Torque

by anna snow

  Luke sat his mug on the table, then leaned forward. He placed his elbows on his knees, and then reached up and ran his fingers through his hair.

  He kept his gaze trained on the floor.

  “My car is stuck about halfway down your drive, stuck in one hell of a snowdrift. I was hoping you could pull me out with your truck, but seeing as Kevin never called you to pick it up…”

  “You’re stuck here.” I finished his sentence.

  He gave a cut nod.

  “Even if my truck was here, it’s nearly a whiteout out there. There’s no way you could make it back to town. Not in one piece anyway.”

  The realization of our current situation started to sink in.

  Luke and I had been unable to be in the same room together for more than ten minutes over the last two years without fighting with each other. Now, we were looking at several days together.

  Just the two of us.

  Alone.

  A chill of awareness skittered up my spine.

  “Well.” I sat my mug down and stood. “I have plenty of room and food for the both of us. Follow me.” I waved him to follow me.

  “Where?”

  “I’ll get you settled in a room and show you where everything is.” I glanced back at him. “I have something you can change into, too.”

  He got to his feet and followed me up the stairs.

  We passed by the first three guestrooms and went straight into my bedroom.

  I pulled open my middle dresser drawer, reached inside, and pulled out a pair of old, gray sweats.

  When I turned around, my heart pounded in my chest.

  Luke was standing inside my bedroom door…watching me.

  I stood ever so still, afraid if I moved, I’d break whatever spell he was under.

  His chocolate brown eyes roamed over me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. My skin heated under his penetrating gaze.

  Then, as quickly as the moment began, it ended. It was as if he realized what he was doing, and forced himself to stop.

  He peered around the room, then cleared his throat. “Nice room.”

  “Thanks.” I murmured. “This is my hiding place, you know. I wanted it to be calm. Comfortable.”

  He smiled, and it nearly reached his eyes. “When we were kids, you always used to hide in my bedroom, and snuggle up to me when you needed to escape.” He stared into the distance through unseeing eyes as though remembering something. “Unless you were pissed off at me. Then you hid in your room.”

  “Your room, and your comfort, have been unavailable to me for a long time now.”

  The words passed my lips before I could stop them. The moment they did, I wished I could take them back. But like an arrow, there was no pulling them back once they were released. No do over.

  He looked at me, then away.

  Not wanting to fight with him, I tossed the sweats at him playfully instead. He caught them, then again to my surprise, smiled.

  “Are these my old sweats?”

  I nodded. “I wear them sometimes. We I need to escape.”

  Before he could respond, I hurried past him and out of the room.

  “Come on. I’ll show you to your room.” I called over my shoulder.

  I didn’t look to see if he followed.

  I felt him behind me.

  Chapter Three

  “When did you learn to cook?”

  I looked up and nearly dropped the steak I was cooking on the indoor grill.

  Luke came down the stairs, the loose, gray sweat pants I’d given him hung low on his hip, and the sleeves of the shirt were pushed up to his elbows, exposing his tattooed forearms.

  Once again, I couldn’t take my eyes from him.

  The feeling of his chest pressed against my back filled my mind, and the desire to be in that position again surged through me.

  I shook myself.

  What in the hell was the matter with me? This was Luke for crying out loud.

  “Um…” I struggled to find my words. “I kind of had to learn, unless I wanted to eat fast food every night.” I laughed.

  He made his way to the granite topped bar separating the living area from the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools.

  “I’m still eating out.” He chuckled. “And when did you start listening to this?”

  I grinned but didn’t bother to look at him. I knew he wasn’t looking at me.

  “What?” I asked with a smile. “Freddy Fender is a classic.”

  He shook his head, still chuckling, as the lyrics of the song Wasted Days and Wasted Nights echoed in the air around us.

  “Yeah, you always were the oddball.”

  “Maybe that’s why it’s so hard for you to look at me.” I mumbled.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing.” I said trying to hide my stray comment with a smile. I didn’t want to fight with him, really I didn’t. But it seemed that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. There was too much left unsaid between us.

  I removed the steaks from the grill and pulled the potatoes from the microwave.

  “No.” he said, and stood. “What did you say?”

  Closing my eyes, I turned to face him. Not arguing with him was out of the question. There was no turning back now.

  “Why can’t you look at me?”

  He put his hands on his hips and stared out of the sliding glass window at the snow piling up on the back deck.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He denied.

  “Then why won’t you look at me right now?”

  He clenched his jaw, then reached up and rubbed his goatee. An action I knew he did when he was becoming agitated.

  I tossed the hand towel I was holding at him. It smacked him in the arm, then dropped to the floor.

  “I can’t take this anymore. If we’re going to be stuck in this house together for the next three or more days, we need to clear the air between us. Enough. Enough not talking to me. Enough not caring about me. Enough not looking at me!”

  The questions that had been building inside me for two years had finally burst through the dam. I needed answers and I needed them now. I refused to tiptoe around my home, around my friend, worried about I might say or do something that would cause an all-out war between us.

