He’d have to learn to behave and not be a brat. To give and not just take take take from her. He had the advantage of knowing exactly what she’d be going through. The upper hand. A peek behind the veil.
He also had two brothers who wanted to see him happy. And he had a feeling they wanted him to find that happiness with Lexi. Gray sure did. They’d keep his ass in line.
Now, all he had to do was say he loved her, he wanted her, eighteen ways to Sunday. And he’d let her be in charge.
“What in the world are you doing here?” The sharp bite of Lexi’s voice meant this wouldn’t be as easy as he thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Lexi
The limo idling in the cracked, weed-ridden parking lot had stopped Lexi in her tracks. The New Jersey plates had thrown her off. She couldn’t imagine someone in a limousine rolling down to the fancy Jersey Shore stopped there.
Seeing wide shoulders under a crown of blond hair made her heart pound.
Luke.
At her mother’s resort.
“What in the world are you doing here?” she blurted, fighting the embarrassment. The Sterling may have needed a facelift, but the Portside Inn needed a blow torch.
Luke turned around and their eyes connected. Despite looking so out of place given his pristine appearance and the dark out-of-date paneling of the motel’s sad lobby, his face only said adoration. And want. Need. Not in the sexual way.
That suffocation from not being able to breathe without the person you love at your side.
Then she watched her brother march in his direction. Oh boy.
“My sister asked you a question?” Theo said.
“Theo, it’s okay,” she said, tugging on his arm.
“Your sister tells me you’re a fireman.” Luke reached out his hand to Theo. Smart. Her brother was the man of the family. Luke understood that.
“Soon. I’m still probationary,” he said, glaring down at Luke’s waiting hand. When she nudged him from behind, he shook it. “Theo Markham.”
“It’s good to meet you, Probie.” Luke’s smile lit up the room when he faced her. “I met your mother.”
“I see that.” Lexi took in her mother’s wide smile. Good grief, what had they been talking about? “Been here long?”
The way his eyes flickered, she’d read him loud and clear: long enough. She gave a low chuckle into her hand and cleared her throat.
“Whose limo is that?” she asked him.
“It’s a rental.” He smiled at her. “I picked it up at an airstrip not far from here.”
“You took the jet down here?” Her voice pitched up.
“You own a jet?” Theo asked, catching his breath.
“The man owns a jet!” her mother practically cheered.
“No, a helicopter,” he corrected them all.
“You own a helicopter, too?” her mother asked, looking ready to pass out.
“No. He doesn’t own a helicopter,” Lexi snapped at them, getting all gooey.
“Oh, Lexi, my dear.” Luke sauntered up to her. “We are so getting a helicopter.”
Lexi shook her head and whispered, “How’s your mother?”
He stared at her, then looked down, his face flushed. Oh no.
“Is she okay?”
“Yes, yes,” he said, bringing the electric blue eyes she missed back to her. “I’m shocked that’s the first thing you asked me.”
“No. The first thing I asked was what are you doing here.” She gave him a sneaky smile.
“Right. And I didn’t answer you. But Mom is out of the hospital. Gray is staying with her. I’ll go down there again in a few days.”
Calling his mother Mom, made her heart squeeze. Using that familiar term brought her back into the Hart circle.
“Okay. Good. I’m glad. So, what are you doing here?”
“It’s not obvious?”
“No. I finished my job. You agreed that was the end.” Of us.
“I’m here to convince you to go back to school, first and foremost.”
“How did...” She cast a glance over Luke’s shoulder and her mother checked her nails. “I’ll get back there, eventually. Or was my bonus tied to some kind of condition? I didn’t sign anything that said I was obligated.”
“She even sounds like a lawyer, right?” Luke said, smiling, glancing at her mother and Theo.
“You’re not going back to school?” Theo asked. “That was Dad’s dream for you.”
“Yeah. He’s gone. Mom’s dream needs my money more.” She waved her hands around, wondering why no one else saw that.
“You don’t have to choose, Lexi,” Luke said, taking her hand. “You can have both.”
“How?”
“This place seems like a safe investment. Great location.” He had to squint out the lobby’s plate-glass window through winter crud. “Just don’t ask me if it’s contingent on you and I being in a relationship.”
Now she felt confused.
“Oh, Luke, you don’t know what you’re—” Her mother tried to interject.
But he smiled at her. “Because that’s a given. I’m not leaving here without you, Lexi. I love you.”
She blinked, wondering how her fucked-up brain made her believe Luke had just told her he loved her. “What?”
He cocked his head. “I love you, Alexis Markham, a.k.a. Alex Markham.”
That made her chuckle. “Why? What’s changed? You said—”
“I know what I said. But I thought about it. I got out of my own way and stopped thinking of my needs. Because that selfishness was keeping me from a woman I love. So much changed for me the night we met, the night you came home with me.”
“What?” Theo said.
“Excuse us.” Luke held her by the waist to lead her outside.
The air was electric, the smell of rain made her heart swell. “You were saying?”
He smiled and held her face. “I need to kiss you, first.”
