Thorns (The LeBlanc Family #1)

by Bella Scott

  Luke growled lowly as he climbed on top of her. “I’d love to handle you.”

  She slid her hands along his chest, and he shivered under her light touch. He felt the warmth of her hands even through his shirt, and he needed them against his skin.

  “Please do,” she purred.

  He leaned down to capture her lips as his hands began to work their way down her shirt, unfastening the buttons. His fingers brushed against her breasts as they moved, and he barely suppressed a groan. She had a way of driving him crazy even when she was still fully clothed. The way her lips pulled at his hungrily, wanting more, and the way she twisted slightly beneath him every time his hands met her breasts…

  He wanted her so badly he thought he might explode.

  Her hands caressed his chest as he unbuttoned her blouse, and when he finished, he pushed the garment back off her shoulders, stopping when the placement of her hands hindered his progress. She pulled them back and shrugged out of the shirt before beginning to unbutton his, as well. Luke smirked against her lips, his hands settling onto her breasts through her bra. Heat shot through him as he squeezed and was rewarded by a soft groan, and he felt himself beginning to strain against his slacks.

  Rose’s fingers fumbled at the buttons of his shirt as he began massaging her breasts, his lips sliding down over her jaw to suck at the creamy skin of her neck. She groaned softly, pausing in her motions for a moment before finishing his buttons and trailing her delicate fingers along the muscles of his chest. He groaned against her throat. Her light, tender touch electrified him, and he craved more. Craved it everywhere.

  She lifted her legs to tangle them around his waist and used them to pull him closer, rubbing her hips against his firmly, and he sent up a quick prayer of thanks for skirts. The material slid upward as Rose moved, making it impossible not to feel her heat through her panties. The tightness of his slacks was becoming uncomfortable, and he shifted his hands to work at unfastening her bra as his lips roamed down over what he could reach of her chest. He nibbled at the spot just beside her clavicle, and she let out a breathy moan.

  A growl rumbled in his throat. He finished with the clasps quickly and pulled the bra free and tossed it across the room, and he heard a thump as it hit the wall. He then reached for her hips to pin them to the bed. She let out a sharp breath as his mouth moved down to begin lathing kisses over her bare breasts. She shuddered and groaned. He slipped a hand beneath her skirt to brush his fingers against her core, where he felt wetness building through her underwear.

  “Luke,” she moaned, her hips twisting toward his touch.

  “Hm?” His voice was low and rough, and he looked up to see the lust in her eyes. Her hair was a halo on her pillow.

  “I love you so much.”

  He grinned against her skin. “And I love you.” His lips brushed over the soft, smooth skin of her breasts, and he paused to suck on her hardened nipple as his hands ran along her waist. Her breathing quickened, and Luke chuckled against her skin. He kissed downward over her stomach as she twisted beneath him, and he unfastened his pants to relieve a bit of the pressure before guiding her skirt down over her hips. Reluctantly, he lifted his lips from her skin long enough to pull her skirt free and toss it in the same direction he’d thrown her bra.

  He then closed the distance between them and claimed her lips forcefully as his hands caressed her hips, her breasts, her waist… God, he loved the touch of her skin. He’d missed her so much, and having her here, where he’d always wanted to be alone with her, felt so right. So perfect.

  Rose returned his kisses hungrily, her hands gripping his shoulders and keeping him close as his fingers slipped between her legs and began to rub her slowly. She groaned against his lips and rocked toward his touch, and he continued his smooth circles until her breathing grew ragged against his lips and she let out a sharp, unmistakable groan. He bit the inside of his cheek to stifle one of his own as her fingernails bit into his shoulders, and he pulled back to rest his forehead against hers.

  “Are you enjoying our trip so far?” he breathed. He savored the feeling of her breasts pressed to his bare chest and his unbuttoned shirt, her body warm and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She was panting.

  In response, she slid her fingers into his hair and pulled him down again to kiss him hard. She pushed his shirt down off his shoulders, and he shrugged out of it and threw it to the floor. He slid her panties down her legs and discarded them, and when her hand slipped beneath his waistband to press against his aching cock, he groaned, bucking into her touch. She rubbed him slowly. He closed his eyes, trying to keep his control as pleasure coursed through him.

  “I need you,” he growled, squeezing her breast with one hand as the other unfastened his pants.

  “I know... Take me, Luke. I need you, too.”

  “Rose,” he groaned, working off his remaining clothes and discarding them.

  “Please,” she breathed. She bit her lip, desperation in her eyes. The light from the torches outside made her glow.

  He gripped her hip and slid into her with a growl. With a moan of “Yes,” she lifted her hips toward him. Luke began rocking into her, groaning at the feeling of her, so tight and wet around him. Rose ran her hands up his back as she let out a stream of soft moans. She began to rock upward toward him, and he hissed against her neck. He gripped her hip hard, his motions steady and firm. Her moans grew louder, and he smirked between kisses along her neck and jaw. As her grip on him tightened and her nails dug into his back, he pulled in a sharp breath.

  “Sorry,” she muttered.

