by Kay Stockham
“Good thing.”
He trailed his lips to the crook of her neck and the tender skin below her ear. She might not like the situation but she responded to him. Her lashes lowered, her breath hitched in her throat, and she tried to hide the shiver that coursed through her at his touch. He felt it, though.
“It’ll never last.”
They were back to that again? He debated the merits of kissing her senseless to shut her up. But just yesterday he’d wanted her to rant. Not argue and bicker with him over the inevitable, but to truly blow up—explode until she released all the tension and the hives went away on their own. He grazed his knuckles down the length of her spine revealed by the dress, liking the wave of goose bumps that followed his stroke.
“You want sex now but what about when I’m huge and you’re in California with inflatable blondes? What then?” she demanded, turning so that she faced him, her arms crossed over her chest to hold up the dress. “Who’s to say you won’t get grossed out by a big, fat pregnant belly and find some entertainment on the side?”
Luke stared into her green eyes, able to see the fear she tried to mask with bravado and spunk. She wasn’t a crier, not his Shelby. She was a fighter, one backed in a corner and swinging with all her might. “If you’re so worried about it, why not join me in California?”
Her mouth flattened into a sharp line.
Luke lifted his hands and cradled her face, leaned lower and nuzzled her nose with his. Her mouth parted, close. Close enough that he heard the nearly soundless moan she gave before she touched her tongue to her lips. “The thought of you carrying my baby turns me on,” he told her bluntly. “You are so beautiful, Shelby.”
“Luke…”
“I expect fidelity from you for the next fifty years or so.” He bent his knees to be at eye level with her and had to smother a sigh when she set her jaw and glared at him. “If I can’t honor my vows and promise fidelity to you, how can I expect it in return?”
“Fifty years?”
“Wanna make it sixty?” He dipped his head and kissed the corner of her mouth, the other corner, brushed his lips over her soft cheek and slid back to her mouth again. “Shelby…” Her stiff arms dug into his stomach because she still held the dress. “I’m in this for the long haul. You have to stop thinking of us in the short-term and get used to the fact that I’m now your husband and I’m going to be your husband for a long, long time.”
A rough laugh left her chest. “Guys say anything when they want sex.”
“I want it all.”
She shook her head, her expression heartbreaking. “No one can have everything. Luke, seriously, you’re delusional if you—”
He covered her mouth with his, delving, tasting. Sometimes, there was only one way to shut a woman up.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
LUKE’S LIPS COVERED hers and Shelby found herself giving over to the sensation. His tongue swept inside and stroked, deeper, and the kisses blended one to another. His mouth nibbled and sucked at her lips and her mind shut down, her body melting into Luke’s as he pulled her closer with single-minded intent.
Then it hit her. She could do this, have this, if she did things her way. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?
Her arms curled around his neck, her fingers plunged into his hair and held tight while Luke’s hands slipped inside the loose front of the beautiful gown. He cupped her breasts and squeezed and she forced herself to bite back a moan. The dress pooled at her feet.
Luke swung her up in his arms and in seconds he’d lowered her onto the sheets, removed her hose and the slinky underwear—a gift from Alex—and continued his wedding night seduction by kissing the skin revealed. She stared up at the ceiling and floated on a cloud of questionable desire, needing him but not wanting him that way.
How could it be like this? How could he make her feel so much? Want the things she knew better than to believe in?
“Stay with me, sweetheart.”
The order was whispered against her skin as Luke made his way up her body. Shelby closed her eyes, kept them closed, and let him kiss her, touch her as he wanted, careful to remember this was nothing more than sex.
Luke dropped kiss after kiss onto her body, each one threatening to be the one that made her heart skid out of control. She let her hands roam. Over the taut muscles of his shoulders, the velvety soft skin of his ribs, down to his belt and the front of his suit pants. She hesitated there, then pulled, unbuckling, unsnapping and unzipping, and drawing more than one frustrated chuckle from Luke when her actions turned a wee bit rough in her effort to rid him of the clothing.
He had a light dusting of jet-black hair on his chest that trailed down his stomach, and she ran her fingers through it, then lower over the enviously flat plane of his stomach.
“I can’t wait to be inside you again.”
Luke brushed her hands aside and lowered himself onto her. She didn’t like it. Didn’t like his weight, didn’t like feeling so submissive or the way he didn’t kiss her hard enough.
She strained off the bed, pushing against his shoulders until he lifted his head in question. Without a word, she pushed at him again, until Luke rolled and settled onto his back. Wanting more, wanting to feel and experience the power she’d felt that night, she pushed at his clothing until he freed himself of it and tossed it aside.
“Now what, sweetheart?”
Luke’s smile flashed bright in the room lit by a lamp and the light from the hall. His hair fell over his forehead and should have looked boyish, but he was all man, reminding her of a sexier Orlando Bloom after he’d gone pirate. With a heated glance that had her stomach coiling in an entirely sensual way, Luke very deliberately drew her down, until she had to place one of her hands on his chest to stay balanced, over him.
Luke was lanky and hard and tanned, his skin paler on his hips and thighs, a funny strip of light skin surrounding one of his ankles. It took her a moment to think of what caused it and then remembered he liked to surf—something he couldn’t do in Tennessee. Another reason for him to stay in California.
