I took all that in while the need to punch Marvin in the fucking face for pushing his baby daughter into a life of crime began to boil inside. “What’d you do?”
“I went back home, got the wallet and returned it to the man I’d stolen it from. Told him I’d found it in the gutter, making my eyes as big and innocent as I could. He was so happy to have it back I doubt he would have looked twice at me if I’d had two heads.”
I pulled into the underground parking lot of the Carbide and Carbon Building, took the ticket from the kiosk and hit the first parking space that I came across. “It could never have been as easy as that, genius. Your old man might not have been Truman Steadfast at that point, but a control freak is always a control freak. Good ol’ Marvin would never have let that big of a score slip through his fingers without a fight. More to the point, he never would have tolerated disobedience, especially from you.”
“Oh, I paid for it,” she acknowledged with a bitter smile. “There was a bunch of old wooden pallets stacked up in the alley behind where we lived at that time. I set them on fire, then ran inside like I was in a panic because there was a fire in the alley. When he ran outside to see what was going on, I grabbed the wallet and did what I had to do. When I returned home, he was waiting for me. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, going back home and facing him, but even when he beat the tar out of me with a switch and locked me in a room for a day and a night as punishment, I knew something he didn’t.”
The thought of her father beating her made it almost impossible to keep my voice calm. “What was that?”
“I knew I was right. I was right, and he was wrong. And that belief is something I’ve carried with me in my heart from that day to this one.” At last she turned to look me straight in the eye, and not even the gloom of the parking garage lighting could lessen the ferocity of it. “I know who and what my father is, Luke. But he’s my father. Mydad, and I love him. That’s something that’s never going to change, and it’s probably the most important thing you need to know about the real me. Are you hearing me, monster?”
“I’m hearing you, genius.” Palming the car’s fob in one hand, I reached out with the other to hook it around her nape and pull her into a deep kiss that both sizzled my blood and soothed my soul. How one kiss could be the answer to so many things was as much a mystery as the woman herself, but no way was I going to complain.
“Loving our parents is something neither one of us should ever have to apologize for,” I murmured when I finally broke the kiss. But since I hated being too far away from that made-for-kissing mouth of hers, I couldn’t force myself any farther away than an inch or two. “Just keep that in mind when I take you upstairs to meet my mother, yeah? She’s… kind of an original.”
In the gloom I watched her brows do a slow rise. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.”
*
Eden
The Carbide and Carbon Building was one of Chicago’s great Art Deco gifts to the world. It was thirty-seven stories of 1920s gilded magic, an official historic landmark and the current home to a couple nightclubs, upscale boutiques and a five-star hotel. For one wild moment I wondered if this was some sort of trick Luke was pulling to get me locked up in a hotel room with him, but I discarded that idea as quickly as it surfaced. Lesser men wouldn’t think twice about pulling a trick like that, but Luke? Never. Not only was it beneath him, the fact was someone who was such an over-the-top man didn’t have to play stupid games just to get laid. All he had to do was snap his fingers, and females the world over fell onto their backs with their legs in the air.
God, I hoped he never snapped his fingers around me. It was all I could do to keep him at this much of a distance.
Some distance, I thought, following Luke from the garage into the magnificent marble and gold lobby. I still couldn’t believe I told him about my pickpocketing past. That little tidbit hardly meshed with the aura of coolly pampered professionalism I tried so hard to project. If I went to my grave with no one else in the world knowing I had once been the modern version of the Artful Dodger, I would be a happy camper.
So why? Why had I shared that part of myself with Luke?
I didn’t have an answer.
And that was the biggest part of the problem. Until Luke came along, I thought I knew who and what I was—a locked vault, with so many horrors inside no one would ever be allowed to see them. But whenever Luke was around, I hardly recognized the person I became. I had no clue what new reaction he was going to pull out of me, from babbling like a fool about my past one minute, to yearning to climb him like a tree the next. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time, being that out of control, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Running from him seemed like the best option, but the mere thought left me frozen from the inside out.
I couldn’t run from my monster. I needed to be near him just to stay warm.
“You’ve gone quiet,” he said, slowing as he aimed us toward a magnificent set of black and gold double doors with a gilded sign, THE THUNDER CLUB, overhead. “I’m still learning about you, but I’ve got a feeling that you going quiet can never be a good thing.”
I watched him open the club’s door. “Why not?”
“Because it means you’re thinking. Or plotting.”
Hm. “Does a thinking woman challenge you, or make you want to run for the hills? You don’t have to answer, of course, if you feel too threatened by the question. I’m just curious.”
His laughter boomed as we entered into the silent club. “Jesus, you’re such a piece of work.”
“So you do feel threatened?” That wasn’t very fun.
“WhatI feel is so damn turned on by you every time you try to manipulate me, all I can think about is spanking your ass for being a bad girl. Though since your old man used a switch on you as a kid, an open hand swat probably wouldn’t appeal. Would it?”
How was I supposed to breathe after that? Seriously,how? “I… have no idea. We’ll have to find out.” Holy crap, did I just say that?
“Hell, yeah. We’re definitely going to find out.” Turning his back on the empty club—three large tiers filled with tables covered in purple linens, built in a semicircle around a currently empty stage—he pressed a hand into the small of my back and pulled me to him, his eyes never leaving mine.“You feel what that does to me, my beautiful genius? You feel how much you excite me?”
Oh, yes. His hard-on was unmistakable when he pressed me to him like this. Damp heat bloomed between legs that suddenly wanted to shake, so much so I had to lock my knees in place so I wouldn’t melt at his feet.
“You’ve gone quiet again.” His lips hovered over mine—a sweet threat, a breathless promise. “What goes on in that head of yours when you go quiet?”