by Lexy Timms
“Nothing recorded?” Luke asked, a smile on his face at odds with the sudden hard glint in his eye.
Dani blinked.
Wait a second...
“Mr. Milligan.” Benny set down his coffee cup and leaned forward, elbows on the table, fingers steepled, in such a classic villain pose that Dani would have laughed had there not been minions everywhere with itchy trigger fingers. “Have a good evening. Jimmy, spread the word, Mr. Milligan has free run of the house, the same as the rest of our guests. Boys and girls, come and go, just don’t leave the house until after the wedding.” He trotted toward the door, tucking the newspaper under his arm, uncharacteristically pleased.
“Why?” Dani heard someone say in her voice.
“Why what?”
Dani swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Why are we suddenly allowed to roam about the house? What changed?”
Benny smiled, lips curving up, but his eyes remained cold and dead. “David, do you have anywhere to go? Anywhere you want to run off to?”
David looked up, shocked. “Uh... no...”
Benny shrugged. Without a word he strolled out of the room, and the four shocked young people still at the table looked from one to the other, not a one of them sure how to break the silence.
Luke spoke first. “I came back because he was going to kill you for it. He knows I won’t leave without you.”
“What does that have to do with...”
Katie stepped in, “You won’t leave without David,” she said simply, as though Dani were a particularly slow child. “All he has to hold on to is David, who is not particularly inclined, I suspect, to go anywhere.”
David looked from one to the other, his eyes so cold and calculating that for a moment Dani forgot he was on her side. Kinda. “So, it’s my fault?”
“And what of you, Ms. Linnear?” Luke reached for the bottle and poured the dregs into his cup. “Which one of us are you bound to? Who holds your loyalties?”
“My family holds my loyalties, Mr. Milligan,” she said after a moment, her voice cool and unfriendly, “my family, my honor, and my self-interests. If you all stay, I am, at best, inconvenienced. If I leave... my family has long been dependent on this one for its fortunes, Mr. Milligan. We’ve suckled at the Rineheart teat for many years. It would be a devastation.”
Luke looked up at Jimmy for a long moment. Jimmy smiled and left. They were alone.
“What was that all about?” Katie asked.
“Just reminding him that he didn’t have to look up someone. The old man said we had the run of the place...” He stood, took the cup with one hand, and held out the other to Dani. “I for one am curious about the ‘no tape’ concession.”
Dani stood and smiled. “Give us a good head start and... knock twice when you get there, won’t you?”
“You’re blushing.” David observed, and pointed to her face.
“She’s engaged,” Katie said, and stood to grab another bottle off the rack behind them. “You ever heard of ‘blushing brides’?”
Luke leaned in and kissed Dani’s neck, just below the earlobe. His breath was hot against her neck, sending little ripples of awareness all the way down to her toes.
Oh, yes. She was supposed to be in love with him.
Funny how it had been nearly impossible to remember that when he’d ruined her entire rescue attempt.
He whispered quietly in her ear, “I need a computer,” and pulled the lobe into his mouth.
Damn, that felt good.
Wait... a computer?
Her mind turned to mush.
“NOT HERE,” DANI MUTTERED when her brain kicked into gear again. “Weren’t we on the way to the library?”
“The library. Of course...” Luke’s face was inches from her own, so close that she could fall into those eyes and get lost there forever. His hand, she noticed, was still creeping up inside her shirt.
“Will you cut that out?” She swatted his hand away, then grabbed it for safekeeping. “We’ll see you later...” she muttered in passing Katie, who looked as though she was trying not to laugh. David, she noticed, wasn’t happy in the least. Screw him. He deserves to be miserable. Stupid kid brother. Idiot.
“Should I have saved him some pizza?” Luke asked as she towed him out into the hallway, and she swatted at him, laughing, though she was still mad at him. Funny how she could be positively giddy in his arms, and still want to punch him in the face. All at the same time.
She shoved him through the library doorway, letting the door bang shut behind her. Hard. There wasn’t a person in the house who didn’t know where they were right now. Granted, they likely knew before she’d even gotten to the library. It just felt better this way. Like she was in control if she were the one to tell them, instead of having Benny’s spies doing all the work.
Luke half-stumbled, and righted himself in an instant, coming around to greet her, eyes wary, hands in a somewhat defensive stance. Tang Soo Do. Interesting.
Suddenly sparring with him sounded quite...fun. He seemed to think so too, for suddenly she was in his arms. She squeaked a little as he pulled her in and started kissing along her neck in the most blissful way.
Wait, why should he get all the fun?
“Why the hell did you come back?” Dani hissed while her hands found their way under his shirt. Her leg curled up behind his as he leaned her against the credenza. His hands lost no time in exploring her body as his mouth returned to her neck.
“Benny put word on the street that you marry or die,” he whispered back into her ear, and tore the back of her shirt free of her jeans. She was starting to regret dressing up for dinner. It seemed this would have been much easier in her shorts. His strong hands caressed and massaged and tore into her all at once as he pressed her more firmly into himself.
And most assuredly he was happy to see her.
