Ruthless Ink Read online

  I’m wrong.

  When I enter, it’s like a spotlight follows me in. All eyes snap to me. The entire sales team—all thirteen of those grown-ass men—are staring like I’ve grown a third arm on the ride in with Russ. As I’m beginning to wonder if it’s the outfit, I meander to my desk, looking around, just as wide-eyed as everyone else.

  My butt barely touches my office chair when I’m bounding out of it to answer to my name. Luke is filling his office door, looking deliciously wonderful in a white dress shirt sans tie, smoky gray vest, and matching trousers. His sleeves are rolled up, hands tucked in the pockets of his perfectly-tailored slacks.

  There’s no way to block the full brunt of his piercing stare or to stop my quivering physical reaction to his gaze.

  “Miss Erickson,” he repeats, back to formality in the office. “Will you join me in here for a moment?”

  With surprising grace, I shrug off my coat and hook it over the back of my seat, and lift my purse off my chair and tuck it under my desk. Aware of my skirt swishing over my bare legs, I walk past the salesmen on the way to Luke’s office.

  I can feel their eyes following me, but to be sure I glance back and confirm what I’m sensing—the zeroed-in attention on me in the room. Funny thing is this is what I pictured the first time I walked into Hanley Auto for an interview with Floyd. At the time he’d been handling the hiring of staff.

  Luke’s father noticed my shock at the all-male staff and he brought it up, lamenting on the lack of gender diversity in the office. And before offering me the job, he asked if I’d be comfortable working with his men. I’d said one-hundred percent, as long as sexual harassment wasn’t a problem.

  It hadn’t ever been. These men all breathed their jobs. They couldn’t care less about their mousy office administrator. And they didn’t treat me unfairly, save last night, when they all dumped their work on me. All right, I volunteered, but still, they knew the task required time—time they all apparently agreed I had.

  Jerks.

  Now I’m on their radar, and my intuition screams it isn’t for the right reason.

  As soon as he shuts the door after me, Luke says, “They all know we’re fucking. I told them this morning, during an impromptu meeting, which you missed because you were late.”

  In another world, I would care about missing a meeting on what has to be the first day I’ve ever been late for work. But right now, I’m stuck on the part where he announced our sex life to everyone.

  “You what?” My voice has to carry outside the office. It sure fills the room loudly. “How?” I gasp, with only slightly better volume control.

  “Oh, I told them.”

  “You what?” I repeat, my eyes growing wide enough I’m fearing they’ll pop out of my head. When I get my mouth working past the flopping state of shock, I ask, “Why would you do that?”

  Luke circles past me to his desk, his spiced oaky musk perfuming the air around me. If I hadn’t been so concerned about the consequences of his brainless action, I might have allowed his scent to carry me over to him.

  Luke drops into his seat, puffing out a breath, his hands gathering open files on his desk. He collects and stacks them off to the side, his elbows now freer to perch atop the space he cleared. His hands form a steeple under his chin, strong jaw deliciously sprinkled with darker blond hairs, his Cupid’s bow mouth quirking up at the corners.

  “Forgive me if I caught you by surprise. I thought it pointless to sneak around though. Besides, it isn’t exactly ethical. I’m sure bigger companies have a dating policy in the workplace. It’s not something we ever considered here, but there’s a first for everything I suppose.” Luke smiles innocently.

  I’m not bowled over so easily by his charm.

  “Uhh, dating? And why didn’t you speak to me first? I would have liked a little warning in advance.” My anxiety raises the pitch of my voice again. I sound hysterical to myself, and I can’t imagine what Luke might be hearing.

  His brows slash down, clouding over his bright green eyes. I’m reminded of startling emeralds, once the world’s most valuable gems, long before pearls and diamonds took that contending spot. Luke, like those cherished emeralds of ancient times, is a long-standing, valuable member of this community.

  And I’m freaking out on him. It’s enough to have me backing up toward the office door, away from his desk. The power of his stare unnerves me. With a snap of his finger this man could steal this town, this home—this life from me.

  “Just stop, Lily,” Luke sighs. “Why is it you look at me like I’m a second away from gobbling you whole?”

