Free Loose Ends (Magnolia Series Book 1) by Taylor Dawn Page A

she’d held in her firm grip when Luke had taken her someplace she’d never been before. A smile lifted both corners of her mouth as she relived those moments over and over in her mind. Her hands began to clutch the weathered wood tighter as each breath and crass word he’d said replayed like a Technicolor film. Where was the pause button for your brain when you needed it? Luke might be inside trying to figure out how to make me leave right this second, Ava thought. But she hoped that wasn’t the case. From experience she knew men could be distant creatures after the carnal act of pleasure was consummated. They could forget you existed and begin to push you away like you weren’t even a blip on their radar. What if I wasn’t good enough? She continued to beat herself up in her own mind.
    “I can almost hear you thinking from here,” Luke broke through her thoughts with his low gruff voice. Ava spun around to see him leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his bare chest. When did he take his shirt off?
    She folded her own arms and rubbed her palms against her still heated skin. “Just thinking how beautiful it is here. So serene.” She drudged up a lie to cover her insecurities.
    “Liar,” Luke called her out which surprised the hell out of her.
    She’d learned quickly how to stretch the truth to stay hidden. How was it that he could read her so well? “Luke, I’m sorry about what happened.” She wasn’t sorry. In fact she was the furthest thing from sorry. If sorry was the South Pole, she would’ve been standing beside Santa and his tiny Elves making toys at the North Pole.
    Luke stalked forward until he stood toe-to-toe with her. In the dark he placed one finger under her chin and gently lifted her gaze to his. Even in black of night only lit by the moon, she could see the shimmering blue of his eyes gazing at her like she actually mattered. “I’m not sorry. And if you are, I’ve clearly done something wrong,” he stated with authority.
    Ava shook her head, “You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s me; I don’t know how to act after this.”
    “You don’t know how to act? What does that even mean?” He let her chin drop, walking back to the doorway with tension bunching his muscled shoulders.
    “I don’t want to get into it. Maybe you should take me back to my car.” She walked forward and tried to push past him to no avail. He was built rock solid. The complete opposite of her. Where he was tight and firm on every plane of his body, she was soft and curvy. She didn’t dare try to shove him out of the way; she’d more than likely hurt herself in the process. So she stepped back once more, hoping the distance would sway him from pushing the issue.
    “I don’t care if you want to get into it or not, Ava. Forgive my way of putting this but I just had my cock buried deep inside your body. I think you owe me an explanation why you feel awkward about it now.” Okay so he wasn’t going to drop it.
    “I’m not trying to be a brat here, Luke.”
    “You’re sure as hell acting like one.” He laughed, making her anger rise to the surface.
    “Yeah, well, maybe I am. So what?” She didn’t have much of an argument. She was being a brat and she knew it. But that didn’t stop her from trying to explain just a bit more. “I haven’t had the best experiences with men. I’m sure you don’t want to hear my issues though since, as you so eloquently put it, I just had your cock inside me.” Her laugh bubbled up before she could stop it. What a silly thing to say. But Luke was right.
    “Maybe I do want to hear it.”
    “Then you’ve lost your mind.” Another laugh came out. “Fine. You want to know why I’m insecure about this? Here’s the reason. I was in a relationship before I moved here. We dated for three years and in the beginning things seemed great. Wonderful, in fact. But as time went on, he became a control freak. He had me followed where ever I went, he monitored my