  “Don’t be.” He knew he was close to breaking, to being overwhelmed by the pleasure of her surrounding him. But he forced himself to hold on.

  All at once, she let out a loud moan as her walls tightened around him, her head rolled backward, and her body quaked. Luke held his breath, forcing a few more thrusts before he couldn’t stand it any longer. He groaned roughly as he came within her.

  As he struggled for breath and to fight past the pleasurable fog filling his mind, he rested his head against her shoulder, his eyes closed.

  He felt her fingers trailing lightly through his hair, and he could tell she was trembling.

  “I love you,” she breathed.

  He kissed her lips softly and slid out of her before dropping down beside her and pulling her into his arms. She cuddled against him, resting her head against his heaving chest.

  “I love you,” he said. He watched her silently for a few more moments, basking in her presence, before he closed his eyes.

  He needed this forever.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Rose opened her eyes, sunlight streamed through the glass wall and bathed the bedroom in a soft glow. During the night, she and Luke had moved under the blankets, and they had made love twice more between attempts at sleep. The last time had been around sunrise, and now, Rose had no idea what time it was. She supposed it didn’t matter; they had nowhere to be.

  She was enveloped by warmth beneath the sheets, but something felt strange. She couldn’t feel Luke—not his arm around her, not his body pressed to hers. She turned over to find that he wasn’t in the bed at all, and she frowned.

  As her tired mind slid back into focus, however, she processed the smell wafting in from the kitchen. Batter and chocolate and bacon. She smiled and sat up, stretching, as she realized what he was doing. She saw their suitcases resting beside the dresser, and when she turned toward the nightstand beside her with sculpted metal ivy vines twining up its legs, she found her phone sitting on it.

  He took care of everything, didn’t he?

  She smiled. Luke had always been more thoughtful than she would’ve considered possible, before she’d met him. He was far better at planning than she was, and he went out of his way to make sure the little details were taken care of. That everything was perfect.

  She reached out for her phone, and at the sight of the messages waiting for her, she froze.

  Three te
xts from her mother.

  “Were you planning to tell us about our grandchild?”

  “Where are you? I stopped by and Alex said you weren’t living there anymore??”

  “How many men are you sleeping with???”

  A frustrated cry ripped from Rose’s lungs. She slammed the phone down on the bed and covered her mouth with one of the plush down pillows, and she screamed. She lay down again, bringing the pillow with her.

  This is exactly it, Mother. This is exactly why I don’t tell you anything. Ever.

  Footsteps thundered closer, and she heard the doorknob turn.

  “What’s wrong?” Luke’s voice was panicked, and at the sound of it, Rose sighed.

  Her fingers skimmed over the satin sheets for her phone, and she held it out to him, her eyes still closed beneath the pillow. After a moment, she felt a soft thump beside her and assumed he’d dropped the phone.

  “You know my opinion on her,” said Luke.

  She did. She’d told him how many nights she’d spent crying after Morgan had been kicked out of their house, and she’d spent more nights distracted and unable to focus on what she and Luke had been doing in college after fights with her parents. She’d been too terrified about what they would do to tell anyone—even Luke—about her first pregnancy. At the thought, tears stung her eyes, and her hand moved on reflex to her stomach.

  She felt Luke sit down beside her, and at his gentle touch on her arm, she released her grip on the pillow.

  “Hey,” he said softly. “What is it?”

  He pulled the pillow away from her face, and as he watched her, there was nothing but love in his eyes. Rose couldn’t hold back her tears.

  “I shouldn’t let her get to me,” she said. “I can’t do that anymore. The last time, I—the baby—I was so stressed, so worried all the time, that—”

  Pain cracked Luke’s expression. He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms, and he pressed a long kiss to her forehead.

  “Rose, listen to me,” he whispered. “It’s absolutely awful that they had you so worried. But nothing about the way you handled any of that stress was your fault—you were in a situation that would’ve scared the hell out of anyone. And what happened to the baby—that was nowhere even close to your fault.”

  “What if it was? What if I have some kind of medical problem, and I can’t—what if—”

  “Shh.” He held her tighter, and she closed her eyes as she buried her face against his chest. “It’s going to be okay. This baby is going to be okay.”

  “Our baby.” The words left her lips easily, and they took with them a portion of the weight that had been sitting on her chest. She knew he’d been worrying about whether he was really going to be a father to her child, and she needed him to know that he absolutely was. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you that chance before,” she said quietly.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you carry that pain.” His voice broke a bit on the last word, and the sound made her chest ache. “But I’ll never be mad at you for any of it.”

  She pressed a soft kiss to his neck. “Thank you.”

  A few moments passed in silence before Luke spoke.

  “Have you thought about names at all?”

  Rose shrugged. “Not really. With everything that’s been going on, I haven’t had much time to.”

  She felt him nod.

  “What about you?” she asked. “I’d love to hear your ideas.” Rose looked up at last, pulling back enough to meet his eyes.

  Luke smiled. “I’ll think about it.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “But in the meantime, how about breakfast?”

  ***

  As Luke loaded the plates into the dishwasher, he looked out at Rose, who was lying on a long towel on the beach. Her phone lay face down in the sand beside her, and her fingers drifted toward it every now and then, but she always pulled them back.

