Chapter 8: "Come see your gorgeous offspring!"

"Alright, your turn," Luke declared, grabbing my dress and thrusting it at me, all while ushering me into the fitting room.

"Don't push me, Tarrone," I hissed. "I'm perfectly capable of walking with my own two feet."

"Sometimes I doubt it!" he sang.

I would've flipped him off if my view of him wasn't obscured by the curtain. "Hey, where's my shoe?" I asked, referring to the one I'd chucked at his head after an especially dirty comment on his part.

"I don't know, I didn't bother seeing where it landed after you threw it at me," he replied in an accusing tone of voice.

I held back an amused smile as I shed my uniform and slipped the green velvet dress on. It fit pretty well without being zipped up, but seeing as there were no mirrors in the small cubicle, I couldn't tell. "This feels really nice," I murmured to myself, fingering the soft, textured cloth.

"I don't know what's going behind that curtain, but I hope it's not dirty, Jordy!"

"Luke!" I snapped.

He laughed at my expense. "I'm just saying, normally when you hear someone say 'this feels really nice'-"

"Normal people don't have the sick mind that you do, Tarrone." I stopped him before I could hear whatever other nasty thing he had in mind. I reached behind me to do up the zipper, but found I could only do it up halfway.

When I let out an exasperated sigh, Luke spoke up. "You alright in there, Jordy? Has the Devil come to drag you back to Hell?"

"I need your help," I said through gritted teeth, loathing the fact that he needed to do up the zip for me.

"Wow!" he exclaimed. "I never thought I'd see the day when Jordan Wolfe would ask moi for help!"

"Do you ever shut up?" I questioned testily, already knowing the answer. Without waiting for a reply, I shoved the curtain aside and grabbed his tie, yanking him inside the fitting room with me.

When I looked at him, he was grinning mischievously. "I didn't know you liked it kinky-"

I cut him off by turning my back to him. "Just shut it and zip me up," I demanded, not wanting to hear his perverted comments anymore.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," he responded huskily, moving his fingers to my back. He pinched the fabric together as he zipped, forcing me to straighten my back and push out my chest in an attempt to fit. His cold fingertips brushed my skin, skittering over my bra clasp and causing almost imperceptible shivers to wash down my spine.

Why the hell was this kind of contact making me shudder? Luke touched me all the time, but it never felt like...this. Not bad, but different. Weird. I never felt that with Ryan.

When his breath brushed my neck, I jumped almost violently, my heart rocketing around in my chest. My body acted before my brain, and I spun around and shoved him back to give me breathing space.

"Thanks," I muttered, willing my pale face to be devoid of emotion and any signs of flushing, because that would just make Luke suspicious.

He smirked at me, his eyes sweeping down my body in the same appreciative way I had done to him a few minutes before. He let out a low whistle and his smirk morphed into a smile as his warm hazel eyes connected with mine. "You look good," he said.

"You spend five minutes eyeing me and all you can come up with is 'good'?" I mocked his earlier words, my hands perched on my hips.

Luke chuckled at me, stretching out his hand for me to take. Ignoring his attempt, I brushed past him and picked my way around the aisles to the front of the shop so that our mums could see.

"C'mon, then!" I called to Luke, throwing him an impatient look from over my shoulder. He was just standing there as if he'd been frozen by Medusa or something. I self-consciously ran my fingers through my tangled hair. It didn't look that bad, was it?

He snapped out of his reverie and bounded over to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and taking the lead. "Mum, Mrs Wolfe, come see your gorgeous offspring!" he yelled obnoxiously, earning a pinch from me.

While he was busy complaining, our mums stepped through the nauseatingly pink curtain that separated the shop from the front. They let out identical gasps at the same time, their hands covering their mouths in sync as if it was rehearsed.

"My babies!" they cried together.

Luke and I raised our eyebrows. Definitely rehearsed. "You guys look so cute together!" Mum squealed. Yes, squealed. This forty-something woman who was almost a granny...squealed. Someone please light my ears on fire, seeing as they've been rendered useless from the high-pitched sound that I never thought my mum would ever be able to make.

"You do!" Rita agreed in a much mellow version of my mother's freaky-happy hysteria. They were both being super emotional though, and it was really creeping me out that they kept doing things in unison.

