by Dawn, Penny
* * * *
"I saw that you called earlier.” Luke held the phone tight to his ear, driving toward the County Counseling Center. “I'm sorry I missed you. Did you need something? Anything?"
"It was nothing important. I ... I feel silly even saying this, but I bought you a few T-shirts. And flannels."
He'd bought something for her, too—a golden bracelet with a four-leaf-clover charm. It seemed silly now, and she was probably used to jewelry boasting precious stones, but maybe she'd like it, if he could gather the nerve to give it to her. “You didn't have to do that."
"You don't have to plow my driveway either, and if you'll forgive my saying so, you need new shirts. Everything you own is torn. At least it used to be."
"Occupational hazard."
"How's business?"
"Mad dash last month to finish everything before Thanksgiving, but now, slow."
"I'm sorry."
"It'll pick up in the spring."
"It was good to see you the other day."
"Hey.” He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. “Is Allison home?"
"No, it's Brennan's weekend."
"How about that? Our kids are on the same schedule. Could you use some company?"
"Do you think that's a good idea?"
"I think it's the best idea I've had in a long time.” He pulled over to the side of the road, allowed the cars behind him to pass, and u-turned illegally. Derby groaned in his sleep next to him.
"I'm going to be candid with you, Luke."
"All right."
"It was good to see you."
"It was good to see you, too."
"And you look great. Life is obviously agreeing with you."
"You, too."
"I keep thinking about what you said to me that one day. You know, when you told me—"
"When I told you I loved you, yeah."
"I don't know if you meant it or not, but I think about it."
"I think about it, too."
"You always used to touch me. And not in the way that men touch women in the general sense, but you know ... you used to really ... touch me."
"Can I ... can I come see you?"
"Don't go out of your way."
"I'm close."
"I think it might be too soon. I'm still pretty raw."
"How ‘raw’ can you be? You made the move."
"That doesn't make it easy. You should know that."
"Lonely, I'll buy. But raw? You'd been—"
"He's getting married next May. I'd say raw just about covers it."
"Oh, wow. I can understand that. Diane's due after the first of the year."
"Guess I was pretty easy to forget, huh?"
"No.” He pulled into her driveway and retrieved a black velvet bracelet box from the glove compartment. He slipped the gift into the pocket of his insulated flannel jacket. “I'm sorry he never realized what he had in you, but you can't think like that. His loss."
"You're a good man, Luke."
He exited the truck and coerced the dog out. “You thinking I'm a good man has kept me going on more than a few nights."
A resigned sigh filtered through his phone. “Your wife didn't know how lucky she was."
Tingles raced up his spine. “Thank you."
"I miss you."
"Let me in, and show me how much.” He turned the knob on the front door; it opened to display every cranny in the house decked out in Christmas ornamentation. The woman could make a home out of any house. Elegant, festive, and rich. Macy's compared to the artificial three-foot Douglas fir standing on the end table in his tiny living room. “Where are you?” He removed his work boots, and Derby slumped against the doormat. “Upstairs or down?"
"I'm in ... where are you? I'm upstairs. In the laundry room."
He turned off the phone and walked quickly, but quietly, up eighteen oak stairs toward the rush of a washing machine.
"Luke? Are you there?"
He heard Kimberley's sweet voice a split second before he saw her. She entered the hallway, oblivious to his presence, with a basket of clothes tucked under her right arm, and her telephone cradled at her ear in her left hand.
In a cropped, hooded sweatshirt and low rise yoga pants, she looked as casual as she had at the gym. The two dimples above her round posterior seemed to wink at him, and her hair, wildly bouncing against her shoulders, lured him closer. Despite the cold weather, her feet were bare, and her toes, painted.
"All's well that ends well,” she muttered, turning off the phone and tossing it into the basket of clothes.
"That's what I always say."
She spun to face him, lips slightly parted and eyes wide, turned back, and continued along her path into what he assumed to be her bedroom.
Silently, he followed her, choosing his moment. And finally, when she placed the basket of clothes onto the pink-clad queen-sized bed and reached for an article to fold, the moment arrived.
He shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped his arms around her, from back to front.
She flinched and spun toward him in surprise, a tiny pair of leggings dangling from her hand, but before she said a single word, he placed his mouth on hers.
Her lips parted, and she sank into the kiss.
He lowered her to the mattress, his hands sliding under her shirt, cupping her breasts in his hands, gently pushing them out of her bra. Full, firm, and fabulous. “It's been too long,” he said pressing his hardening body between her thighs.
Her hands worked at his fly, popping the button, inching down the zipper. Unable to believe she was actually undressing him, he pulled his lips from her mouth and opened his eyes. Oh, yes. It was happening, all right.
"Hi,” she breathed through a tender sigh.
"Hi.” He peeled off her shirt, feathering his hands against her pretty skin, and whisked away her pants. “God, you look incredible.” White lace undergarments; rosy nipples peeking up at him, her defined—but not too cut—abdomen beckoning to him.
Now exposed, he pressed his erection at her panties, rubbing impatiently against the silk, dropping kisses over her neck.
"Are you going to take them off, or work around them?” she whispered.
What? Oh, the panties. At the moment, he couldn't remember whether she was wearing them or not, and it didn't matter. Her warm, wet heat filtered through the length of him, panties or none. “You want them off?” He slid a hand under her rear and raked the panties from her body.
She propped her legs on his left shoulder, lifting her hips and enabling him to remove the lingerie completely, and lowered her legs around his waist.
