by Kit Reynard
Hannah nodded, the thought of hot water and dry clothes too good to pass up. She ducked away from him and practically ran towards the bathroom and the promise of being warm again.
****
Luke went to the kitchen and reloaded the coffee maker even as he cursed himself for not packing something like hot chocolate or tea. He didn’t drink the stuff but he knew Hannah did and he wanted her to be comfortable with him. Unfortunately, coffee would have to do at the moment but at least it would warm her up.
Pot percolating, Luke grabbed the remote off the end table and turned the TV on so he could check the weather alert. He heard the shower turn on in the bathroom a few seconds later and had to force himself to focus on the report and not the idea of Hannah naked and slick only a room away.
The weather said snow and a pretty good amount of it, so it didn’t look like anyone was going anywhere for the next couple of days. It would take that long for the snowplow from town to reach them after they cleared the other main highways. Luke wasn’t particularly worried, though. Even with the spotty cell service this high up and the office closed, he knew they’d all be fine. They’d each brought plenty of food and there was an abundance of fire wood already cut and stored beside each cabin. Plus, he still had a satellite phone, fully charged and tucked safely inside his truck, for emergencies. Even if the power went out, which was likely, they’d all be fine.
Satisfied, Luke turned the television off again, only to be drawn to the sounds Hannah was making in the shower. She was humming lightly and every once in a while he could hear small clinks, the sound of things being shuffled around as she washed.
The thought of her, naked and wet, slender hands soapy as they roamed over her body was enough to make his cock twitch just slightly. He pressed the heel of his palm against the suddenly aching arch of his cock and took a few steady, deep breaths in order to calm down. She was obviously upset; something had clearly happened. The last thing she needed was to come out of the bathroom to see him half-hard and practically drooling over the idea of her taking a fucking shower like some kind of creep.
He had two cups of coffee poured and was sitting on the couch with a thick comforter pulled from the linen closet by the time the shower finally clicked off.
The bathroom door opened with a billow of steam and Luke forced himself to take a long sip of his scalding coffee at the sight of her. Her hair was damp but wild and her face was flushed and glowing from the heat of the shower. One smooth shoulder was partially exposed from the overly large collar of the bathrobe she wore that practically dwarfed her. Her wet clothes were in a bundle in one hand.
She looked warm, clean and soft, and like everything he’d ever wanted.
“Feel better?” Luke had to clear his throat before he could get the question out.
“Yeah.” Hannah twisted the fingers of her free hand in the hem of her shirt and gave him a slight smile. “Thanks a lot, Luke.”
“Don’t mention it.” Luke reached over and picked up the other mug from the end table. “I made coffee, don’t have sugar or anything but I’ve got some creamer if you want it.”
“Black’s fine.” She shuffled over to the couch and stared down at him for a moment. “Can I hang these by the fire so they can dry?”
“Of course.” Luke put both cups down with a slight clink and pushed himself up off of the couch. He went into the kitchen, grabbed one of the extra chairs, and carried it back into the living room to set it in front of the fireplace. “Lay them out on this.”
He moved back over to the couch and did his best to ignore the sight of her, bent over slightly in front of him, laying out her clothes. Especially when she draped a pair of lacy blue panties over the arm of the chair and hung a matching bra across the top of it.
Face flushed, Hannah moved quickly back over towards the couch when she was done, reached for coffee cup Luke held out in her direction, and then perched herself on the couch as far from him as possible.
Luke let her sip from the mug for a few moments in peace, watching her silently, before he decided to broach the subject she was so obviously avoiding again.
“You ready to tell me what’s going on now?” Luke didn’t want to push her too hard. There was something fragile in her eyes, the normal honey-like glow of them dark and pained.
“Have you checked the weather? Did they say how long this is going to last?” She was trying to avoid the question. Luke could see it in the way her eyes couldn’t seem to settle on anything in the room and the way she nibbled, ever so slightly, at the side of her bottom lip as she set her cup back down on the end table.
“Hannah.” Luke chastised her softly. He needed to know what was going on. “Talk to me.”
“I was going to the office to call a shuttle or something. Anything. Just …” She trailed off for a moment and took a deep breath. When she looked back up at him, Luke could see the hurt swimming in her eyes. “I just want to go home.”
“What happened, Hannah?” Luke had his suspicions and they began and ended with Jamie and the others doing something stupid.
For a long moment she was quiet, and Luke was sure that she wasn’t going to answer him. He was sure that she wasn’t going to tell him what his idiot of a little brother had done this time to upset her so much. She shifted on the couch and the robe parted enough for him to get a glimpse of a smooth, soft looking thigh, before dainty hands pulled it back into place again with an anxious tug.
“Your brother’s a fucking dick is what happened,” Hannah spit suddenly, like a switch had been flipped, and she couldn’t hold back her anger any longer. “Him and the rest of his friends. They’re all backstabbing, two-faced assholes. I don’t want to talk about what happened or any of them anymore, either.”
