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“I’m overwhelmed by you.” The admission came out without my permission, but I was so wrapped up in the feel of him that I didn’t even care. “You don’t know how unsettling that is for me. I’m as much of a control freak as my father ever dreamed of being, yet I can’t control myself when I’m with you. Not my body, not my thoughts, not even my breath.”
A thoroughly masculine smirk curled his mouth. “And that’s a bad thing?”
“It’s acrazything, don’t you get that? I’m one short sigh away from hyperventilating, something I’ve never done in my life, and do you know why? It’s because you’re looking at me, Luke. That’s it. Justlooking. What the hell am I supposed to do when you decide to do more than look?”
“You’ll do exactly what I want you to do, love. Like shiver.” He bent his head to lick at the seam of my lips, just a flutter of a caress that almost unraveled me. “And moan.” His hands slid down my back and cupped my ass, a move he seemed to enjoy almost as much as I did. “And call my name like I’m your new fuck god.”
“You really are my very own monster,” I breathed even as his mouth came down on mine, a sweetly punishing kiss that brought me up on my tiptoes as I tried to lose myself in it—inhim—forever.
“Oh, will you look at that, my son’s necking in the shadows like a randy teenager,” came a brightly amused feminine voice, as clear as a bell and only a few feet away. “Tell you what—you kids let me know when you’re ready to come up for air so we can have a nice chat, all right? And by the way, welcome to the Thunder Club.”
Chapter Ten
Count To Ten
“Sooooo.” Bebe Zaiger laced her manicured, beringed hands in front of her on the table, her electric blue eyes smiling even as they bored into me with all the delicacy of a diamond-bit drill. “Tell me a little bit about yourself, Eden. My son almost never tells me anything about the people in his life, and he’s never—as in neverever—brought a girl to meet me, so I’m all aflutter. Let’s start with your birth. Ready? Go.”
Luke burst out laughing.
“I’m beginning to see why you brought me here,” I muttered to him before giving Bebe my full attention. It wasn’t hard to do; she was the most striking woman I’d ever encountered. She was nearly six feet tall with arms and legs that appeared as strong and willowy as a woman half her age. Her white hair was military-short and coiffed as if she’d just come from a photo shoot. Her makeup was stunning, with elaborately made-up eyes and a scarlet mouth that had a habit of curling on one side, like she was smirking at the world because she knew a naughty secret no one else did. If they told me she’d once been a supermodel I wouldn’t even bat an eye in surprise. “It’s such an honor to meet the mother of the most interesting—and sometimes most alarming—man I’ve ever met, Ms. Zaiger. To be honest, I have no idea how you managed to raise such a scary-smart, multifaceted man. Was he a handful to deal with when he was a kid?”
“Oh, the stories I could tell,” came the laughing reply, though I didn’t miss how her unblinking gaze never left me. Like mother, like son. “And I’m sure I’ll get to them eventually, but right now all I want to hear is your story, honey. Tell me about yourself.”
Maybe being impossible was a family trait. “Um, well, there’s not much to tell, really. I’m self-employed here in Chicago as a multi-certified life coach—"
“Ooh, I’ve never met one of those. How does that work? And how did you get into such an unusual career? I’ll bet there’s a story there.” She plonked an elbow on the table and cupped her chin in her hand, eyes bright with interest. “Tell me everything.”
Oh my God, she was worse than her son. “There really isn’t that much of a story, I’m afraid. I’m naturally bossy, so I went with my strengths in choosing a career. Simple as that.”
“And also, her father is none other than the motivational speaker-slash-cult leader, Tru Steadfast,” Luke offered, looking from me to his mother and back again with that same wicked smirk. “That crafty bastard taught his daughter to be exactly what she is.”
“And what exactly would that be?” I demanded, firing up.
“Impossible to fathom, or resist.” Looking unapologetic, he reached over to lace his fingers through mine. “Eden’s a mystery I haven’t yet solved, Bebe, because there’s so much she keeps hidden. But I get the feeling that even if I knew all her secrets, she’d still be totally fathomless. How cool is that?”
“Socool,” Bebe answered, looking like she wanted to squeal in delight. “Ooh, I’ve got goosebumps. You picked a winner, baby, I can feel it.”
Whoa. “Uh, I don’t know if Luke actually picked me, so much as he’s gotten landed with me since he’s part of my security detail.”
Bebe’s brows went up. “You have a security detail? Why?”
“Don’t worry about it, Bebe,” Luke said, waving a negligent hand. “With a father who’s as famous as Tru Steadfast—and Eden was in that same limelight for most of her life—it’s just par for the course.”
My stalker was nowhere near par for the course, but I followed his lead and downplayed the issue. “Private Security International is the best at making their clients feel safe,” I began, only to blink in bewilderment at Luke when his words belatedly registered. “Wait. You just called her Bebe.”
His side-eye game was top notch. “That would make sense. It’s her name.”
“You call your mother by her first name?”
He lifted a shoulder. “So?”
Seriously? He had to ask? “So, you should show her proper respect.”
He glanced over at his mother. “Should I bow to you the next time you enter a room?”
Bebe let out a hoot of laughter. “Baby, I think everyone should bow to me when I enter a room. Knock yourself out.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t show proper respect to your mother, now that I think about it,” I decided with a taunting, screw-you grin just to bug him. “She is just a female, after all.”