Mum discreetly wiped a tear away, causing me to gape. "Mum, why the hell are you crying?" I asked slowly.

She sniffed haughtily and glared at my lack of delicacy. "I'm just getting all excited thinking about this wedding. You both look perfect together!"

"Mum!" I groaned. "For the love of god, you better not go around telling Luke's family that we're together like last time!"

"You two needed the push," she replied, not looking the slightest bit regretful. It was her fault I couldn't see any of Luke's family without them making inappropriate gestures at me. And it wasn't even true.

"You were drunk," I replied scathingly.

"And we're still not dating," Luke added, sounding amused.

Rita and my mum's eyes connected and they smiled identical perverse smiles. "As of now," they chimed. I cringed back, not wanting to know. They always had some sort of grand scheme in their minds. I didn't understand why they thought we'd be so perfect together. We were complete opposites, and I was completely certain Luke had no feelings for me.

"Mum, I'm not joking, if you tell Molly and Mark to announce that we're dating, I will...I will-"

"Is the idea of dating me that bad?" Luke interjected my rant, looking at me with an affronted expression.

Fancy that, I'd pissed him off. That never happened. "Why are you being so sensitive?" I scoffed. "You can't stand the idea of dating me either!"

Thankfully, his peeved look faded into his trademark wicked grin. "That is true," he agreed without missing a beat.

I looked away from his handsome face, feeling even more annoyed for some reason. "See?" I said to our mums, trying to ignore the tremble in my voice. Was I PMS-ing or something, because I never felt so emotional about nothing at all. "Luke agrees with me."

Rita grinned at me with a knowing twinkle in her hazel eyes. "Well, you two, we love what you've picked to wear, so hurry up and change so that we can pay and go cake testing!"

"Whatever," I muttered testily, allowing look to grab me by the elbow and shove us back to the fitting room.

When everything was paid for and packaged up, Mum gave us the directions for the bakery and ushered us to Luke's truck, insisting they'd meet us there.

"Bye, darlings!" Mum trilled, waving her fingers at us with a cheeky expression.

I glowered at her, finding it slightly amusing at how obvious she could be around Luke and I, but it still drove me up the wall.

Her lack of subtlety was made even more obvious when my phone started singing the tune to "Thrift Shop," earning me a pointed look from Luke.

"What's going on, Mum?" I asked in a bored tone. "What have you and Rita got planned for your darling babies?"

"Don't be rude, Jordan," she replied, trying to sound dignified even though I'd caught her red-handed. "I was just calling to tell you that Rita forgot we'd made an appointment with that wine place downtown to pick out wines-"

"No. She didn't forget. You just want me to go cake tasting with Luke on our own," I retorted bluntly. He glanced at me, an amused grin forming on his lips.

Mum chuckled. "Whatever you say, darling. But we're going for that right now, and you go with Lucas to the bakery, alright?"

"It's not like I have a choice, have I?"

"Glad to know you're all caught up," she said briskly, as though she was smothering a laugh. I could hear Rita laughing in the background, so it didn't really help much.

"Fine, Mum, I'll play along. But if we pick out the olive-and-caper cake with anchovy icing, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Jordan, you better pick something good! Remember, Mark likes raspberries and Molly likes chocolate. Don't ruin their wedding because of your lack of control on your hormones!"

"Mum!" I exclaimed. "Fine, sure, whatever, just let me hang up before you make another crude joke."

She let out a bright laugh. "Alright, darling! Have fun with Luke!" What was up with that perverted tone in her voice? Did she know how horrifying she was being?

"I'm taking him to Hell, Ma. Bye now!"

I snapped my phone shut and looked over at Luke, whose lips were tightly pressed together, mirth clear in his beautiful eyes.

"So...the Terrible Two struck again?" he finally broke the silence.

"Yep," I replied shortly, thinking of the worst cake we could pick without getting in trouble.

As if he could read my mind, he laughed, and just like that, my tensed shoulders relaxed. His affection tended to do that sometimes, especially when I was as tightly wound up as I was right now. "I won't try shagging you, if that's what you're worried about," he added.

I finally laughed at his joke, making me relax further."Thanks," I replied dryly. Luke was so effective sometimes.

