She huffed in annoyance. “Don’t ruin the moment.”
He laughed and helped her into her seat before striding around the front of the SUV and hopping into his own seat.
“So, where are we going?” Jill asked as she buckled her seat belt.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Can I have a hint?”
“Sure,” Luke said. “It’s in Utah.”
She muttered under her breath exactly what he could do with that hint.
“We can try that later,” he said, winking at her. “Right now, it would be a little difficult while I’m driving.”
Jill stuck her tongue out at him. His eyes followed the movement, gaze dark with desire. Unable to help herself, she licked her bottom lip slowly, teasing him.
“Remind me to make you pay for that later,” he groaned.
Like hell, she thought, smirking.
A few minutes of silence later, Luke reached over and turned the radio on, humming along to the country song that came through the speakers. Jill realized it wasn’t the newer kind of country music that sounded very similar to the pop and hip hop stations, but the older country western songs of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
“Good choice,” she said, nodding to the radio dial. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for a country fan.”
Luke grinned. “Just the old stuff. And classic rock, of course.”
“Of course,” Jill replied, grinning back.
They stopped a few minutes later at the bottom of a sheer cliff. Jill looked around, but there were no other cars, just the abandoned road. Twisting the steering wheel around, Luke jumped the shoulder and went off the road, closer to the bottom of the cliff. He shut off the car, threw her a smirk, and hopped out of the driver’s seat, running around the back of the SUV. Jill leaned forward, gazing at the cliff, squinting in the darkness.
Were those… no, it couldn’t be, she thought, frowning.
Her door opened suddenly, making her jump. She gazed down at Luke, who had a devilish grin spreading over his face.
“Luke,” she began, drawing his name out in warning. “You aren’t planning on taking us rock climbing, are you?”
He leaned against the passenger door, still grinning.
“Because,” she continued, “it’s dark out. And rock climbing at night is dangerous.”
Luke crossed his arms over his chest. “Yep,” he said, nodding. “Just as I thought. You are incredibly sheltered.”
“Screw you,” Jill snapped.
“That comes later,” Luke laughed. “For now, just trust me. I’ve done this before.” He held his hand out to her.
She reluctantly took it, narrowing her eyes. “Did you really take me to the same place you take all your women?”
He snorted. “I come here alone. I’ve never brought anyone else here. Not even Roger.”
The admission surprised them both.
“Then why bring me?” Jill asked, trying not to think of Roger and the sudden guilty feeling in her chest.
Luke shrugged. “You seemed like a kindred spirit.”
“But a sheltered one?” she clarified, her lips twitching.
He nodded and pulled a large bag out of the back of the SUV.
“You know,” Jill said defensively, following him to the bottom of the cliff. “I’m not as sheltered as you make me seem. I’ve had a lot of life experiences.”
He raised an eyebrow and looked her up and down. “Maybe,” he allowed. “But you’re still skittish about anything outside your immediate comfort zone. Just because your comfort zone is larger than other people’s doesn’t mean you’re not sheltered. It just means you have to work a little harder to get the most out of life.”
She thought about his words as he set up their equipment. His logic was infuriatingly sound, and try as she might, no good arguments came to her while she watched him.
“I don’t want to be sheltered,” she finally said, her voice quiet and thoughtful.
He stood up and held out a harness. “Prove it.”
Even with a full moon and headlamps, the climb in the dark was terrifying. Luke went up first, Jill following close behind and feeding him rope when needed. Jill could see he had been telling the truth when he said he came here a lot. He certainly knew what he was doing.
As Luke scrambled over the top edge of the cliff, she felt him pull a little, switching their positions and belaying her the rest of the way. She had a few more feet to go when her foot slipped and she skidded against the rock with a yelp of pain. Strong arms grabbed her biceps and pulled her up and over the cliff. She landed with a soft oof in Luke’s lap, heart jackhammering in her chest with the adrenaline of the climb.
“You okay?” Luke asked, his voice breathless as he checked her leg.
“Just a scratch,” she said, brushing off his concern.
“I have a first aid kit in my backpack,” he said, pulling her into a standing position. “Let me look at it.”
“I’m fine, really,” Jill protested.
Luke wasn’t listening. He was too busy taking their harnesses off, his hands lingering on her hips a little longer than necessary. He gathered up their equipment and set it aside, slipping his backpack off his shoulders. From his pack, he pulled a tightly wrapped bundle that turned out to be a blanket and spread it out on the soft grass.
Jill took a moment to look around. They were on a small plateau with a smattering of brush. They had a clear view of the night sky, bright with stars. The full moon seemed close enough to touch. The infinite beauty that surrounded them rendered Jill speechless for a few moments.
“I can see why you come up here, especially at night,” she whispered.
Luke said nothing, just tugged her down on the blanket beside him, using his headlamp to inspect the scrapes on her leg. He unzipped a small first aid kit he had unpacked and poured a clear liquid onto the scrape. It stung, and Jill swore, whapping him on the shoulder. He grinned and wrapped her leg with gauze.
“It was bleeding,” he explained.
“You could have given me a heads up.”
Luke shrugged. “I didn’t want to get kicked.”
