He trailed his fingertips lightly over her inner thighs as he pushed her legs apart. She quivered against his hands. Her staccato breathing was music to his ears. He knelt between her thighs, he laid his hands on her soft belly, and then he finally allowed himself the pleasure he’d been denied for too long.
Luke held his breath as he fingered the lacy edge of her camisole, swallowed hard as he slowly pushed the satin up, revealing her breasts one agonisingly glorious inch at a time until the garment sat bunched across the top of her chest.
“Dear God,” he said reverently. They were so big, so ripe, so beautiful. His hands hovered over the plump mounds, savouring their feminine heat; his eyes devoured her milky white flesh and her rosy pink nipples still peaked in arousal. “They’re more magnificent than I’d dreamed.”
Luke couldn’t wait any longer. He yanked the camisole over Penny’s head, tearing it in his haste, then quickly rid himself of his own black briefs. He grinned as he saw the direction of her wide eyes. He bucked his hips, thrusting his erection at her, showing her the solid evidence of her effect on him, but then he lay between her thighs and buried his head in her chest, greedily savouring her ample flesh.
Penny gasped as Luke feasted. Magnificent? Was that truly what he thought of her body? No, he must have meant something else. She wasn’t magnificent. Not her. Magnificent was the man showering her with carnal devotion. Magnificent was the way he was making her feel. Wanted. Needed. Adored.
She was in love, and she was ready to be Luke’s lover, whatever the consequences.
But when Luke moved to capture Penny’s lips in a slow, gentle kiss, making her sigh with a contentment she’d never felt before, she wondered exactly how painful those consequences would be.
She closed her eyes again as Luke pulled away from her mouth and began licking a trail over her body. He began with her nipples, tonguing the little peaks, flicking them fast, sucking them hard, then cradling them in his lips. Down between her breasts he went, over her belly and down her thigh. She squirmed and she shivered and she tried to catch his hand. She wanted to touch him too. But then her eyes shot open and she saw him wink. His slippery trail was coming to an end, a glorious, exciting end. Between her thighs.
Penny gasped at the contact of Luke’s silken tongue as it slipped inside her, though more from surprise or exhilaration she didn’t know. She tunnelled her fingers through his hair, holding him to her, reveling in the feeling of complete abandon as Luke licked and sucked her sensitive flesh.
She began to laugh as she realised her fantasies weren’t a patch on this. This, Luke Hardcastle—the real one, not the fantasy one—was going down on her. And it felt amazing.
Luke slid his hands up Penny’s body and grabbed her breasts, needing to feel the objects of his desire against his flesh as much as possible. He groaned as he felt her own smaller hands on top of his, encouraging him to squeeze the supple beauties. All the while, his tongue worked her into a frenzy.
He knew she was close to coming, could taste her, smell her, and she was driving him crazy. He worked his tongue faster, flicking her clit as he’d flicked her nipples, sucking the tiny bud between his lips and nipping it with his teeth. He groaned when he felt her fingernails digging into his scalp, squeezed her breasts harder as she bucked her hips. She was fucking his face and he was loving every second of it.
Penny whimpered with the effort of holding back. She could feel that coiled-up clock spring low in her belly, tightening with every second that passed, threatening to tear her apart when it finally burst loose. Then it did.
Penny’s orgasm ripped from her throat, her cry filling the room. Her thighs clamped around Luke’s head, his hands tightened painfully over her breasts in response, but then, ever so slowly through the fog of afterglow, she was aware of Luke kissing her again, imparting the taste of her on her own lips.
“Dolce come miele,” he whispered as he rose above her, hands either side of her neck, body taut and strong and hard. He gazed down on her with his glowing golden eyes.
“I want you,” he said, and Penny nodded. She wanted him too. Now.
Luke pulled away only long enough to sheath himself with a condom, then he was on top of her again. He hadn’t lain with a virgin since he was one himself, but he remembered well the girl’s fears. He nuzzled Penny’s throat, whispered breathy nothings in her ear, kissed her cheek and mouth, tenderly reassuring her with every loving caress of his lips that he would keep his promise. He would be gentle.
