Page 11 of Scripted for Love and Poison (Sol and Luke Mystery #2)
“ W here are you?” Sol asked Luke when he picked up the phone.
“Trying to decide whether I should eat at Gjelina or a place called The Butcher’s Daughter that seems like the perfect spot for unemployed screenwriters and their puppies.” Luke was famished, yet he couldn’t seem to make a decision.
“When in doubt, Gjelina is always the answer,” Sol said.
“But I just told you there were cute dogs at the other place.”
“And how come you still haven’t eaten?” she asked. Did she sound upset?
“I wasn’t feeling hungry, and now all of a sudden I’m absolutely famished,” Luke explained.
“How many times do I need to explain how jet lag works?” It looked like he’d managed to make her lose her not-so-ample-to-begin-with patience—again. “If you want to be out of this travel-fatigue loop, you need to start doing things when they’re supposed to happen here, not in London time! ”
He let out a slow breath. “Sorry to disappoint.”
“It’s not that, I’m also tired. We haven’t been able to have a moment just to be with each other. Now there’s this new case getting in the way. And I know you hate being here.”
“I don’t hate being here, it’s just that I don’t fancy it much,” Luke admitted.
“I do fancy you, though, a lot. And I know this was an important work trip. And all of a sudden it became a work trip for me, too, which isn’t ideal, but Divya tells me we need to take this case because we’re basically skint.
Not that I needed to be reminded about it.
The state of my bank account speaks for itself. ”
“And you’re hating the idea of having to spend even more days in Los Angeles and away from London,” Sol said.
“Yes, but mainly I hate the idea of being away from you. Especially considering we haven’t exactly been spending proper time together lately and most certainly none since we arrived in Los Angeles.”
“Don’t worry about that, you won’t be away from me,” she said, a playfulness in her tone.
“What do you mean? We were supposed to fly back to London tomorrow. I’ll have to reschedule my flight to work on this case,” he said, and he really couldn’t believe he’d be the one to stay.
“I’m also postponing the return. Julie called me. Since we’re here, she wants me to cover a last-minute junket for Red Carpet . It’s actually an interview with Victor Lago. Apparently they’re doing a second round of press for Haughty Horizons .”
“Doesn’t Red Carpet already have a correspondent here?”
“Do you want to get rid of me or what?”
“Of course I don’t want to get rid of you! I’m just making sure no more journalists have gone missing,” he protested.
“No one else has gone missing! Red Carpet ’s regular correspondent has to cover something else happening at the same time.
It’s a very common occurrence. Julie wanted their regular correspondent to try to do both but now decided to take advantage of me being here, and she’s put me to work,” Sol explained. “She still wants us to find Simon.”
“Of course she does, and again, there’s no us when it comes to the case,” Luke said, and he sounded as commanding as possible. “I don’t want you getting involved.”
“Okay, okay. I promise to stay away from your case,” she finally conceded.
“Good, but I’m very relieved I won’t be alone in this awful maze of motorways and retail parks that calls itself a city.”
“Oh my god! You’re such a snob!”
“And I’m looking forward to seeing you often in a strict non-case capacity,” Luke said.
“You mean if we finally find the time to actually have a nice fuck?”
“We haven’t been shagging as often as before, right?” he said, and he was happy she’d also realized it, and it wasn’t that she’d been actively avoiding him because she was thinking of splitting up or any of the other theories that assailed him sometimes.
“We most definitely haven’t, and I haven’t as much as seen you naked—let alone touched you—since we’ve landed in LA.”
“And you’re wondering why I’m not taking to this place ...”
“You’re not liking it because I haven’t shown it to you. Once I discover Los Angeles for you, you’re going to fall in love with the city. ”
“Allow me to remain skeptical about that. But I’ll be happy to see the city with you,” he admitted.
“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to head to Gjelina, where hopefully they’ll give you a table right away, because who has lunch at 2:30?”
“Unemployed screenwriters with their puppies?” he tried aggravating her, but he could hear her contained laugh while she kept talking and pretended to ignore his comment.
“You’re going to order the pomodoro pizza with burrata and one of the salads. I trust you’ll be able to make an informed decision. The traffic is bad-ish,” Sol said. He liked it when she got bossy.
“Obviously,” he said, but Sol ignored his quip, again.
“But I should be there in about forty minutes. We can order some dessert and then go to the beach.”
“Again?”
“Could you be a bit less obtuse? The other day we went to the beach in Santa Monica. This is Venice. I promise you’ll like it.”
“But just so that we’re clear, you’re not implying we’re going to swim or anything, right?” he said, still not understanding her beach obsession in January.
“Of course not! The water is freezing!” Sol exclaimed. “We’re going to stroll and people watch.”
“It’s going to be one of our passeggiate.”
“Precisely. But we’re not going to stay to watch the sunset this time. Because I want to get to the hotel early and see you naked.”
“I may be finally starting to like the idea of staying in this city,” he said, his tone laced with mischief .
It had been a glorious afternoon . Almost perfect. It played like the montage sequence in a movie: the sexy couple walking, their arms wrapped around each other. Taking every chance to touch, look at each other, smile.
Sol liked the idea of making new memories in a city that had been among her favorites for so long but that she’d been forced to keep out of her mind after the divorce.
It was as if everything that she associated with Los Angeles—the sun, the ocean, the laid-back vibes, and the surfer energy—had become indistinguishable from her marriage with David.
She had avoided thinking about Los Angeles just to keep David out of her mind. But she was starting to have new experiences there, and some of them were now synonymous with a new Sol. And with her relationship with Luke.
After a stroll by the Ocean Front Walk, where Sol would have said that Luke was starting to show some signs of fondness for the place, they’d grabbed an Uber and made their way back to the hotel.
They were now finally in front of their room at the Fairmont.
She would have been able to open the door if Luke hadn’t been distracting her from the moment they got inside the elevator.
He hadn’t relented even when they got out.
“You need to stop kissing my neck for two seconds,” she begged him.
“Really?” he whispered, pressing his chest and hips against her back, biting one of her earlobes, and making her shudder.
“I’m so—” she tried.
“Turned on?” he helped her, running his tongue slowly down her neck.
She arched her back against him, acquiescing. “That I can’t get the door to open. ”
She’d tried the room’s key card four or five times, always getting a red light in the process. She was starting to feel extremely frustrated.
“Try my card,” he told her, still tickling her nape. “But you’ll need to find it first.”
“Really?” she said, but she couldn’t avoid smiling.
She turned, facing Luke, her back against the room’s door, his body pressed against hers. He continued torturing Sol with the most devilish neck play while she started going through the contents of his back pockets.
“Not there.” He bit her earlobe again, and she needed to find that damn key and open that door, or she’d combust in the hallway.
After feeling the perfect roundness of Luke’s ass, she got her right hand in one of his front pockets but decided he wasn’t going to be the only one to play the game of keeping the other aroused.
“That’s definitely not it,” he said, his voice shaky and even sexier than usual as she stretched the fabric of his pocket and slowly palmed his length. “Okay, let me help you,” he finally said, taking his card from the other pocket and trying to open the door himself. But that also didn’t work.
“Argh!” Sol cried when she saw the red light on the door’s lock. She was officially frustrated.