In Love by Design (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod) (50 page)

When we first got to the apartment, Pam followed me around everywhere during the security check and talked nonstop about John Smith, although he may forever be Joe Johnson
in Pam’s mind.

Suddenly, she
stopped talking in mid-sentence about rubber bands and penises to exclaim, “I’m so sorry! I haven’t asked one thing about you! How are you doing after Luke...I mean, I wasn’t sure what you meant at the end when you told Luke that he would have to live with his choice. Were you dumping him or what?” Her voice dropped and she said, “Finding out that he used you…”

I
burst out laughing, interrupting her sympathizing. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve known how tricky and manipulative Luke was from the very beginning, Pam, and it’s what I love most about him.” She looked totally perplexed and I laughed again. “What can I say? The man’s always thinking and that turns me on more than anything.”

“You don’t care how he was
planning to use you? Yes, he was really sweet to say all those cute things about you being his hope and whatnot, but Luke still told everybody he was intending to use you. That’s more than cold.”

“
Intending?” I murmured, biting my lip to quit laughing. “Luke tries to use me every chance he gets!” I thought about our first date and couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “I love how he tried to use me when we met. I hope he never stops using me.” Smiling happily at my next thought, I said, “He is one ruthless man. I have a boyfriend that will stop at nothing to protect me or avenge me.” I sighed over what I needed to do where Luke was concerned, regardless of how I felt. “Pammie, if the day ever comes that Luke stops trying to use me--that will be the day this conversation is about a sad Anabel and I’ll need all the sympathy I can get.”

“Oh.
” Her brow creased. “So you weren’t dumping him for telling everyone about me?”

“G
eez Louise, no. I can’t ever dump Luke. He made me swear to God. He’s very needy.”

“Oh. Luke’s needy?” Her eyes were huge and kept darting away, no doubt thinking about war-god Luke at the podium and how controlled and cruel he acted. Her voice was nervous when she asked, “You mean you can be forced to stay with him against your will somehow?”

“Yeah, he is
needy,” I affirmed absently while I thought about the best way to put it to Pam. “No, he can’t force me to be his girlfriend, although he’d try. If Luke should ever be so stupid that he makes an unrecoverable choice that I can’t live with or that he can’t fix, I won’t stop loving him or break up with him. He’ll just be dead to me. It will be like I’m a widow, except my man won’t really be dead. I’ll just never have another boyfriend because he is it for me.” I smiled at Pam. “See, pretty simple!”

“Pretty weird, you mean.”
Pam’s forehead wrinkled. “Bel, doesn’t that sound just like an old school Catholic marriage, only without being married? You’ll be the little moping wife that’s never free while Luke’s out making more stupid choices.” Then she asked about the most important thing on her mind these days, “What about sex for you?”

I stare
d at her and then exclaimed, “Pam, you are exactly right! See, you don’t need me telling you what to do in a relationship with John because you know what you’re doing, girl!” I started laughing and said, “I told you that Luke’s incredibly tricky! He was brought up Lutheran, too.” Shaking my head, I marveled, “Well imagine that, he came close to turning me into a little moping, pitiful Catholic wife. God, he’s good!”

Sparky
blasted pyrotechnics and Pam said “Ooh” and then “Aah” in time with the burst of colorful sparkles.

“Showoff!” I
accused softly, looking down at the ring.

Dragging her eyes away from my loud ring with a puzzled look
at what she just saw, Pam faced me again. After a moment to remember her train of thought, she demanded, “And the sex?”

I smile slowly. “
Oh, this abandoned Catholic wife won’t be sitting home moping and not getting any. The decade is over when I need a boyfriend to have sex!”

Pam grin
ned in relief. “Goody! You had me scared there for a minute.”

We were making the vodka shots when Pam checked her phone and gleefully reported the tally. “And that makes the fifth unanswered text
from Joe! Causing suffering is fun, I had no idea. Are you going to make Luke suffer?”

I look
ed up from the Absolut vodka bottle in my hand. “Oh, yes. Didn’t I tell you? Don’t worry; there will be suffering for his choice.”

“
No you didn’t tell me, but thank you! I hope you do something really terrible to make him suffer because he was really an asshole to me.”

Pam started getting a little choked up
and I steered her into the living room. I wanted to nip this little pity party right in the bud. Luke had been an asshole, but he’s my asshole and Pam may as well get used to it.

I
clicked on the TV and agreed cheerfully, “He was really mean, but think about it for a second. If it wasn’t for Luke being who he is, then you wouldn’t be the happy woman you are soon going to be with his best friend. You owe him gratitude for your happiness, Pam, not your anger or hatred. If he hadn’t forced John to seduce your butt, then you wouldn’t have met your Tarzan. Yes, its true Luke held you up for some temporary humiliation. But wasn’t it in front of people that you don’t even like much, and wouldn’t they be hearing that you left Carter for John-Joe and were popping out little brown babies, anyway?” I waited a beat until she stopped her stunned laughter and asked, “Or maybe you’d rather have your current life with those people than be with John and I was reading you wrong?”

“
Good God, no!” She responded, appalled. “I don’t have to thank Luke, though, do I?”

Now
I was appalled. “Holy Crap, no!”

Luke has
to pay for messing with my friend in his revenge games. I signed on for his tricks, my friends and family didn’t. However, this seemed like a perfect time for a little deal making.

“You can
thank me, not Luke, okay?”

Pam’s shoulders relax
ed and she hugged herself with a little squeal of happiness. “Sure, that would be fine. I really am grateful I met John.”