“What are you thinking?”
She wouldn’t look at him, couldn’t. Because if she did she was afraid he’d see her thoughts and know she’d never be able to give him what he wanted. Not everything. To give everything left her with nothing when he got tired of flying back and forth, tired of her moods and mountains of emotional baggage.
“Who wants to think?” She shifted and settled her leg firmly over his hips, smiled when she saw him tense and move his hands to grip her thighs. Shelby heard the rasp of his breath when she lowered her head to kiss him, closed her eyes and nudged her lower body in perfect position to take him within her.
“Look at me.”
The husky order couldn’t be ignored. Shelby lifted her heavy lids and found herself snared by Luke’s dark blue gaze. Her breath froze in her lungs until she glanced away, distracting herself and him by moving on him until she found rhythm.
His hands tried to slow her fast pace and she pulled them away, curling her fingers through his and pressing them to the bed. To do so meant hovering over Luke even more and she tilted her head back when his mouth found her breast. He teased her with the promise of what awaited them, sharpening her awareness of where they joined and how it felt to be Luke’s wife. But then the panic came, washed over her like a wave and sucked her out to sea.
Shelby pulled away and shoved herself upright, the act drawing a groan of pleasure from Luke when the angle and her weight drove him deeper.
“Shelby…sweetheart, come here.”
Shelby shook her head and kept up the pace, not giving in to the temptation. This was what they could have and she didn’t want to want more.
Over and over again she plunged her hips down on him, feeling the tension within her grow and expand, knowing he watched her, hearing the words he murmured, but still unable to give him everything in return. She could feel him, touch him, taste him. She just couldn’t love him. The tensio
n crested sharply within her and she bit her lip hard to stifle the cry of pleasure ripping from her throat. So good, so good.
Luke’s hands gripped her hips to keep up the pace, grinding her against him until she had another miniclimax and he found release. Gasping, her body covered in a light sheen of sweat, she collapsed onto his chest, then rolled to the bed beside him. She’d stand by her decision to marry Luke for the baby’s sake. She’d give him this.
Luke would soon learn that it would have to be enough.
“YOU GOT MARRIED?”
Luke unpacked his messenger bag on Monday morning and wished there was a way to avoid the conversation ahead. Lousy didn’t begin to describe his mood. “Over the weekend.”
“You can’t be serious. Luke?” Anne-Marie slammed her palms down on his desk, her multiple bracelets jingling. “What the hell? You went home to see your brother off on a medical mission. You said nothing about getting married.”
“What’s to say? We wanted to keep things private. I got married on Saturday.” And left on Sunday afternoon. That had been the hardest thing to do. After a shower he and Shelby had made love again that night, slept late the next morning, then he’d scrambled to grab his computer and bag to make the airport on time. He was going to have to buy more clothes, that way he wouldn’t have to pack anything.
“Why? Who is she? Why haven’t I once heard you mention dating someone recently?”
He resigned himself to a long day. “She’s no one you know.”
“Do you know her?”
“Yeah. Shelby’s a longtime family friend.”
Anne-Marie stared at him, her expression one of incredulity and upset. “But now suddenly you’re married?”
“It’s okay. Everything is fine. I’m fine,” he said, borrowing one of Shelby’s favorite lines.
“Were you drunk?”
He sighed. “No.”
“Well? What were you thinking? You know how it is when we go before the purchasing and marketing teams. The long hours, the weekends. Does your new little wifey-poo know you’ll practically be living here? This project is due in less than a month. You can’t be in newlywed land right now.”
But she could come on to and flirt with everything in pants? That wasn’t distracting? “It’ll be ready. The project is on schedule.”
“Was on schedule. Production ran into a glitch this weekend while you weren’t here. I, um, gave them the programming changes I wanted made.”
“What? All program—”
“Is supposed to be okayed by you, I know. But you weren’t here.”
He ran a hand over his head. “I’ll go down there now.”
“Not until we’re finished,” she said in her best employer tone. “Luke, talk to me. Obviously you didn’t think this through. You couldn’t have. If you had, you would’ve waited until this deal was done.” Anne-Marie straightened and planted her hands on her hips, her forehead furrowed in a tight frown. “Why marry her now unless—” She exhaled in a rush. “She’s pregnant?”
Luke continued unpacking his computer and searched for the jump drive he carried with him everywhere.
“She is, isn’t she?” Anne-Marie wet her lips and shook her head, dazed. “Wow. Do you even know for sure if it’s yours?”
“It’s mine.” He growled the words, sick of being questioned about it. Not everyone had the morals of an alley cat.
“Because she told you? Please, that’s the oldest trick in the book. She probably slept with some guy who dropped her like a hot rock once he got off.”
He counted to ten before he lifted his head and glared at her, trying hard to remember Anne-Marie had had a rough marriage and been treated like a hot rock herself. “Don’t talk about my wife that way.”
Anne-Marie glared right back. “Then don’t be a fool.”
“Shelby doesn’t play games like that.”
