by Peggy Jaeger
I shrugged, then placed my hands on his shoulders. Lucas leaned in closer so I could wind them around his neck. He shifted so we were pressed together, intimately.
“The easy answer is I’d spent almost all my life sleeping in a twin single since Eileen and I shared a room from birth and our bedroom wasn’t big enough for anything larger. It made turning over at night almost impossible without the danger of falling out of bed. Which I did. Often.”
A quick grin shot out in front of me.
“When we bought this place knowing we’d each have our own room, I wanted the biggest bed I could find. Big enough so I could flip over, roll over, even sleep in it sideways if I wanted to without fear of waking up on a cold, hard floor at three a.m.”
“I think you accomplished your goal. You could sleep four in this thing, and nobody would touch. I’m way taller than you, and even I don’t have a bed this big.”
“You can come over and sleep any time,” I said. Then immediately blushed from head to toes. “I mean—”
“I know what you meant.” He leaned in and pulled my bottom lip between his teeth. “And I’m gonna take you up on that offer right now.”
Oh, goodie.
“Only, Maureen?”
“Mm?”
“I don’t think I’m gonna be doing any sleeping tonight.”
“Promises, promises,” I said on a sigh.
I didn’t have the opportunity to say much of anything else because Lucas silenced me with a kiss.
While his mouth sipped and nipped and lapped at mine, his hands went on a wild excursion, starting with yanking the pencil out of my topknot. My hair whooshed down my back, and in the next breath, my T-shirt was yanked over my head and tossed… somewhere.
Lucas shifted back and stared at me. I tried to remember which bra I had on: one of my nicer, lacier ones or an older, less feminine, and more serviceable one. I didn’t have enough nerve to glance down and check.
I needn’t have worried which kind I wore because the determination simmering in Lucas’s eyes made it obvious I wasn’t going to be wearing it for much longer.
And I was proven correct when he reached around and unfastened it, my breasts spilling into his waiting hands.
I gasped when his thumbs rubbed against my hardening nipples, threw my head back and planted my fists on the bed for support when he pulled one swollen tip into his mouth, sucked, then gave equal time to the other.
My vision blurred when he did it again.
“Your turn,” I said when a moment of sanity broke through. I tugged the shirt from his pants, then tried to open the buttons, but my hands were shaking with excitement. Frustration whirled through me when I couldn’t get more than one undone.
“Take this off,” I commanded, slapping at his arm. “And from now on, no more button-downs.”
His deep laugh filled the room. In a smooth move I swear only a man can do, he tugged the shirt over his head with one hand—buttons still fastened. It joined my shirt and bra.
“Better. You’re good at that.” I took my hands on a happy journey, scraping up, then down his torso, weaving them through the thatch of hair covering him like a pelt. Hard and thick, his muscles flexed and contracted with each touch of my fingers. I didn’t know if Lucas worked out or was simply gifted from God with this body, but either way, it was an absolute pleasure to see and run my hands over.
“You’re built like a tank,” I said as I dipped my head and played with his nipples the same way he’d done with mine. The air hissed from between his lips when my tongue swirled over a flattened disc, my ministrations causing it to pucker in a heartbeat.
While I was busy, Lucas was, too. Both hands snaked through the waistband of my slacks, downward, to cup my butt. His hands, big and warm, cradled me and then pulled me flat up against him.
“We both have too many clothes on,” he whispered over my jaw and up my cheek. We pulled back just enough to shed what remained of our clothing.
I was done first.
I grew up sharing a bathroom with three sisters. Walking around half clad or naked was the norm, and I’d never been shy about being so in front of them.
But being naked in front of Lucas was an entirely different experience. My sisters had never looked at me with hot lust in their eyes, causing me to erupt in a full body flush. They’d never dragged in deep, resounding breaths when I’d stood before them in nothing but skin and freckles. And they’d certainly never been struck speechless at the sight of me without clothes. Lucas had his fingers tucked into the band of his pants and was about to drag them down his long legs, when he stopped moving.
