by Heidi Rice
Halle hummed her favourite Sam Smith ballad as the hot water pounded tired muscles, a secret smile flitting over her lips the way it had been all evening. Ever since she’d walked into the house two hours ago, after breaking Trey and Lizzie apart from a very hot-looking clinch on the basement stairs, to find Luke carving a delicious roast dinner in the kitchen, and her son … She paused to rinse her hair … Their son actually doing what he was told for once.
She sung the first few lines of the chorus in her offkey voice as the happiness engulfed her, steaming up the shower cubicle.
She couldn’t wait for Christmas morning tomorrow. Waking up with Luke wrapped around her, the presents all waiting under the tree in the living room. Including one very important one that she’d made specially this afternoon at the cake studio. A miniature Christmas cake in the shape of a football pitch with ‘Marry Me’ inscribed in flowing blue letters on the top.
The secret smile split into a grin. Maybe it was forward of her, but she really didn’t care. She’d waited for Luke to pop the question, but she suspected that there was still enough of the young rebel inside him to consider marriage unnecessary. Especially as they all had his name anyway. In her more paranoid moments she’d also wondered if he had avoided the issue because her net income was more than his. Male pride was one of those tricky things you had to tiptoe around occasionally. But she’d done enough tiptoeing. She wanted to start the next phase of their journey, to have him move in permanently, especially after Aldo’s little declaration tonight, and for her that meant making it official. So she was putting Luke on the spot tomorrow morning, whether he liked it or not.
She jolted as the shower door opened and cool hands settled on her stomach.
‘You’re freezing,’ she yelped as Luke’s long chilly body pressed against her back and cold lips nibbled her neck.
‘That’s because I’ve been playing football for the past half hour in below-freezing temperatures with our son,’ he murmured, the humour in his voice warming her even more than the press of his erection against her buttocks.
Our son.
She turned in his arms to wrap her arms round his neck. The hot water flowed down his back as steam rose off those magnificent shoulders and dewed his devastating face. ‘When did it happen? When did he start calling you “Dad”?’
Luke’s sensual lips quirked in a lopsided smile. ‘I’ll tell you all about it later, but first …’ His hands clasped her waist and dragged her against him, until his erection butted her belly. ‘I need to get my circulation flowing again before I lose a limb.’
Reaching down, she circled his penis, soapy fingers running up and down the huge shaft as her sex clenched with anticipation. ‘This limb feels fairly solid to me,’ she teased.
He chuckled then, dragging her hand away, whisked her round, until her hands were braced against the wall, and strong hands bracketed her hips, positioning her.
His fingers parted her folds to circle the aching bud of her clitoris while he pressed into her from behind.
‘How about we test that theory?’ he murmured against her neck.
And her delighted laugh turned into a soft sob of pleasure.
‘So what’s the story?’ she asked, half an hour later, as she sat at her dressing table in her robe and watched Luke, his naked body gilded by lamplight, as he dried himself with rough strokes of the towel. ‘With you and Aldo?’
Despite an earth-shattering orgasm in the shower, her sex got a little moist and she wriggled on the seat, already anticipating the long night ahead, as he rubbed the towel over his groin.
Good Lord, the man has turned me into a total sex junkie.
He looked up, his hair arranged in haphazard tufts as he hooked the towel around his waist, the easy smile so endearing her heart clenched, right alongside her sex.
And not just a sex junkie. My name is Halle Best and I am a Luke-aholic.
‘We made an agreement,’ he said as he walked across the room to pick his jeans up off the floor, then pulled something out of the pocket. ‘I get to be his dad if I agree to play football with him whenever he wants. Or maybe it was the other way around.’
She grinned at his reflection. ‘Sounds like a win-win to me, either way. For everyone concerned.’
He came back to her, one hand hidden behind his back. ‘It will be, if everything goes according to plan tonight.’
‘There’s a plan?’
He nodded. ‘The dinner was just the start.’
‘And the shower sex?’ she asked, teasing him a little more.
‘That was a spontaneous addition to the plan,’ he said, but then the cocky grin sobered. ‘I have something for you. An early Christmas present that I want you to open now.’
So saying, he produced a black velvet jeweller’s box—a ring-sized box—from behind his back.
Her heart stopped beating. Then slammed into her ribs as all the breath squeezed out of her lungs in one gigantic rush.
‘Oh!’ was all she could manage round the huge boulder lodged in her throat.
She took the box out of the palm of his hand, her fingers trembling uncontrollably. As big dewy tears slipped over her lids.
‘Hey.’ He captured one on his knuckle, tipped her face up to his. ‘Don’t cry. You don’t have to say yes right away. I just didn’t want to give it to you tomorrow in front of everyone, in case …’ His shoulder hitched uncomfortably and the tiny flash of vulnerability that still lurked in his eyes even after all these years had her heart swelling to impossible proportions.
I love you so much, Luke Best. You’re the very best thing that has ever happened to me.
The words formed in her head, but she couldn’t say them, her throat was too thick with happy tears.
‘You know, in case,’ he continued, ‘I put undue pressure on you.’
The dam broke, the happy tears cascading down her cheeks as she leaped up and threw her arms round his neck, the ring box still clasped in her fist. ‘Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. You silly bugger.’ She stepped back to cradle his beautiful face in one shaking palm. ‘As if I was ever going to say no.’
He laughed, the relief on his face almost as pronounced as the bright sheen of adoration in his eyes. ‘Perhaps you should check the ring first, before you make a final decision.’
‘Don’t be daft. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me, even if there’s a ring pull in here,’ she said as she opened the box.
Inside was a delicate platinum ring with a scattering of tiny garnets surrounding a diamond. She wept some more as he placed it carefully on her finger.
‘I figured it would match your eyes,’ he said.
‘Oh, Luke.’ She admired the ring; it was absolutely exquisite. But really she would have been perfectly ecstatic with a ring pull. ‘This is the best Christmas present ever.’ She peered up at him. ‘I have a confession to make.’
He dragged her closer. ‘Yeah?’ He nuzzled her earlobe, sending shivers of sensation down her neck.
‘I was going to ask you, too, tomorrow,’ she said. ‘But in front of everyone, so you would have absolutely no opportunity to say no.’
‘You are such a ball-buster.’ He chuckled. ‘That must be why I love you to fucking bits.’
She thrust her fingers into his hair, loving the silky feel of it, as she drew his face down to hers for a long-overdue kiss. ‘I’m so happy, I feel like a teenager again,’ she whispered against his lips.
‘I know,’ he said. ‘Except this is better. Because we’re both indestructible now.’
And then he set about proving it, for the rest of the night.
ISBN: 978-1-474-04619-0
SO NOW YOU’RE BACK
© 2016 Heidi Rice
Published in Great Britain 2016
by Harlequin MIRA, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
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lequin Books S.A.
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