  “It wasn’t my fault that your wife wasn’t who, or what, you thought she was. It wasn’t my fault that you chose to believe her over me. And it wasn’t my fault that you stopped racing so that you could hide from the world because she embarrassed you.”

  He kept his gaze fixed out the window.

  “How could you just stop caring about me?”

  His gaze jerked to meet mine.

  “Is that what you think? That I stopped caring about you?” He asked, his voice just above a whisper.

  “How could you just throw me away after all of those years? Why can’t you look at me anymore?” Tears gathered in my eyes and I hated myself for allowing it. I wasn’t a crier. When Luke slammed that door in my face two years ago, I’d gone home, cried until I couldn’t cry anymore, and then slammed my own door on the pain. I promised myself that I’d never cry over him again, and I hadn’t. Until now.

  Why were those old feelings overtaking me now, and why couldn’t I stop them?

  Before I could gather my composure, he was standing in front of me.

  He backed me up until my back was pressed into the countertop.

  Luke wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me tight against his chest.

  A tear escaped and tracked down my cheek. He reached up and wiped it away with his thumb, then cupped my face in his large, hot palm.

  “I never stopped caring about you. How could I?” he asked gently.

  I tried to look away, but he held my face in his hand to keep his gaze locked with mine. “God, Celeste. Do you want to know why I can’t look at you?”

  He bit his bottom lip, then squeezed me tighter against him. “Because I’m terrified that when I do, when I look a
t you with your thick raven hair, and outrageous green eyes, that I’ll lose control. That I won’t be able to stop myself from doing this.”

  He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.

  The contact was like a spark igniting the fuel in a cylinder. An explosion erupted between us, and where our first shared kiss began soft and gentle, it quickly burst out of control.

  Before I could stop myself, I anchored my hands his thick hair and held his mouth to mine. He gripped my waist and lifted me to sit on the edge of the countertop, then moved between my legs, and pressed himself against me.

  His ridged cock strained against me between my legs. He subtly thrust against me, sliding his cock against my suddenly oversensitive clit.

  He stepped back just enough to reach between us and yank off my yoga pants, then settled himself back between my thighs.

  There was too much clothing between us. I gripped the edge of his shirt and ripped it over his head. I’d seen his chest countless times before, but right then, in that moment, it was new to me. Everything about this man I’d known all of my life was completely new to me.

  The way he looked at me with fire in his eyes. The way he touched me firmly, but gently, with his work roughened hands. The way he kissed me with such wild abandon.

  With seeking hands, I explored his chest, his abs, then reached around him to grasp his firm ass and pull him tighter against me.

  I needed to feel him.

  All of him.

  He kissed me with a passion I’d never experienced, and it stoked my desire to a level I didn’t know existed.

  He cupped my cheek, then slid the hand into my hair and grasped the strands. He held me in place as he devoured my mouth.

  He let his free hand find its way past my breasts, down my side, then around to my ass. He squeezed and kneaded my flesh, at the same time grinding against me harder, more insistent than before.

  Luke growled into my mouth. I shivered at the sound, at the need revealed in that one sound.

  He moved his hand from my ass, slid his fingertips over my upper thigh, and then dipped them along the center of my panties. His fingertips traced my pussy through the thin black silk.

  I gasped, then moaned when he let one finger find its way beneath the material to explore.

  He slid that one long finger inside and I thought I’d lose my mind. Every nerve in my body was on high alert as Luke drove me higher and higher away from reality. I felt like I was in my car and we were spinning out of control.

  “So tight. So wet for me.” His voice was ruff, strained against my lips.

  Spinning. Spinning. Closer and closer to a fiery crash.

  I couldn’t get enough. I needed him inside me.

  I needed Luke inside me.

  Luke.

  Oh. My. God.

  “Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.” I pushed him away from me, and his expression looked as bewildered as I felt.

  “What’s the matter? Did I hurt you?” he asked. Concern etched every line of his face.

  What in the hell was I doing? This was Luke. I was about to have sex with Luke. My mind was buzzing with so many questions it sounded like a hive inside my head.

  I hopped off of the counter and hurried toward the stairs.

  “Celeste, I’m sorry. Will you just stop and talk to me? Please?”

  He hurried to catch me on the stairs.

  On the center of the staircase he grasped my arm and turned me to face him.

  He peered down at me through concern-filled chocolate brown eyes.

  “I’m sorry.” He caressed my face.

  I shook my head. “I’m not.” My voice sounded as bewildered as I must have looked.

  When had I began to desire Luke?

  He tilted his head, regarding me as though I’d presented him with an exceptionally difficult puzzle.

  “You might be sorry.” I shook my head. “But I’m not. God help me, I’m not.”

  I pulled away from his grip, and ran to my room.

  Chapter Four

  I slammed the bedroom door shut behind me, pressed my back against the cold wood, and closed my eyes.

  In my car, I’d roared down the track at well over one hundred miles per hour, skidded out of control, and slammed into the wall several times throughout my racing career, but I’d never been as scared as I was now.

