by Ella Brooke
The thought of it made her shiver. How terrible it would be to be in love with a man, to hold the child they had made together in her arms, and then to have both taken away from her.
It all seemed very far away, however, and right now, the sun was shining, she was seeing the beauty of Florence for the very first time, and the man that sat beside her, even if he was silent, made her feel warm in a way that she had never thought about before.
***
"This place is amazing," Luna whispered, looking around in awe. In the limousine ride over, Tucker had mentioned that he had had a flat that he owned cleaned up and turned out for them. When he had said that, Luna supposed that she had been thinking of some of the more elegant apartments that she had visited in Chicago when she was delivering one of her creations to a client, a place with tall white walls and windows that looked out over the cityscape.
Of course when Tucker Keene talked about a flat, he meant something else.
His flat took up the entire top floor of a four-story building, and the moment Luna stepped into the elegant golden birdcage of elevator, she was overwhelmed by the beauty and the age of the place. Everywhere she looked was gilt and marble, and the furniture that adorned the front sitting area alone was beautiful antique, likely worth thousands of dollars. From the delicately green striped wallpaper to the deep green of the velvet chaise, she could feel the history and the wealth that went into every piece of the flat here, and after she got done being nervous about touching things, that was all she wanted to do. The sun was setting, giving the entire place a mysterious indigo cast, and after she had given up exploring everything she could, she curled up on the chaise.
Luna watched as Tucker loosened his tie and poured a small amount of whiskey into a cut-glass tumbler. He had watched her explore with no small amount of amusement, and then he had had some business calls to take. Now he looked like a man completely at ease in his own home, ready to relax in an environment that was entirely at his command.
Tucker caught her watching him and paused.
"Do you want a drink?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"It probably wouldn't be good for me if we're actually trying to conceive," she said, pleased that her voice didn't tremble at all. "And um, well, I never drink anyway."
He didn't respond to that except with a shrug, putting the bottle away in a mahogany cabinet designed for the purpose. There was a kind of anticipation in the air, and she studied him. Tucker was his own work of art in a certain way, all clean lines and masculine strength. There was something starkly powerful about him, and it both thrilled her and frightened her a little.
When he finished the alcohol, Luna was almost surprised to find herself speaking.
"Do you need to gather your courage?" she asked, daring to tease a little, and she was rewarded with a soft chuckle.
"Not at all," he said, and he came to sit next to her. The sudden proximity made her temperature rise for some reason, and she started to say something, but then he was grasping her in his arms, tugging her onto his lap. She started to protest, that she was far too heavy for something like that, but he only said "shush" and pulled her more closely to his body. She felt a hot lick of fire rise up inside her as she could feel his body more closely and clearly. God, he was a big man. She had always been on the curvier side of things, and she realized suddenly that there was certainly something that she appreciated about how strong he was, how he seemed to completely overwhelm her.
He kissed her deeply at first, seeming to drink her very breath from her mouth. She had never thought that her mouth could be as sensitive as it had proved to be, and now she experimented with it, seeing if more pressure or less felt better, how he might groan when she flickered her tongue across his lips.
Of course just when she thought she was getting the hang of things, he changed the game again and started kissing her jaw and the curve of her neck. The way he made her squirm had nothing to do with her being ticklish and everything to do with how fiery shivers of pleasure started to run through her body. When Tucker pressed his lips against the pulse in her throat, she whimpered. That was her life pulsing there, and she knew how very sharp Tucker's teeth were. She did not think for a moment that he would harm her, but there was an instinctive thrill from having him so close.
"Christ, you're delightful," he murmured, nuzzling at her throat again. He reached for the collar of her dress, running his fingers along the neckline until he could reach in and fondle her breasts. She had been groped before, by strangers, on the train or the bus, but that was nothing like what Tucker was doing. Everywhere he touched, he seemed to wake up her body. He caressed her breasts first over her bra and then over it, bringing her nipples to aching hardness.
"I've wanted this," he said, which didn't make much sense, and then it mattered far less as he squeezed a nipple between two fingers, making her gasp out loud. She squirmed on his lap, and now she could feel him hardening underneath her. It was undeniable proof of what was going to happen next, and the thought both made her pulse with longing and stiffen with fear.
Tucker could feel the nervousness laced through her frame, and he pulled back a little, looking up at her.
"Are you quite all right??
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him, to let the secret that she had been holding all this time go. It was a question she kept expecting to get asked in the interview process, but had never come. It was information that she should have volunteered, but she had never felt it was important enough.
No, that was a fib. She knew how important it was, and she had simply never brought it up for embarrassment’s sake. Now, though, she didn't have a choice, and he had even obliged by giving her the perfect opening.
"I..."
Before she could get another word out, however, there was an enormous clap of thunder that felt as if it shook the room. Startled nearly out of her skin, Luna leaped off of Tucker's lap, standing straight and trembling a few feet away and looking around wide-eyed. Just as she figured out what the terrible sound had been, there was another crack of thunder and rain started pelting down hard. There was a kind of wildness to the sound, and Luna turned her eyes to Tucker, who was watching her with hunger.
