Gambling on Love (Stories of Serendipity #6) (2 page)

Then she raised her eyes to his and swallowed.

He’d never felt anything like the pressure exerted on the tip of his dick at that moment, and he almost went to his knees. Letting out a groan was all he managed. She brought herself back from his base and swirled her tongue around him, licking him from base to tip, before taking him in her mouth again.

And this time she sucked.

Luke’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he succumbed to the sensations. He couldn’t look at her anymore, all of it was just too much. The only thing he was capable of focusing on was the phenomenal feeling of her mouth on his cock, her tongue rolling around the shaft, while she sucked in and out.

When one hand reached around to cup his ass and the other massaged his balls, Luke felt himself swell impossibly harder, and the orgasm he’d held off was coming.

“I’m coming, Kathy…” He hissed air into his lungs, as she moaned over his dick, adding another sensation to the mix. “I can’t hold it…” He grabbed the base of himself and squeezed, trying to stop the inevitable, but Kathy didn’t stop. She did that thing with her throat again, taking him in fully, and it was over. Stars exploded behind Luke’s eyes; his blood pounded in his ears with a roar, and he had no idea what came out of his mouth. Cries of ecstasy? Roar of triumph? The word fuck over and over? No clue.

He slunk down next to Kathy, unable to hold himself up anymore. He pulled her into his arms, crushing her softness against him.

“Come home with me.”

She giggled into the crook of his neck. “I can’t, silly…”

And that had started it. The ever constant conversation about them living together. The pains of a long-distance relationship. Then “the next level” conversations began. And he’d come up with a plan, because he didn’t want to lose her. He’d told her at Christmas to just wait a little while longer, as he had plans to put into place. This whole thing was supposed to be a surprise, but she’d messed it up with her ultimatum last month, and Luke had taken a gamble. Today was the day to see if his gamble paid off.

Luke could see her, walking briskly back and forth behind the buffet tables, talking to each of the servers, no doubt issuing last minute instructions. He could imagine her voice telling the kids to be polite, smile, don’t serve too much food.

Her strawberry blond hair was gorgeous, shiny and smooth. She was wearing it pulled back, but he could still see his fingers running through it, pulling out the ponytail, smoothing the fly-aways, tucking it behind her ear, all for an excuse to touch it. He couldn’t see her blue eyes, but he hoped they held their familiar sparkle.

Luke felt like he had a swarm of black birds in his stomach. He wasn’t nervous about the Opening. He could care less about it; it had been a ploy. The ploy was what he was nervous about.

S
o far, so good. Kathy was pleased with the servers and the graciousness of the consumers. Now, everyone was seated, and Kathy was overseeing the break-down of the dishes and tables. She had a small crew doing that, while a different crew was seeing to the people seated. As she supervised the breakdown, her mind ran through her plan. Luke hadn’t been receptive to her wishes for a family and commitment; he’d made it plain.

Since she couldn’t get a commitment from him, she had to find another way. She’d loved Luke. Kathy told herself it was all past tense, because it was plain that he didn’t feel the same. He wasn’t willing to take the relationship to the logical conclusion, and she wasn’t getting any younger. So she’d made a plan. So what if she didn’t get the whole package. Kathy swallowed the painful lump in her throat and sought out Luke’s location. Again.

He was on the stage. Connor was standing off to the side with Jessie. Kathy supposed their reasons for still being here were two-fold. Luke was Connor’s brother, and he was being supportive of his kid brother’s endeavors. And she was sure he would have notes for her tomorrow about her job as overseeing the first catering operation.

When the mic squeaked, Kathy’s attention was diverted to that direction, and her breath caught in her throat.

Luke looked amazing, just like he had all day. Dammit.

She’d been watching him covertly all morning, because she’d never seen him so dressed up before. Granted, this was Serendipity, so he was only wearing a sport coat over khakis, but he wore it well. The sport coat opened over a light-blue oxford shirt with the top two buttons unbuttoned, showing off his neck that Kathy loved to kiss.

Used to, Kathy. Used to love to kiss. Past tense, bitch. Keep your head on straight.

The oxford shirt was tucked into a pair of khaki pants, cinched over his slim hips with a brown leather belt. She pictured her fingers undoing the buckle and slipping it through the belt loops and then mentally slapped herself back to reality.

Luke took the microphone.

“I would like to thank everybody who came today for helping me celebrate this occasion. Firstly, my brother, Connor, and his wife, Jessie, who have been so supportive over the last couple of months. And his new catering business for feeding everybody.” He paused to acknowledge Connor, and the smattering of applause that accompanied his words. He continued, acknowledging members of the community who’d helped him out, Chamber of Commerce officers, and various others who had assisted in one way or another.

Kathy was just managing to tune out his hypnotic voice, when it dropped a register and addressed her.

“Kathy? Will you come up here, please?” He was looking across the crowd at her, standing behind the last table. Unable to speak past the ever-present lump in her throat, she frantically shook her head at him, offering a weak smile to the tables of people turning to look at her. “Ladies and gentlemen, apparently she needs some encouragement? Kathy spent a year praising Serendipity’s virtues to me, in hopes of getting me up here. I need to tell her something.”

What does he think he’s doing?
Heat swarmed her face, as murmurs of encouragement along with a few catcalls, cajoled her onstage. Her blood pounded in her ears, as Kathy stared at her feet and began walking.

She climbed the steps, hyper-aware that she had spilled some sauce on her pristine white chef’s coat, and stood in front of Luke, her arms crossed over her chest. She continued staring at the wooden floor of the stage, unwilling to meet his gaze. She knew that once she looked at his eyes, she would cry.