“Speaking of brown babies, one way to get your revenge on Luke
and show your gratitude to me would be appointing Luke the godfather to your future children. Think of the time he’ll have to spend plotting to protect them. Can you imagine someone ever trying to bully or hurt your kids with Luke on the sidelines at a game?” I smiled fondly. “Luke would destroy their family back three generations without blinking.”

Pam blink
ed rapidly a few times, but her smile was growing.

“Think about it. In the meantime…to suffering!”
I held up my fist, and as Pam bumped it with her fist, I declared, “Nobody, not even the man I love more than books, gets to mess with my friends or family without somebody suffering!”

Pam and I smiled
. The rest of the night was spent having fun like girls should on a Saturday night, until Pam passed out.

I changed out of my cocktail dress, but left on my favorite pretties. I’d already showered twice today, so I
brushed my hair out and put it back with a skinny headband. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and rubbed my body with lotion smelling like almonds and raspberries. It would be chillier upstairs, so I put on a pink, long-sleeved T-shirt, gray leggings, and silver slippers with puffs of pink marabou on the top.

Without turning on any lights and closing the hallway door behind me, I stumble
d clumsily up the steep, narrow stairs to the attic storeroom. I was carrying my pillow, a yoga mat, my purse, and a backpack loaded with anything I might need for the next couple of hours.

In the attic, I got situated in the corner near the open stair railing and the south wall. This gave me a good view of all the windows
from the two directions of east and west, although any lights from the streets below dissipated before reaching this level and it was fairly dark. I’ve been up here several times since the shooting, but at night with the lights out, I was happy to stay at this end of the attic opposite from the turret room.

I tried to read
by the beam of a small flashlight, but my brain had different ideas.

My brother and Anna know about the abduction, but I
haven’t told either of them about Dickie’s murder. I don’t want to stress Anna, but Reggie needs to know to provide security around Mac’s tomorrow during the bridal shower. I can’t believe any of the thirty or so women coming to celebrate with Anna would out of the blue pay a British fixer to leave me for dead. I was thinking the security needs to be outside of Mac’s house. Reggie will know what to do and I’ll call him tomorrow morning, so that was dealt with for now.

I
checked my phone. There were no messages from Mia, Mac, Stella, Jazy, or Anna, so I assumed everything is status quo in their lives tonight, so no worries there. Tre and Crookie were probably canoodling at this very moment and I smiled at this thought. So, that was all good, too.

Giving up on reading,
I put aside my Kindle and turned off the flashlight. I’ve had no texts or calls from Luke, but I would have been surprised if I had. He knows I left with Pam. Luke knows what he chose to do.

Fifteen minutes late
r, I heard a very faint thud off to my right near the windows facing east by the staircase. From those windows, it was a sheer drop of forty plus feet straight down to my back parking lot.

I wait
ed about ten feet away from the casement window. It was smoothly sliding up open in front of my eyes, gripped in the gloved hand of my very, very tricky boyfriend.

It ha
d driven me crazy trying to figure out how Luke had entered my apartment when it was locked. I finally solved the mystery when I went over every square inch of the apartment after he left Thanksgiving weekend. I had discovered the faintest scratches on the sill of this casement window and when I investigated further, around the old twist lock at the center.

With his skills,
I’d assumed rappelling up and down the forty feet would be nothing. Nor would picking the old lock on the window and on the attic door at the bottom of the stairs.

Genghis
wouldn’t waste his time groveling by text or phone. He thought he needed only to show up in my bedroom and all would be forgiven with an arch of that eyebrow and a flash of that grin.

I agree.
It might also take a flex of his bicep but he’s totally right, and that’s why I am greeting Luke up here.

One powerful thigh hook
ed over the sill and he was leaning to duck his head under the raised window when I switched on the lights and said, “Why, it’s Batman! Have you come to visit our Northfield Central Headquarters? I’m sorry, but Batgirl can’t come out and play right now.”

I’ve amused Luke and shocked him a little here and there, maybe even surprised him once or twice, but this
was the first time I have absolutely stunned him.

Luke
recovered quickly and turned his head to look at me standing a few feet away.

Straddling the window with his
head and torso on the inside, my Dark Prince arched an eyebrow and flashed his beguiling grin. “Princess, have I told you lately how much I love you?”

I moan
ed but retorted, “Not unless you count that sickening sweet, manipulative drivel you spouted off to that crowd tonight that made me want to yak before you went off on your Carter Crusade, and then deliberately with malice of forethought, hurt my friend which I most certainly don’t. So no, you haven’t.”

Luke’s eyes narrow
ed into slits of glinting green. “Anabel, you are without a doubt the most conniving, quick-witted, ball-busting, meanest girlfriend a man could ever wish to have and I love every fucking sexy inch of you. Now you have about thirty seconds to say whatever you want to say before I am off this window and ripping your clothes off.”

“Thank you
, that was much better. As lovely as that sounds, tonight is not about me. Your choices have deprived me of stripping naked for you in twenty seconds and I am so mad at you for this, I could scream. I cannot believe you would do this to me! Making sex impossible has got to be the lowest trick you could ever pull in that whole Mr. Tricky trick book of dirty moves, Luke Drake.”

Luke’s voice
was conversational, but his lips were cruel. “Ten seconds, Anabel, and then you are going to spread your legs and you are going to put that sweet ass up in the air while I fuck you from behind against that wall. I won’t stop fucking you until you scream my name so loud they’ll hear you at the Taco Oasis.”

I yell
ed, “Really? My God, I want to do that with you so badly that I’m already wet, but this is what you’re choice forced me to do! I cannot believe how much I am suffering! Why are you doing this to me? I am not getting My Turn, I have not gotten sweet, gentle morning sex, I have not gotten slow, hot nap sex, I have not been tied up or been spanked,” I added incredulously, “and now I am not getting fucked against the wall, either?”