Anger melted away, replaced by desire... and a trace of fear. Benny’s going to kill me? It didn’t compute. And it was hard to think when he touched her like that.
Dani shoved the question aside for a minute. He was there. She was there. They were alone. Who knew how long they had, and how many people were listening. If she was going to be humiliated about this later, she was going to at least take a moment to enjoy what he was doing.
Her body arched against his. Oh, hell yeah. She was lost in him, deeply entrenched in him. Her body didn’t know that this was all for show, and she wasn’t about to tell it otherwise. So what if he was only doing this to be able to talk in whispers, so that they could plan. So that they could figure out a better escape, because she apparently had been an idiot to not leave when he did earlier in the day. But even this was risky. After the recorded sex, it was impossible to say with any certainty that what they said wouldn’t be overheard. Was she truly safe?
Should she really be indulging in this right now?
But her body refused to be fooled. It knew primal lust and need, and it knew that she wanted him, more than anyone or anything. If she died tomorrow, at least she would have this tonight. So she allowed herself to enjoy the feeling of his chest under her hands, the muscles that rippled, the light scattering of coarse hair. She let herself breathe in his passion. Let his hands on her skin burn in pleasant ways, let his lips excite her passions. She moaned before she could stop herself.
“How do you know?” she whispered, trying to distance herself from the act, to pay attention to the life and death decisions they were discussing, but he was so... oh, yeah. He knew where to touch a girl...
“Randy told me,” Luke said between kisses, his lips against her ear. “Word gets out fast. Apparently even the good guys have an ear to the ground.”
“Or a mole!” It came out louder than she intended, and she covered by gripping him hard through his pants so that he was the one to moan. Her turn to whisper in his ear. “Tell me there’s someone inside we can trust.”
“I don’t know... I don’t know anything more than what I told... you... wow... don’t
stop...”
She gripped him. Hard. “You shouldn’t have come back.” She pulled away and reached for his belt. If it had to be a charade for him, she was going to enjoy the hell out of it. He didn’t have to love her, but Katie had been right about her loving him. Needing him. She fumbled with the buckle, pulling so hard to release the belt that she nearly toppled them both, but he grabbed her cheeks and lifted her, planting her on the credenza. That motion helped as she tore at the button of his pants.
“I’m not going to let you get killed.” His hands skimmed her sides from her waist, moving under her bra, freeing her breasts into fingertips that tormented and teased.
“I told you, Benny would never kill me...” She leaned forward and popped the buttons on his shirt. She heard a small clattering sound as something landed somewhere out of sight. In a moment he was free, unclothed, and lying magnificently large in her hand.
“He’s...”
Whatever it was got lost as he yanked on her jeans, barely opening them in his enthusiasm to get them off her and having to struggle to get them past her hips. The moment seemed oddly comical and she stopped suddenly in her twisting and gyrating to get free, and just looked at him. He met her gaze, concerned. Dark with passion. And for a moment they just stood, staring at each other. Conversation spent, frantic groping suspended, he hovered between her legs, his tip at the glistening opening of her sex. They locked eyes and just... looked at each other.
Then, as if by some unspoken signal, he slid into her, pressing softly, firmly, as though time had stopped as his sex touched hers and only now began to restart in hesitation and slow penetration. He filled her; she wrapped the other leg around his waist and pulled him in. Time began to find the rhythm again.
He pressed into her fully. By the time he was as deep as he could go, and the wonder of his hardness filled her, deliciously stuffing her senses, time sped up to catch up. He pulled out and slammed back in, running through her folds, his thrusts gaining speed, slamming into her until the credenza danced beneath them. A lamp jumped and fell, rolling back and forth on the surface of the table; knickknacks lost their careful placements and tried to change positions, jumping and cavorting as he took her, as she absorbed him.
His hands were on her breasts; she couldn’t even tell anymore if he was under the shirt or he’d torn it off. It didn’t matter, and she no longer cared. All Dani knew was that he was taking her, that she was feeling him, even if he was driven by lust and vengeance. Maybe she was driven by love, though she hesitated to call it that right now, when everything was so wondrous and amazing. Maybe knowing they could both die tomorrow made everything sharper, more bittersweet. But she had tears in her eyes as the orgasm tore through her, sending the lamp finally from the table, and scattering the small pieces of oddments to the winds.
She cried out, grabbing him hard, her nails in his back, her body clamping down on his, trying to imprison the thickness within her, but she was too wet, he was too strong, and he powered through her orgasm as she trembled and shook. It didn’t stop. This time, the orgasm didn’t stop. It rolled over her and consumed her, and he kept thrusting, using, demanding, and the climax refused to end.
He groaned and arched, and grabbed her breasts as his own orgasm came over him, and the waves of pleasure and lust running through her milked him, pulling from him all his seed, his need and his lust for her. Her legs contracted on their own, pressing him deeper as he came. His hands found the perfect painful squeeze against her breasts, and for a moment the room darkened and began to fade, and then the raging storm broke and she convulsed into his chest, her body jerking and her breath coming back.