He looked down at her opening, an unbelievably rare sight. He wanted to dive into it, to bury his lips in her soft, black hair, to rub his tongue against her g-spot and drink from her.
She pulled him closer. “Do you have anything?"
Besides a rock-hard cock and a yearning so far beyond desire he'd probably explode before entering her? His gaze darted to hers like magnets. “Anything?"
"Like a condom?"
"I'll brave the consequences."
"Wait.” She fumbled in the nightstand drawer, and he kicked off his jeans and yanked the socks from his feet.
While she tore at a three-pack of condoms, opening it with her teeth, he pressed a finger into her. She melted over his flesh when he contacted the spot that months ago had turned her to pudding; he imagined his cock inside of her instead.
She whispered dreamily against his lips—something about luck—and writhed subtly beneath him, stroking a condom over him.
He closed his eyes, savoring the feeling of her hands on him. “I can't wait. I need you."
Without a word, she pressed the tip of his cock into her vagina and pressed her pelvis against him. “I can't believe how good it is.” The rip in his T-shirt grew when she tore it from his body.
With one hand, he lifted her body under his, pulled back the covers with the other, and shifted her to the middle of the bed.
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The laundry basket tumbled to the floor.
He shuddered in pleasure, deep inside the body he'd been unable to forget since the first time he'd laid eyes on her. A delicate hand trailed up his stomach and came to rest on his heart. Gazes locked, he placed his hand atop hers. No wedding ring. He embraced her tight to his torso. She was free. And for the moment, his.
He rolled her over and positioned her on top, her hot labia melting over his balls.
She kneaded her hips against his pelvis and pushed against his chest, rising an inch or two above him. A glistening of sweat tickled between their bodies, energized by the sudden filtering of air between them, refreshing, like morning dew. “Did you know this was going to happen?"
He shook his head. “Did you?"
"Yes,” she whispered into another kiss.
A bra strap slipped from her shoulder.
He unclasped and removed her bra. Her nipples nestled in the sparse hair on his chest, and her thighs tightened astride him.
"I'm sorry,” she breathed into his ear.
"About what?” He locked his lips around her mouth, feeling her cunt and tongue flex against him at the same time. His mind whirled as if a hurricane were about to roar through his brain. He held her in a taut, quivering embrace, pressing hard against her body, filling her to capacity, and spilling his load into her just when she shivered in a simultaneous peak.
He pumped his softening penis inside of her, and twitched up, ready to do it all again.
"That was a three-pack?"
"Yeah."
"We'll tear through the whole box before dinner, at this rate."
A breathy giggle escaped her.
"I'm gonna get you pregnant,” he said between kisses.
"You say that as if you want to."
"You say that as if I've ever told you any different."
"How can you know? How do you know we'll be right together?"
"God, how could this be wrong?” He tugged on a wild curl and brushed it behind her ear.
She rolled off him. “We were pretty good, weren't we?” She lay on her back, one foot resting across his ankle, the rest of her body loose against the rumpled sheets.
"Yeah.” He stroked her just under her breasts and groaned, her satiny skin invigorating him below the belt. Oh, to touch a woman freely again, to feel her respond. “And not only the sex."
Her gaze, misty and solemn, momentarily met his. “I'm sorry for the way things happened with us. Cheating, running around like that. How can I expect you to trust me after the way we—"
"Can you trust me?"
"I don't know."
"I guess we'll have to find out."
"Part of me is afraid to try."
When would the Discovery Channel report on the success rate of second marriages? “You can't be afraid forever. We deserve a chance."
She fingered the scar at his left eye. “What happened, here?"
"Saudi Arabia."
"I always wondered.” She caressed the mark, concern in her expression. “I can't get over you again."
"So don't get over me.” He pressed a hand to her abdomen. “And maybe someday I'll give you a reason not to."
She licked her lips and dragged a soft finger along his chin. “Someday."
"Maybe.” He moved his fingers in slow circles against her tummy. “This might not be so bad, you know."
"How about one step at a time?"
"Great idea, beautiful girl. I'll take you to dinner tonight."
"A date?"
"Call it our first, the way it should've happened."
"Haven't been on one of those in a long time.” Her smile brightened her already brilliant green eyes.
He sighed with the stroke of her hand, moving downward, along his jugular and across his chest. “We'll do things right this time. I want to spend some time with Allie. I'd like you to get to know my boy. And Rachael, too."
She tickled his hips ... “I'd like that.” ... and stroked the condom off his hardening seven-and-five-eighths. “But that's not until next weekend."
"Never stop touching me.” He groaned and rolled toward her. “We'll take it slow this time around, but promise me you'll never stop touching me."
"I like touching you. And I like it slow."
"I have something for you.” He reached to the floor, into the pocket of his discarded flannel jacket and presented the velvet box to her.
Reluctantly, she took it. “Luke, I don't need things like this. You didn't have—"
"It's just a little something, reminded me of you, so ... If you don't like it, you don't have to wear it."
She opened the box, and a genuine smile touched her lips. “I love it.” She extracted the thin chain from its satin bed. “Help me with the clasp."
He fastened the delicate jewelry around her small wrist. “You're beautiful, you know that?"
She fingered the clover charm. “My new most flattering moment."
Had her skin always been this ivory, like a porcelain doll's? Her eyes as green as emeralds? “How did I get so lucky to find you?"
"You aren't lucky.” She licked her lips and touched his scar again. “But I am."
THE END