She swallowed. “I need that, too.”
And next his lips were on hers, smooth, but powerfully possessing her mouth. He took ownership of her that night, too. Their souls had connected. The feel of his lips now came without a warning label or a caveat. She had all of him.
“I also realized, you, pink lady, have the capacity to beat the daylights out of someone in court, then come home and fuck the ever-loving crap out of me. That’s the woman I want. That’s what makes you so perfect for me.”
And then tears streamed down her face.
“Please tell me those are happy tears,” Luke said, wiping away the warm tracks.
“I was supposed to graduate today.” She gave sniff and turned away, ashamed how another setback broke her down.
“Oh, honey. I swear if I’d known that night... Any of this.”
“I know.” She melted into a hug that started to repair weeks of damage.
“Right there, I know you want to go back to school. You don’t get weepy over a lot.”
“Just you and law school.” Both difficult, but so rewarding. “Wait, how will this work if I go back to school?”
“When you go back.” He held her by the waist. “If you live with me, waking up next to you every morning will fuel me for the day and making love to you every night will ease both our starving frustrations.”
She never doubted she could handle law school and Luke Hart. She only regretted that he didn’t have faith in her to manage such a demanding man. “Isn’t living together...serious?”
“Pardon the pun, but as a heart attack. This is it. You’re it for me, Alexis.” He stroked her cheek. “I can also help you with school.”
She snorted. “Help me how?”
He kissed her mouth. “With your tests. I’m great with flashcards.” He kissed her again. “And studying for the bar. You’ll need hours of stress-relieving sex.”
“Then what?”
He bore into her eyes. “That’s the best part. Whatever you want. Whatever we want. We answer to no one,
Lexi. You earned every penny of that tuition money we gave you.”
God, how heavenly this all sounded. “And you really love me?”
“I fell in love with you that first night. I was ready to say goodbye to the reckless CEO and settle in for a great summer and get to know you.” He pushed a hair out of her eye. “Then you showed up. How could that not be fate?”
Fate. Her breath hitched, and she stepped away, clutching the plastic bag she’d kept glued to her chest for the last ten minutes.
“What?” He looked down. “What’s in the CVS bag?”
“Just tell me one more time that you love me,” she said low, afraid that when she told him she may be pregnant, he’d never say it again.
“I think you should catch up with a few L-words, Lexi.” He crossed his arms, his eyes still on the bag.
Sheets of rain suddenly poured down. He grabbed her hand, ready to run back into the lobby, but she yanked him harder. “No. This way.”
They crossed the road before it flooded. She needed privacy to open up to Luke, tell him all their choices may have been taken away from them. First, she wanted to live the fantasy of him loving her no matter what, a little longer.
When she brought him into the small cottage, she said, “This is our house.”
He shook the water off his expensive suit with an air of indifference like he didn’t care if the rain ruined it. “This is...”
“I know.”
“Lexi, I grew up like this. This doesn’t bother me. I was handed my billions. That’s why I need someone like you. That’s why Tristan and Laney get along so well. She grew up north of here.”
That made sense. That’s how he knew they’d make it. Underneath, they were the same.
“And before that hotel got dumped on me, I was a lawyer. Like you. That’s another passion we share.” He lowered his eyes to the bag. “So, what do you have in that bag that you don’t want to show me?”
She took a deep breath and slid out the narrow blue and white box. Luke’s eyes widened reading the side: E.P.T.
She spoke first. “I take responsibility, I practically begged you. Anyway...” She ripped into the box. “So put all your plans on hold. Let me take this...”
“No.” He snatched it from her and put it back in the bag. “No plastic stick will determine my future. I’m here for you. All of you. And if that includes our baby, even better.”
“I don’t know for sure. Isn’t it better to know?”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. In fact...” He obliterated the distance between them. “I want you even more, now. We have our entire lives. But Lexi...” He held her face. “I’m still waiting to hear that you love me, too.”
Why was it so hard to say? Because she’d never said it before. She refused to tell Damon. To give him that power.
Whoever loves least controls the relationship.
Luke had put his heart on the line. “Can I show you I love you?”
“Ha! You said it.” He looked around. “Your Honor, did you hear the witness say—” ‘
She stopped him with her mouth and next her hands ran down the front of his pants. His wet pants. “You need to get out of this suit.”
“No kidding. Do you have something I can wear after I’m through making sure you missed me?” He gave her a wry smile.
“Maybe.” She flicked his ear with her tongue. “Come with me.”
Luke followed her to a hallway closet near the stairs. She dropped to her hands and knees, her butt sticking straight up in the air.
“Too easy, Miss Markham.” Luke growled, toeing off his wet shoes.
“These were my dad’s,” she said, sliding out a plastic bin. “Jeans and some fire department tee-shirts my mom didn’t want to get rid of.”
Luke crouched down and laid a palm on the clothes. Lexi touched the fabrics feeling the love of her first hero.
