Temptation (Club Destiny) (43 page)

She didn’t speak as she exited the kitchen, walking as calmly as she could manage down the long hallway to the front door. She heard the click of Susan’s heels behind her, and she prayed she could reach the door before the other woman said another word.

“You’re slutty behavior has no place in a professional environment. You should seriously consider making adjustments before you even think about working for anyone else. I’ll make sure this rumor circulates.”

Her blood pressure spiked and a red haze clouded Sierra’s vision. For the last couple of months she had put up with more abuse from this one woman than she had anyone else in her entire life. Turning abruptly, she came face to face, although Susan was quite a bit taller, with the woman. Keeping her hands at her side, not wrapped around Susan’s neck like she wanted, was harder than she imagined.

“I don’t have many regrets in my life, Ms. Toulmin. Or is it Ms.
Mackendrick
?” Keeping her voice level, Sierra stared back at the woman noting the flash of fear in her eyes. “I definitely don’t regret the actions I take in my personal life. If I want to be in a relationship, that is my choice. Not yours. Who I do that with is also my choice. Not yours. And if I choose to live my life out in the open, instead of hiding behind another name, or the closed doors of a sex club, that’s my choice as well.”

Apparently the comment hit home, and Susan must have realized Sierra knew more than she thought. That didn’t stop Sierra speaking her mind.

“And being the jilted ex-lover is not a good look for you. If you can’t handle rejection then I suggest you keep your snooty ass in the house, and limit who you interact with. I’m not naïve enough to think that you won’t do what you said you would and by all means, go ahead and try. But just remember one thing. When it comes to secrets, I’m not the one who has any.”

With that Sierra turned and walked gracefully out of Susan’s front door, not looking back. She didn’t have to. The woman’s eyes had nearly bugged out of her head, and her audible gasp told Sierra that she had hit her mark.

If Susan thought Sierra was going to sit back and take any sort of threat from the likes of her, she was sadly mistaken. Accepting who she was hadn’t come easily for Sierra, but once she had made that decision, her life had taken a turn. And the only direction she was willing to go from here on out was forward.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Luke had missed Sierra’s call. He’d been too wrapped up in what he had just heard to answer the phone. Was Cole really going to see Lucie tonight? After everything that the three of them had developed over the last couple of weeks, was he really going to flaunt his involvement with another woman? After blatantly lying to Luke’s face and telling him they were nothing more than friends? Right. But he had believed him.

Luke couldn’t imagine the devastation this would have on Sierra. Which was partly the reason he had let her call go to voicemail. He damn sure wasn’t going to be the one to break the news to her, and at the time she had called, he wouldn’t have been able to keep from mouthing off about it. That slow burning rage that he thought he had under control was surfacing once more, this time boiling hot and fiery as hell. The bastard.

He thought about asking Lucie what the hell that was all about, but decided against it. She worked for him. Besides she had been acting really strange around him for a while now, but Luke chalked it up to the fact that she had been caught stealing. They had set up a payment plan, and she was having the money deducted from her payroll, though Luke hadn’t felt good about the idea. When he tried to talk to her about it, she clammed up, insisting that it was her punishment, and the right thing to do.

So here they were. Lucie was paying him back for stealing and apparently Cole was paying him back as well. For what, he didn’t know. And he damn sure didn’t like it. He just wasn’t sure how to go about approaching Cole about it. Part of him wanted to go to Lucie’s and wait for Cole to show up, just so he could beat the shit out of him for hurting Sierra that way.

Oh, who was he kidding? He wanted to beat the shit out of Cole for hurting
him
that way too.

When his phone rang, Luke grabbed it from his pocket and glanced at the caller id.

Sierra.

He very well couldn’t ignore her. Especially since she had called twice in the last thirty minutes.

“What’s wrong?” He asked immediately when he hit the talk button.

“Can you come over?” Her voice sounded strange, a little shaky.

“Now?” Luke headed to his office, fully intending to leave, regardless of what her answer was.

“Whenever you get a chance.” She told him, sounding very unsure of herself.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Are you sure everything’s ok?” He asked, needing her reassurance.

“It will be.”

And what the hell was that supposed to mean? Was there a full moon or something?

Luke was beginning to wonder what the hell was going on. Both Cole and Sierra were acting strange. And here he had been getting comfortable, the one thing he had warned himself not to do. Yes, that likely made him a pessimist, but damn it, if Logan could make a relationship work, Luke was bound and determined that he could to0.

With a renewed sense of vigor, Luke grabbed a small box out of his desk drawer before stopping at the bar to let Kane know he’d be gone for a while. Luke made a mental note to talk to Kane first thing tomorrow, because the man definitely deserved a raise.

The drive to Sierra’s took longer than Luke wanted it to, but the afternoon traffic was a bitch. That was the one thing Luke hated about Dallas. No matter what time of day, or what day it was, traffic sucked. With his irritation level already reaching epic proportions, the added frustration hadn’t helped his mood any. Thankfully he pulled into Sierra’s drive, which helped him relax just a bit. Seeing her tended to do that to him.

Luke might be an irate asshole most of the time, but when it came to Sierra, she was the only person who could soothe his frazzled nerves. Just seeing her was like a salve to what seemed to be a constant ache inside of him. Since the moment he met her, and despite some of his more ignorant reactions, Luke knew that he lived for this woman.

Before he exited the truck, he grabbed the small box he had tossed in the center console and removed the tiny object inside. Slipping it into his pocket, he was overcome with an emotion he wasn’t all that familiar with. Nervousness.

