Stealing Home (18 page)

They laughed at my jokes, they shared licks of their ice cream cones, and they had no qualms about giving me the same hard time they gave each other. Growing up without siblings and having to split my time between two parents both as a child and now, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed that sense of unity a healthy family had at its core. Even with the Archers losing their parents, the four of them had a strong sense of cohesion I’d never experienced with the closest of family or friends.

“You’re thinking,” Luke stated once the elevator doors closed us in.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you’re not talking.”

“So therefore I must be thinking?”

Luke’s shoulder lifted. “That’s generally the way it works.”

“I’m thinking I just spent more time at the mall today than the sum total of every mall visit of my life, and it’s been one of the best days of my life.”

“I’m thinking today’s been pretty damn great, but it’s about to get even better.”

“Thank you for sharing today with me, Luke.”

His hand wrapped around my wrist. “Thank you for sharing your life with me.”

My reaction was to recoil, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I was scared of being hurt or hurting him. But I fought my instinct. I fought it until I’d chased it back into the dark, stagnant place it resided.

I fought it until all I could feel was the place where my head and heart came together, the spot where reason and logic lived in harmony with whim and feeling. It was a place I’d never visited before, but experiencing it made me want to take up permanent residence.

Whatever this was, wherever it took me, I wasn’t going to hold back. I was all in, to whatever end we found ourselves in.

Feeling that was staggering. Accepting it was freeing. But living it was redefining.

“Still with the thinking,” Luke muttered good-naturedly, glancing up at me.

“All done. I’m all thought out.”

“Good, because as brilliant as that mind of yours is, I have immediate plans that involve your equally brilliant body.” His hand tightened around my wrist when the elevator doors chimed open on his apartment’s floor.

“Before you get me behind a locked door, I need you to agree to give me a few minutes before you throw, bend, or spread me over whatever surface you have in your depraved, albeit also brilliant, mind.”

Luke pulled his key out when we stopped outside his door. “I’ll concede to that. Since I can’t get this damn jersey ripped off and in the incinerator fast enough. If you need any more time than I do to strip, I’ll wait semi-patiently. Dick in hand. Thinking about dick in you.”

Heat spread through my body, originating in the spot between my legs. “Sounds like you’ve got your whole night planned.”

“I
plan
on spending my whole night buried inside you.”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

“And I’ll hold you to me while you hold me to it.”

“Do you have a comeback for everything I say?” I laughed as he kicked the door open after unlocking it.

“I have a come
on
for everything you say to me. Does that count?”

“Would you care if I said it didn’t?”

“No.” His head shook.

“Then there’s your answer.” When I closed the door, the lock sliding over echoed through the quiet space. At the same time it was locking the rest of the world out, it was opening an entire world to me. Before I could change my mind or Luke could change it for me, I rolled him into the living room. “Bathroom?”

“Do you want me to show you where it is?” His mouth took a crooked slant.

“I want you to
tell
me where it is.” Snagging my bag hanging off the end of the wheelchair’s handholds, I put some space between us.

“Down that hall. First door on the right.” Luke watched me back away, a storm of conflict rolling across his face.

“I’ll be back. Don’t get started without me,” I said before turning my back on him.

Luke’s chuckle followed me down the hall. “Too late.”

That was when I felt the caress of his jersey brush down my body. Apparently he was serious about not being able to wait another second to have that thing off of him.

Once I was in the bathroom, my hands wouldn’t work right. I fumbled my bag, spilling the contents onto the tile floor. At least that made finding what I had in mind that much easier.

After that, my dexterity took another detour from inhibited to inefficient. Trying to peel my dress over my head proved challenging. Unhooking my bra was a damn feat. My panties were easier, but that probably had something to do with gravity’s assistance.

Finally, I was naked. Halfway there. Go me for picking the night I felt like my hands had been attacked by a hive of bees as the one when I took the time to wear something special.

Sliding into the item I’d stuffed into my bag earlier, the buttons proved my final challenge before I was set to go. Like Luke, I’d been ready for hours, but being ready was different from getting ready. Now I was both.

Thank god.

I could have taken an extra minute to comb my hair or dab on a little lip gloss, but neither would last. Not to mention my fingers were still in a state of shock.

Opening the door, I stepped into the dark hall. The apartment was quiet. “You didn’t fall asleep, did you?”

When it took more than a second for him to answer, I started to worry that he might have.

“No. I’m definitely not asleep.” He was standing in the dark living room, totally naked, and totally ready to go.

My heartbeat drummed in my ears. “Good, because I didn’t get all dressed up for nothing.” My hands weren’t shaking anymore—my fingers no longer fumbling—as they moved to the top button of the jersey to pull it free.

“Seeing you like that almost makes up for what you made me wear all day.” His hungry eyes explored me, his shoulder muscles quivering like he was holding himself back.

“Almost?” I moved closer, sliding my finger under the hem of the jersey. “However will I make it up to you?”

Luke scrubbed at his face when I kept teasing the hem of the jersey, sliding it a little higher every few steps. “I’ve got a few ideas.”

I had to fight the smile I felt from seeing him so turned on and growing more impatient with every second I stalled moving closer. When I was only a couple steps away, I stopped. “So do I.”

I lifted an eyebrow then gave his hard chest a shove. He fell back onto the couch, landing with a sharp exhale.

“What did I tell you about being on your feet?” Moving between his legs, I stared down at him. Seeing him like this stole the breath from my lungs.

His eyes read a hundred different emotions, his body expressing one—desire. “Does it look like I’m on my feet anymore?”

Shaking my head, I nudged his legs open farther with my knees. They fell open without hesitation.

