by Lee Wardlow
She was partially pressed into his body. Skylar was still familiar to him. She was still the same. She was what he wanted. He just had to convince her of that.
Luka knew how to make her respond to him. He brushed the hair out of her eyes with a tenderness that elicited a low moan from Sky. Then he lowered his head so his lips could brush against hers. Skylar’s arms went around his neck and she pulled him closer. He hesitated. His breath warm on her face. Increasing the need with every inch that he got nearer to what he wanted. Her. Skylar. Just Skylar.
Then he touched his lips to hers. A soft gentle kiss at first. Skylar didn’t pull back. She didn’t tense. He didn’t know what she was thinking. He didn’t want to scare her off so he kept the kiss easy and soft.
Skylar moaned. That sound was his undoing. His hand tangled in the waves of her hair holding her lips to his lips. His kiss became more urgent as his mouth caressed hers. His free hand dipped beneath the blankets covering her. She gasped when his hand touched her bare skin beneath the shorts she wore.
Luka was testing the waters. He wanted to touch all of her. He wanted to feel her skin against his. His fingertips caressed the skin of her belly as his hand slid around her pulling her tighter to his own body. It was so soft and she was so responsive just as she was when she was sixteen. He loved her as much now as he did then.
He moved her shorts down her slender thighs and she didn’t stop him. Luka had to have her naked in his arms. He was surprised when her hands moved to his shorts. She shoved them down too.
“Luka, I have missed you.” The words were torn from her as if they pained her to admit them. He would take it though.
He kicked off his shorts while kissing her throat. Her shoulder. He slid lower and Skylar ran her fingers through his hair. His hands encircled her waist and he moved her tank top up and over her head. She lifted her body helping him.
Skin to skin; he covered her body with his. This was where he belonged. A warm body had given him release but had never given him pleasure. Not like this. He was home. This time he just needed to be inside her. The next time would be slow and less intense. The next time would be about loving each other.
Luka slid inside Skylar. She wrapped her legs around him. The blankets sliding to the side. She was everything to him. She was his. It was like no time had passed between them when their bodies joined.
He buried his face in her neck while he moved; thrust for thrust his breathing increased. She clutched his back; her nails digging into his skin leaving marks in his flesh.
“You’re mine Skylar,” he whispered in her ear.
She didn’t respond. Skylar just held onto him. He grasped her hands hard in his and held them over her head while his body moved inside hers.
“You missed this as much as I did. Tell me that you did.”
“Shut up Luka,” she growled. “You talk too much.”
He chuckled in her ear then he rolled to his back taking her with him. Skylar straddled his body still connected to him. She placed her hand on his abs to steady herself then she brushed her hair back over her shoulder. She moved in slow circles over him. Luka clutched her hips pulling her harder on his body when she wasn’t moving fast enough.
“Baby, you feel so good. I’ve dreamt of you…of this.”
Her head tilted back. Luka knew she wasn’t listening to him. She was seeking her pleasure. Using him and he let her. His hands slid down to her thighs. He held onto her while she rode his body. She looked amazing. Rising and falling on him. Faster, harder. So damn hot like she was when she rode her horses. Wild and free.
He watched the muscles of her belly quiver as she came on his dick and he lost himself. He came inside her. No condom. No protection. Hell, he wouldn’t care if he got her pregnant but he wasn’t sure how she would feel. He fully expected her to shut down in the morning.
Luka sat up and cupped her face in his big hands. He drew her face to his. His lips gently took hers in a soft kiss. “I love you baby. I never stopped. Not one day did I not love you. Tell me you love me too.”
She turned her face into his neck. “Luka,” she only said his name.
He nodded. Then his lips brushed across hers again. “Are you on birth control?” He asked.
She leaned back and stared at him. “Hell yes,” she replied.