Luke blinked at the sudden burst of anger from Hannah who was normally fairly even tempered. He was torn between smiling at how she looked, flushed and eyes sparking with temper, and cursing because Jamie had apparently finally pushed her too far.
“Ah hell.” He settled on pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers and leaning back into the crook of the couch, legs splayed out and shoulders loose. “I knew he was going to fuck up bad enough for you to cut him loose eventually.”
“You’re acting like you were expecting things to turn out like this all along.” There was a faintly accusatory note in her voice that made Luke grimace.
“Look, he’s my brother and I love him but you’re right, he’s a dick.” Luke leaned forward then and reached out to take one of Hannah’s hands into his own. “We live together and he’s not exactly quiet when he’s on the phone. Or ever, really, to be honest. I hear most of what he’s saying and he doesn’t bother to be polite.”
“You couldn’t warn me?” Hannah tugged her hand away from him and seemed to huddle down in on herself a little bit farther, face dark with mistrust. “You … you knew how he … how they felt about me and you didn’t say anything? You’re just as bad as they are.”
“Would you have believed me?” Luke knew she’d been through a lot. Even without knowing the details he could tell that, so he kept a firm hold on his temper. “You’ve been friends with him for a long time on your end. Would you have believed me if I came to you and told you any of it?”
There was a brief moment of tense silence between the two of them.
“Sorry.” Hannah breathed out a sigh and slumped forward to cradle her face in her hands. “Sorry, Luke. It’s just been … a really bad night.”
Luke couldn’t resist the urge to reach over and grab a lock of her hair. He rubbed it between his fingertips, enjoyed the silky feel of it for a moment, and then gave it a playful tug.
“Hey, it’s okay, pretty girl.” Luke liked the way she flushed on the rare occasions when he teased her. He always had. “You hungry?” She bit her lip and nodded slowly so Luke let her hair go and stood up. She gazed up at him, honey eyes wide in that way that always made him want to kiss her. Instead, he held his hand out to her and when she t
ook it, tugged her to her feet. “Now why don’t you go put something warmer on and I’ll make us something to eat. That sound good?”
“Sounds good.” She smiled at him, a soft upturn of lips, squeezed his hand briefly, and then dropped it so she could move to where her suitcase was still sitting by the door.
Luke watched her for a moment as she reached down to grab the thing and then hauled it with her towards the bathroom. He shook his head and turned towards the kitchen. He had a couple cans of soup and something warm would be good for her even after the shower and the coffee. The last thing he wanted was for her to get sick or anything. They were going to be stuck together for the next few days after all, but maybe that was a good thing. Even though she’d been hurt and was angry, she was here with him now.
It wasn’t an ideal situation of course, but it was better than her just disappearing out of his life without any warning.
It might be his last chance to really get to know her, to get her to see him as someone other than Jamie’s older brother. Luke didn’t want to let this opportunity pass him by.
He just knew if he did, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.
****
Hannah could feel the heat in her cheeks rise as she grabbed her suitcase and headed back into the bathroom to change. It was a combination of leftover anger and the telltale blush she always got when Luke randomly teased her. It made her feel slightly ridiculous, how easily she went all hot and fluttery whenever he did things like that, whenever he tugged at her hair or called her some ridiculous nickname that she knew he meant nothing by.
She knew he didn’t mean anything when he called her ‘pretty’ or ‘sweet’ or whatever other endearment like that he came up with. If he did, he’d have made a move years ago. No, it was just the way Luke was with her. It was harmless and she knew she shouldn’t read too much into it, otherwise she’d be setting herself up for disappointment yet again.
As she stripped out of the robe and pulled on another pair of panties her reflection caught her eye. She nibbled at her bottom lip as she paused and looked at herself in the mirror. She tried to be objective for a moment, tried to take a second and see what others did when they looked at her.
She wasn’t skinny but she wasn’t generously rounded either. She fell somewhere in the middle, built small but sturdy as her mom always told her. Her breasts, pink tipped and generous handfuls in her opinion, seemed fine to her. Sure she packed a little extra weight in her thighs and her stomach had a gentle curve to it but it wasn’t too bad.
She thought she was at least passably pretty. Still she couldn’t seem to shake the memory of the snide tilt to Jamie’s voice when he’d said she didn’t have many options when it came to someone wanting her. On some level Hannah knew he wasn’t completely right. She might be more serious, more focused and less inclined to date around than Jamie and the others but she wasn’t, contrary to popular belief, some stuck up little prude who’d never had sex before.
She’d had boyfriends in the past, although they’d been few and far between, so that wasn’t the problem. Honestly, she’d just never been all that interested in dating. Especially not any of the guys she’d met at college or around her neighborhood. The few dates she’d had all ended disastrously and beyond that, the sex been anything to call home about. It had always left her vaguely unsatisfied and frustrated because she could do better on her own, and not have to deal with all of the extra stress of being in a relationship.
Not that she didn’t want a relationship. She did. It was just she wasn’t interested in settling again like she had before, just so she could say she was dating someone.