"Come on," he said, standing up. "I think that our first time shouldn't be in the living room, don't you?"
Luna couldn't stop a sound that was half arousal and half fear from escaping between her teeth, but she took Tucker's hand and allowed him to lead her deeper into the house.
Chapter Eight
The master suite was enormous, and unlike the rest of the flat, which was done up in baroque splendor, it was comparatively simple. The floor was chilly black marble adorned with woven charcoal gray rugs, and nearly the only piece of furniture was an enormous canopied bed. It was hard to imagine just one or two people sleeping in it; it would have barely fit in her entire apartment in Chicago.
Luna took this all in in a flash, because the moment that the door was shut behind them, Tucker dragged her into his arms again. There was something desperate this time about his kisses, something that she knew wouldn't be put off by something as simple as the weather again. It tugged at the heat inside her, but suddenly she couldn't make her mind quiet.
Can he tell that I'm not used to this? she wondered. Oh god, what am I supposed to do? Do I try to undress him? Do I undress myself? Is he just going to tear my clothes off?
The thoughts whirled through her head, threatening to make her dizzy. He was still kissing her, and it still felt good, but now her secret trembled between them. When could she tell him? When would it stop looking like some kind of trick that she had played on him, something that would make him send her away? Could she keep kissing him for a little longer, at least...?
Finally, however, the thoughts bubbled over, and she knew that if she didn't do something sooner rather than later, she was going to send herself off into some kind of panic.
“I... I have to use the bathroom,” Luna squeaked, and to her inten
se relief, Tucker let her go with a slightly quizzical look.
Once she was in the master suite's bathroom, she shut the door and turned on the faucet, trying to make herself breathe slowly and evenly.
Okay, she thought. Okay. He still doesn't seem to know. That's good. That's awesome.
She glanced up at her reflection in the mirror, and then she stared. She could barely recognize herself. In the mirror, her eyes looked far darker than she thought they ever had, and her hair was rumpled as if she had been out in a high wind. Perhaps most damning of all was her mouth, as red as if she had applied the wildest lipstick that she could find. When she touched her lips gently, she nearly whimpered because she could still feel Tucker's mouth on hers, and then she could imagine his hands on her, running up and down her body, making her feel as if she was on fire.
To distract herself for the moment, she looked around the bathroom. Her apartment could have easily fit inside it. There was a large glassed-in shower where it looked as if the water fell from the ceiling like a rain, the sink basin was clear crystal, but perhaps the most impressive thing was the bathtub, sunk into a raised marble platform and with crystal fixtures. Two people could fit easily into that tub, and it occurred to Luna that more could fit if they were close. She remembered a few of the rumors that she had heard about Tucker, and she could have groaned again.
What the hell am I doing? Luna wondered. He's going to think that I'm a naïve idiot.
Well, she was a naïve idiot that had been paid well for this service, and regardless of how nervous she was or how she wished she had at least had a boyfriend before this, it was something that she had to go through with. Almost on the spur of the moment, she decided to confess to him. You could never go wrong by telling the truth, right?
She washed her hands in icy cold water to brace herself, and putting her chin up in the air, Luna marched back into the bedroom.
Tucker stood by the window, staring out at the storm, but he turned back to her quickly when she appeared. He started to say something, but she stopped him. She walked closer to him until she was nearly in arm's reach and then stopped. To her relief, he didn't tease her or question her. Instead, he only looked at her curiously, and she wondered if she could sense some compassion in his gaze.
“Thank you for waiting,” she said, painfully aware that she sounded as if she was at a business meeting. “Tucker. I'm afraid that I have something to tell you. I'm worried that you might take it the wrong way or be angry, but I need to tell you anyway. It's not easy, and-”
“Is it that you're a virgin?” Tucker asked and she gaped at him, a hot blush rising up on her fair skin.
“What... I mean, yes, but... oh my god, did you know the whole time?” The last phrase came out as a wail, and she might have run back into the bathroom and locked herself in if he hadn't caught her hand in his. His hand was inexpressibly warm, and even as her heart was beating fast and her face seemed to turn as bright as the sunrise, she took a strange comfort in it.
“I didn't know,” he admitted, and that was something at least. “It wasn't something I expected. I mean, you're twenty--two, living in the United States, independent and so confident...”
He shook his head.
“And before you start getting worried that it's about technique or something like that, no. Not at all. I wouldn't have known at all from the way you kissed me, believe me. The way you kissed me... well, it was something else again.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Luna asked, her voice high and nervous. In response, Tucker simply laughed and dragged her close. She was startled by how easy she already felt in his presence, how normal and safe and warm she felt with his arms around her.
“Christ, take a compliment once in a while,” he said with another soft laugh. “No, I didn't know when we kissed, but I suspected when I could see you start to over-think things. Suddenly it looked as if you were wondering whether you were kissing me right, where you needed to put your hands, what you needed to happen next." Tucker shook his head, and she found herself both slightly resentful of his experience in these matters and a little resentful of her own inexperienced.
