“Is this where I apologize for dragging you to the chaos that was Thanksgiving with the Garretts?”
“No. This is where I thank you for dragging us into the chaos.” Then she touched her lips to his cheek. “Thank you.”
“You really had a good time?”
“I really had a good time,” she assured him. “Your family is wonderful.”
He took her hand and led her over to the sofa, drawing her down beside him. “Even Quinn?”
“All of them,” she confirmed with a smile.
“I wasn’t sure if that was more awkward for you or for me,” he admitted.
“I’d say for you—because I had an excuse to escape from the table.”
And he suspected that she was thinking of making an escape now.
A suspicion that was confirmed when she said, “But his comment did make me wonder if we’re giving people the wrong impression about us.”
“What do you think is the wrong impression?”
“I think that the longer I stay the more awkward it’s going to be when I go,” she said, deliberately sidestepping his question.
“So what’s your plan? Are you going to pack up now?”
“Do you want me to?”
He shook his head. “No. I don’t want you to go,” he said, and barely managed to hold back the word ever.
He let his fingertip follow the soft, full curve of her lower lip, felt it tremble in response to the slow caress, before he forced his hand to drop away.
The tip of her tongue swept along the same path as his finger, making her lip glisten temptingly. “Then we’ll stay until December seventh, if you’re sure it’s okay.”
December seventh was when her parents were due back from their cruise, and the date was now just a little more than two weeks away. It didn’t seem like nearly enough time—but he would take whatever she was willing to give him.
“I’m sure. Besides, you promised to be my ‘plus one’ for the wedding,” he reminded her.
“I know I did, but—”
“Ava’s finished the seating plan,” he said. “If you try to back out now, you’ll have to face her wrath.”
“I’m not backing out,” she denied, though they both knew she’d been thinking about doing precisely that.
He tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze. “But you’re still worried about ‘people’ getting the wrong impression.”
She nodded.
“Then let’s clarify the situation,” he suggested, and covered her mouth with his.
* * *
It had been so long since he’d kissed her that Julie had forgotten how good he was at it. Of course, there didn’t seem to be anything that Lukas Garrett wasn’t good at, but kissing was definitely near the top of his list of talents.
He used just the right amount of pressure, so that his kiss was firm but not forceful. And he took his time. The man certainly knew how to draw out the pleasure until it seemed as if time was both endless and meaningless. His lips were masterful, his flavor potent, his kiss a leisurely and thorough seduction of all of her senses.
She was lost, drowning in sensation. He could have taken her anywhere, done anything, but he only continued to kiss her. In her admittedly limited experience, men raced around first base with their gaze already focused on second. Lukas didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere.
And she didn’t want to be anywhere but right where she was—in the moment with Lukas.
She lifted her arms to link them behind his neck, pressing closer to him. The soft curves of her body seemed to fit perfectly against the hard angles of his. He was so strong and solid, but when he was holding her, she didn’t feel vulnerable, she felt…cherished.
His hands slid down her back, over her buttocks. He drew her closer, close enough that there was no doubt he was as thoroughly aroused as she was. Heat pulsed through her veins, pooled between her thighs. She wanted this man—she couldn’t deny that any longer. But she couldn’t afford to be reckless. She had a child to think about now—a four-week-old baby who had been fathered by another man. She had to be smart, rational, responsible. Unfortunately, that reprimand from her conscience did nothing to curb her desire.
Or was she just lonely? She’d been away from her family and her friends for so long, she wasn’t sure how much of what she was feeling for Lukas was real and how much was simply a need for human contact. Except that being close to him now had her feeling all kinds of other things—none of which was lonely.
When he finally eased his mouth from hers, she touched her fingertips to lips still tingling from his kiss. “You’re awfully good at that.”
His lips curved in a slow, and undeniably smug, smile. “My father always told us that anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
“Why do I think he probably wasn’t expecting you would apply that advice to seducing women?”
“Do you think I could? Seduce you, I mean.”
After that kiss, she didn’t have the slightest doubt. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
“I realize that I’m probably a few steps ahead of you, that you probably haven’t even thought about—”
“I’ve thought about it,” she interrupted softly.
His gaze narrowed. “About what?”
“Making love with you.”
He started to reach for her, then curled his fingers into his palms and thrust his hands into his pockets.
“You have?”
She nodded.
“So why are we talking instead of doing?”
“Because you scare me,” she admitted.
He took an instinctive step back, his brow furrowed.
She immediately shook her head. “I’m not afraid that you’d hurt me—not physically,” she assured him. “But the way you make me feel—the intensity of it—absolutely terrifies me.
“When I’m with you, everything just seems right. But I don’t understand how that’s even possible. I’ve only known you a few weeks and there is nothing usual about the circumstances that brought us together. How can I trust that any of what I’m feeling is real?”
Luke didn’t know how to respond, what to say to reassure her—or even if he should. She was right to be wary. He was wary, too. Neither of them could have anticipated what was happening between them. Neither could know where this path might lead. But he wanted to find out.