He didn’t know whether he was disappointed or relieved. For Ava’s sake he thought it better to wait but he had missed Ava’s early life. Luka wanted another child with Skylar and this time he was going to be present and there was going to be another time. Another baby. He was going to marry Skylar Bradford whether she liked it or not. He would get her to the alter kicking and screaming if he had to.
“You may have my body Luka,” she told him knowing it was true. She couldn’t resist him. “But my heart will always remain mine. He could live with that for now. It was step in the right direction.
**
Skylar woke in the morning with a heavy arm draped across her body. Although she wanted to feel good about the man lying next to her she was scared as shit. She hadn’t lasted two days with him in the house before she let him in her bed.
She slid from beneath him hoping she didn’t wake Luka and went to the bathroom to shower. She didn’t even look back. The sooner Skylar could shower the sooner she could get outside and get to work. Hard work would ease the confusion and craziness going on in her brain right now.
Once showered Skylar slipped into jeans and a tank. Then she went out to the paddock area. She had a new horse she had been working with. Beneath the hot, Ohio sun Skylar eased Majestic into the training area and began his lessons for the day.
Brett arrived at noon. She hadn’t seen Ava or Luka as she worked Majestic through his paces. Eventually she would work with his owner; wanting to show him Majestic’s routines. He was a good horse and would do well in the shows around the different counties.
She led Majestic to the fence where Brett had perched. He was wearing the same clothes he had on last night which meant he had spent the night with Ramona. “How are you?” She asked when she reined the big horse in beside him.
“We took ten steps back yesterday and five forward last night.”
“Is that a good thing?” Skylar asked him.
“It is. She let me stay the night with her. We just didn’t have sex. I held her and we talked. I’m taking her out to eat on her night off this week.”
“Imagine that a real date,” Skylar teased him.
“Imagine that,” he agreed.
“I’m happy for you.”
Skylar reached down and patted the horse’s neck. “What’s wrong?”
Skylar glanced up at Brett with a blank look on her face. “Nothing. I just didn’t sleep well last night. I have Majestic to train today and I’m tired.” She decided then and there to not burden Brett with her problems so that she didn’t come between him and Ramona again.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“I am,” she told him.
“I’m going to run inside and see Luka and Ava,” he told her.
“Sounds good. I’m going to get back to training Majestic.” Skylar leaned forward in the saddle and patted the horse’s neck again before she turned him towards the center of the training ring.
He climbed down from the fence. Skylar was trying to calm the horse because she wanted him to stand still. That was the one thing Majestic struggled with. He wanted to move. She had been working hard with him on this. Ava came outside to see Skylar. She hadn’t seen her mother all morning. Skylar was up and outside before Ava even got out of bed. Her child climbed up on the fence and Skylar sighed. Then she smiled. Ava rarely disrupted her when she was working. Skylar rode Majestic over to the fence once again. This training session wasn’t going very well this morning. She leaned in and kissed Ava.
“Can I watch?” Ava asked.
“Sure sweetheart but I need to get back to it. We have your soccer game this afternoon.”
“I know. I won’t distract yo
u.”
Skylar took him around the ring in a series of movements. Showing off his best moves. A cantor. A full gallop. Then back to a walk. He was getting good at listening to the commands when all he really wanted to do was run.
She could feel his pent up tension beneath her. If she turned him loose he would run at a full gallop all the time. She walked back into the center of the ring and was trying to get him to stand still again but he only danced at first.
“Majestic,” she scolded him.
Ava chuckled at her. “Good boy,” she told him when he settled in front of Ava and stood perfectly still. Skylar ran him through his paces for a while then she led him back into the barn and took off his saddle. Ava followed her.
“Do you like having Daddy here?” Her daughter asked her.
Skylar stopped what she was doing. She had to be careful how she answered considering that Luka was Ava’s father and things were fragile between her and Luka. “I’m fine with him being here,” she answered finally.
“I like having him here Momma.”
Skylar laid his saddle on the table outside of Majestic’s stall. “I’m glad sweetheart.”