  Everything I’d ever known about mine and Luke’s relationship had been turned around, tiled upside down, and scattered like dandelion seeds in the wind.

  How had we gone from best friends, to strangers, to whatever the hell we were now?

  What were we now?

  I stared out my bedroom window at the now dark world around me. The snow had slowed, but was still falling heavily.

  I lit a single candle on the dresser. Its light glittered across the hardwood floor as I made my way to the fireplace where I started a small fire.

  There was no way in hell I was going back downstairs to adjust the thermostat. If I saw Luke again, I knew I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

  And that was the part that terrified me the most.

  I wanted to deny it, but the truth was, I wanted Luke. I wanted to finish what we’d started. I wanted to feel his hands on me. His fingertips against my skin. His lips on mine.

  I desired the one man that I had no business desiring.

  I went back to the window and watched the snow fall. It flitted down to the frozen ground much like my confusion flitted through me, in a whirling wave that I feared I may never fully understand.

  I don’t know how long I stood at the window staring out at the night.

  I heard the soft squeak of my bedroom door opening.

  I’d left my pants in the kitchen where he’d pulled them off of me.

  I stood in only a t-shirt and panties.

  Luke crossed the room.

  I felt him standing behind me. He move so close that I felt the heat of his body against my back.

  Luke reached out and smoothed the hair away from my neck with the work-roughened tip of his fingers.

  I struggled but failed to suppress a shiver.

  He pressed his chest against my back. I melted against him.

  His goatee slid softly against my skin as he pressed a lingering kiss to my neck.

  I couldn’t get enough. I wanted to feel that softness against my chest, between my thighs.

  “What’s happening to us?” I didn’t recognize my own voice.

  “I don’t know.”

  He lowered his hands over my shoulders, down my arms, then to the hem of my thin t-shirt. He grasped the hem, pulled the shirt up and over my head, and then tossed it aside.

  “I don’t know what this is between us,” he whispered against my shoulder while feathering it with tender kisses. “But I know we can’t stop it.”

  With those words I was lost, and I didn’t want to be found.

  He unsnapped my bra, slid the straps over my shoulders, and dropped it to the floor.

  Luke cupped my breasts in his palms. I closed my eyes at the sizzling sensation. He teased my nipples between his fingers while leaving a trail of open mouthed kisses against my neck.

  I shivered, ground my ass against his hard, demanding cock, and was gifted with another growl of need. He nipped the skin between my neck and shoulder with his teeth. Combined with his teasing of my nipples, the sensation rippled through me igniting every nerve ending in my body

  I’d never wanted anything as badly as I wanted Luke.

  I rolled my ass against him again, this time more insistently.

  He walked us closer to the window until I stood mere inches away from the cold glass.

  Luke’s lips, teeth, and tongue trailed down my spine to the waistband of my black silk panties. He gripped each cheek of my ass, and squeezed.

  A soft moan slid past my lips.

  He rubbed his hands down the length of my legs, then back up. Luke hooked his thumbs into the waist of my panties, and tugged them down my legs to my ankles. />
  I stepped out of them.

  The heat of his steady gaze penetrated every inch of my body as I stood bare before him.

  He groaned his appreciation, then leaned forward and bit one cheek of my ass. A thrill shot through me, but before I could voice my approval, he forced my legs open with his hands, then reached up to my back, and bent me toward the window.

  I placed each hand against the icy panes.

  The cold glass beneath my palms was a stark contrast to the heat surging through my body.

  “So beautiful.” He stayed on his knees behind me. “Just like I imagined.” He said as he slid one hand between my legs. He teased my hot pussy gently at first, slipping his fingers against my wetness, over my throbbing clit, then back down to tease my entrance.

  He leaned closer and sank his teeth into the back of my thigh just below my ass. I bucked into the sensation and felt him smile against my skin before kissing the bite mark.

  “So wet. Just for me.” He sank a finger deep inside me, picking up where we’d left off earlier in the night.

  This time I had no intention of stopping him. I wanted him, I needed him, and I’d deal with the fallout after it was all over.

  I pressed back onto his hand, inching closer and closer to climax.

  Luke’s free hand rubbed my back in gentle, reassuring strokes as his opposite hand drove me wild.

  He kissed my waist, ass, the backs of my thighs.

  “What you do to me, Celeste...”

  “Please, Luke.” I begged for the release I knew only he could give me.

  “Keep your hands on the window, baby. Don’t move them.”

  He removed his fingers and replaced them with his mouth.

  At the first touch of his mouth against me I cried out. His tongue lapped and laved against my pussy, pushing me higher and higher toward a peak I yearned to reach.

  Up to my clit, back down to my entrance.

  Back up. Back down.

  He spread my legs farther apart, grasped my thighs in his big hands, growled his appreciation, and then fucked me with his tongue.

  In. Out. In. Out. Swirl. Repeat.

  “Please, Luke, please.” I heard myself begging for more of his touch, more of everything he could give me. I was so close. The world around us disappeared.

  Only Luke and I existed in this new world we’d created.