Lukas

by Josephine Jade

  The sultry warmth hit her right away. NOLA didn’t like to give up her heat, even at night or as fall was tipping closer to winter than summer. Yesterday’s newspaper was sitting on the table and she sat to glance through it, enjoying the gentle breeze on her skin.

  Until she got to the society section and saw a picture of Lukas in a tux with his arm around the slender waist of a petite blonde in a gorgeous red dress. Reina’s eyes flew over the story, a charity event for the city, trying to find a date for when it had occurred.

  Thursday.

  Two days ago. Lukas had told her on Wednesday that he had to work and would be unavailable for a few days. The Rinaldi family were important business leaders not just here in the city but all over the state and beyond. Going to a charity event could definitely be considered a part of Lukas’s job. A beautiful woman on his arm would be a part of that.

  Reina dropped the paper back on the table. She and Lukas weren’t exclusive. They’d never so much as talked about a relationship. And Reina was never going to look like that woman in the picture. Was never going to be the perfect petite feminine complement to his masculine strength.

  She walked over to the balcony railing and leaned her arms on it. She had no right to be upset because Lukas had taken someone else to the gala. If their time together ended right now, she would’ve gotten so much more out of this than she’d ever expected. He’d forced her to embrace aspects about her sexuality she might never have otherwise.

  She hadn’t thought of herself as cold for weeks now. How could she when she’d nearly burnt to ash every time she’d been in his arms?

  But she was honest enough with herself to know that she didn’t want this to end. That part of the heat ignited in her recently had been because it was Lukas, and hell, she’d been half in love with him since high school. It hadn’t taken much of a push for the other half to fall.

  Regardless, she would not freak out over this, would not demand things from him he was unable or unwilling to give. She would enjoy this experience and—

  Fingers trailing up the outside of her hip under her shirt and lips nipping at her neck cut off her thoughts.

  “I like you in my clothes,” Lukas murmured in her ear before gripping her lobe between his teeth and tugging with just enough pressure to have her hips rocking back against him. “Although I didn’t like waking up and not knowing where you were.” His hand moved up over the curve of her waist to splay wide over her stomach.

  “I just needed some water and wandered out here.”

  “I like it out here too. It makes me feel like I’m connected to the city but still not thrust into the middle of it.” His fingers drew gentle circles on her belly.

  The thoughts she was trying to force away came barreling back. She wanted this. Wanted conversations out on the balcony. Going out on dates. Damn it, she wanted to be the one on his arm when he went to a gala. Wanted him to be smiling down at her when the camera snapped a picture.

  Had he fucked that other woman the night he’d taken her to the party?

  Had he not brought Reina back to Deeper Threat because he had other women he played with there?

  Was he getting a little bored with her? Was the three days they’d been apart an indication of how things would start happening now? A day or two of sex then a few off? The sex days becoming more and more sporadic until it was just every once in a while then not at all?

  Jesus. Was he just trying to let her down easy and she was too relationship stupid to even realize it?

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” The fingers on her stomach pulled her back more tightly against him. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Her words sounded clipped even to herself. She felt the slight tightening of his fingers against her skin.

  “You don’t sound it, princess.”

  “Well, maybe you don’t know me well enough to know what every exact tone of voice means.” As soon as she said the words she wanted to take them back. What was she doing? Reverting back to her old defense mechanisms when she knew she wasn’t living up to a man’s expectations. It had happened with every other relationship. Why would she think this one would be any different?

  She gripped the balcony railing hard. Ice Queen was not how she wanted to be, not with Lukas. He’d been nothing but attentive to her needs and desires since they’d first started this… escapade. If he was easing back now, she should be glad he was at least being kind about it. He was acting like a gentleman. She was acting like a bitch.

  She let go of the banister and turned to face him, finding him studying her with narrowed eyes.

  “I’m sorry.” She shrugged and put her hands on his trim waist, trying not to ogle at how good he looked with no shirt and just a thin pair of pajama pants. If he was easing back, she needed to do the same. Without being a shrew. “I’m not a very temperamental person, but occasionally even I get a little snooty.”

  His head tilted to the side as he continued to study her.

  She reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek then stepped away. “I should probably head out. You and I both need to work tomorrow, and—”

  “You want to tell me what’s really going on?”

  She forced a bright smile to her lips. “Nothing. Today was amazing, as always. I just know we both—”

  “Are you hurt? Did things get too rough? I know we don’t have the safe word talk much anymore, but you know it still applies, right? I expect you to tell me immediately if something is wrong, Reina.”

  “No! No, you didn’t hurt me.” At least not physically. “I just think it’s better if we give each other a little space. Distance.”

  She tried to step around him, but he blocked her path. She stared out over his shoulder as his strong arms moved so he could grip the railing on either side of her, boxing her in.

  “Did the three days we had apart make you want more time away from me? From us?” he asked. “Make you want space and distance? Because it didn’t feel like it in the elevator when you were begging me to lick that sweet pussy of yours. Or a few minutes after that when you were screaming for me to fuck your ass harder.”