  He didn’t know what he would say if he were ever left alone with her mother again. He’d watched other people try to destroy Rose’s self-confidence for too long, and he’d had enough of it. She was the strongest, fiercest person he knew, and she’d become that way through years of fighting for what she wanted despite the hardships she’d faced. For God’s sake, she’d handled the pain of a miscarriage on her own, and while he absolutely hated that she’d had to deal with it by herself, it proved again how thoroughly resilient she was, as did the way she’d dealt with losing contact with her sister for a while due to her parents’ actions. She’d been so broken up about it when they had kicked Morgan out, and still, she’d pulled through.

  Though he couldn’t imagine his parents doing anything like that, he knew he would’ve lost his mind if he didn’t have Lenore in his life. His parents had known how devastated he’d been after Rose had left, but after a while, they had shifted to encouraging him to find someone else. He knew they’d had his wellbeing in mind, but he hadn’t been ready. He never would’ve been ready. The few dates they’d managed to persuade him to go on had ended in disaster as the women hadn’t been able to measure up to what he’d wanted, and neither had the one-night flings he’d found on his own. He’d wanted Rose, and no one else would’ve come close to her.

  Lenore was the only one who’d understood that and hadn’t tried to push him into moving on. She’d been around both of them long enough to know that Rose had always been the one for Luke. The only one.

  The thoughts of his family made it impossible to hold himself back any longer. He retrieved his phone from the dresser in the bedroom and flipped through the websites for the prominent Chicago newspapers, and his heart sank at their headlines.

  “Senator LeBlanc’s Son Has Meltdown, Punches Reporter.”

  “Luke LeBlanc Attacks Photographer (With Video).”

  He threw his phone onto the bed and turned away, bracing himself against the doorframe as he pulled in a series of deep breaths.

  Four years. He’d spent four years rebuilding his image, and now here he was, burning it all down again.

  ***

  By the time he finally went outside, he’d given in to the need to see what else was being said about him. He’d found too many disparaging threads on social media to count. They attacked his character and his “weakness” for going back to his ex-fiancée—especially when this meant raising someone else’s child—and when he’d begun to see the comments’ hatred turn to Rose instead, he’d logged out of every app and closed his internet browser.

  Instead, he joined her on the beach. He brought out another towel and lay down on it beside her, and though he stared up into the bright blue of the cloudless sky, he couldn’t shake the heaviness pressing down on his entire body.

  Is Alex right? Am I endangering her?

  He let out a long breath and closed his eyes. He wanted to dismiss the words as driven by jealousy, and while he knew they had been, that didn’t necessarily negate their truth. Physically endangering her, no. But now strangers were insulting her online, dragging her name and character through the mud, and for what? For being with him? For going back to him, which he’d been begging the universe to let happen for the past four years?

  She wanted to be with him. She’d told him as much—she’d made her choice. But was it one he could live with, if it was going to cause her constant pain?

  At the feeling of a light touch on his hand, he turned his head to face her. She was watching him, a question in her eyes.

  “Are you having a good time?” he asked.

  “Is that what you’re worried about?” The skepticism in her tone said she didn’t believe that even a little bit.

  “Yes.” At the core, that was true. His question just wasn’t confined to their current situation on the island.

  “Of course I am,” she said. She rolled onto her side and scooted close to him, and he rested his hand on her back as she laid her head on his chest.

  He wanted so badly to believe her.

  ***

  Rose knew there was more wrong than L
uke was telling her. She didn’t want to force him to talk if he wasn’t ready, but she hoped that her presence and the closeness between them as she lay with her head on his chest communicated that she was here for anything he might need. He’d always had trouble admitting when he was struggling, but the previous night, he’d come to her about the worries seeded by his conversation with Alex, and that had been a huge step in the right direction.

  Don’t start pulling away now, she begged him silently. Despite the pressures of the outside world, things between them were going so well. She couldn’t stand the thought of him closing himself off to her again.

  “So I was thinking,” she said at last.

  “Hm?”

  “Names. It depends on gender, of course, but for a girl… maybe something with ‘E’? I’ve always liked Emily… Eden…”

  “Elsa,” Luke offered.

  “Do you think she’d get a lot of Disney jokes?” Smiling, Rose looked up to meet his eyes, and to her relief, she found the hint of a smile on his lips, as well.

  “Maybe. But there are worse things to be compared to.” Something flickered across his eyes that she couldn’t identify, and her smile fell away.

  “What about for a boy?” she asked as she laid her head back down.

  “We could always name him after Wyatt.”

  A laugh burst from Rose’s lips, and she shook her head. “We don’t need to give him that kind of ego trip. Besides, Rhys would be jealous.”

  “Sure, but one of those names is considerably easier to learn to spell than the other.”

  She heard the smile in his voice, this time, and she slowly allowed herself to relax. His fingers skimmed up her back, which her bikini did little to cover. She shivered.

  “That’s fair,” she said. She let out a long sigh. “We should run whatever we decide on by Alex,” she said.