“Kathy, you are the reason I’m here. You are the reason I decided to make the leap of faith and start this business. You are the reason I’m holding a microphone in front of a hundred people and thanking them for supporting me. But the reason I’m thanking you is, you not only gave me the support I needed to start this business, but you gave me the confidence to know it will work. You had faith in me. You believed in me. You loved me, in spite of my chicken-shit attitude.” Titters and giggles met his cursing, and Kathy found herself meeting his gaze in spite of herself. When her eyes rose, she found they didn’t have far to go, as Luke was on one knee.

His hair still dusted his collar, framing his angular face beautifully, begging Kathy to run her fingers through it. But his eyes were what did it for her. Deep pools of cobalt blue stared at her. His expression of hope, eyebrows raised, as he held out a velvet box to her.

A box?

“Forgive me, Kathy. Marry me. Run this nursery with me, and let’s have babies together.”

At the word babies, the image in front of her blurred in tears. He was using her weakness to get what he wanted. If she said yes, he would continue to put her off, lengthening the engagement, putting off the baby thing. Lord knows he’d made his position on fatherhood clear. She could only manage one whispered word.

“Asshole.”

Turning on her heel, Kathy walked to the edge of the stage, unbuttoning her coat as she went. When she reached the side of the stage where Connor stood, gaping at her, she flung her coat at his feet on her way past, not daring to look at anyone’s face.

“I quit.”

A
fter Luke’s forty-third voicemail, Kathy threw her phone across the room. She didn’t even care if she broke it. She’d ordered a new phone with a new number and was due to pick it up on her way to the airport. She needed a smart phone, not one of those old-timey flip-phones.

But, her mind couldn’t stop replaying the last phone conversation she’d had with Luke, after New Year’s, almost two months ago…

“Kathy, I love you.” His voice pleaded. She knew he loved her. It was evident in the way he looked at her, the way he held her, the little things he did, like holding her hand, talking to her about nothing. But it was the big things she needed from him.

“Then
be
with me. I’m tired of this long-distance thing, Luke. Can’t you see?” Kathy was exasperated and tired of having the same conversation.

“I know it’s hard, babe. But we can do this. Just a little while longer.” That’s what he’d said Christmas, when he’d made such a huge deal out of celebrating the holiday alone with her. She’d gotten her hopes up for a proposal, and it hadn’t come.

“I’m thirty-three, Luke. I want to get married and have a baby with you.”

She heard his sigh through the phone lines. This wasn’t a new conversation, but Kathy would be damned if it would end the same way it always did.

“I’m aware of how old you are, Kathy. I’m just not ready to do all that yet.”

“I know. That’s why I’m giving you an ultimatum.” She knew this was bad, but it was her only chance to see where this was going. Luke seemed happy to have their relationship stay in stasis mode, but Kathy really needed to move forward. “You either make a move to end the long-distance thing, or we’re done. I need to see something from you, Luke.”

“I thought we talked about this at Christmas?”

“No. You made a huge deal about Christmas and got my hopes up, only to let me know that you were ‘thinking’ about maybe doing something soon. That’s too vague! I need something concrete! I need a ring, moving boxes, a house, something to show me that you are taking us seriously!”

“You know I take us seriously. What the hell, Kathy? We’re exclusive! I’m not ready to have kids, yet.” His desperate pleading had given way to anger, but Kathy wasn’t going to cave in to his emotions this time.

She tried to calm her breathing, but it was getting increasingly difficult. “Do you have any idea how hard it is on a woman in her late thirties to carry a child? How difficult to get pregnant? It can be a physical hell on the body. The longer I wait, the harder it will be, and I’ve always wanted children.”

“I’m not going to let you pressure me into this, Kath.”

“I’m not pressuring you anymore. I’m telling you. I want babies. If you won’t have them with me, then let me find someone who will.”

Silence, then a soft “Fine. Go have your babies.” An audible click met her ears, and Kathy sighed before hanging up.

“You’re fucking up. You know that, right?” Her sister Amy’s voice scared the crap out of her, when she turned back to her suitcase.

“What’s fucked up is wasting a year on a relationship with no future.” Kathy began throwing clothes from the pile on her bed into the suitcase. “I’m not getting any younger, Amy.”

“Yeah, but this is an over-reaction, don’t you think? I mean, really? Just stop what you’re doing and think about it. You’re fixing to spend every dime of your savings on a hair-brained scheme to have a baby with a stranger! That’s totally dangerous! You have no idea what you’re about to get into!” Amy’s voice had risen with each word, and now her sister was screaming at her. So Kathy screamed back.

“I’m the queen of hare-brained ideas! What else do you expect?” It was true. Kathy was a knee-jerk kind of girl. When something sounded good, she did it, without thinking through the consequences. This time though, the consequence would be a baby, and that’s what she wanted. Kathy had never claimed genius, but when people said her ideas were dumb, it just compounded her desires to succeed. Spite was her main motivation right now. She wanted her friends and family to see she was capable of following through with this. She wanted Luke to know she didn’t need him.

A pounding at the door turned both women’s heads.

“Don’t answer it. It might be Luke,” Kathy warned her sister. They both calmed in the face of a mutual enemy, staring at the door. Jessie’s voice brought a sigh of relief from Amy.

“Kathy! Let me in!”

“Don’t let her in either! She was in on the whole thing.”

To Kathy’s dismay, Amy opened the door. “Help me talk her out of this.”

“Talk her out of what?” When Jessie saw the suitcase, her eyes widened.

“She’s going to Vegas to find a baby-daddy.”

Jessie scoffed. “There are plenty of baby-daddies around here. Why go to Vegas?”

“I’ve never been to Vegas before.” Sitting on the edge of her suitcase, she managed to work the zipper around it completely.

“Jessie, help me! She’s taken out an ad on Craigslist. She’s meeting a bunch of strange men up there to have sex with. Is that even legal?” Turning to her sister, “How fucking stupid can you be?”