  She still didn’t look at him, tried to keep her breathing even despite his words and to stop wetness that was already pooling between her thighs. “Lukas, be reasonable.”

  She found herself backed into the corner of the balcony, Lukas’s hard body pushed against her. “Reasonable? Fuck, princess, that is the last thing I am when it comes to you.”

  She didn’t know what to do, what to say. God, she was terrible at interpreting this relationship stuff. Why couldn’t it be more like computer code—rigid with strict rules that always supplied the same results. His words made her think he truly wanted her. That he wasn’t backing off. But that newspaper story…

  “That.” He grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “What thought is going through your head right now that is putting that look on your face?”

  She shook her head. Explaining it would just make her look more foolish. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It damn well does. Tell me.”

  She mashed her lips together mutinously. “No.”

  His eyes flared as his hand came up behind her neck and forced her across the balcony until she was bent over the corner of the table, legs sprawled on either edge. He kept pressure on her neck as he pulled up the shirt with the other hand, leaving her lower half completely exposed.

  He bent over her—his erection pressing firmly against her—so he could whisper in her ear. “One night I was out sitting out here at the table about this time in the evening, sipping on whiskey, enjoying the city. Could hear as a woman came out a couple units over and seduced her husband on their balcony. I didn’t watch—didn’t want to—just wanted to listen as she sat on his lap and rode him in the chair. No screams. Just soft moans and pants from both and the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Sexy as hell.”

  Oh God, she could feel herself get wetter just at his words.

  “We’
re too high for anybody to see us, but anyone sitting out on the balcony enjoying this beautiful night is certainly going to hear the sound of my hand as it cracks on your ass.” He brought it down hard against her skin as an example, the sound echoing into the darkness, her moan quickly following. “And they’ll be hearing you beg me to let you come.”

  His hand rained down blow after blow on her ass and thighs, the sound unmistakable in the darkness, even when Reina tried to hold back her moans and quiet sobs.

  After a half-dozen spanks the defiance melted out of her. Everything melted out of her. She could only relax into it and feel.

  “That’s right. You want this.” His hand never stopped its constant staccato against her skin. “Do you get to say no to me, princess, when I tell you to do something?”

  “No, sir,” she wailed quietly as he pushed her legs further apart with his knee so he could spank the tender area of her inner thighs thoroughly.

  “Exactly. You can safe word at any time, but you don’t say no. And you know why? Because for you, fighting your need to submit is because you’re fighting your need to trust me. You’re going to learn to work through things rather than run when you get scared. And if you need this so we can get to the point where we can talk about whatever’s bothering you, then I’ll give it to you.”

  Yes. She did need this. Her body understood it and she could just sink into the sensation. Feeling rather than thinking.

  She grunted as the blows continued, over and over, but somehow changed. They still hurt, but in a good way—a way that was making her soar. With each sound, feel, of his hand striking her flesh she flew a little higher.

  He was giving her what she needed. She trusted him. Her hips slid back and began to rise up to meet his hand with each blow.

  “That’s right, princess. Let go.”

  She found she didn’t have any choice. She did.

  Chapter Twenty

  Reina had no idea how much longer the spanking went on for. For the first time in her life, her brain turned completely off. All she could do was feel. Float. Be free.

  When it finally turned back on, she was straddling Lukas on his lap in the chair, her head on his shoulder, her legs draped on either side of his hips. His fingers ran gently through her hair and up and down her spine.

  “I-I’m not sure what just happened.”

  “It’s most commonly called sub-space, and you were fucking beautiful. That’s what happened.”

  He sat there holding her for the longest time, stroking her, gentling her. There was nothing sexual about it. Just the two of them, together.

  “Do you really want more distance, sweetheart?” he finally murmured. “If that’s what you want, I’ll find the strength to give it to you. Somehow.”

  She knew she should sit up, look him in the eyes, but her muscles still weren’t working correctly. “I thought that was what you wanted. That it was why we hadn’t seen each other for three days.”

  “I had work. I told you that. Thought you understood.”

  “I did. I do.” She threw a hand out towards the newspaper on the table. “But what about the woman at the gala? The one in the red dress?”

  He forced her up so they were face to face. “I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret, but how did you know?”

  She still avoided his eyes. “It was in the paper which was on the table when I walked out here.”

  He pulled her back down so she was on his shoulder again, her face pressed up to his neck this time. “So, let me guess. You saw the paper and decided that when I said work, what I actually meant was dating and sleeping with other women. You then decided that, in order to keep things on equal footing, you would announce you needed distance and space.”

  “I thought that’s what you wanted.” She still wasn’t completely sure that wasn’t.

  “And if I told you I haven’t even so much as looked at another woman sexually since the moment I saw you wandering around in Deeper Threat? Have had absolutely no interest in being near someone else who isn’t you?”

