Summer Lovin' (6 page)

Mia blushed. She wasn't sure she could handle being satisfied again. Her voice was raspy from expressing all of her satisfaction last night. Over and over.

Luke scooped up the puppy and stood, both of them looking at her. It was such an endearing tableau, Mia nearly melted. What was wrong with her? Clearly her blood sugar was depleted. It had to be if she was mooning over a hunky guy and a puppy after her first-ever fling.

"I'll be glad to help," she said, sitting up and almost tossing the blanket aside. She stopped, looking for her clothes, and then she spotted them in a wrinkled pile where she'd dropped them last night. She finger combed her hair and then blasted Luke with a big smile, pretending she didn't know she looked like a hot mess.

"I'll get dressed and be out there in a minute."

"Great," he said, the corners of his eyes crinkling in the sexiest way. "You can be my sous chef."

"What's that?"

"A fancy way of saying I get to boss you around in the kitchen."

***

Luke watched Mia cutting the potatoes for the home fries. She was cutting them slowly, and deliberately, and it was going to be next week before they had breakfast.

Next week
. He wouldn't let his mind go there. Especially since he had other plans for the rest of the day. Plans that involved the both of them, and the bedroom, not the kitchen.

"You're doing a great job," he said. "But we need to go a little faster or the lunch crew will be arriving for their shift."

She chuckled. "I was just trying to make sure we didn't have a trip to the emergency room before we ate."

She had piled her hair into some sort of bun, with strands of hair dangling down, and she'd put on one of his T-shirts. She looked fresh-faced, and sexy, and disheveled, and it made his heart skip a beat at the happy expression she wore. He wouldn't mind seeing that every morning.

"Okay," he said, mentally clearing his head, "if you want a free lesson like they have on the cooking shows, here goes."

He put his hands on her waist and slid her over a few inches. He heard her gasp, a soft sexy sound, one that made him remember plenty of things from the previous night.

He wiped his forehead with the back of his arm.

Mia handed him the knife and slid the cutting board closer to him, her lips tilted up in a smile.

"So what you want to do is keep the knife moving, like this." Luke balanced his fingertips on the potato and began rocking the blade over it.

"You're like a machine," she said. "That took me forever and you were done in seconds."

He winked. "I've done this once or twice. Here, you give it a try. I need to stir this."

He moved to the stove, picking up a spoon to stir the sauce starting to bubble in a pan.

"I'm really impressed," she said.

"It's just a simple dish really."

"No, I meant that you're standing upright. I thought I had knocked you out last night for a long while."

He chuckled. "I'm almost world-class, remember? And I decided to plan ahead so we could have leftovers. I didn't plan on cooking dinner tonight."

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

She laughed, setting the knife aside so she could squeeze him around the waist. "I'm glad Hellboy broke your car."

"It was the second best thing that's ever happened to me."

"The second best?" She tilted her head back to look at him. "What was the first?"

He turned away from the stove, wrapping his arms around her. "That thing you did last night—"

She swatted his arm, laughing.

Hellboy started scratching at the door to go outside. His tongue was lolling, and his tail was wagging like he was getting wound up.

"I'll let him out," Mia offered.

Luke dropped his arms, but it was reluctantly. He watched her walk toward Hellboy, and then she bent over to talk to the pup, forgetting that his shirt only covered everything when she was standing up.

Luke gasped the same way Mia had earlier. She spun around, and her expression of concern swiftly changed to amusement. Obviously he hadn't hidden the look of bliss on his face.

He shook his head for a second, and then tore his gaze away, stirring the pan vigorously while muttering about their dinner being burned.

"Don't worry," she said, opening the door so Hellboy could race past her. "I don't mind just wine for dinner."

Luke twisted the knob on the front of the stove and covered the pan with a lid. "If you keep doing that in my shirt, I'll be lucky if I can make toast for dinner."

He couldn't help himself. He pulled her into his arms. His mouth was on hers in the next instant, and heat blazed between them instantaneously. Unquenchable. His pulse raced, and then it went into overdrive at the come-hither look on her face.

"What about breakfast?" she asked, though it didn't seem as though food was the most important thing on her mind right then. Not from the way she was wrapping herself around him.

"We can have brunch instead."

He raced them towards the bedroom, intent on making time stand still.

Chapter 8

How had two weeks gone by so fast?

Luke stared at the suds dripping off his car, and then at the neighbors' house, where Mia was packing. He wished she would come outside, even for a little while, so they could talk.

It felt like she was avoiding him, but he couldn't figure out why. She had definitely enjoyed their two weeks together. He was sure of that. They'd laughed and played and had mind-blowing sex day and night, and he'd never in his life felt so happy to be with someone every minute of the day.

Today, though, she'd seemed so cool, announcing she was going to stay next door tonight, so Hellboy could get used to his own place again. Luke had done his best to change her mind, but she'd gently resisted his kisses, peeling his arms from around her waist. He couldn't even tempt her with dinner, where he'd hoped to—

Luke picked up the hose and blasted the fender with water.

He'd gotten what he wanted—a two-week fling—only to discover he wanted more. More time, to spend with Mia. But with her leaving tomorrow, and his excessive work schedule, more time was next to impossible. She'd sneaked into his heart, making him realize he'd spent too many extra hours at work because there wasn't a good reason to come home earlier. Now he'd found a good reason, but she had dashed right out of his life.