And he had every right to be. He didn’t know what he was walking into, but heaven help him, it was time that he set this woman straight. Not knowing what it was she needed to talk to him about was eating away at him, and he prayed she hadn’t gone back to thinking she was moving back to Nashville. The thought almost leveled him.

When he reached the front porch, he took a calming breath – it didn’t help one bit – and rapped his knuckles against the door. A few seconds later, the door opened, and the most beautiful woman in the world stood before him. That’s when his heart plummeted into his stomach. She had been crying.

“What’s the matter?” He asked, stepping inside and pulling her up against him, not wasting a single second before touching her. When she wrapped her arms around him, pressed her face against his chest and began sobbing, he experienced that same killing rage he’d felt once before. Whoever had made her cry would be sorry.

Instead of pushing her to talk, he held her against him, soaking up the feel of her, running his hand down her spine, through the long, glossy tresses flowing like satin down her back. When her body stopped shaking, he eased back a step, cupping her face in his hands, forcing her to look up at him.

“She wants me to quit.”

Huh?

Leading her to the couch, Luke sat beside her, still holding her close. Who wanted her to quit? Before he could ask the question, Sierra exploded into words and motion, pushing up from her seat and pacing back and forth across the room.

“Susan called me to her house, and when I got there, she proceeded to tell me that I needed to quit.” Sierra kept pacing, not looking at him. “If she was going to fire me, I was going to be ecstatic, but the bitch said I needed to quit. I’m not going to quit. I’m not a quitter.”

Luke hadn’t seen this side of Sierra. She was fiercely adamant, and the use of the B word nearly made him smile. He still wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but he didn’t interrupt.

“She, of all people, wants to tell me that it’s wrong to be in a relationship with two men. But how would she know anyway? The hypocrite. She didn’t give me a choice, telling me that it’s wrong, and I should be embarrassed.” Then she did turn and look at him. “But I’m not embarrassed, Luke. That’s the problem.”

He definitely didn’t see a problem with that.

“I’m happy being who I am and going after what I want. I’ve spent my entire life wondering what was wrong with me. Then she all but tells me that if I ever plan to work in this town again, I needed to quit, or she was going to sue me. Sue. Me. Can you believe that?”

Ok hold up just a minute. All of the pieces clicked into place and Luke prayed that it wasn’t true. “Are you telling me Susie told you that you needed to quit because of me and Cole?”

“Yes.” Sierra said before stopping and tossing her hair back over her shoulder. “She implied that I’m not normal and that I’m an embarrassment for being in a relationship with two men and that if I didn’t quit, she would sue me for misrepresentation. How could she?”

Luke couldn’t sit still any longer. He made his way over to Sierra, standing in her path so that the next time she paced, she came in direct contact with him. He reached out and held her in place, smiling down at the woman. His woman. “What did you tell her?”

“Everything that was on my mind.” Sierra smiled, and Luke’s heart turned over. God he loved this woman.

“Which was?”

“I told her that I wasn’t going to quit. That I wasn’t going to end my relationships because this is my life, damn it, and I can do whatever I choose to do. She doesn’t have any say in the matter.” Taking a deep breath, Sierra closed her eyes, then opened them once more. “Then I told her to remember that I wasn’t the one keeping secrets.”

~~  **  ~~  **  ~~  **  ~~

Good girl.

Standing there, staring down at her, Luke was beaming with pride. This woman had stood up for him. For Cole. So their relationship wasn’t normal. It would never be normal in the eyes of most people, but he didn’t care. What he felt for both Sierra and Cole couldn’t be changed by the harsh stares of others, or their ignorant comments. And to know that Sierra stood up for them had his heart swelling in his chest.

“I love you.” He blurted the words out.

Sierra stumbled back a step, still staring up at him. “What?”

“You heard me.” He said, stalking her as he moved forward and she took another step back.

“Say it again.”

“I. Love. You.” He told her before he pulled her up against him and crushed his mouth to hers. He filled his hands with her luscious body, while letting his tongue tease hers. When she tried to pull away, he kept her close, a little worried about what she would say. And yes, maybe he was a little insecure. But, Luke knew one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. He loved this woman fiercely and with everything that he was made of.

Sure, it took him longer than it should have to say it, almost as long for him to accept it, but now that the words were out there, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

To think that his own actions could have very well pushed away this woman because he was too insecure to have something of his own, scared that she would be taken away from him and he would be left with another empty space inside of him had been too much to bare. It had happened with his parents. They had been torn from his life so easily and Luke had vowed, even as a young kid, that he would never have something stolen from him again. Yet he had almost done that to himself.

“Luke.” Sierra managed to push back from him, breaking the kiss, but not letting go of him. He stared down at her, holding his breath as he waited to hear what she had to say. God, please don’t let her reject him. He didn’t think she would, but with the way his luck seemed to run lately, there were no guarantees.

“I love you.” She whispered the words and they went straight through him, piercing his heart.

When she kissed him, he poured every ounce of what he was feeling into the kiss, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bedroom.

“Where are we going?” She asked, grinning.

“To get you naked.” Plain and simple.

Luke didn’t waste any time getting them both out of their clothes and then climbing on top of her. “Wait, I forgot something.” He said and rushed off the bed, nearly face planting off the side.

“We don’t need a condom.” She told him, laughing as she watched from where she lay, naked and beautiful, sprawled out like a goddess before him.

No. They didn’t need a condom. But that wasn’t what he was looking for. As he searched through his pockets, finally finding it, he crawled back over her once more.

Staring down at her, seeing the light in her eyes, the soft smile on her lips had his heart rate increasing. The fact that she was naked already spiked his blood pressure, but the way she looked at him so sweetly, had him grinning like an idiot.