"Well, that about sums it up," she said, trying to be as blasé as he looked. "I suppose you have the answer to all of that?"
"For virginity? As a matter of fact I do," Tucker said with a laugh. "Take me to bed, and don't call me too early in the morning."
It wasn't a very good joke, but something about the way that Tucker delivered it surprised a giggle out of her. She covered her mouth with her hand, but Tucker tugged it away with a brief grin, running the knuckles of one hand over her cheek. Without thinking about it, she leaned in, and unexpectedly, there was that heat again, rising up and making her whimper with need.
"Oh, see, that's better," he murmured. "That's better. It doesn't have to be so serious all the time, after all. There are only two people here, and if we can please them both, we are doing very well indeed."
He pulled her into his arms for another kiss, and she went willingly, tipping her face up to his. This kiss was different from the others, however. Tucker's kisses were like a storm at sea, but there was something soothing and sweet about this one. There was no urgency to it, she realized hazily. He kissed her as if he had all the time in the world. He had all that time, and all he wanted to do was to lazily explore her mouth, to run his hands up and down her back, to press his body against hers. She could feel his arousal again, but this time there was nothing terrifying or demanding about it. All that mattered was that it was a part of the man who was kissing her, and that he felt good.
"Come to bed with me," he murmured in her ear, and mutely, she nodded. She could have said that she gave in so quickly because of the contract, for this or for that, but she knew that deep inside, it was only because she wanted to. She wanted to be in bed with this man, and more than anything else, she wanted the pleasure that he was offering her.
She followed him to the bed, and when she lay down in it, it was like resting on a cloud. As Tucker rose over her, she wondered hazily if that made him a storm god. There was something dark and foreboding about him as he loomed over her, gazing down at her with his eyes like fiery sparks in the darkness, but then he leaned down to kiss her. There was nothing but fire in that kiss, and her body lit up for him. All thoughts of gods and monsters went out of her head, and she twined her arms around his neck, dragging him even closer.
He came to rest his weight on her body, and though Luna had always thought that such a thing would be suffocating, she found that it was a welcome weight. It came with a feeling of being utterly overwhelmed, of warmth and pleasure.
"There's nothing to fear in bed here with me," he murmured, planting a sweet line of kisses down her throat and on her collarbones. "Nothing to fear here with me at all. I promise that I will take it easy with you, nothing terrible will happen here."
There was a tenderness to his words that she had not expected, and she groaned as his kisses started to bring out that summertime heat deep inside her again. She could hear the distant thunder and the slap of the rain against the windows, and it felt as if they were locked in a moment of time that belonged only to him.
"I'm going to undress you now," he said, and the words were strange to her that for a moment, she barely understood what he meant. Surely not? But then he started to tug at her clothing, revealing bare skin with each piece removed. She almost flinched when he reached for her bra and her panties, but after a brief internal struggle, she submitted. Tucker deposited them over the edge of the bed with the rest of her clothing, and then she was naked in front of him.
Luna started to raise her arms to cover herself, but with a soft sound, Tucker pinned her hands to the bed. The moment was not alarming at all, but instead it brought a blossom of fire through her body. Luna knew very well that she could never budge this man if he did not want to be moved, and something about that was incredibly sensual and exciting to her.
She could feel his gaze on her almost
like she could feel his hands. It was almost a tangible warmth traveling from her face, down to her breasts, over her thighs and back again.
"I looked in on you while we were on the plane," Tucker said conversationally. "I did not expect you to be naked, so please forgive me for that, but when I saw you lying on your back, bare down to your waist, I knew that I wanted you, that a part of me would be counting the moments before I could see you and touch you ..."
"You saw me?" she squeaked in surprise, and he laughed a little.
"I did, it was very bad of me," he said unrepentantly. "I saw how round your breasts are, how white your skin. I saw your hair shining in the light, and your mouth was slightly open, as if we had just been kissing. You are so very beautiful, little one."
When he said it like that with that amber light in his eyes, she could almost believe it. Her nipples tightened under his gaze, and when he ran a finger down her wrist and tickled her palm, goose bumps dotted her skin.
He leaned down to kiss her mouth again, but he did not linger there. Instead, he started to trace kisses up and down her body, nuzzling her gently as he did so. There was something soft and gentle about his motions, as if he was doing his best not to frighten her. She gasped when he nuzzled the crease of her thigh, and then he traveled down her hips to the sensitive place behind her knees.
His mouth was warm and slightly damp. He left fire in the wake of his touch, and a kind of restlessness filled her that she could not quite explain. She roused to his touch, but then she did not calm down again, and when he brushed his palm over the lightly-furred mound between her legs, she groaned out loud.
"I want you to spread your legs for me," he said, and though Luna blushed at his blunt words, she did as he said. When she looked up at him hopefully, he shook his head with a smile.
"Wider. No, wider than that..."