Penny felt Luke’s erection, hot and hard as it waited, poised and ready. She felt it begin its intrusion inside her willing body and forced herself to relax, to lose herself in Luke’s hot kisses and scorching touch. She felt him pull back and slide in again, sinking deeper this time into her hot, wet centre. Again he pulled back and again he sank into her, all the way into her.
Penny bit her lip to stifle her cry as white-hot pain shot through her. His body had penetrated hers, was stretching it to fit all of him inside of her, and he really was a big man.
Luke didn’t miss the look of hurt that briefly blanketed her face, but it was replaced by a look of sheer amazement so quickly that he began to think he’d imagined it. Penny’s face was a picture of bliss as Luke began slowly moving in her. It took all his will to control himself and not pummel her virginal body with his urgency.
She was crushingly tight around him, so hot and slick with her arousal. She felt incredible. Luke had never had sex like this. It had never been this good. He’d never had such a sense of belonging with a woman, to a woman, and of her belong to him. A fierce possession suddenly filled his body and mind and heart as he locked his golden gaze to her stormy blue-grey eyes.
But he didn’t dare tell her he loved her.
Not yet, when he knew she would find other excuses for the words.
Penny sighed in unison with Luke’s rhythmic thrusts, as though the force of his body penetrating hers was pushing the air from her lungs. She felt his hand slide down her leg and cup behind her knee, lifting the limb around his body. She gasped as she copied the movement with her other leg and felt Luke sink even deeper inside her.
“Am I hurting you?” he asked.
“No. Not…hurting. It just feels…so…”
“Good?”
“Yes. Yes, good. So good.”
Luke smiled as he lowered his mouth over hers. “For me, too. So I guess that does it. You really are mine now.”
Penny thrilled to hear those words. She was his. Her heart filled to overflowing with emotion as her body overflowed with sensation. She tightened her legs around his hips, she grabbed his ass and pulled him in harder, matching his thrusts with her own, grinding her clit against the hard muscles that were being smashed against her.
Her orgasm tore through her and she screamed his name. She wanted to scream that she loved him, that she’d been an idiot to deny him all this time, but her head overruled her heart once more. Luke’s words were spoken in the heat of passion. He only meant she was his for now, and how was she supposed to respond? She couldn’t tell him she loved him, so she would compromise.
Her head would let her heart have a little rope.
“I was always yours,” she whispered in his ear as he collapsed heavily on top of her, his sweaty body heaving with every ragged breath.
Just enough rope to hang itself with.
Chapter Twelve
“Hardcastle,” Luke said as he blindly answered the phone beside the bed.
“Luke?”
“Cassie? What time is it?” Luke scowled as he heard his sister’s tinkling laugh tumble down the phone line.
“I have a better question for you, Luke. Why are you answering Penny’s phone?”
Luke’s eyes flew open and he swore softly. He’d forgotten where he was, forgotten he was sleeping in Penny’s bed. Answering the phone had been an automatic reaction. He glanced beside him and smiled, content as he saw Penny still curled up beside him, her hair strewn across the pillows, her w
onderful breasts exposed above the sheet.
She was completely undisturbed by the phone call.
“But to answer your question,” continued Cassie, “it’s ten to nine. You two were supposed to pick me up twenty minutes ago.”
Luke swore again. “I’m sorry, Cas.”
“Late night? Or early morning?” his sister said with unconcealed humour.
“Shut up.”
“So when can I expect you two?”
Luke looked at Penny beside him and his body swelled with burgeoning need. “We’ll pick you up at ten for brunch.”
“See you then, lover boy.”
He scowled at his sister’s teasing and hung up the phone, but then Penny shifted beside him and the sheet fell away to reveal more soft creamy flesh, warm and inviting.