She rolled her eyes and shifted onto her back, gazing up at the stars. It was like a blanket of inky darkness and twinkling lights had enveloped them. Luke settled down on his side, propping his head on one hand, gazing at her intently.
“You said you’ve never brought anyone else up here?” she asked, her voice wavering under his piercing gaze.
“That’s right,” he answered, trailing his eyes up and down her body, caressing her with his gaze.
“Then why did you bring me?”
He shrugged.
Jill frowned. “You don’t say much, do you?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Not with words.”
Her body instantly flushed at the implication. “I thought we were going to get to know each other,” she squeaked.
“There are many ways we can get to know each other,” he whispered, leaning closer. “What did you have in mind?”
Jill struggled with her desire. She wanted to give in to the heat between them, let it engulf them both, but she had no interest in becoming a one-night stand.
“Tell me about your parents,” she answered hoarsely.
Luke groaned and dropped his arm out from underneath himself, thumping to the ground beside her. He scowled up at the sky, thinking. “I never knew my father,” he answered after a few minutes of brooding silence. “He skipped town when my mom got pregnant with me. She raised me on her own. You?”
She grimaced but reciprocated, telling him about her adoptive parents and how they had never seemed to be around when she was growing up. They loved her, she knew, but she felt like they loved each other more, if that made any sense. She told him about her attempts at finding her birth parents, only to find that her birth mother had died and that nobody knew where her birth father was—or even who he was.
“After a while, I just gave up,” Jill whispered. She glanced at Luk
e who was still contemplating the stars. “Did you ever try to find your father?”
“Yes,” he finally answered. “I found him.”
“And?” Jill pressed.
“He had remarried and started a new family. For a long time, it made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. Why had he left us? What was wrong with us? Why weren’t we enough for him? Finally, I confronted him.”
“What happened?”
Luke sighed. “Well, he didn’t bother apologizing or validating any of the pain he had caused, but I found out I didn’t need him to. Just telling him how I felt was enough. At least I didn’t have to wonder anymore. I could move on. I think the psychologists call it closure.
“His new wife wasn’t too happy to find out he had abandoned us. I think she made him realize how much pain he’d caused. They’ve tried to keep in touch over the years.”
Jill was silent for a moment. “I used to think I didn’t want to find him,” she said softly. “If I found him and it turned out he had known about me and didn’t care, it would devastate me. I thought maybe it was better I didn’t know. But I eventually realized that not knowing was worse. I realized that the truth couldn’t be as bad as some of the stuff I was thinking. Or maybe it could, but either way, I couldn’t deal with the pain until I knew what there was to be sad about.”
“You didn’t know how to grieve,” Luke finished for her, understanding in his voice.
Jill nodded. “Exactly.”
She looked at Luke with new eyes. Gone was the cocky asshole who teased her relentlessly. In his place was an intuitive and sensitive man with whom she could see herself being friends, if not more than friends.
Luke was a good listener, and they soon moved on to different topics, falling into an easy conversation that surprised her. Somehow, they landed on the topic of past relationships, and Jill felt brave enough to ask the question that had been lingering at the back of her mind.
“How many have you had?” she asked. “Not hookups,” she added quickly, blushing at his smirk. “Actual relationships.”
He frowned and went quiet, lost in thought. She had almost given up on him answering her when he turned and looked at her, pinning her with his gaze.
“One,” he answered. “We dated our senior year of high school, and I fell for her. Hard. I would have done anything for her. She was from a well-to-do family, and I always felt lucky that she even bothered with me. I should have known it wouldn’t last.
“Her family never approved of us, and they constantly threw other men at her. Worthier men. It eventually worked. She dumped me for someone with more money and more class than I could ever hope to have. She left town with him right after graduation and never came back. Her family moved not long afterward.”
Jill listened to his bitter tale, his behavior finally making sense. If he never let anyone get close, he’d never get hurt. It was reasoning she found she understood.
“What about you?” he asked.
She looked up at the sky, sighing. “Before I moved out here, there was this guy back home that my parents just loved. Growing up, I never felt quite at home with my parents. I always felt too wild for them, and I agreed to date this man for no other reason than to gain their approval, but all I did was disappoint him, too. I was never ladylike enough, never classy enough, never good enough.
“After I ended it, I came out here to start over. The East Coast was just not my friend. I didn’t belong. Things are so much freer out here, and it feels so much more like home.” She paused. “I wish I could forget the time before I got here.”
During their conversation, Luke’s hand had found hers, and he had entwined their fingers. He leaned over her, his breath tickling her ear.
“I can make you forget everything but me,” he whispered, sending an electric shock through her body and making her tremble with desire. He pinned her with his green gaze, stealing her breath. Suddenly, his lips were on hers, chasing thoughts of her past, of Roger, of everything but him from her mind as his tongue tangled with hers in a primal dance. Jill buried her fingers in his hair, pulling him close as he covered her soft body with his hard one, grinding his hips against hers.
Breaking their kiss, he pressed soft kisses along her jaw, trailed his tongue down her neck, and nipped along her collarbone before surging back up to claim her mouth. His hands ran over her body, scorching her skin even through her clothes.