“Oh, Luke…” Her tone softened to one of pity. She speared her fingers through her hair and raked it back from her face. “There isn’t a woman out there who hasn’t played a game with a guy at some point in time. It’s the Eve-factor. You’re a handsome guy. And brains? Give you a computer and you’re great. But let’s be blunt. You’re the kind of guy who sits and watches the party, you’re not the guy on the dance floor with the hot girl.”
Like his brothers. The comparison was stupid and utterly juvenile, but he’d always compared himself to them. And while Nick had lacked the ability to make good grades, his bad boy image had taken on a life of its own, leaving Luke to feel like the ultimate geek because he’d been tongue-tied around the opposite sex for so many years. He knew he gained female attention but Anne-Marie was right.
He set the messenger bag aside and opened the lid of his laptop. A press of the button had the screen lighting up. She wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t figured out in puberty.
She sighed again, shaking her head slowly back and forth and regarding him with yet another expression he couldn’t decipher. “Luke, I need you here, okay? I’m being totally selfish but you’ve got to realize why I’m so concerned. As your friend, I’m trying to help you understand this isn’t a good thing for you.”
“I’m not in kindergarten. I know who I am and what I’m doing.”
“Okay, stop. Luke, stop.” She put a hand on his arm. “Let me be a friend, and say what needs said. Let’s say the baby is yours. Okay, mistakes happen. But no one marries because of a pregnancy anymore. And this woman? You probably told her about this deal with Sony, didn’t you? I’ll bet she has big plans for that cash. Did you at least make her sign a prenup?”
He didn’t answer.
“You didn’t, did you? How could you do this? You know what your portion stands to be if this goes big.” She dropped her hand and paced away from him, back again. “I know what we can do. You can call my attorney and arrange for some kind of settlement or give her some money for an abortion. At least you’d be done with it before this goes any further.”
His hand fisted over the tiny jump drive. Friend or not, employer or not, that was hitting below the belt. Anne-Marie meant well and she’d been burned by marriage. He knew that, but she was talking about his baby. “My child isn’t something to be thrown in the trash because it wasn’t expected.”
Why was Anne-Marie so upset? Was she that afraid he’d move back to Tennessee?
“My point is there’s no reason to be tied to this woman. How long were you together? I’m going to take a wild guess and say it had something to do with the first wedding a few months back. Love was in the air, you’d had a few drinks, and she probably took one look at you and decided you were her ticket out of Hooterville. She’s probably already redecorating your condo and—What?”
Something in his expression must have given him away. “Nothing.” Luke tossed the drive onto his desk.
“No, I hit a nerve with that,” she murmured shrewdly. “I know you. We’ve worked together too long for us not to know each other’s triggers. What was that look about?”
Luke rounded his desk and shut his office door, wishing he’d noticed sooner that it was wide open. “Anne-Marie, I appreciate your concern and your friendship, but my private life is none of your business.”
Her mouth flattened and she drew back, looking thoroughly insulted. “I’m only looking out for you.”
“And I appreciate that, but I don’t need you to look out for me. The project will be fine. I’m not moving back to Tennessee, or leaving the company. When I fly there on the weekends, I’ll still be accessible and—”
“She’s still there? You married her and she stayed there?”
Luke swore under his breath and released the doorknob before he broke it. “With the baby coming and me working the hours I do, we thought it best.”
“Who decided?”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Why bring her here if I’m never home?”
“Why fly to Tennessee when she could fly here?” she countered.
A flicker of something he co
uldn’t identify flashed in her eyes. Hurt? Betrayal? It looked like more, way more than the friendship she claimed—but that had to be wrong. Then in a split second he saw the truth. The early morning coffee chats, the teasing…Anne-Marie had been looking for more from him. “I’m sorry.” He was embarrassed that he hadn’t realized she’d been serious. Really observant there, Luke. “Anne-Marie—”
“You’re not interested. I know.” A brief smile flirted at her full lips. “I thought we were getting closer, you and me.”
“That’s why you stopped by last weekend?”
She exhaled in a rush. “Look,” she said, her tone firming, “I was mistaken. Surprise, surprise. Story of my life lately. Let’s move on, shall we? I pay you and everyone else here very well to work weekends when it’s necessary. And right now? It’s necessary, Luke. I need you here. You can’t disappear then pop back in at your convenience during the most critical time in this project. Newlywed or not, we need you.”
The company? Or her? The jump between subjects made his brain hurt. He’d never understand women. “I can pick up a phone and read e-mail in Tennessee, just like I can here. We’re in the final stages. Mostly making tweaks. The project will be fine, if you let me do my job. You made me Lead Creative Director for a reason. You shouldn’t have given those changes to programming without getting my input first.”
“They were in regard to issues that needed to be addressed. You weren’t here to address them, so I did.”
Luke stared at Anne-Marie and wondered how much of her meddling in the project was out of boredom. Lately she’d gotten in the bad habit of sticking her nose in areas of development she wasn’t qualified to take on. “You’re getting a hundred percent from me.”
“I need a hundred-fifty. How many times have we talked about this game being our big break? The preliminaries are out of the way and Sony is hooked, but we can’t present this as a showstopper if you’re obsessed or worried about that woman.”
