake and waiting to talk to her, but after he got settled, the shelter was completely silent.

He woke early the next morning and opened his eyes to the usual gray and dingy haven. He searched the bed for Grace, and found Sarge laying there with his eyes open. Luke turned to see what Sarge was staring at, and found Grace sitting, sleeping in a chair at the dinette table. Her head lay on top of her folded arms, cushioning her face from the hard surface.

“She’s stubborn,” Luke murmured.

“Yeah.”

“So are you.”

There was a beat of silence before Sarge answered. “Yeah.”

“She’s out of clothes. We need to plan a supply run.”

“You goin’ to take her on your own?”

“I think so. I also think this is your opportunity to show her you’re not a total asshole.”

Sarge chuckled. “That bad?”

“Uh, yeah, dumbass. I swear, you’re like a fucking caveman sometimes.”

“Caveman’s okay when you’re not looking for anything serious.”

“Yeah? Well this isn’t that, and you know it. She loves you. Van, too, I think, so you better start considering some give and take. Trust me, it’ll work better.”

“And you? Where’s your place within these impossible dynamics?”

“Right now, I’m wishing I was you. She won’t be mad at you forever. You’ve got her in the palm of your hand. Be careful not to crush her.”

The feel of the shelter changed when Grace and Van woke up a few minutes later. What ensued was a silent battle. The air flooded with emotionally charged missiles that silently attacked and clashed against everybody, leaving the room with a combative atmosphere.

After breakfast, Sarge moved the dinette table so that it was directly under one of the skylights and then brought a map out and spread it on the table. It was hand drawn, and covered about a four-block area around the house, identifying all the businesses along the main streets.

Luke got closer, and motioned for Grace to come. The three of them examined the map in silence. Then Sarge put his finger on it. “That seems like it’s your closest option.”

After that, Sarge sat listening to Luke and Grace as they discussed their route, what they would do if they got separated or if one of them got hurt, and other details.

By the time the sun went down, they were more than prepared. Grace put on Van’s flak jacket. Even after snugging up the Velcro strap, it was still way too big for her. Then she left the shelter without a word to Sarge or Van. Luke followed behind her.

“It’ll be fine,” he said to the worried-looking men standing at the bottom of the stairs, before stepping through the cubbyhole and replacing the wall behind him.

With backpacks on, Grace and Luke walked with their pistols in hand, away from the lake and the street where they’d been pinned down. They zigzagged over streets and through backyards until they got to a main road. It was lined with small businesses in strip malls, and the same big-name drugstores, fast food restaurants and gas stations that seemed to occupy every intersection in America.

“Can we hit the drugstore on the way back?” she asked Luke.

“Let’s go now since we’re right here.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Grace and Luke walked through shattered glass to enter the drugstore. Luke motioned her ahead while he stayed toward the front of the store. Grace ran back quickly toward the pharmacy and was back in less than a couple minutes. She didn’t volunteer what they’d gone there for, and he didn’t ask. “Okay, let’s go,” she said without slowing her stride toward the front of the store.

Luke took point as they exited and led Grace to the consignment shop about a block down.

“It has a metal gate over the front of it. Dammit!” Grace said, as they arrived at the front door.

“It’s okay. Follow me.” Luke continued past the used clothing shop and through the shattered door of the Radio Shack next door. He walked all the way to the back of the store and entered the employee bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind them.

“Here, shine the light for me.” He handed Grace the flashlight and pointed to a spot between the toilet and the sink. He pulled a crowbar from his backpack and swung it a few times at the drywall that was the common wall to the adjacent shop next door.