  “I do that?” I stammer, blindsided by his accusation.

  Since when have we spent enough time together for him to make such an observation? Of course, I’m talking Luke here. A man with his power and wealth doesn’t get there with just a silver spoon in his mouth and sheer will. Being observant is a requisite in the car sales business, and, say, loan shark operations.

  That rumor of Luke’s extracurricular activities snaps my mouth shut, dries whatever else I have to say on the subject.

  So he told the office, what can I do about it now? I certainly am not going out there and contradicting him.

  Or else I might find myself trapped in the trunk of some nondescript car, staring down the barrel of a gun belonging to Russ or that other man with Russ, the eager one who wanted to shoot first, no questions asked.

  “I’m not a boogeyman.” Luke is both penetrative and grim.

  He lowers his hands and leans back in his chair, fingers now clawing over the ends of his armrests. I notice he has large hands, and I think about how talented they were at satisfying me last night. Luke’s voice draws my attention back to his handsome face.

  “Lily, we’re partners in this from here on out,” he says. “I want to keep you safe. And I’d like to think you want to do the same for me.”

  My lips are suctioned together. But I bob my head once, slowly, up and down.

  “I don’t like fucking repeating myself, so this is the only time I’ll say this. Listen up. For this story of ours to work, you’re going to have to trust me, and I’m giving you the same courtesy.

  “It’s all about reliability. Can you put faith in me to know I’ve got your best interests in mind, and vice versa?” Luke’s nostrils flare on his loud, sharp inhale. Pushing out of his seat then, he strides around his desk toward me.

  I have to crane my head up to meet his stare.

  He reaches out, grasping my arms, drawing me closer until we’re a heated inch apart. His breath, warm and minty, washes over my forehead. “Lily, I trust you to keep me safe. Do you trust me?”

  “What do you want from me?” I ask, my mind not working clearly. His body being so close and his hands on me fog any possible sane response to this situation.

  “From this point on, until I can clear it, we’re a couple,” Luke says, his gaze dipping lower, warming a trail wherever his eyes touch. “We’ll do everything normal couples do in healthy, loving relationships, and we’ll have an audience sometimes…”

  I gulp before he finishes his sentence.

  “And sometimes, sweet thing, it’ll just be the two of us.” He traps my chin with a hand, his thumb tracing the outline of my bottom lip. “You’re mine, Lily, and I’m yours. Would you like that?”

  Is he giving me a choice? If I tell him this isn’t what I want, will he back off? I don’t know if I’m strong enough to test it.

  Whatever he hears in my silence brings his mouth lower, his lips brushing mine. It’s a gentle meeting, my mouth opening up our kiss, his tongue dashing in to swipe mine. Our noses bump lightly as we throw care to the wind.

  Luke presses me to him with his arms locking around my back, and my hands gripping onto the opening of his vest. We’re clutching each other hungrily, like every second we aren’t touching is a second wasted.

  Breaking for air, I arch back, my head twisting from Luke’s relentless mouth. He suckles at my throat, lashing h
is tongue over my leaping jugular. He nips, grazing his teeth over the sensitive spot, laughing at my breathy gasp.

  “My. So touchy, Lily,” he whispers against my skin, the vibrations and heat of his words turning me into a squirming mess of wanton female.

  Luke knows he has me, and I won’t stop him from doing whatever he wants in spite of our being in the office with the rest of his staff less than a few feet from us. I might die if he doesn’t extinguish some of this fire he’s lit in me.

  Lifting his head up to kiss me soundly, he presses his question to my throbbing, sweetly sore lips. “What do you want for me to do, beautiful Lily?”

  “Me,” I whisper, staring into those green eyes, so open, so full of carnal knowledge. “Do me, please.”

  He doesn’t tease me, thank God. Taking my lips on another fast, bruising kiss, he bends down and sweeps my legs out from under me.

  Carrying me around his desk, he rolls back his office chair with his polished shoe and gently settles me beside his stack of files on one side, and his computer and the old photo of his father and him on the other. He palms the front of his pants, my attention zipping to his noticeable erection. The slim-fit slacks do nothing to cover his desire for me.