“I want this stuff on my body if it brings you joy to see these clothes again on another man you love.” Luke took her hand and pressed it against his heart. Wet. “Let me tell the limo he can leave.”
“Looks like your rental left,” she said when they stood up, seeing the parking lot across the street was now empty. “Idiot must not have realized he was driving a billionaire. How will we get back to the city?”
“You’re agreeing to come back with me?”
She glared at him. “Maybe. It depends.”
“You’ll see a helicopter will be a handy thing for us to have.”
“Do you know what kind of liability insurance a thing like that will need?”
“It’s not like we can’t afford it. Besides, we’ll need it if we’re gonna be coming down here again. Theo can use it, too.”
Her throat grew tight. For us to have. We can afford it. We’ll be coming down here. All of that had her head spinning. Including Theo in Luke’s plans suggested just how all in, he was.
God, so was she.
“What’s next, Lexi? I’m here. You’re here.”
“That road becomes a river in these forceful rain storms.”
He followed her gaze. “The one dividing us and the motel?”
“Yeah.” She laughed in his chest. “Looks like we have a few hours to ourselves. Mom and Theo can’t get over here.”
“That was probably not the thing to say, Lexi. Without the threat of someone walking in on us, I plan to violate you in every way possible.”
Luke
FROM THE LOBBY’S WINDOW, Lexi’s mother waved to him with a sneaky smile, Theo standing behind her. His expression none-too-pleased. He was a guy, and from the looks of him, a man who got a lot of women. He knew what was going to happen here.
Luke had to prove to Alexis he loved her, regardless. He wanted her in every way possible. Baby or not.
Baby, his heart pounded. How awesome would that be? He was thirty-five, it was about fucking time. Tristan still beat him to the punch. His evil side hoped his brother had a girl.
Inside the kitchen, the bag still sat on the round oak table in the middle of the room.
The house was incredibly small. He passed a charming living room with a white bricked fireplace. In the center on the mantel, he spotted the photo of a handsome New York City Fireman with Lexi’s smile under a red shiny helmet. He’d say hello to Lexi’s father...later.
Lexi led him down a narrow hall. Two rooms laid out like a T, each with a bed against the common wall, drew his attention.
One had pink walls, the other blue.
“Let’s get to know each other again. The way we started two months ago. I want us to be those people again.”
She nodded and slipped out of her dress.
“I didn’t lock the front door,” he said, unbuttoning his trousers.
“I’ll take care of that.” She stepped back.
Remembering all the windows, he grabbed her and leaned her up against the wall. “I got it. I want you on your bed, naked with your legs spread when I get back.” He laid a punishing kiss on her.
Figuring he had this place to himself, he removed the rest of his clothes with each step, getting down to wet shorts by the time he made it back to the bedroom. He kicked the door closed. “No lock?”
Lexi lay on her stomach, looking up at him. “Are you ready now to live on the wild side?” She reminded him of her challenge the night they met.
“You’ve been the perfect wild ride. Your mother begged me to take you back to the city.” He kept the boyfriend news to himself. That was Sylvia’s cross to bear.
“Shocker.”
“We have to make sure she doesn’t walk in here and catch me fucking you.” He hung his tie on her doorknob. “Hopefully, Theo knows what this means.”
“Smart, even though you may traumatize him.” She gave a quirky smile he wanted to see for the rest of his life.
“Lady, you are in so much trouble.” He cupped his balls and stroked his hard and heavy cock.
“Me?” She licked her lips and sat up. “I think you have a shitty memor
y.”
He kissed her while she stroked him, the silkiness of her hands slowly unraveling him. He broke the kiss to take a breath. Lexi parted her luscious lips, and he slid his cock into her warm, wet mouth. His head fell back.
“I’m home.”
Two hours later, the rain still pounded against the ceiling and sure enough the flooded road isolated them from any intruders.
Luke’s head dipped back against a clawfoot tub as his sore body soaked in a steamy bath. Lexi sat on the toilet holding the stick between her legs.
A part of him hoped it was negative only because it would affect her education plans. But he kept that to himself.
“You don’t have your watch on, do you?” She stood and rested the pregnancy test on the sink’s rim.
“I don’t even know where it is.” He left a trail of his clothes all over the house.
“The results will show in three minutes.” She dipped her toe in the bath and settled between his legs.
Luke took Lexi’s breasts in his hands, kissing her neck. “What should we do for three minutes?”
“Worry?”
He caught her chin. “I’m not worried.”
He needed to distract her. He slid his hands down and stopped at her stomach, feeling the gravity of what they were waiting for.
“Mine,” he growled, holding her waist.
“I want that.”
“And I’m yours.”
“Lucky me.” Her breath hitched when his fingers found her clit. “I’m still so sensitive.”
“Am I hurting you?” he whispered.
“Never.”
“Never again,” he admitted and kissed her mouth when she turned to him.
“Try this.” She showed him a bottle of orange body wash. “This is stimulating.”
“How do you know this?” He held his hand out.
“Girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”
“No more. Your body and its needs officially belong to me.” He dropped his hands between her thighs.
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