She’d been clear from the very beginning that she didn’t plan on staying in Pinehurst beyond the short-term. Her family and her life were in Springfield. And even though he knew he could be setting himself up for heartbreak, he couldn’t stop wanting to be with her, wanting to share every minute that she was in Pinehurst with her.
“I can’t make you any promises or guarantees,” he told her. “But I can tell you that the feelings you just described—I’m feeling them, too.”
“You know I don’t have a very good track record with men,” she reminded him.
“It takes two people to make a relationship work.”
“And I’m only going to be here another couple of weeks, so I can’t let myself fall in love with you.”
He wanted to smile at that. Though he was hardly an expert on the subject, he knew that falling in love wasn’t a choice. He certainly hadn’t chosen to fall in love with Julie, but he knew that he was more than halfway there.
Of course, admitting as much would only scare her more. So instead he said, “I’m not asking you to fall in love with me—just to let me make love with you.”
She nibbled on her lower lip, something he’d realized that she did when she was thinking. Unfortunately, the subconscious action deprived him of the ability to think. Instead, he wanted to cover her mouth with his own, to sink into the lush fullness of those lips again.
Then she drew in a deep breath and looked up at him, meeting his gaze evenly. “I guess those are terms I can live with.”
His brows lifted. “You guess?”
She smiled. “Do you want to sta
nd here and argue about my choice of words or do you want to take me upstairs?”
Before the words were completely out of her mouth, he swept her off her feet and into his arms.
Chapter Thirteen
Julie took a moment to glory in the thrill of being carried by a strong man. It was another new experience for her and a memory that she knew she would carry with her forever. As he made his way up the stairs, her heart pounded inside her chest and anticipation hummed in her veins. There wasn’t any hesitation in her mind, no reservations in her heart.
But when he set her on her feet beside the bed, she felt the first subtle stirring of apprehension. When she realized that he’d already unfastened the buttons that ran down the front of her blouse—that he was undressing her—nerves jittered.
She hadn’t thought about the “getting naked” part. It was a usual prerequisite to adult lovemaking, but it wasn’t something that her lust-clouded mind had grasped when she’d suggested they come upstairs.
Then he pushed the blouse off of her shoulders and reached for the zipper at the back of her skirt. Except that there wasn’t a zipper because it was a maternity skirt, complete with the stretchy panel in front because she wasn’t yet able to squeeze into any of her pre-pregnancy clothes. But he quickly figured things out, and pushed the skirt over her hips until it pooled at her feet.
“My body isn’t as toned or tight as it was a year ago,” she said apologetically.
His hands skimmed from her shoulders to her knees, leisurely caressing her curves along the way. “You feel perfect to me.”
She shook her head. “I’m not—”
“Shut up, Julie.” The words were muttered against her mouth as he covered it with his own.
She wanted to make some sort of indignant reply, but she couldn’t say anything while her lips were otherwise occupied kissing him back. And truthfully, kissing him was a much more pleasurable pastime than arguing with him. And when he kissed her and touched her, she couldn’t think clearly enough to worry about the extra pounds. In fact, she couldn’t think at all.
And when he pulled her closer, the turgid peaks of her nipples brushed against the hard wall of his chest, making her ache and yearn so that everything else was forgotten. His hands skimmed up her back, and down again. Lust surged through her veins, making her blood pound and her knees weak.
She slid her hands beneath the hem of his sweater, then upward, tracing over the ridges of his abdomen. His skin was warm and smooth, and his muscles quivered. The instinctive response emboldened her, and she let her hands explore further.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked, his voice strained.
“It’s been a while,” she admitted, with a small smile. “But I think I’m on the right track.”
“You stay on that track and the train is going to start forging full-steam ahead.”
She nibbled on his lower lip. “Is that a promise?”
“Yeah, it’s a promise,” he said. Then he captured her mouth, kissing her deeply, hungrily.
She pulled away from him to tug his sweater over his head, then reached for his belt. The rest of their clothes were dispensed with quickly, then he eased her back onto the bed. The press of his body against hers, the friction of bare skin against bare skin, was almost more than she could handle.
And then he cupped her breasts, his thumbs rubbing over the aching peaks, and she actually whimpered. When he replaced his hands with his mouth and laved her nipples with his tongue, she felt as if she might explode.
She arched beneath him, pressing closer so that his erection was nestled between her thighs.
“Somebody seems to be in a hurry,” he mused.
“It’s been a long time for me,” she told him.
“Then let’s not make you wait any longer.”
“Condom?”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of it,” he assured her. “But first—I’m going to take care of you.”
He kissed her then, deeply, hungrily and very thoroughly. Then his mouth moved across her jaw, down her throat. He nibbled her collarbone, licked the hollow between her breasts then kissed his way down to her navel, and lower. He nudged her thighs apart, and her breath backed up in her lungs.