He collapsed against her then, out of breath and shaking, and she realized just how tired he was. What had he gone through today, that had taken him from her and then back to her? As he lifted his head their eyes met, and she saw with a certain wonder that he truly was worried about her. No... afraid. As if she would disappear if he took his eyes off her. In shy wonder she raised a hand and touched his cheek, her own chest rising and falling rapidly as she sought to catch her own breath.
“Luke...”
But she didn’t know what to say. He leaned forward, kissing her once, his lips tender upon hers, allowing for a moment to think that maybe he did love her and that this wasn’t all for show. But when he drew back, there was a remoteness to him already that let her know she was losing him, that he was already fading from her world.
When he pulled out of her, the friction of his softening cock sliding out caused another mini-aftershock. It was enough to take the last of the little chessmen off the surface, a pawn, sending it hurling to the carpet to languish with its fellows; she shuddered and laughed, and tried to find something witty to say about scattered chess pieces, or the havoc that he’d caused.
That he still caused when he looked at her that way. In the way that her heart gave a funny thump when he touched her hair before stepping backwards, away from her.
So it was that Dani found herself half-naked in the library, unable to move for the tremors that ran through her body.
He pulled up his pants and came back to her, zipping up as he approached. He held her in his arms, brought his mouth to her neck and buried it there, kissing, suckling, licking the sweat he’d caused and holding her tightly. His left hand slipped to her bare ass, and he held her against him as she spasmed once more and her breath finally caught with a certain embarrassment that she was still so aroused, and he was... already quite done.
Especially when he spoke.
“Help me get into the office,” he whispered in her ear.
Dani fell against him in that embrace. You have such a way with words, Luke. A veritable chatterbox.
At the same time, who did she have to be mad at other than herself? He might have come back because she was in danger but it didn’t necessarily mean anything, did it? A man didn’t go into law enforcement, unless he had a strong desire to serve and protect. How much more did a federal agent want to change the world? He wasn’t about to leave any civilian in danger, end of story. Here she stood, her body aching with what had to be some of the best sex she’d had in her life, and she was standing there suppressing hysterical giggles as she tried to imagine how the conversation would go with her friends from here, if they could see her now.
So, how did you know he was in love? The way he said, ‘help me into the office’, of course. That’s the way women have been able to tell for centuries.
Suddenly furious, she pushed him back and found her clothing. Her jeans lay beneath her feet. Her underwear... well, it had seen better days. The boy was seriously bad for anything made of lace. Or silk. Or pretty much anything she wore beneath her clothes. She held the panties by the side that was still intact and gave him a look. He wasn’t having to wear jeans commando. It was hardly fair.
At least he was missing a button. Though she suspected the shirt he’d changed in to for dinner might have been David’s, which was why it had strained so hard to contain his barrel chest to begin with. He’d hardly care that she’d ruined something that belonged to her stupid brother.
She sighed and went searching for her shirt, finding it under the lamp on the floor. Or what was left of the lamp.
Her mother would be having fits if she’d seen what her daughter had done to this room.
No. She paused in stepping into her jeans. Her mother would have been proud that she’d been able to express her love in such a passionate way. Because, regardless of how they each thought of it, regardless of how either of them would describe this moment in years to come, Luke Milligan, or whatever the hell his last name was, might have gotten laid tonight.
But she had made love.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dani finished dressing, and straightened herself out as best she could. Jeans, while commando, felt a little weird, but it wasn’t the first time. She wriggled perhaps a little bit more than necessary getting things settled more comfortably, and noticed Luke watching her with smoky eyes
that told her he wasn’t as unaffected by her as he liked to pretend. If that gave her a little impetus to wriggle just that much more because of the way he was looking, well, that was her business.
A discreet knock barely preceded the door opening. Slowly.
“Coming in,” Katie called from the hallway. “Two people who know what all the noise means...”
“It’s, uh, safe!” Dani called, trying not to blush and failing miserably. “Nothing to see here, folks—move along...”
Katie peeked around the door, and looked past the innocent couple at the small mound of chess pieces and bric-a-brac surrounding a lamp on the floor. “Had another earthquake?”
Dani lost her fight against blushing, and knelt to start reassembling the top of the credenza.
“You could say that,” Luke muttered.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that David was unable to look at Luke at all. For his part, Luke was looking through every drawer and half the books. He wasn’t looking for something to curl up to read with a cup of tea; he was searching through them for... what? Loose papers?
“Making sure that the books are properly aired out?” David asked him sarcastically as Katie dropped the chessmen on the board and began to rearrange them.
“Your copy of Grapes of Wrath is full of dust,” he said with a small grin. Katie barked a quick laugh. Luke paused, though, looking around the room as though trying to find a landmark or two.
“What’re you looking for?”
Luke glanced at David, who still seemed unable to confront the man who’d just fucked his sister. “I’m not sure... something... I think I’d like to go into the office for a while.”
“Wait, what?” David suddenly was able to move his focus to Luke. “You... we don’t go in there. Uncle Benny goes in there. He works in there.”
Okay, he was definitely losing it. Dani gave him a sharp look from the spot on the floor where she was trying to decide if the lamp was past salvaging. Hadn’t he been articulate just a week ago? Something was going on here.
