Luka swallowed hard. “Sure,” he replied unsteadily. He unzipped her dress. She was wearing a hot pink, strapless bra that matched her panties. Skylar stood by the bed and shimmied out of the dress. Luka’s gaze traveled the length of her body. She flopped back on the bed after she put the tank top on.
“Unhook me,” she said. He was picking up the dress off the floor when she spoke. He hesitated for a second unsure of what she meant. He was looking at her with confusion. “Could you unhook my bra?” Skylar clarified for him.
She was trying to torture him; he was sure of it now. This was some sort of devious plan on her part to punish him for leaving her. Luka leaned over her with her dress in his hands. He laid it beside her and slid his fingers down the back of her tank top. One-handed he unhooked the bra. He hadn’t lost it. He would have patted himself on the back had his hand not been slowly sliding up the softness of the skin across her spine. He wanted her so damn bad he could taste her.
He could feel her focus on him. Luka glanced down at Skylar. “What are you doing?” She whispered.
He jerked his hand back. “What do you want me to do with your dress?”
“Throw it out. I ripped it to the waist.” She turned on her hands and knees and crawled up the bed. Her curvaceous ass was sticking up in the air; practically in his face. Skylar dropped her head against the pillows and slowly slid to the mattress. She sighed. He groaned.
He tossed her panties and bra into a basket in the closet. Nothing had changed about her habits. The basket only had a few things in it showing him she still did laundry every few days.
Then he walked across the room to the bed and scooted the covers out from beneath her. Luka covered her and sat down holding her dress in his hands. He would throw it away when he went downstairs.
Skylar clutched a pillow in her arms. Her cheek resting against the coolness of the pillowcase. Luka ran a finger across her shoulder. Then he touched the soft, strands of her hair laying near him. Wrapping a silky piece around his finger he remembered how he loved to play with it when they were making love.
“Luka, I can’t take another broken heart.” He realized then that she was crying softly into the pillow.
“I won’t break your heart again baby. I promise.”
She didn’t look at him. She didn’t say anything for the briefest of moments then she whispered. “I know you won’t, because I won’t let you in again Luka.”
We’ll see about that. “Good night,” he said to her. “I’ll be on the sofa downstairs if you need anything.”
“I won’t need anything Luka,” she reassured him.
“Well you’ll know where I am if you do need me.”
Chapter 5
In the morning, Skylar rotated to her back and groaned. She felt like a hot poker was stabbing her in the eye. She clutched her head in agony. Her mouth felt like cotton and he
r stomach rolled with the thought of food. She sat up and slid her legs over the edge of the bed.
Skylar stood on shaky legs and went to the hallway. She could hear voices downstairs. Her daughter and Luka. She was going to have to get used to sharing Ava with him because she didn’t think he was going away.
Slowly Skylar made her way down the stairs. As she got closer to the first floor she heard them talking so she sat on the bottom step and eavesdropped on what they were saying.
Ava was telling Luka about her likes and dislikes. She definitely didn’t like Tag. Skylar smiled as she listened to her daughter describe the man. “He’s only nice to me because of Momma.”
The sad part was that Skylar would have to agree which is why she kept Tag away from her daughter. Since it wasn’t serious, Skylar thought she could have two separate lives. Single mother and single woman but listening to Ava, she realized it didn’t quite work that way.
Luka offered very little in the way of come back for which Skylar was grateful. He just listened to their daughter talk. She didn’t know what she was doing with Tag other than enjoying the sex and that was suddenly feeling empty to her especially when Ava seemed so affected by her relationship with Tag. She sighed heavily.
Skylar stood. “I dreamed of you,” Ava was saying to Luka as she started down another step. “I dreamed of you coming home for me. Going to my soccer games like the other kids’ dads did. Going to my school programs.” Skylar sat back on the step.
She heard the sadness in her daughter’s voice. A sadness she had hidden from her. Finally, she rose from the steps and walked around the landing at the bottom of the stairs then she stood in the doorway listening to Luka. He was holding her in his arms. Ava’s head rested against his chest. He cupped her head and kissed the top.
“I’m sorry Ava. I would have been here had I known.”
Skylar heard the sadness in his tone of voice too. She had caused them both pain. She was responsible for keeping them apart. She wiped away a tear rolling down her cheek.
Luka saw her over the top of Ava’s head.
I’m sorry, she mouthed the words. So sorry. Then Skylar turned and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Her bare feet making a soft, slapping noise against the wood floor. She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water. She gulped it down and filled it again. She took a bottle of aspirin out of another cabinet and downed two of them before she gulped down more water.
“Feeling better?” Luka asked.