  With that fluttery ego boost, I go to work unbuttoning my cardigan and drawing my arms out of the tight sleeves. Tossing it atop the files, I reach down to tug the hem of my sleeveless blouse out from the waistband of my skirt.

  When I’m to my bra, I realize I’ll have to stand to undo the back zipper of my skirt. Luke’s big, warm hands on my thighs freeze me to his desk. “I wonder,” he says, eyes on my chest. “I wonder if I could pinch, twist, lick, and suck your tits, and get you off that way.”

  Reaching behind me, he unclasps my too-simple nude-colored bra, divesting it atop the pile of my clothes on his files. He cups my breasts, his hands filling up with my flesh. I watch as he thumbs my rosy pink nipples, hard already from his kisses earlier, and now painfully jutting to his attention.

  “Beautiful.” He touches his lips to one, the tip of his tongue flicking the sensitized bud. Luke chuckles when I arch in attempt to get his mouth closer and doing more of what he’s doing so damn well.

  I hate that he wants to be a tease now.

  I tell him so, cheeks warming at his raised brows and sultry grin.

  He’s terribly handsome and awfully good at this. He has to know how he’s affecting me.

  “You think I’m a tease?” Luke smirks, his dark blond lashes lowering as he watches his finger trace the outline of my areola. “That’s funny, because I’m thinking the same of you.” He taps my pert nipple, his tongue dashing out to suck in his bottom lip. He takes a noticeably long and loud inhale, his nostrils widening with the slow exhale.

  And that’s when I realize how much this foreplay affects him too. Leaning back, I see a man ready to snap with the rubber-band tension keeping him from stripping me down and taking me on his desk like a sex-starved beast.

  My face must reveal what I’m thinking because Luke lowers his mouth to my breast. He caves to the sparks of molten green desire around his dilated pupils and wraps his mouth around my nipple.

  His other hand moving from my breast falls over the small of my back at my arching response to his touch. He’s sloppy, sucking and slurping as much of me as he can.

  I squeal when he adds his teeth to the mix. He grazes me and then clamps his teeth around my nipple, gently tugging and releasing me with a loud, wet pop. It echoes in his office, it feels like, and I’m reminded for a second of my other co-workers outside.

  When he moves to lavish the same attention to my other breast, my hand falls over his head, fingers relishing the downy dark blond locks. Gripping onto what I can of his short, soft hair, I release a staccato breath through my gritted teeth. I’m squirming on the desk, my free hand reaching up to cover my mouth and muffle the moan shuddering through.

  “Shit,” Luke breaks away from my breast, pushes back from me, his hands falling on either side of my thighs on the desk. He pushes off, hands moving to the buckle of his belt. He gets to the unwinding the belt when his phone trills behind me, startling me at least a few inches up in the air off the desk. Both of us regard the flashing number.

  I’m the office administrator, but I don’t take Luke’s calls. Instead, most calls I receive are about the dealership’s hours, general booking appointments or more specific ones with certain sales staff, and sometimes the occasional phone call from a family member of a sales rep.

  Still, as if I planned to answer, he says, “I’ll get it.” Picking up the phone, he greets the caller politely enough. He hums at first to whatever he’s hearing, finally telling whoever it is, “I’ll be there soon. Don’t start without me.”

  Hanging up, he looks at me, his belt hanging open, my breasts bare to his roaming gaze.

  “Great timing.” His sarcasm is thick. Giving me a longing sweep, he sighs. “Make yourself decent, Lily. Our fun is over...for now.”

  I shiver, my mouth drying under his heated stare. I miss it as soon as he lowers his head and fixes his belt. I dress silently and he leads me to his office door, his hand falling still over the handle. His feathery-light kiss on my cheek surprises me.

  “Have dinner with me tonight?”

  It’s a question. He’s letting me choose how I’ll spend my evening—with or without him.

  That warms my heart, and I shyly nod.

  His dashing smile is worth it. Opening the door, his hand falling to the small of my back, he leads me out to our audience. “We’ll have dinner at seven thirty. I’ll be by your place at six.”

