Luke Read Free Page B

time.”
    â€œIt’s all right, isn’t it, Midnight,” she murmured.
    â€œHe just doesn’t know you. He has no idea what a fine watch cat you are.”
    â€œWatch cat,” Luke repeated in pained accents.
    â€œHe sleeps on the foot of my bed and gives an earsplitting howl whenever anything disturbs him.”
    An arrested look appeared in Luke’s dark eyes. “Does he now? How does he feel about sharing the covers with a third party?”
    â€œSince the situation hasn’t come up, I have no idea.” Her voice cooled by several degrees as she added, “Anyway, he’s all the protection I need.”
    â€œSure,” Luke replied, setting his hands on his hips. “I can see you’re nice and safe—if it’s a lizard that shows up in the middle of the night. I’d pointout that a cat’s no substitute for a man in your bed, but I’m sure I’d be wasting my breath.”
    â€œAnd my time.” Common sense might have told her to leave it at that but she wasn’t listening. “Though I guess preoccupation with what’s going on in bed should be expected from a man who has been in and out of every female’s in Tunica Parish.”
    â€œExcept yours—but who’s keeping score? And why should you notice, sweetheart, much less care?”
    â€œWhy indeed?” she asked with a twist to her smooth, beautifully formed lips. “I just think it’s juvenile, egotistical and far more dangerous these days than my getting a call from a heavy breather.”
    A dark scowl drew his brows together. “So it might be, if I deserved half the credit people gave me.”
    â€œPoor, misunderstood Luke-de-la-Nuit. I guess all the women who claim you’re hotter than Cajun spice are building up your reputation to make themselves look good.”
    â€œCould be,” he answered, the words scathing. “Don’t you wish you knew?”
    She inhaled in sharp outrage as she searched for the perfect annihilating remark as a comeback. Before she could find it, Luke turned and stalked toward his Jeep that sat on the circle drive.
    â€œI do know,” she called after him finally. “Or have you forgotten?”
    With his hand on the vehicle door, he faced her again. His eyes burned and there was dark color under the deep olive of his skin. “That was a longtime ago,” he said with precision. “Things change. So do people.”
    He climbed in the Jeep and turned the key, then pulled away down the drive. He didn’t look back.
    April stared after him while anger swelled inside her. What an arrogant, presumptuous, stiff-necked know-it-all! She’d die before she’d let him touch a single board or pane of glass at Mulberry Point. She didn’t need Luke Benedict, didn’t want him, and didn’t care beans about his well-earned reputation. How good he might be in bed never crossed her mind.
    Well, she might think about it when she wrote a love scene, but that was different. It was a part of her job.
    No, she neither wanted nor needed his services, thank you very much. All she required was to be left alone in her house with her cat and her stories. To the devil with the man.
    Regardless, she’d gained one bit of information from his visit. It was something she’d wondered about for a long time. The answer was interesting and, as much as she hated to admit it, even satisfying.
    Luke did remember.

2
    L uke was several miles away from Mulberry Point before his temper began to cool. He shouldn’t let the things April said bother him, but he couldn’t help it. She had a positive genius for getting to him. Some of her barbs were like snake bites; he felt the sting when they struck but only minutes afterward did the real poison reach the heart.
    Not that she intended it to happen that way, he thought. She didn’t realize how thin his skin was these days. Nobody did, and that’s the