Eve Devon - It’s In His Kiss

‘Was there enough in there?’

‘Sure,’ Luke said, and the way he turned from her to put the bunch of flowers into the beaker and set them on the windowsill, Sephy knew that there hadn’t been.

‘How much do I owe you?’

‘Forget it,’ he said, walking over to open the pizza box.

‘No, I will not forget it. I said I’d pay. I’m paying. How much did you have to put in to make up the difference?’

‘Ten.’

Sephy reached over, set down her pizza and rose to her feet at the same instant Luke tried to walk past her and take his seat on the sofa. Their eyes locked as they brushed up against each other and when she pushed her hand into the pocket of her skinny jeans, Luke seemed to press closer, bringing with him a sizzling heat that had all her thought processes scattering.

Sephy’s insides felt as if they were tied to a bungee rope and were hurtling towards the ground before being yanked back up, and then Luke was springing backwards and she was finally remembering why her hand was in her pocket and withdrawing some notes.

Silently she passed him a ten.

Silently he took it from her and shoved it into his jeans pocket before snapping up the control to mute the volume on the TV.

‘I don’t mind if you wanted to watch that,’ Sephy said, glad her voice sounded normal, while everything else inside of her was screaming ‘how do I make it go back to the way it was before I asked him to model for me?’

As if Luke was thinking the exact same thing, he grabbed up his plate and said calmly, ‘You don’t think we ought to try and get past this new weirdness between us?’

‘Weirdness?’ she stalled, her mouth going dry. ‘What weirdness?’

‘The, “you asking me to pose nude in photos to sex up your ad campaign, and me saying no” weirdness.’

‘Oh, that,’ Sephy forced a grin. ‘I’m over that. Although, for the record, I did not ask you to pose in the nude . At least, not entirely,’ she added.

‘So even though you don’t have a model booked and the launch is in less than two weeks, you’re completely okay with how things are?’

Aiming for nonchalance, Sephy waved the hand holding the slice of pizza. ‘Everything will work out,’ she said.

‘You’re not even looking for a model, are you?’ Luke said on a huff of breath.

She stared at the silent TV. ‘I told you – I can’t afford one.’

‘And I told you I’m perfectly happy to help you out with that.’

‘No thanks,’ she said, shoving in a huge mouthful of delicious hot pizza in a bid to keep from following up with a lecture on how she didn’t need anyone’s money.

‘Have you come up with an alternative?’

‘I have chosen to let the banners stand as they are.’

‘And you’re completely happy to do that?’ he pressed.

‘No Mr Spanish Inquisitor,’ she said, with a roll of her eyes, ‘but I have to work with what I have. And what I have is a professionally shot ad campaign that I paid a lot of money for.’

‘Sephy –’

‘What?’ Sephy whipped her head around to look at him, ‘I asked you for help, but you said “no”.’ There was a flash of guilt that dulled the green of his eyes and she really didn’t like how that made her feel, so she added, ‘which you were perfectly entitled to do. I’m a big girl, Luke. I’m not going to hold that against you.’

‘Right. You’ve decided not to resent that the one time you asked me outright for something, I said no?’

‘That’s right, because the last time I checked, I wasn’t a child.’

‘Ha. Let’s put the clucking like a chicken on the evidence table.’

Sephy blushed. ‘That was a mistake.’ She took another bite of food and, after swallowing, said softly, ‘I really don’t resent you for saying no.’

Luke turned back to the TV and lifted the pizza to his mouth before dropping a casual, ‘You know, you could ask Ryan to be your model.’

Sephy snorted and lowered her plate to her lap in shock. ‘I am not asking Ryan.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because.’

Luke turned his head to watch her closely. ‘Because…?’

Because he’s not you.

Sephy was very afraid her eyes had become rather round and large as the realisation that she hadn’t even considered asking Ryan, or anyone else, took proper hold.

Ryan may still have his bad-boy, wild-child looks, but his previous lifestyle had added a tired and jaded edge and, if anything, he now looked like a man who simply wanted peace in his life.

Luke, on the other hand, looked…

Sephy fiddled with the crust of her pizza.

Luke looked like still waters ran deep.

Luke had this quiet, serious and confident, can-take-care-of-himself presence.

But then those dimples would come out to play and that automatically translated as ‘and-I-am-more-than-capable-of-taking-care-of-a-woman’s-needs-at-the-same-time’.

The moment she’d seen Luke holding her bra, she’d known unequivocally the response images of him would evoke. No, she couldn’t afford a professional model, but the truth was she didn’t want a professional model. She wanted Luke.

Not for herself. Obviously. She already knew that kind of complication would lead to her losing his friendship.

Picking off a piece of pepperoni she popped it into her mouth, curled her tongue around it and then said, ‘I’m only just getting to know Ryan again. We’re,’ she broke off to search for the right words, ‘we’re both somehow the complete opposite of how we were when we knew each other the first time round.’

Luke said nothing and, after a moment, reached past her for another slice of pizza.

Sephy’s gaze fixed on his sinewy forearm and the twist of brown leather cord that wrapped around his wrist and rubbed up alongside his chunky, masculine watch. She wondered if the leather had been a gift. God, his hands and arms really would have looked so wonderfully sexy in those photographs.

‘So how is it all going, with Ryan?’

‘Huh?’ She really, really had to snap out of sinking herself into the mental images she kept dreaming up to re-shoot her ad campaign.

‘I was asking about Ryan. It’s all going well?’

‘I guess,’ she answered and then frowned. ‘At least I thought it was.’

‘Why, what’s happened?’

Sephy didn’t know whether to tell him. She was probably worrying about nothing.

‘Seph,’ Luke pushed and the hint of protectiveness in his tone made her smile.

‘He broke up with his girlfriend.’

‘I see.’ Luke finished off the last bite of his pizza, tore off a piece of kitchen roll, rubbed it between his hands until it formed a ball and tossed it onto his plate. ‘And that’s your problem because?’

‘It’s not really,’ she answered, telling him what he wanted to hear and wondering if anyone would ever believe she could care about Ryan simply because he was the father of her child and not because she was starting to develop feelings for him again.

If there was one thing Sephy could rely on about herself it was that a lesson learned was a lesson learned. She didn’t do repeat mistakes. Years of trying to get her father to notice her had taught her that life was too short to keep banging your head against a brick wall.

‘You’re worried Ryan’s going to relapse?’ Luke asked.

‘Maybe.’ It was a distinct possibility. Breaking up with his girlfriend was Ryan’s first real test after coming out of rehab four months ago. What if the upset made him start gambling again?

Her sister Nora was engaged to Ryan’s brother Ethan and Sephy had been dithering over whether she should ring Ethan and let him know. She kind of hoped Ryan had already told him and had been leaning on him for support, but Nora hadn’t said anything and that made her question what shape Ryan was really in.