“You took my feet out from under me, right along with the rest of me.” Luke’s hands came around the back of my thighs as he stared up at me. “I don’t want any of it back either.” His finger skimmed around to the front of my thighs and stopped when it reached the bottom button. He worked it free, never breaking his stare. “This is going to make me sound like some lovesick kid, but I don’t give a shit.” He swallowed and pulled me closer. “Allie, will you be my girlfriend? I know we won’t be able to tell anyone, but I don’t care. I’ll know. You’ll know.”

He had me in his grasp, ready and willing for the taking, and he was asking me if I’d be his girlfriend? Even when I thought I was starting to figure him out, Luke Archer still surprised the hell out of me.

“Are you asking me to go steady?”

His hands returned to my thighs, disappearing beneath the shirt. “Well, I did already have a secret crush on you, pretend I didn’t like you, then I opened with the worst pick-up line ever, so my pride’s already gone.”

I was smiling from the reminder—at least right until his fingers reached the apex of my legs.

“Will you be my girlfriend?” His knuckles ran over me, his eyes darkening when he felt how ready my body was for his.

“I don’t know. Does this mean I get to wear your letterman’s jacket?”

Luke leaned his head over the back of the couch, watching me as he touched me, not missing the slightest of gasps or the faintest lowering of my lids. From the way he was studying me, it was almost like he was taking mental notes to refer back to later. “It means you can wear whatever part of me, have whatever piece of me you want.”

God, what was happening? Luke Archer was asking me to be his girlfriend like he was some lovesick high school boy at the same time he was touching me in ways no boy would have the first clue about. Before the part of my brain that processed logical thought shut off, I considered my answer. Did I want to be Luke’s girlfriend? Did I want an official term? A defined commitment? Did I want to open myself up to the disappointment and heartache that came with a real relationship?

My experience told me I didn’t. My future told me I did.

“Honesty,” I whispered, sealing my eyes closed as I concentrated on what I needed to say. “I need it.
All
of it. The last serious relationship I had, he ruined me with a lack of honesty. I need to know I can be honest with you and that you are being honest with me.”

Luke’s fingers pulled back just enough to let my mind work more succinctly. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s behind me now.”

“Are you sure?”

My eyes flew open. “Of course I’m sure. Why?”

Luke’s hand found mine. “Because you’re bringing it up now. Is your fear of being hurt and betrayed and lied to really in the past? Or is it in the same room with us now, waiting for the chance to come between us?”

My forehead creased as I considered what he was saying. “It’s behind me.”

Luke nodded. “Good. Because I don’t want to pay for some other asshole’s mistakes.”

Here we were, having serious conversations when we both clearly had sex on our minds. I’d never been asked by a naked god to define a relationship, and I’d never hashed out my insecurities with a man who was so desperate to get laid, the veins running down his neck looked ready to pop.

Nothing about Luke Archer was what it seemed. I loved that about him. It was also what I feared about him.

At the same time I felt like I knew all I needed to know about the man in front of me, I wondered if I’d even scraped the surface. “That’s good.” I leaned over to splay my hands on his wide chest. “Because I don’t want to pay for some bitch’s mistakes either.”

Luke’s chuckle came from low in his chest. “You won’t have to. But you do owe me something”—his eyes darted to his rock-hard dick—“and it’s time to pay up.”

Heat coiled up my body, pulsing between my legs. “Time to make good on my promise.”

I lowered onto my knees in front of him, my hands skimming down his chest. When I wound a hand around him, he flinched.

“Fuck, and now I’m about to come like some lovesick kid too.” His eyes sealed closed when I glided my hand along him a few times, groaning when my grip tightened.

Fanning my hair over one shoulder, I lowered my head between his legs.

Before my lips could wrap around him, his hands flew to my shoulders, stalling me. “Allie, I didn’t mean this . . . I just meant I wanted to have sex with you.”

His grip tightened when I blew a warm breath over his skin. “And I’m about to have sex with you.” My eyebrow lifted at him. “With my mouth.”

His breathing was faster as his hold on my shoulders loosened. His fingers brushed across my lips. “And what a beautiful mouth it is.”

Letting my head drop between his legs again, I wrapped my hand around his base and parted my lips to take him inside my mouth. A breath hissed from his mouth when I moved down him. His hand fisted in my hair, lightly massaging my head as I struck a slow rhythm.

“Your head between my legs. My name on your back. Coming to this view,” he rasped, starting to pump his hips toward my mouth. “My life could go to shit after this, and I would still die a happy man fifty years from now.”

I’D SPENT THE night at Luke’s. That was the thought I woke with the next morning. More of the night had been filled with love making than actual sleeping, but still, I’d spent the night at his place. I hadn’t done that since Ben, the guy who’d taught me what trust was—and what it wasn’t.

As I rolled over, I found Luke missing from the bed. Nothing but the dent from his head on his pillow and a few torn condom wrappers on his nightstand to prove he’d been there. Well, and the sting of the red handprint he hadn’t been able to resist leaving on my ass last night.

It wasn’t quite six yet, but I felt like I could have stayed in bed until lunch. My body was a spent mess. Muscles ached in places I didn’t know I had that many muscles to ache. My knees burned from rug burn—for multiple reasons—and the spot between my legs was throbbing from multiple rounds of vigorous sex.

Last night had been about more than sex though. We’d defined our relationship in no questionable terms. We might not have been able to tell anyone else about it, but we knew, and for me, that was the most important thing. I might have wanted to think I could do open-ended and give-and-take intimacy without commitment, but I couldn’t. At least not for long.