Luke quietly got up and went to the dresser. He selected a long-stemmed rose from the vase and went back to the bed. He trailed the velvety soft petals over Penny’s body, dipping into the combe of her waist, trailing across the subtle swell of her belly, following the curves of her breasts, tracing the length of her neck, arousing her from sleep with the sweet scent of spring. He smiled as Penny’s eyes fluttered open to greet the day.
“Good morning,” he breathed across her lips as he bent to kiss her.
“Yes, it is.” She sighed just as his mouth possessed hers.
Luke’s kiss was soft and lingered, as though he wanted to take it deeper, but didn’t dare. With a dramatic sigh he pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” Penny was suddenly worried by that heavy sigh. Was Luke having regrets?
“I’m afraid we have a big problem,” he began seriously. Penny’s whole body tensed as she anticipated the blow she knew was coming. “After last night…the sex…your body…Exactly how do you propose I deal with this?”
Penny swallowed hard as she stared at the man in her bed, his hard muscled body shadowing hers, his short black hair ruffled from sleep, his tender lips mere agonising inches away from hers. Her heart hammered out a deafening death march and her chest rose and fell with every nervous breath.
“How can I be expected to keep my hands off you now?” he said, a cheeky glint returning to his eyes, the ends of his mouth tipping up in the beginnings of a sensual smile, and then he tossed the rose over his shoulder and cupped both breasts in his big hands to demonstrate his point.
Penny’s body responded.
Gone was the nervousness, replaced with expectant excitement. Gone was the fear that he would break her heart sooner than expected and back was the fear that his hot mouth and exploring hands would stop their amorous journey, and she’d be forced back to reality. Because during the night, after Luke had made love to her again from behind, then again by hauling her sweaty body on top of his, impaling her on his giant cock and rocking her hips while he suckled her breasts, she’d decided that such wonderful sensations as these must be pure imagination.
No one could feel this good in real life, could they?
Penny hoped against hope that they could.
But then Luke pulled back and shook his head. “You see? Do you see what you do to me?”
Penny giggled. She could see quite clearly what she did to him. Luke rose from the bed and stared down at her, his sculptured arms folded over his broad chest, his erection obscenely proud.
She reached out and touched the unwieldy arm of flesh, heard Luke suck in a breath as she did. She slid her hand along its silky length and bent forward to place a kiss on its head. Luke cupped her chin and lifted her face, then lowered his mouth to meet hers.
“We’re running late, and if we continue down this path, we’ll never be on time again.” Luke picked up his trousers and began dressing and Penny felt a certain smugness swell inside her. He was panting. She did that. Not some skinny supermodel, but her, pudgy Penny. She made Luke pant. “Get dressed, Miss Royale, it’s after nine o’clock.”
Penny swore. “Cassie’s going to kill us,” she said. “How do we explain why we’re so late?”
“Tell her the truth. We overslept because we were exhausted after indulging in amazing sex. All. Night. Long,” he said with a husky growl as he stole another kiss.
Penny blushed bright red. “We can’t tell her that. What will she think?”
Luke wasn’t sure what his sister thought, besides the fact she seemed to find the whole thing rather amusing, which was beginning to both confuse him and raise some suspicions that nagged at the back of his mind.
“Cassie already knows,” he said as he examined his tattered shirt. Good thing he always kept a spare in his car.
“What?”
“She rang looking for us. You didn’t wake up.” Luke watched Penny’s jaw drop and her eyes widen in dismay. He shrugged his broad shoulder. “I forgot where I was and answered the phone. Force of habit.” At Penny’s sudden stiffening he added, “Answering the phone, I mean, not forgetting where I am.”
He pulled her into his arms and gave her beautiful ass a playful squeeze, making her smile again. “Now let’s get out of here before I forget we’re on a schedule.”
As they drove through the city streets to the hospital, Luke couldn’t help stealing glances at the woman who sat beside him. The woman who was smiling serenely and blushed every time he caught her eye. He reached over to lay his hand on her thigh, smiled as she threaded her fingers through his.
