I was pretending I had nothing to prove and no one to impress.

I should have worn a dress and heels and makeup. Not to mention, done something with my goddamned hair.

Hell and damnation.

“Can I help you?” the lady behind the reception desk asked, breaking me out of my idiot thoughts.

I looked at her.

I hesitated, for a moment, wanting to run then I took a deep breath and said, “I’m looking for Lucas Stark.”

“You got an appointment with Luke?” the lady asked, looking through the total mess on her desk (not that she would ever find anything).

“No, I’m an…” I hesitated again, wondering if I wasn’t perhaps the stupidest woman in the world, I licked my lips and went for it, “old friend.”

“He ain’t here, girl. You want, I can call him,” the lady offered, looking at me closely.

“No,” I replied quickly, relieved beyond belief that Luke was somewhere else.

There it was, the gods telling me that this was not meant to be. I was going to go with that. Big time.

“I’ll just…” I stopped and looked around, deciding to get the f**k out of Dodge. “Forget it. Could you please just tell him Ava Barlow was here? I’ll try to catch him later.”

I was rethinking telling this woman my name (too late now) when she smiled huge like she had just thought of some hilarious joke but wasn’t going to let me in on it.

“No problem to give him a bell,” she pushed. “I got his number on speed dial.”

Oh crap.

“No!” I cried, suddenly sounding desperate because suddenly I was desperate. I shouldn’t have come there. I could get the goods on Sissy’s stupid-ass, cheating jerk of a husband myself. It couldn’t be that hard. I didn’t need Luke; I didn’t need anyone. “Really, thanks, but I’ll just go, I’ve got to be somewhere anyway.”

I started edging away, deciding on escape.

“Just hang on one tick,” the lady said, ever helpful, getting up and waving her hands to dry her nails. “I’ll just talk to the boys in the back. Maybe they know where he is.”

Eek!

Boys in the back?

A door opened and a man (most definitely not a boy) walked in and at one glance at him I stared.

At first I was worried it was going to be Luke, but it wasn’t. This guy was tall, dark-haired with jade-green eyes, a lean, muscled body to die for and he was unbelievably gorgeous. Not your average everyday gorgeous but otherworldly gorgeous. His green eyes were on me and he looked like he too thought something was hilarious.

I thought distractedly, considering everyone looked about ready to laugh, that this must be a fun place to work.

“Luke just called in,” he said to the black lady but his eyes never left me and all thoughts of a fun place to work flew from my head because all thoughts flew from my head. “He’ll be here in five.”

I had a silent freak out and wondered why, now that I needed advice, Good Ava and Bad Ava disappeared. I noticed too late that Hot-Green-Eyed-Guy was standing between the exit and me.

Crap.

“Hi, um...?” I looked at him.

“Mace,” he said and I blinked.

Yikes.

What kind of name was Mace? He certainly looked like he had some non-Caucasian ethnicity to him, maybe Polynesian, and who was I to say what Polynesians named their kids but Mace?

“Well, Mace, I need to go,” I told him.

He shook his head.

I stared at him, thinking maybe he didn’t hear me right. “I need to go,” I repeated.

“Luke’ll be here in five,” was all he said.

He stood with his arms crossed on his chest and I got the (correct) impression that for some reason he wasn’t going to allow me to leave. I found this somewhat alarming. I gave up on him because he was big guy and he didn’t look like he was easily swayed and turned back to the receptionist.

“Um, really, I’ve got to go. I just remembered a dentist appointment. They get kind of touchy when you miss your appointments.”

This made her laugh.

“No, really. Sometimes they charge you,” I went on.

“Girl, so I can watch whatever’s gonna happen next, I’ll pay if they charge you,” the lady said.

Okay, it was safe to say I’d left the real, sane world and entered a loony bin.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“First, I’m Shirleen,” she told me.

“Um… hi?” I asked, still not following and wondering why it was clear I couldn’t leave and everyone in the room (but me) was okay with that.

“Hey there,” Shirleen said. “Second, to understand what’s going on you gotta know all that’s gone on before you. Since Luke’ll be here in five –”

“Three,” Mace interrupted from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at him, beginning to feel out and out panic and then turned back to Shirleen.

“In three,” Shirleen went on. “There ain’t enough time. Just trust me, girl, go with the flow.”

She was making no sense at all. “What flow?” I asked then shook my head because I didn’t have time for information about the flow. I had to go. I turned and started toward Mace. They couldn’t actually keep me there; I was pretty certain that was against the law.

“I’m leaving,” I said to him.

His hard body went alert. I not only saw it, I felt it.

“Luke wants you here,” he told me.

I took two steps toward him, which meant I was a foot away from him and about ten away from the door. I tipped my head back and looked at him, surprised at what he said, “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

“He knows.”

“He doesn’t.”

“We told him.”

“How’d you know?”

He pointed and I followed his arm to see a camera in the corner of the room, the light on it was green.

God-damn.

The boys in the back had been watching.

My eyes went back to him. “You can’t keep me here,” I said.

He shook his head to tell me I was wrong.

This made me angry.

I had kind of a temper (okay, so maybe one could say I had a helluva temper) and right then I needed to go before Luke got there (and calculating I had about a minute to make my getaway) and not being able to go got the better of me (frankly, when I had a moment to look back, I was kind of shocked it took that long).

“Get out of my way,” I snapped, charged ahead and tried to dodge him at the last minute. He caught me and swung me around. I struggled and, laughably quick, he subdued me, my back pressed tight to his front, my arms crossed in front of me, his hands at my wrists.