What had ever made him think a fling was a good idea?

A succession of sharp barks broke into his thoughts. He turned to see Hellboy with his paws on the fence, his backside wagging ferociously, as usual.

"Hey, buddy. You're awful feisty today."

Luke strolled over to the fence and leaned down, picking up the puppy. Hellboy started licking Luke's face to show his gratitude at being rescued. Or to demonstrate how much he missed Luke.

Somehow the little mutt had wormed his way into Luke's heart, just like Mia had.

"You know you're not the kind of dog I would have picked," he said, tucking the animal securely under his arm.

Hellboy yapped, his tongue lolling to the side, that crazy-ass grin on his face.

Luke sighed. At least when the two weeks was over, Hellboy would still be around.

It was better than nothing. But boy, did he want more than that. A whole helluva lot more.

***

Mia picked up another pair of pants and folded them before stuffing them in her suitcase.

How had two weeks gone by so fast?

She had spent nearly every moment at Luke's house, starting with breakfast, and cooking lessons, and swimming in the lake, and laughing constantly. She'd never had so much fun in her life. And then there was each day ending with a scrumptious dinner, making love, and then falling asleep with Luke's arms holding her close.

But now it was done.

She sniffed, determined to keep the tears at bay. That's why she was here, packing her clothes instead of having another leisurely afternoon with Luke. She needed some practice dealing with the ache lodged near her heart. She didn't want to get all teary-eyed around Luke, and it was too hard to pretend to be happy and carefree.

So she'd told him she needed to spend her last night at Sondra's house, rather than his, using Hellboy as her excuse.

He'd tried to convince her they should celebrate their last night together, with him cooking, but she'd declined. She knew their fling was over, but she just couldn't bring herself to feel festive about it.

She sighed so hard it was a wonder she didn't blow the suitcase off the bed. She heard Hellboy barking outside, but a quick glance out the window showed he was just playing near the fence, not scaring off big bad intruders. Or tormenting another of her shoes.

She managed a smile as she turned back to packing. Surprisingly, she was even sad at the thought of not seeing Hellboy every day. How had that happened? Maybe she was a long-term kind of gal after all.

If only she had discovered that before jumping into the first fling of her life.

Mia wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. She didn't regret any of it. In fact, she was proud of herself for taking the risk, just like when she'd left her job and the safe boring life it represented. The two weeks with Luke had been worth it. It just made her wish for more.

An insistent buzzing distracted her, confusing her momentarily.
Her cell phone
. She threw clothes off the bed until she found it, but it had stopped ringing by the time she answered it.

Her phone buzzed again. She glanced down and saw a text. From her brother Charlie. She grinned when she read, "Call me ASAP. Please."

She speed-dialed him, knowing he needed something he couldn't find in the office, and in a way it made her feel good. It was a reminder of the familiar, while everything she'd experienced the past couple weeks, as well as her future, was almost foreign in comparison.

"Hey, Charlie, what's up?"

"Thanks for calling back. I was wondering, could you tell me—"

"What did you lose this time?" She laughed at how predictable her brother was. He was great at running the family business, but paperwork was not his strong suit.

"What? Oh, no, this doesn't have to do with work."

"Really? Oh. When I saw the ASAP, I just assumed—"

He paused. "Don't tell me you were thinking of coming back."

"Well, no. Maybe. Maybe I should."

"No, you shouldn't." His tone was emphatic, surprising Mia to her core.

"What? I seem to remember you nearly fainting from shock when I said I was leaving."

"Because I never thought you'd get the nerve to do it!" He chuckled. "We were this close to staging an intervention."

Mia plopped down on the edge of the bed and started laughing. Here she'd been worried about leaving her brothers in the lurch, feeling slightly selfish for wanting a different life, and all this time they had been trying to throw her out of the nest.

"Okay, so what did you need?"

"I need some advice. There's this new girl I've been seeing. I really like her a lot, and well, I need some help figuring out what I should do next."

After Charlie detailed what he wanted to do for his upcoming date, Mia said, "Well, you know my philosophy—"

"You won't know if you don't give it a try," he finished, and they both burst into laughter.

"What about you?" he asked. "Have you decided what you're going to do?"

That was the big question. Mia had a ton of potential answers, from what she should do, to what she wanted to do. She had changed so much in two short weeks. She knew she couldn't return to her old life, and she didn't want to anymore.

She wasn't exactly sure what her future life looked like either. She just knew there were lots of adventures involved, and she couldn't wait to get them started. She grinned, her heart beating with excitement.

"I'm going to—" Mia paused, trying to figure out where the pounding noise was coming from. "Charlie, can I call you back in a little bit? Somebody's at the front door."

Chapter 9

"Do you think we should knock again?"

Hellboy tilted his head, but before he could bark an answer to Luke's question, the door flew open.

"Oh, no!" Mia cried when she saw them.

Luke's heart sank. It wasn't exactly the response he'd been hoping for.

She blushed. "I'm sorry. That was meant for the monster. What has he done now?" She glanced around the front yard, as if she expected SWAT teams to descend on the property at any second.

"He hasn't done anything," Luke answered with a lopsided smile. "At least, not that I know of."

"So much for my plan to get him used to staying in his own house. He's completely adopted that
mi casa
,
su casa
thing." Mia opened the door wider, her smile lighting up her face, easing some of his worry. "Why don't you come in?"