She was so very beautiful to him.
So vulnerable, so desirable.
When Cassie had asked him to embark on the endeavour of exposing Selina Royale and her means of success, he’d been delighted that some of his rancour had finally rubbed off on his little sister, that she’d finally seen just how much she’d been screwed over by the underhanded bitch. And her suggestion that he use Penny Royale to aid in his mission had seemed like a good idea at the time.
His investigator had discovered that Penny herself had been the number cruncher on the Cassidy Holdings deal. She had been the one to tell Selina how much profit could be made from the resell, and that little tidbit of information had sealed her fate along with Selina’s as far as Luke was concerned.
And it had closed the book on any fantasies he still harboured about the only woman that consistently made his head turn no matter how hard, or often, he fought the attraction.
But now—
Penny had apologised for her part in the deal. Sincerely. Luke believed her. Since their dating-for-show charade had begun, Luke had learned a lot about Penny Royale. Her insistence on friendship first when in private meant they spent most nights talking. About everything.
Luke had been both saddened and angered to discover that Penny’s life with Selina had been one long experiment in psychological abuse. Hers really was a life lived in fear. Fear of disappointing Selina, of not meeting her aunt’s exacting standards in every aspect of life, of being alone in the world, and that was the bottom line for Penny. She had surrendered her life to her aunt because she was afraid to be alone. She’d spent so much time alone as a small child, waiting for her parents to awaken from their latest drug and alcohol-fueled comas. Selina had taken her in. True, only because the courts ordered her to, but at least the fear had subsided a little, for a while.
Until Selina instilled new fears into Penny.
Luke still had no clue what Penny did to make Selina cut her off and kick her out. The official report said she was fired for misconduct. But that could mean anything, and she wasn’t telling.
What did she do?
* * * *
An hour and a half later and Luke had left the girls to their own devices in the Queen Street Mall while he attended to some business. Cassie dragged Penny into every single shoe shop along the mall, and there were more than a few.
“I just can’t find the right pair of shoes to match my ball gown,” she declared dramatically to every shop assistant they encountered. By the time they reached their dress fitting, she still hadn’t found the “right” pair.
Penny liked Cassie. She was everyth
ing Penny wasn’t. Cassie was petite, slim, and very beautiful. She had black hair like Luke’s, cut in a scruffy pixie style to hide the fact that it wouldn’t grow back properly after her last dose of chemo, and her eyes were green instead of golden.
Cassie was naturally vibrant, bubbly. She just had one of those personalities that shone like the sun and stars combined, and she always spoke her mind no matter who she upset or how much trouble she got in to.
Penny had to admire that. She’d never been able to stand up to people. She was Selina’s perfect yes-man. Until the day she wasn’t, and what a spectacular failure that had been. Instead of earning her aunt’s respect for standing up for herself and what she cared about, she had incurred her wrath, and found herself sleeping at the local shelter for the next week.
Cassie was currently standing on a dressmaker’s pedestal, having her hem pinned. The full-length pale gold satin and chiffon gown fitted her small frame perfectly with its high-waisted Napoleon-style, cap sleeves, and soft flowing skirts.
”Something strappy, I think,” said the designer. “Strappy and simple go great with everything. The hard part is finding the right colour.”
“What about you, Penny? Have you decided on a dress yet?”
Penny snapped her attention back to the conversation she’d only been half listening to. On her lap was an album of every dress the designer had ever made and Penny had been flicking through it with something halfway between trepidation and nausea. She didn’t see anything she thought she’d look good in. She’d felt the same thing at every other designer Cassie had suggested.
Penny was beginning to feel like a complete heel. Cassie had been so patient with her over the past two weeks, ever since that ridiculous article outing Luke and Penny as a couple. Actually, Cassie had been quite supportive of the whole thing, had even applauded Penny’s determination in halting Luke’s sexcapades until they knew each other better.
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