  Aware of the eyes watching us, I mutter, “Sure.”

  While I walk away, I glance back and see Luke watching me—watching my ass, I believe. Then he says, loud enough in case no one else heard, “Six then. It’s a date.”

  #

  Luke left half an hour after our office rendezvous. On passing my desk, he brushed a kiss over my forehead and reminded me of our dinner plans yet again.

  The sales team spent their day ogling me, but I found myself becoming more annoyed than embarrassed. Why is it such a shock to them that I might find pleasure in the company of a handsome man? Have I only ever been a coffee-making robot to them before?

  At home, I dress with Kerry’s help. She’s stuck at home grading a stack of math tests, but she would kill me knowing I left her out of the loop on this one.

  “Okay, I grabbed my popcorn.” She takes her seat back in front of her webcam, her face filling the screen of my computer. When I tell her she’s a bit too close, she backs up.

  With my thumbs up clearing her, she launches back into her tirade from earlier. “I still can’t believe you’re going out on a date, and with Luke Hanley.” She practically squeals at the end, her lips spreading wide with a smile. “Luke Hanley. I should have known it.”

  “Oh?” I challenge.

  I’m trying the fifth outfit. The other four having been vetoed by at least one of us. I think this is the one. Nothing says sexy and classy like a simple black dress, plain and to the point.

  “Yes! You’re always defending him whenever I say something about the dealership. Only last night you were chasing me off him for working you so late.” Kerry’s mentioning last night chases away the flutters I’ve been feeling in my stomach over going out with Luke.

  I have to remember why Luke is doing this, why he’s giving me the time of day. He hasn’t said it straight-up, but this is part of some elaborate alibi. I keep my mouth shut and I get to be Luke’s girlfriend, his plus one.

  He’s probably planning a whole string of dates like this one. Scratching off a checklist until he corners me with all the gifts he’s showered me with and then I’m stuck, stripped of my credibility. Who’s going to believe a scorned woman who's been sleeping with the man she’s accusing of being involved in a murder?

  Both Kerry’s voice and my doorbell ground me in the present.

  “I should get that,” I murmur. L
eaving my laptop and Kerry’s concerned expression behind, I head out to answer the front door.

  I check the peephole, a little taken aback by the Potentia police badge filling my line of vision and the deep voice begging my pardon.

  Opening the door a smidge, I peek out at the handsome officer. He’s dressed in plain clothes and he introduces himself as Detective Art Dayton.

  “Are you Miss Lily Erickson?”

  “I am,” I say, opening the door a bit wider. He’s an officer and, just as with Luke, I don't want to get on this man’s bad side. I haven’t had a brush with an officer in Potentia yet.

  “May I speak to you for a moment, Miss Erickson?”

  “About?” I’m wary for obvious reasons. Luke and his thugs Russ and the other guy, come to mind. Then there’s the memory of the shadowy outline of a body in that trunk.

  “About Hanley Auto, your workplace, Miss Erickson. I believe a crime took place there last night, and I have it on authority you might have information.”

  Over the bang, bang of the ghost gun in my memory, I catch the end of Detective Dayton’s statement. I swallow hard, suddenly wishing Luke was here. Stepping back to make room in the doorway for the detective, I say, “Come in.”

  Now I only hope I won’t regret my decision.

  Chapter 7

  Luke

  I’m early for Lily.

  She’s dressed, but a little surprised when I knock on the door at twenty minutes to six. She stares at me, blinking, mouth opening like she has something to say. Then she snaps it closed and looks me over.

  I’ve changed my clothes.

  I couldn’t meet up with her before showering off my afternoon activities. Grimacing at the memory of chasing down that two-bit motel manager, I clench my fists, my knuckles still smarting from beating answers out of the bastard. I left him in Russ’ and Keith’s care after that, hunting down my next victim.

  That hunt led me to a strip joint in St. Louis. Someone had tipped off the club owner, so I found the trip mostly worthless except that I now temporarily owned a nudie bar. I’d love to see Lily’s expression after she heard that one, but the thought of mixing her innocence with my world churns my stomach.