He was blatantly gaping at me, his eyes wide, his mouth open.
Nerves flittered through me again. I willed myself not to cover my nakedness with my hands.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
My voice shocked him out of his trance. He dragged his gaze back up to my face from where it had settled south, and blinked a few times. Then swallowed.
“Nothing. Why?”
I pointed to him. “One of us has stopped getting undressed, and if you’ll notice, it’s not me.”
That panty-wetting half grin bloomed over his face. He sprang into motion, first toeing out of his shoes, then he pulled something out of one of his pockets, and then finally—finally—dropped his pants.
The only sound in the room was of me trying not to swallow my tongue at the sight of him. What’s the old saying about reality never living up to the fantasy?
Well, in Lucas Alexander’s case the reality was a gazillion times better than any fantasy I’d ever had about him without his clothes. And I’d had a lot of them.
As he’d done to me, I took my eyes on a slow, slow tour of his amazing body.
Hands on his hips—his naked hips—Lucas cocked his head, and it sounded like he was trying not to laugh when he said, “Maureen?”
“Um…y-yeah?” It took a supreme effort to drag my eyes back up to his face.
He lost the battle not to laugh. Shaking his head, he stalked to me, equal parts of determination and desire flying across his features, grabbed my hand, and drew me up against him.
Body to body, he’d felt wonderful when we were both fully clothed. But naked? What’s better than wonderful? Mind-boggling? Life altering, maybe?
Whatever it was, I stopped trying to define it the moment Lucas shifted, lifted me in his arms again, and then up onto my massive bed.
Once we were stretched out on our sides facing one another, I threw a leg over his thighs and cuddled in close, nose to nose. With his eyes closed, Lucas ran a hand down my side, across my hips, and settled just north of my butt, where his fingers drifted back and forth. Divine tingles of pleasure slid up my spine.
“Your skin is the softest thing I’ve ever felt,” he whispered, dropping a kiss on the tip of my nose.
“Good genes.” I laid my hand over his cheek. “And religious use of moisturizer.”
My hand shifted when he grinned and opened his eyes. The depth of emotions swirling within them was almost too much for me. Desire mixed with humor, kindness sifted with raw need. That this man could feel so much, and feel it for me, was dumbfounding.
And if I have to admit it, pretty damn fantastic, too.
He brought his lips to mine in a kiss going from gentle and sweet to poker hot in a heartbeat. Deep, guttural sighs moaned from each of us as our hands explored, tempted, and teased one another.
My skin may be soft, but his felt like velvet as I trailed along his broad shoulders and down his tight back. I’d always admired the view of Lucas walking away from me. With my hands now gripping his fabulous, toned, and tight ass, I knew why.
My toes flexed, then curled, when his hand slipped between my thighs and took a long swipe from front to back and front again. Instinctively, my hips rose from the bed and my legs opened, allowing him full access to whatever he wanted.
He got the hint pretty fast.
With his palm resting against my mound, hi
s fingers began circling around my clit, pressing inward, then releasing in a rhythm that had me panting and writhing in record time. It had been a long, long time since a man had brought me to an orgasm. I hadn’t been kidding when I’d told Nanny I didn’t need a guy to take care of my needs. But the feel of this man’s touch against my most sensitive area was better than anything mechanical could ever be.
That all-too-familiar tingling sensation firing in my pelvis signaled I was close to coming undone. “Lucas.”
His kiss absorbed the scream I let loose a moment later when everything inside me shattered.
I should have been mortified at the speed at which I’d come and the tears that formed behind my eyelids.
That I wasn’t, was something I’d think about much later.
“Open your eyes,” Lucas commanded when the tremors inside me calmed.
When I did, I almost came again at the naked need facing me. Where I got the energy to lift my hand and cradle his cheek is a mystery. Every bone, nerve, muscle, and corpuscle in my body was drained.
He kissed my palm.
“You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?” he asked. “Not only right now, but every day?”