“I still don’t understand why he left. He loves you.”
This was difficult. How to explain to a child why a man makes any decision that affected so many people. Skylar brushed down Majestic while she thought about so many of the conversations that she had with Luka.
“He wasn’t happy in Haley Cove, Ava.”
“Why not? He had you.”
“It wasn’t that simple. He wanted more for himself. He wanted to be more. He didn’t want to be like Poppy.”
“I thought Poppy was nice.” She seemed confused.
“Poppy was nice to me and my sisters but he wasn’t always nice to your Daddy and his brothers or even Grammy. Farming is hard work Ava. It leaves an impression on people’s lives that is heavy and burdensome. Poppy felt that plus he was raised by a man that wasn’t always nice to him. Luka didn’t want to be like that so he left town to become something more.”
“I googled him,” Ava admitted to Skylar.
“You did.” Skylar was surprised by this. She trained her eyes on Ava waiting to see what else she wanted to say.
“He’s pretty famous.”
“I didn’t know,” Skylar replied honestly.
She had avoided his career in fighting. Not really wanting to see or know too much about him. Not wanting to see what he looked like now or how life had changed him. Brett had mentioned his cage fighting a few times so she had known what he was doing but Skylar hadn’t asked any questions.
“There are YouTube videos of some of his matches online.”
Skylar stopped brushing Majestic. She peered over his broad back at Ava. “I’m not sure that you should be watching his matches on YouTube baby.” She didn’t know a lot about MMA fighting but she thought they could be pretty brutal. “Did he win?” Skylar asked.
Ava laughed at her mother. “He did almost every single time but it was scary to watch.”
Skylar finished with Majestic and patted his rump before she walked out of the stall and closed the door behind her. She latched it tight then mother and daughter walked down the length of the barn past the other stalls to the open door. They stepped through and Skylar closed the barn door after them.
“Why was it scary?” She asked.
“He’s mean in the cage. I mean like really scary mean. He doesn’t look like the same person. Not at all like what I’ve seen. A couple of those men had to be carried out.”
Skylar gazed down on her daughter before they started walking towards the house. Both of them had their heads down. “Luka has always had a hellacious temper,” she realized what she said when Ava looked up at her with a little confusion or fear. “He wouldn’t hurt me or you Ava. Not ever. He isn’t like that but I can see him taking out his aggression on somebody in a cage fight. That is probably what made him so good. He had a lot of aggression from dealing with your Poppy for years.”
They were about to approach the front porch when she looked up. “What are you two talking about?” Luka asked. He was sitting on the porch steps with Brett and heard part of the conversation.
“Ava has been googling you,” Skylar replied.
“Why?” He was horrified by that idea. Maybe she should google him too.
“She wanted to see your fights. She watched them on YouTube.”
Brett looked at Luka who gave him a quick glance. “I don’t think that is a good idea that Ava watch those fights.”
“Too late,” Skylar replied. “The power of the internet, Luka.”
He glanced between Skylar and Ava. “Ava, come here.”
She walked over and slipped into Luka’s arms. “The man in the cage isn’t the man that you know,” he told his daughter. “I wouldn’t hurt you or your mom.”
“That is what Momma just said. She said you have aggression from dealing with Poppy and you take it out on the men in the cage.”
He glanced up at Skylar. Unsure that she should have revealed so much to Ava about Jacob Shaw. “I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to say. I said that is what made you so good in the cage. I do think it’s better that she understood why you left and why you did what you did than to have questions. I guess I should have talked to you first.” He nodded in agreement.
“He was a hard man Ava. I didn’t want to be like him so I left. I had every intention of coming back for your Momma and I did just a lot later than I had planned.”
Skylar watched her daughter squeeze Luka’s neck. “I just wanted you here. I wanted a daddy like everyone else.”
“I’m sorry baby girl. So sorry.” He patted her back, comforting her.