He responded with a smirk. "When it happens, it'll be consensual on both parts, so don't worry, Jordy."

And sometimes I just wanted to deck him.

***

"You must be the newlyweds, is that right?" a pruny looking old man asked scathingly, staring at us with judgment clear in his eyes.

I took a calming breath, allowing the smell of frosting and freshly baked biscuits to invade my senses. The bakery was really large, with wooden counters full of different baked goods taking up most of the space.

Luke stared at the man, a mocking smile on his face. "Of course not," he replied, rather rudely. I rolled my eyes. Luke, while he may be cheerful most of the time, was an asshole around adults that weren't our parents.

The old man looked at us with distaste, his lip curling as though he'd smelt something bad. "Then who are you?"

"We're filling in for the Tarrones," I cut in, exasperated at the stare down the two men were currently in.

"I hope that's not too confusing for you to handle," Luke added, fake-politeness oozing out of his pores like a disease.

I elbowed him. "Would you keep your mouth shut?" I muttered under my breath. He just ignored me, as usual.

The old man glared harshly, and beckoned us with a gnarly finger. "Come here, then," he said shortly.  

We followed him into a separate room that seemed that it was just for cake tasting, with whitewashed walls and a few stools placed in front of a long bar table, which was full of small squares of cake and notecards.

"You can stay in here up to one, I have another appointment at six," the old man snapped, his brown eyes narrowing at Luke. "And don't even think about stealing anything."

I raised my eyebrows, my mouth open to agree when Luke interrupted. "Thanks for the idea," he said tauntingly. "But I doubt your cakes are good enough to warrant something like that."

"You little bastar-"

I sighed in irritation. It was always hard to deal with Luke when he was like this. It was like he had some weird mechanism that didn't allow him to be polite to these types of people.

I watched as the man twisted on his heel and strode away, hate filling his gaze. Luke was looking calm, an annoyingly defiant look in his eyes.

"Luke," I scolded, though I didn't particularly care. That guy was an asshole, anyway. He deserved it, thinking we were going to steal.

He shrugged indifferently. "I say it how it is."

I pointed an accusing finger at him as I realised something. "You're only polite to my mother, you little suck-up!"

He smirked, glancing down at the cake-laden table. "She's the only person who deserves it." He leant over me to grab a square of fondant, popping it in his mouth with a thoughtful expression on his face.

I groaned and shot him a pissed off look. "It's all your fault she thinks you're some kind of saint! She would never keep forcing us together if you weren't such an ass-licker!"

He looked slightly offended. "I am a saint, thank you very much."

I snorted, crossing my arms. "Saints didn't piss off old men."

He waved me off as if it didn't matter. "I'm sure they did. I mean, come on, if you were that good all the time, wouldn't you want some release?"

"You have no sound logic," I observed cuttingly.

"He deserved it!" he defended, rather badly.

"You are the most insolent son of a bitch I've ever met," I muttered. "Do you have no respect?" He couldn't even muster any dignity to keep his mouth shut for just two minutes while I dealt with it?

"I respect only people who deserve it."

I stayed quiet for a moment, knowing that when Luke snapped like that, he was truly pissed. "He was an asshole," I finally said, looking up at him.

His anger melted off his face instantly and he smiled sincerely at me, making my insides jump excitedly. What the hell, why was I feeling so weird? "He was," he agreed laughingly.

In case I was blushing for reasons unknown to me, I looked back at the floor.

"Hey, Jordy."

"Wha-" I was cut off by Luke stuffing a piece of chocolate cake into my mouth, successfully stopping any remark I would've made.

He started laughing heartily, even as I was possibly choking to death right beside him. I managed to swallow it without passing out and started glaring at him. "Jordy," he chortled, gesturing to his face. "You got a little something..."

I knew for a fact there was nothing on my face, so my look hardened. "Hey Luke," I replied mockingly, pointing at his face. "You got a little something on your face...oh wait. That is your face."

He looked at me dryly. "Hardy har har, you kill me with your originality."

"Thank you, Sergeant Sarcastic."

"You're welcome, Captain Obvious."


_____________________

Hallo guys :) I'm sorry the last few chapters haven't been very action-y, but I just wanted to establish Jordan and Luke's relationship before I started throwing curveballs at them.


I hoped you liked it, regardless!