Luke slowly began to unbutton her shirt, and when she didn’t protest, he slipped it off her shoulders. Her tank top followed in quick succession. He worked his way down her neck with kisses and nips, pausing to suck softly at the juncture between her neck and shoulder. When he dragged his tongue along the edge of her bra and dipped it into the valley between her breasts, she arched her back with a moan.
He pulled her into a sitting position and reached behind her to unhook her bra. He slipped the lacy black straps from her shoulders, baring her soft breasts to the cool air. His gaze darkened several degrees as her nipples hardened, and he pushed her back down onto her back, claiming her mouth with his own again and stroking one of her nipples with his thumb.
Jill squirmed under his touch, wriggling her hips against him. With a frustrated whine, she tugged his shirt up, wanting to feel his bare chest pressed to hers, skin on skin and heat on heat. He obliged her silent request lifting the shirt over his head and tossing it away.
She trailed her fingers across his broad chest, swirling them over his pecs and brushing his nipples. A sharp intake of breath was the only clue he gave her to the effect she had on him.
In truth, Luke was struggling to keep control, cursing the promise he’d made to Roger. Pinning her distracting hands above her head, he growled a warning. She smiled lazily, her gaze hazy with desire. Keeping her hands pinned, he leaned down and sucked one nipple into his mouth, scraping his teeth gently over the sensitive bud. She rewarded him with a small cry from her kiss-swollen lips as she struggled against his hold on her hands.
He smirked and switched to the other nipple, making her writhe under him, soft whines pouring from her mouth. He shifted her hands into just one of his, trailing his other hand down her body as he sucked her nipple harder, swirling his tongue around it. When his hand hit the waistband of her jeans, he expertly unbuttoned and unzipped them. He sat back on his knees and drank her in. Her skin flushed with desire, she gave him a small, inviting smile. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Luke trailed his hands down her jean-clad thighs to the tops of her leather boots, his eyes locked with hers. He removed first one boot and then the other before peeling her jeans down. He slid a finger under the edge of her underwear, caressing her skin lightly as she stared up at him, her chest heaving. Finally, he pulled the underwear off, baring her to his gaze.
Remembering his promise, Luke kissed up Jill’s legs and thighs, deciding that if he couldn’t bury his cock inside her, he would have to settle for the next best thing. She gasped when he flicked his tongue across her, and he took it as an invitation. He sucked her sensitive bud into his mouth before lapping at her, finally plunging his tongue into her as she twisted her fingers in his hair.
Rose’s words from earlier echoed in the far reaches of Jill’s mind: That man looks like he could take you places you’ve only ever dreamed about.
And, God help her, he did. Not once, not twice, but three separate times.
Echoes of the Past
There was a war raging inside Jill. Rose had sensed it the moment the young woman had come home from her date with Luke but didn’t know what she could do for her—other than tell her the truth. Jill needed to know why she was so torn between the two men. They each did different but equally important things for her.
Rose sighed. Either Roger needed to learn how to give Jill the passionate dominance she craved or Luke needed to learn how to open up and romance her. And Jill needed to choose between them before indecision ate away at her and drove her insane.
I’ll talk to her tonight
, Rose thought. I’ll tell her the truth.
Jill drove her group of guests back to the inn after a considerably long hike. It was the same nerve-wracking trail she had taken with Roger a few weeks ago, except this time, she hadn’t enjoyed the amazing views. The memories of her time with Roger had eaten at her guilty conscience. It had taken a lot of willpower to mask her feelings and treat the guests with an upbeat, fun personality, but she’d managed. It wouldn’t help her situation if she pissed off all of Rose’s customers.
Pulling into the parking lot and stopping by the front door, she gave the half-dozen people in the SUV a smile as they hopped out and made the short trip to their respective rooms. Before Jill could even park, Danny came lumbering out, a piece of paper in his hand.
“Rose wants you to pick up a few supplies in town,” he said, handing her the list.
Sighing, Jill took it and nodded. The drive into town was just as lovely as ever, and Jill relaxed a bit. She reached over and fiddled with the radio, tuning it to the same country station Luke loved. The thought of him brought a smile to her face. That man was full of surprises.
She pulled into the parking lot of the local grocery store, parking the large car toward the back of the lot. Once inside the store, she grabbed a basket and perused the produce section, crossing things off her list as she placed them in her basket.
Jill knew she was going a little overboard, but the grocery store had an amazing selection of fresh produce, and she did have Rose’s credit card. The inn was mostly self-sufficient with its plentiful garden and orchards, but when they got a huge influx of guests—like they had now—Rose sent Danny or Jill to the local grocery to supplement their food supply. Whenever Rose sent Jill, Jill tried to get food they didn’t grow in the garden, just to change things up. She was turning a small fruit that looked like a cross between an orange and a cherry tomato in her hand when she sensed someone walk up behind her.
“That’s a mighty nice kumquat you got there,” a deep voice said in her ear.
She whirled around and came face to face with Luke’s amused grin. “What are you talking about?” she asked.
Destiny: AN MFM Romance Page 10