Heat ran up my cheeks as those little tears slipped down my temples. Lucas captured one on his finger, then bent to kiss me.
“I want to make you come again,” he whispered against my lips. “And then again after that, just so I can keep watching you fall apart and know it’s because of me.”
Oh, good Lord.
“Promises, promises,” I managed to eke out between breaths that were still staggered.
His deep, resonant chuckle had all the hairs on my body standing at attention in anticipation of him doing exactly what he’d promised.
But first…a burst of energy blew through me, and I bucked my hips, lifted, and pushed him on his back so I could straddle him like I had on the couch. With my hands pressed into his shoulders to keep him in place, I swiped a quick, hard kiss across his smiling lips and said, “You’re not the only one with plans.”
I kissed his neck, then pulled his earlobe between my teeth and bit down. Lucas gasped.
I moved down his throat, sliding my tongue along the notch in his neck, then down farther to his pecs. While my mouth caressed his torso, my fingers moved south and threaded through the swirling hair beneath his flat belly. One small touch of his jutting erection and his hips bucked as mine had.
“I like this plan,” he half laughed, half moaned. When I fisted my hand around the long and pulsing length of him, he added, “A lot.”
I couldn’t help but smile when I watched him swallow, the notch at his neck going concave when I tugged up and ran my thumb along his wet tip.
“A whole lot.”
With a laugh bounding through me, I continued moving my hand, astounded when his erection grew even bigger. A sense of power I’d never experienced before filled me at the knowledge of what I could do to this wonderful man I’d been in love with for a lifetime.
“I want to be inside you,” Lucas whispered, placing a hand over mine to stop me. “I want to feel you when I come. Sit on top of me.”
Shifting, I spotted something on the bed, reflecting from the bedside lamp.
A condom.
At least one of us was acting responsibly. It had been so long since I’d had sex, I hadn’t even given thought to needing one.
Lucas turned to my line of vision and reached out for it.
I beat him to it. “I want to.”
He nodded, his eyes staying focused on me the entire time.
After rolling it down the long length of him—and being rewarded with another chance to hear him moan—I went up on my knees, positioned myself above him and slowly, slowly slid down until he was engulfed within me.
I think I blacked out for a moment from the sheer and overwhelming pleasure of having him fully inside me. I know we both went stock still when he was settled in all the way.
Eyes opened and focused on me, Lucas grabbed my hips and hauled me up, almost to the point he was out of me, then pulled me down again while he pushed up, deep. The force of the action made me cry out. This time, it echoed around the room.
He did it again and then again, quickening the pace with each plunge until I lost the capacity to see clearly. The bed shook, and I reached out to grip the headboard as Lucas thrust one last time, his voice breaking as he called out my name.
****
“You weren’t kidding about being able to sleep sideways on this thing,” Lucas whispered against my hair.
I opened my eyes to find we were, indeed, lying crossways on the bed, spooned.
The sheets were a mass of chaos, the comforter lying half on, half off the bed.
All in all, it had been a…vigorous night.
Lucas shifted, kissed my cheek, and then rose to go into the bathroom. I should have righted myself in the bed, but I was truly so exhausted, the thought of moving didn’t even compute in my brain.
I must have fallen back to sleep because when Lucas dragged a finger down my cheek, I opened my eyes to see him dressed.
“I’ve gotta get home.” He knelt beside the bed and pushed my hair off my face.
“What time is it?”
“A little before three. I wish I could stay, but with Robert and Dad at home…” He shrugged.
“It’s okay.” I pushed up. Lucas’s breath caught when his gaze dropped to my breasts.
I should have pulled the sheet up over me, but the boldness gene reared its head again. I liked having this newfound power over Lucas, I wasn’t gonna deny it.
“You’re making it hard for me to leave, Maureen.” He stretched and pressed his lips against mine.
“Sorry,” I mumbled against his mouth, not sorry one whit.
He leaned his forehead against mine and sighed.