Before she could decide if she wanted to say “Yes, please,” or “No, thank you,” his mouth was on her, stroking and sucking and licking, pushing her toward the highest pinnacle of pleasure. She fisted her hands in the sheets and bit down hard on her bottom lip as everything inside of her tightened, strained, and finally…shattered.
* * *
She was absolutely and stunningly beautiful.
Luke had meant it when he told her that he’d thought so from the very first, but never had Julie looked more beautiful than she did right now, with her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen from his kisses and those dreamy blue-gray eyes clouded with the aftereffects of passion.
But he wasn’t nearly done with her yet.
He wanted to make love with her, slowly, patiently endlessly. And it would be making love. This wasn’t sex—not on his part, anyway. Because he was in love with her. Not halfway in love or starting to fall, but one hundred percent head over heels. And for him, that changed everything.
Unfortunately, he knew it wasn’t the same for her. She’d told him clearly and unequivocally that she wasn’t going to fall in love with him. She was still intending to go back to Springfield on the seventh of December, with the expectation that he, of course, would stay in Pinehurst. Because this was where he lived, where his family, his career and his life were. But if she left—when she left—he knew that his heart would go with her.
And that was why this moment mattered so much. He wanted to touch her as no one had ever touched her before, so that when she was gone, she would always remember him. Their time together was already nearing its end, but he was determined to ensure that she enjoyed every minute of the two weeks that they had left together. Starting right now.
He worked his way back up her body, kissing and caressing every inch of her smooth, silky skin. He nipped her earlobe, nuzzled her throat, and his name slipped from her lips on a sigh. “Lukas.”
He wanted to spend hours touching her, learning her pleasure points by listening to her soft gasps and throaty moans. She had a lot of pleasure points, and discovering each and every one of them gave him an immense amount of pleasure.
But he was already rock-hard and aching for her. He sheathed himself with a condom and fought against the urge to lift up her hips and plunge into the sweet, wet heat at the apex of her thighs. Even if she hadn’t warned him that it had been a long time for her, he knew it was her first time since giving birth, so he forced himself to go slow. He wasn’t usually patient or restrained, but he focused his attention on both, easing into her a fraction of an inch at a time, giving her a chance to adjust and accept him.
Apparently he was taking too much time, because she suddenly planted her heels in the mattress and thrust her hips upward, taking him—all of him—fast and deep inside her. And that quickly, the last of his restraint snapped. She was so wet and tight around him, he feared for a minute that he would erupt like a teenager in the backseat at a drive-in.
But he drew in a deep breath and fisted his hands in the sheets, and when he had at least a semblance of control again, he began to move inside her. And she met him, stroke for stroke, in a synchronized rhythm that mated them together so perfectly he couldn’t tell where he ended and she began.
Together they soared high and ever higher, until he captured her mouth and swallowed the cries that signaled her release even as his own rocketed through him.
* * *
Luke awoke alone in his bed. He’d heard Caden fussing in the night and then Julie had slipped out of his arms to attend to her child. He wasn’t really surprised that she hadn’t come back to his bed, but he was disappointed.
He grabbed a quick shower, shaved and headed down to the kitchen to make breakfast. To his surprise, Julie was already there, takin
g a pan of cinnamon buns out of the oven. He crossed the room and nuzzled the back of her neck. “I’m not sure what smells better—you or breakfast.”
“It’s breakfast,” she said, turning to face him. “And you have—”
“To kiss you,” he said, and covered her mouth with his own.
Julie held herself immobile for the first three seconds, then her lips softened, and she responded to his kiss.
“Just because it’s the morning after doesn’t mean it has to be awkward,” he said.
Her cheeks filled with color. “It’s not the timing,” she said quietly. “It’s the fact that your brother’s fiancee is sitting at the table.”
He hadn’t noticed Kelly when he walked in. He hadn’t noticed anything but Julie. It didn’t matter that they’d made love through the night—he only had to look at her to want her all over again.
“I brought over some leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner,” Kelly said. “There’s no way Jack and Ava and I will eat everything, and I’d hate to throw it out.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll think of you when I’m enjoying turkey sandwiches later. Now get out.”
“Lukas!” Julie was shocked by his blunt—and undeniably rude—comment.
But his childhood friend simply pushed her chair away from the table and carried her empty coffee mug to the counter. “I’m going,” she said. “I promised to take Ava shopping today, anyway.”
But she looked worried as her gaze moved from Lukas to Julie and back again. Because he didn’t want her expressing her concerns to Julie, who already had enough of her own, he kissed her cheek and steered her toward the door.
After he’d closed it behind Kelly, he turned to see Julie spreading icing over the top of the warm pastry. “I kind of thought we would keep…this…between us,” she said.
He went to the cupboard for a mug, poured himself a cup of the coffee she’d made. “I wasn’t planning on any billboard advertising, but I don’t keep secrets from my family.”
She put two of the warm buns on a plate for him, took one for herself. She sat down beside Caden’s carrier, tapped a fingertip to his nose, earning a wide, gummy smile.
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