Free Luke: Armed and Dangerous by Cheyenne McCray Page B

suspicions and scared women?
    Scrubbing his hand over his stubbled face, Luke considered what to do next. He’d never
     get to sleep feeling as restless and edgy as he was.
    And as for distractions—well, he could go into town, but he didn’t think generic hookups
     would work so well, due to one sexy little strawberry blonde he couldn’t get off his
     mind.
    Didn’t help that he was sure she was only a few yards away from him.
    It took only a few minutes to lock up and secure the cabin. Luke found himself striding
     through the dark night and toward the MacKenna house without any real purpose or plan.
     Just on the hope of seeing Trinity, maybe catching her outside or in the kitchen,
     and getting to talk to her for a few minutes.
    He passed by the corrals and barn, the sounds of a horse whickering, the low of a
     cow, and the singsong of crickets filling the night.
    Luke knew the sounds well. He’d visited Douglas dozens of times as a kid, to see his
     favorite aunt on her little ranch that had been sold years ago. Not to mention he
     was a native Texan. He owned his own nice spread near Houston, full of its own cows
     and crickets. Once this case was closed and cleaned up, he intended to head back there.
    Although he enjoyed his work, he was accustomed to family dropping in, big get-togethers
     with his folks, his grandma, his sisters and brothers, and all his nieces and nephews.
     It had been months since he’d seen them, and he could sure use some of his mom’s blueberry
     pie, straight from the oven, with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream right on top.
    He might even talk to his mom about Trinity.
    Luke almost stopped walking, because that thought caught him totally by surprise.
    Not smart. Don’t even start thinking that way.
    Yeah, he knew how this movie ended, and the story never worked out neat and pretty.
     Best to go back to his cabin—but before he knew it, he was standing in front of the
     ranch house and near the room he knew had belonged to Trinity MacKenna when she was
     growing up here. No doubt it would be where she’d be sleeping.
    What are you going to do, Denver? Throw rocks at her window?
    He bit back a wave of frustration and embarrassment. But then, why the hell not? Maybe
     she’d get a kick out of it, of him showing her his teenage-feeling interest.
    Around the corner at the back of the house, hidden within a closed-in yard, he could
     hear the pulsing of the hot tub jets as well as Zack’s and Skylar’s voices. By the
     sound of Skylar’s gasps and Zack’s groans, Luke suspected they were more than enjoying
     themselves.
    Better move on from that. Private things were private—though to hear Rylie Thorn talk, she wouldn’t have thought
     twice about it.
    That little hellcat would have pulled up a front-row seat and wouldn’t be the least
     embarrassed to admit it.
    Luke had never been much for voyeurism, except for once in his teen years, when a
     kid could be forgiven for being desperate. With a wry smile, he bent and picked up
     a few pebbles from the yard. Then, he eased behind the trees that obscured the room’s
     window from sight and looked in.
    Covert operations was something he’d done often, although nothing like this... spying
     on a woman he was dying to get his hands on, with the intent of grabbing her attention
     with a pebble or two.
    I’m losing my damned mind. And I don’t spy on women I’m interested in.
    All right, except for that time when he was thirteen and he had peeked into Maggie
     Jensen’s window while she was dressing. She’d been eighteen and built like a brick
     shithouse—one of those figures that gave all teenage boys wet dreams. It’d been the
     first time he’d seen a live pair of breasts and a woman’s hair-covered mound. Afterward,
     he’d masturbated more than a time or two over the image of her naked, imagining what
     she’d feel like.
    But now he was an adult, with a raging hard-on for a woman who he couldn’t get off
     his