LUKE: Complete Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

so…..”
    “So what?”
    Thankfully, we reached the counter before I could finish that thought. The woman behind the counter looked about my age, just a bit too tanned, but her eyes lit up when she saw Luke. He smiled at her as he removed his hand from my back.
    “Hi, Lany. This is Brina.”
    Lany flashed me a curt smile before she resumed batting her eyelashes at Luke. I wondered if they had ever slept together. Imagining this brought forth an ugly roar of jealousy inside me; a raging desire to claim him as my own.
    “We’ll both have a double espresso and some of those coconut ladyfingers. How’s your mom doing? I heard Kay was in the hospital.”
    Lany took Luke’s credit card, making a point to brush the back of his hand with her fingertips. “She’s doing okay. She had knee surgery, so they’re just waiting for the incision to heal before they start physical therapy. I’ll tell her you asked about her. It’ll make her day.”
    Luke took his card back and I couldn’t help but notice every customer and employee in the place staring at us as he led me to an empty sofa at the back of the café. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the sofa was on permanent reserve for him; the perks of being a gorgeous and dangerously charming billionaire.
    “Don’t worry about them,” he said, as he took a seat and patted the cushion next to him. “They’ve just never seen me here with anyone as beautiful as you.”
    “How many women have you been here with?” As soon as the words came out of my mouth I regretted speaking them. I was supposed to be keeping this light. Talking about past relationships was not light coffee banter. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”
    “Okay. I won’t.” He smiled at me and that jealous seed that had taken root earlier began to grow again. His smile widened. He knew exactly what he was doing to me. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought here.”
    “And I’m supposed to believe that because…?”
    “Because they’re staring at you like you’re an alien, and you are.”
    “Best compliment I’ve ever received from a man.”
    “Well, to them you are. This is a pretty tight-knit little group. You’ll like it.”
    He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine just as Lany strolled toward us with our espressos. She set the tiny cups and saucers on the shabby coffee table in front of us and scowled at me before she turned on her heel and strutted away.
    “Thanks, Lany,” Luke called out, to which she held up her hand and kept walking. He didn’t bother mentioning that she had forgotten our ladyfingers.
    My stomach flipped as I realized I really was the first girl he’d ever brought in here. I’d bet anything Lany thought she had a chance with Luke until today.
    Luke was a private person. The tabloid magazines had photographed him with women only a handful of times over the last few years, but no one ever seemed to get the details on those relationships. His relationships with women were either so brief or so secretive, they had successfully flown under the radar for years. Why then was he bringing me here to his personal Cheers, where everybody knew his name?
    He leaned toward me and placed his lips right next to my ear. “Drink your espresso before it gets cold. I’m dying to get you on my boat so I can rip that stupid T-shirt off of you.”
    I shoved him away. “The stupid T-shirt you made me wear. You T-shirt Nazi.”
    He laughed so hard I couldn’t help but join in the laughter and soon my limbs were too weak to push him away as he leaned over and kissed my cheekbone.
    “I love your T-shirt.”
    A deep sigh formed inside my chest and I exhaled slowly, trying to keep myself from making out with him right there. I gulped down the bitter espresso like a tequila shot to keep my mouth busy and he shook his head.
    “Next time I bring you here you’re going to sip it and savor it, slowly, tasting every drop.”
    Oh, God.
    “Can we leave