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Lukus
“Thanks, but I’d better not have any more to drink. One of us needs to be able to drive tonight.” Lukus would love to have had another. Maybe it would have settled his uncharacteristic case of nerves.
Markus was playing bartender. “Don’t sweat it. Drink up. I hired a driver for tonight. The car should be here in twenty minutes.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” Even as he questioned his best friend’s motives, Lukus reached to accept the cocktail Markus had mixed for him.
“I just got to thinking. We have a packed schedule tonight. It’s crazy downtown on a Friday night. We won’t have time to dick around with finding parking. Not to mention, I’m planning on getting Bri a bit tipsy so she’s in the right frame of mind for shopping and the ceremony.”
“Just because you want the girls slightly shit-faced doesn’t mean we need to drink. You know the rule, anyway. I never drink much on heavy play nights, and if all goes as planned, tonight is going to be the heaviest play night I’ve had in, well, like a couple weeks.”
“Since you met Tiffany,” Markus said.
“Since I met Tiffany.”
The men had migrated to the seating pit in the great room of Lukus’s loft. It was the best place in the building to watch the city they loved transform from the end of a business week to Friday night lights. Both seemed content to sit in silence, taking a moment of peace to reflect on the big night ahead. It’d been a long time since Lukus looked forward to a night out as much as he was tonight
The ding of an incoming text on Markus’s phone broke the silence. “It’s Bri. They’re stuck on the Eisenhower in a jam. Looks like they’ll be getting here just before the hired car.”
“Damn. I told Tiff she needed to leave earlier.”
“Will you relax, man? You’re acting like you haven’t seen her in days.”
“That’s because I haven’t. I stayed at the office late last night working on the Jake case, and she was too tired to drive down. We decided to take the night off from seeing each other.”
“It was one night.”
“I slept like shit,” Lukus snapped.
“It was one night.”
Hearing Markus repeat it like that reminded Lukus how out of his element he’d been these last few weeks. Master Lukus Mitchell did not obsess over a woman. He dominated women. He punished women. He certainly fucked women. But obsess? Never.
More like never used to.
Learning to obsess was just one of his new talents since meeting Tiffany. Regardless, he had a plan, and so far, he was right on schedule. Tonight was a night he’d been working towards. A night where he got to take their relationship to a new level. Push her a bit further. Check out the nuggets of her deepest desires; the ones he’d worked hard to mine over the last few weeks while they were playing it slow.
Time invested in figuring out what makes her tick.
If all went well, tonight they’d move out of first gear and step on the gas. He was ninety-nine percent sure Tiff was ready. It was that one fucking percent that nagged him. He couldn’t afford to make a wrong move and blow her trust.
“Yo. You need your hearing checked?”
Only now did Lukus suspect Markus had been talking to him as he zoned out. “I guess so. What?”
“I asked how the Jake investigation is going. You said you’d fill me in tonight, and I’d rather not talk about the prick after the girls get here,” Markus said.
“I agree. I haven’t mentioned anything to Tiff. Her nightmares are finally lightening up. I don’t want to risk bringing them back by talking about him in front of the girls.”
“So, what do we know?”
“Well, I’ve been short of investigators this week. I had Cam for a few hours, though, and I’ve been digging myself when I can. So far we know Davenport is living a double life. His day job is with a technology firm that specializes in security equipment; network gear, cameras, recording devices—CIA-caliber shit. The firm is based in Silicon Valley. He has a house out there, but he travels a lot for his job. He’s in corporate sales. It’s what brings him to town so often,” Lukus explained.
“So he’s a traveling salesman?”
“Well, he’s not selling door-to-door. Looks like he helps corporations design secure networks. Not terribly different from what my team does, but he works for the manufacturer of the equipment. I’ve even installed a couple pieces of their gear. Really high-end stuff.”
“So what’s the other job?” Markus asked.