“Ava, it isn’t Luka’s fault. It’s mine,” Skylar told her. “I should have told him about you. If I had he would have been here for you but I thought, I could be both mother and father and you had your uncles,” she added.
“Not the same,” she grumbled.
“I get that now,” she told her daughter. Skylar sighed. She really needed to change and so did Ava if she wanted to make her soccer game. “Kiddo, we need to move it or we’ll be late for your game.”
Ava released Luka and went inside with Skylar. At the front door Skylar turned just as Luka did too. Their eyes met. Both were remembering making love last night. She could see the burn in his eyes. Skylar turned away first and headed inside. She went up the stairs to her room. By the time she got to the top, Ava had already gone to her room and shut the door. Skylar looked at her door. Then she ran her fingers through her messy hair before she went to her own room to change.
**
When he heard the term soccer mom, he thought of mini-vans and women in capris with tee shirts who sat on the sidelines and yelled for the kids to win.
When Skylar came down the stairs, she was wearing blue jean cut-off shorts and flip flips and her hair was loose and wild about her face. Her shirt was a pretty shade of pink and cut low revealing far more cleavage than any soccer mom should ever reveal. “You’re going dressed like that to her game?”
Ava was waiting at the door with Brett and Luka. Skylar looked at her daughter and Brett who both shrugged then she looked at Luka. “What is wrong with what I am wearing?”
“Your Ava’s mom,” he declared.
“And Ava’s mom dresses comfortably for her soccer games. It is going to be hot Luka. I’m not inappropriately dressed.” She tucked her phone into her back pocket. “Who is driving? I would prefer it not be me because of my missing front bumper.”
She started out the front door. “If somebody hadn’t crashed into the fountain the bumper wouldn’t be smashed and laying in the driveway,” Luka snapped.
Skylar tugged her sunglasses down to the end of her nose and peered over them at Luka. Brett shoved him out the front door. “You never learn man. We can take my truck,” he offered.
Skylar and Ava sat in the back together. Her daughter was spinning the soccer ball
gently in her hands and staring out the window. “You okay?” Skylar asked her. Ava nodded but didn’t turn away from the window.
When they arrived at the fields Skylar saw Luna standing with Ramona and Luka’s other brothers, Stellan and Benji. Dalton wasn’t here yet.
Luka climbed out first. He looked in the back seat waiting for Skylar and Ava to get out. “We’ll be right there. I want to talk to Ava for a moment,” Skylar told him.
He shrugged and walked away leaving the door open so his daughter could get out when she was ready. Brett did the same thing for Skylar. He joined Luka with his siblings and mother. He slipped his arm around Ramona and Sky smiled. Her sister was happy to see him. She really liked him.
Skylar turned to Ava then. “Okay, so tell me what’s wrong.”
Ava was troubled, Skylar knew her daughter well. “I know Daddy slept in your room last night.”
“Oh,” she replied. “Ava, our relationship is complicated.”
“Do you love him?” She asked. She didn’t miss the hope in her daughter’s voice.
“I need time Ava. He knows that. When he left he hurt me. There was a time when I thought that he and I would be married and have children. I thought we would do everything together. Then he left me without a word. I need time to build that trust again. I need to know that he won’t hurt me.”
“He won’t leave Momma. He won’t leave me,” Ava insisted.
Sky turned her head to her daughter. “No sweetheart, he won’t leave you,” Skylar reassured her daughter. “So you let Daddy and I worry about what’s going on with us and you just go play soccer and enjoy having him here.”
She nodded. They stepped out of the truck and walked to the front of the vehicle. Sky took Ava’s hand. “I love you Ava.”
“I love you too Momma.”
Ava greeted her family and then took off across the soccer fields for pre-game warmups with her team. Skylar watched her daughter running away from them. Then she caught sight of Tag standing by one of the divorcees. He looked at her first then he turned his head towards Ava and watched her. “What’s wrong?” Luka asked.