  Now her muscles finally worked. Reina sat up and glared at him. It was too late to hold back now. “You seemed pretty damn interested in being with the blonde in the red dress!”

  “Alisha means absolutely nothing to me.”

  “Yet she was the one you chose to stand by your side at an important public function. I get it, okay Lukas? She’s the type of person you need for your public image. The type you want on the society page picture with you. I’m not. As a matter of fact, we’ve never gone out in public at all.” Crap. She was screwing this up. “Not that I need you to take me out on elaborate dates or anything. That’s not what I’m saying.”

  “Reina—”

  She held a hand up to stop him. His eyebrow raised but he quieted as she continued. “I’ll admit, I’m not particularly relationship savvy, so yes, when we couldn’t get together for three days, I thought maybe you were done with us and were just letting me down gently. I don’t know.”

  She thought about what Peter said. How everyone knew Lukas had someone he didn’t take out in public. And it hurt. It shouldn’t—Lukas had never promised her anything, particularly not wine, roses and romance—but it did.

  She cleared her throat. “I’m just learning the rules as I go and that’s hard for me. But I get it. I’m not the woman you want to be seen in public with. What we have is… private.”

  All her old insecurities came crawling back. Who could blame him for not wanting to take her out in public? In the last twelve, hours he’d had her naked in the building lobby, gasping and obscenely sprawled in the elevator, fucked in the ass over his dining room table, and spanked out on the balcony where anyone could hear… and she’d liked so much she’d literally floated out of her own mind. So, no. Not someone you would want to take to a charity event.

  The little slut on the side that he never takes out in public.

  “I have to go.”

  She tried to get up, but his arms immediately wrapped around her hips, anchoring her in place. “No. I get my say now. And you’re lucky your ass is already blistered, or you’d be getting another spanking.”

  She sighed. “Look, I’m not trying to make this all dramatic. I just need some time to process—”

  Now he held his hand up to stop her. “For the past few weeks, my family has had some trouble with a group—a gang, to be more precise—in Baton Rouge. My brothers and I have a lot of power, and with that comes a lot of enemies. Dominic and Roman both haven’t let their wives out of their sights for weeks, so no going on dates, nothing in public. Because they know that the surest way for their enemies to hurt them would be through the women they love.”

  “I understand.”

  “There was no way I was starting a splashy new public relationship with you when I knew that would make you a target. That, and only that, is the reason I haven’t taken you out in public. Alisha is a business associate—nothing more—who has a full-time security team that watches out for her.”

  His eyes narrowed at her as he continued. “So whatever reasons that giant brain of yours has cooked up for why I haven’t taken you out—and I’m not going to demand you tell me because I’m sure it would just piss me off—it was wrong. Your safety is the one and only reason we haven’t lit up this entire town with news of our relationship.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “Really?”

  He fisted her hair at the back of her head and brought her down for a kiss. “Yes, really. I plan to have you by my side for every event for a very long time, especially now that we’ve dealt with that gang and your security is not an issue. I’ll never compromise your safety. Especially not for something as stupid as a picture in the newspaper.”

  She couldn’t stop her smile.

  His hand curved around her neck, possessive, yet tender. “You’re it for me, princess. I’m not interested in any skinny blonde in a red dress when I’ve got a gorgeous brunette right here in my lap.”

  She needed to t
ell him about the software, get it out in the open before things went any further. Explain right now what she suspected about Peter and what she’d done. But the words were lost as his hand reached between them and slid two fingers deep inside her wetness, causing a moan to fall from her lips.

  “I’m going to take you out tonight,” he whispered as his fingers worked themselves in and out of her at a steady pace, his thumb strumming her clit, her body already starting to move in ways she couldn’t control. “Wherever you want to go. But first I think I promised that anyone out on their balcony would hear you beg me to let you come.”

  An embarrassingly short amount of time later, they did.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  If Reina wasn’t the most adorable and fuckable thing he’d ever seen in his entire life, Lukas didn’t know what was.

  They’d had to nix their plans to hit the town once they’d remembered she had shown up in only a trench coat and heels. So, they were cuddled together at one of the two tables inside Lukas’s favorite tiny Chinese-takeout place a few blocks over, empty except for the couple of employees still here this late. Reina was wearing his sweatpants, rolled up to fit, as well as one of his t-shirts, along with her high heels.

  Adorable and fuckable.

  Christ, watching her slide into sub-space out on his balcony had damn near brought him to his knees it was so breathtaking. She’d trusted him enough to let herself completely go. He understood the magnitude of that and didn’t take it lightly.

  And he damn sure would be taking her out everywhere in this town. There wouldn’t be a single soul who wouldn’t know they were a couple.

  “You need to know, princess, that once we make this public, that’s it.” He fed her another bite of noodles. “Once you’re in, you’re in. We’ll have to get security on you.”

  He could see her brain click on. “What if we break up?”

  That wasn’t going to happen. “I’ll probably still have someone following you. At least until I’m sure it’s safe for you.”