Honestly, Hannah wanted to be in a real relationship with someone. She wanted someone she could talk to, someone who made her blood heat and her stomach clench. She wanted someone reliable and mature who didn’t mind that she wasn’t the most outgoing person in the world. She wanted someone who made her feel wanted in return.
No, she admitted to herself with a hopeless sigh as she pulled on her pants and an overly large sweater, she wanted someone like Luke.
Luke who, she knew, wouldn’t give her the time of day.
Or … maybe he would.
Maybe this was her last chance to be with Luke in whatever way she could. She intended to find a new roommate so she could cut ties with Jamie and the others when they got back home. Pretty soon, she’d have no reason to be around Luke. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was the time for her to seize the bull by the horns, to put everything on the line and go after what she wanted.
Because she desperately wanted Luke, wanted to kiss him, wanted to feel his hands on her skin, his mouth on her body. She wanted to feel him on top of her and inside of her, wanted to feel his body against hers and the heat of him around her at least once.
There was a very real and very large possibility that it wouldn’t happen, but Hannah was determined to at least try.
She knew she’d regret it for the rest of her life if she didn’t.
So she squared her shoulders, pulled her courage around her like a shield, threw open the bathroom door, and marched outside.
It was time to be a little bit reckless.
****
Luke had just pulled two large mugs from the cabinet and had turned towards the stove when the bathroom door was flung open with a muffled bang. Brows arched high in surprise, he turned to where Hannah stood, face flushed and shoulders set in a determined line.
“Hannah?” He took a step towards her, concerned that she was suddenly so worked up. “You okay?”
“I think we should have sex,” Hannah announced with more than a hint of bravado.
The mugs slipped from Luke’s hands and crashed to the floor.
Chapter Three
For a long moment Luke didn’t, couldn’t, breathe, his air trapped somewhere in his chest.
‘Did she really just say that?’ Luke asked himself incredulously. Unable to believe what he’d just heard he struggled to rein in his suddenly whirling mind.
Aware that Hannah was staring at him, an expectant look on her face, Luke shook his head harshly and tried to come back to reality.
“What?” His voice came out as little more than a rasp. Luke swallowed harshly, aware of the dry clicking sound his throat made, and tried not to focus on the way his cock automatically stiffened or how sheer want surged through his veins. Every fantasy he’d ever had about her seemed to be trying to rush in on him all at once, and to compete for first place in his mind.
“I said,” Hannah’s head was tilted up at an almost defiant angle but Luke could tell that her boldness was beginning to fade, “I think we should have sex.”
“Yeah,” Luke nodded as he stepped carefully over the broken shards of the dropped mugs and moved to stand directly in front of her, “that’s what I thought you said.”
Then he did the only thing he could do in that moment.
He leaned down and kissed her.
****
For a breathless second Hannah was frozen, a part of her unable to believe what was happening even if she had been the one to basically bring it on.
She’d thought about kissing Luke, about having him kiss her, for so long now that the idea that it was actually happening was almost too much to believe.
But the way that Luke groaned and nipped ever so lightly at her bottom lip brought Hannah crashing back down into reality instantly.
This was real.
Luke was kissing her.
She was kissing Luke.
Finally.
Her lips parted beneath the insistent pressure of his and she opened to the relentless sweep of his tongue with a slightly breathless noise. He tasted heady, like dark coffee and the slightest hint of mint. Hannah couldn’t help but melt against him, against the searing heat of his kiss and the intoxicating strength of the arms that came up to wrap around her when she sagged against his chest.
She pressed herself closer to him, desperate to feel him against her. He made a harsh
, almost wounded sound in the back of his throat and his arms tightened around her. His body was a line of delicious heat against her own as her hands slid up the hard line of his chest so that she could loop her arms around his neck.
They were pressed together from the chest down then. Hannah couldn’t stop the shiver that raced down her spine at the feel of his cock, a rigid line against the softness of her stomach. She pressed herself closer to him, desperate to prolong the feeling, to savor the proof that he wanted her at least a fraction of how much she wanted him.
Hannah made a sound of protest that quickly morphed into a bitten off moan when Luke finally broke the kiss, only to set his mouth against the sensitive curve of her throat. One of his large, wide-palmed hands slid down to cup and squeeze the cheek of her ass while the other slid around and forward until he cradled the weight of one of her breasts in his palm. Her stomach clenched and a dark, heavy throb of want shot through her when he pinched the tightly furled bud of her nipple through the material of her shirt.
His mouth was a molten brand against her skin and Hannah could barely think, could barely breathe, and all he’d really done was kiss her.
“Luke.” She moaned his name out as her back arched, desperate to feel more of him, to feel all of him if he’d let her.
Then just as suddenly as it had begun, everything stopped.
Luke ripped himself away from her abruptly with a bitten off curse. Hannah teetered at the loss of him for a moment, disoriented and shocked at the loss of his strength holding her up, and his heat. She blinked as her mind whirled and she tried to readjust.
The sound of Luke breathing harshly forced her to focus again. Luke looked rumpled with his clothes disheveled and his face flushed. And, with his lips kiss swollen and eyes dark, just the slightest bit wild.