“I’ve got a full day ahead of me,” he said, “but I’ll try to stop by later on. Okay?”
I yawned. “Don’t worry. I know you’re busy keeping the citizens of Heaven safe. It’s okay.”
I finally sat upright fully and shimmied back toward the top of the bed.
“Go back to sleep for a bit,” Lucas said as he readjusted the sheets and comforter over me. “I know you have to be up soon, but try to get some rest, okay?”
“I’m good.” I snuggled down on my side and burrowed into the pillow. “I survive on less than two hours of sleep most nights.”
I have no memory after that until I woke, two hours later.
Without a Saturday wedding, the inn was quiet, and I didn’t have the usual crowd of workers to help serve, cook, and wait on people I usually did on a wedding weekend. The relative quiet was a gift, and I was able to take a little time in the afternoon to get some work done I’d been putting off, like getting all my quarterly tax receipts ready for the accountant and planning staff for the fall. Leaf peeping season in New Hampshire usually runs from September until the beginning of November, and my inn is routinely filled every single day. Colleen had at least one wedding per weekend booked already, and that meant limiting the amount of rooms I could offer to tourists. I wished I’d made the decision to add on the bungalows earlier.
I called Slade to make sure Mom and babies had arrived home and was thanked effusively for all the food I’d stored in their fridge. I made a promise to visit and bring Nanny with me once they were all settled and up for visitors.
Just when I started a batch of scones to add to Nanny’s dwindling supply, footsteps turned my attention to the breezeway separating my personal kitchen from my professional one.
“Why are you here?” I asked Lucas as he strode into the room.
And strode is the correct description because the focused and intense glare in his eyes as he moved toward me reminded me so much of a hungry panther stalking his lunch there really was no other way to describe it.
He held my gaze prisoner on his trek from the doorway, stopped directly in front of me, took the mixing spoon from my hand
and tossed it into the sink.
“Hey, I was using that.”
It was as if I hadn’t spoken. With one quick flick of his wrist, I was wound into his arms and pressed flat up against his hard-as-stone torso.
“When did you turn into such a caveman?” I asked, a grin twitching across my lips. What I didn’t say was how much I liked it. He shook his head, his own lips lifting, a laugh floating in his eyes as he bent and kissed me once, softly.
A sigh shuddered through my entire body.
“Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to leave you this morning?” Lucas whispered against my cheek on his way to nuzzle my chin. “To know you were cuddled under the covers, warm”—he kissed my temple—“and naked and sleepy from our lovemaking…” His mouth dragged across my ear, pulled the fleshy part between his lips.
I gasped and tightened my hold against him.
“I wanted to stay more than I’ve ever wanted to do anything. Spend the day with you, in your ridiculously big bed, and make you come again and again.”
It was a good thing he was holding me because I lost the capacity to feel anything south of my knees at that statement.
“Promises, promises.” I yelped when he bit down on my neck, laughter shaking through his chest.
He pulled back, and the sight of him smiling, his eyes clear and bright and no longer shadowed with exhaustion, filled me with such profound joy I couldn’t think straight.
“Maureen.” He kissed me again. “I can’t tell you what last night meant to me.”
“You don’t have to.” I cupped his cheek.
“I do. I need you to know this isn’t just some…passing thing with me. I’ve been imagining us together for so damn long.” He hauled in another breath as he held me tighter. “I…care about you. Really care. Deeply. And I want to be with you. All in, just like I said last night.”
My heart stuttered at the words. I knew what all in meant to me, but I wasn’t certain it meant the same thing to him. Was he telling me he wanted a future with me? A commitment of some sort? I knew there couldn’t be, and I should have told him so. I should have said it was okay for us to live in the here and now and not think of anything other than today.
I don’t know why I didn’t. Fear, maybe? What we had was so new to both of us, I didn’t want to say anything to jeopardize any time we could have together, because for as long as he’d been thinking of us together, I had been imagining it for much, much longer. Instead of saying it out loud though, I told him the truth of what was in my heart.
