Basic Attraction (8 page)

“Luke. Now.”

“I’m here, gorgeous.” He poised over her again before pressing gently against her with his erection. It definitely lived up to the promising glimpse she’d caught when his towel had dropped, even if he was just using it to draw out their mutual anticipation.

It wasn’t enough. She wanted all of him, deep inside her. Drawing her legs up and around him, she arched up quickly, catching him by surprise and plunging him into her.

“Oh, Sheri.” He closed his eyes for a second, pausing deliciously.

She held her breath for a minute, enjoying the feeling of him full and throbbing, stretching her. When he moved, she let out her breath with a whoosh and felt the tightness building in her. His chest pressed against hers, and she gripped his back, a sheen of sweat starting to slick his skin under her touch.

Within minutes, he was burying his head in her neck and gasping, “I can’t wait… I can pull out.”

“No!” She held him tight to her. There was no way she was letting him leave her. “I want you to.”

Enough so that, when he convulsed against her a moment later, she joined him, her body singing in release. She barely had a second to suck in a fortifying breath when she felt something cold and wet on her arm. Jerking, she opened her eyes and met the cool gaze of Greedy as he tasted her skin with his sandpaper tongue.

“Greedy!” She couldn’t shoo him with her arm pinned beneath Luke, so she stuck her tongue out at him, sorry for the distraction. “Seriously? God… Worst timing ever.”

Luke lifted his head off of her chest and shot Greedy a dirty look. “No one else is allowed to lick her but me, you got that?”

No objections from her. A flush went through her satiated body at the thought, and she wiggled a little underneath him. “Licking? Is that what you were doing?”

Laughter came softly from him, and she smiled. He was just too adorable. If she told him that, he would probably growl in protest, but it was true.

“That and other things.” He brushed a kiss along her jaw, which made her sink back against the carpet. “Of course, I didn’t get to every place I’d like to. I think now I’ll catch what I missed.”

He licked her earlobe quickly. Then his tongue trailed down her neck and across the raised slope of her collarbone. Goose bumps were left in his wake. Her nipples firmed, and a warm ache began again for him. She pressed her hips up to coax more movement from him, his thickness still throbbing inside her.

“Uh, uh, uh. No you don’t.” He pulled out, leaving her empty and dissatisfied.

But he replaced the void left by him with his tongue. She sat up in shock. Oral sex was intimate enough, but she must taste like latex.

“Luke, don’t—” Her words died on her lips as he expertly flicked across her.

He built a rhythm, and she dropped back, gripping the carpet to hold herself in place as he worked his tongue over her. Hey, if he wasn’t worried about it, who was she to argue? In two minutes flat, she shattered tightly, throbbing under him, embracing the rocking wave of pleasure.

He was grinning at her, obviously pleased with the results of his labors. So was she. She made an incoherent sound and pulled him down on top of her. His head fell gently against her chest, and she stroked his hair.

“Stay the night,” he said unexpectedly.

There were a million reasons why it was a bad idea. Starting first with her vulnerable heart and ending with her not wanting to be dumped at the end of the week when he went back to Chicago.

Then there was the fact that she could no longer pretend that Luke was a jerk, a bully, or a narrow-minded, beer-drinking bar owner. He was a lot of things, many of which were good. That was the problem. A man who wouldn’t let a cat be put down, enjoyed classical music, and couldn’t stand the idea of upsetting his sister was dangerous.

Not dangerous in a chains-dangling, tattoo kind of way. No, she was safe from those parts of Luke. She wasn’t safe when he stared at her with those ice-blue eyes and made her heart ache for things she hadn’t known she’d wanted. A husband. A home. A child. Love.

That wasn’t true. She’d always known she’d wanted those things. It was why she’d always been terrible at dating. Her expectations were immediately too high, with her chasing and men eventually running.

None of things she wanted, namely a future, were ever going to be available to her with Luke.

But he thought she was sexy. And he thought she was beautiful. That was enough. He made her feel good, right here, right now, and that was all that mattered.

Not every man was for envisioning the rest of her life and happily ever after. Maybe it was time she learned that.

“Okay,” she heard herself say. “I’ll stay.”

Luke wanted Sheri back. Now. She had been gone for nine and a half hours, and he was itching for her.

Why did the woman need a job in the first place? He asked himself this ludicrous question as he paced the living room and tried not to remember the night before. Which was impossible. He would never forget the night before.

Damn, she had been as hot as he had imagined. Eager, Sheri had met him stroke for stroke all night. And had done a little stroking all on her own.

Hell. He was hard as a rock, his relief nowhere in sight. It was five thirty. Where was she?

A horrible thought burst through his mental babblings. What if she wasn’t coming?

Nah. She had to. He would explode if she didn’t.

Besides, when she’d left this morning, she had been nothing but smiles and touches and loving little whispers in his ear. She had said she’d be here. She would.

Then he could hug her and kiss her and strip her clothes off piece by piece until he had a nice unobstructed view of that long, luscious body. It was the best damn package he’d ever seen. Hell, her breasts alone had nearly given him cardiac arrest. In combination with her lean legs and curvy behind, they should be illegal.

He needed a distraction. He looked around for his cat, but he didn’t see him in the room. With the carpet installers finishing the job in the bedrooms that day, Greedy had hidden out in the kitchen to escape the noise and booted feet. When he searched the small kitchen, he found nothing.

Chirping between his teeth, he called for the cat. A quick search of the rest of the house revealed no cat.

“What the hell?” He scratched his unshaven chin and wondered how he had managed to lose two cats in a matter of days. His cell phone rang—his brother Jake.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

While glad for the distraction, he didn’t really have any burning desire to talk to Jake. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Listen, ah… Don’t get mad.”

Now that was a surefire way to tick him off. “What did you do?”

“We just broke a table. That’s all. A complete accident. I told Eddie a bowling ball toss wasn’t a good idea, but he wouldn’t listen.”

He closed his eyes and counted to ten. “Anything else broken?” Why he had ever thought it made sense to leave his business in the hands of his brothers was a mystery.

“No. And we won. We whipped the Laurel brothers.”

The doorbell rang. He forgot about his diminishing bar profits and thought of Sheri standing on the other side of that door. “Someone’s at the door. You’re off the hook for now. Just don’t break anything else. Talk to you later.” He hung up and eagerly strode to the door.

He opened it, and Sheri was standing there, smiling shyly. She had gone home and changed her clothes after work. She was wearing denim shorts that were blissfully short, showing her toned thighs off. A sleeveless lime-green tank top gave him a full and unabridged view of her amazing chest and lent her eyes a brighter green glow than usual.

Her hair was down, softly flowing around her face, and her head tilted as they exchanged a look of awareness, acknowledgment of what they had shared the night before.

He was falling in love with her.

The thought came unexpectedly and frighteningly to the front of his mind. Could that happen in like a minute of knowing someone? Hell, he didn’t know. He’d never really been in love before. But it was definitely happening. Somewhere between her backing away from him screaming and when he had woken up this morning, lust had turned into something deeper. The exact moment wasn’t important.

What to do about it was.

The answer was as simple as his feelings. As simple as the feeling he had experienced the minute they had first met at Angel’s rented cabin. She was meant to be his. And he would convince her of that or die trying.

Maybe that was a little dramatic, but he didn’t have a T-shirt for this particular occasion. If he did, it would say ‘Take Pity On Me.’ She wasn’t going to just agree to date him, especially long distance. He wasn’t even entirely sure that she liked him. She’d called him disgusting, so he didn’t have a lot whole to work with here.

Just his dick, which she seemed to like just fine.

“Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi.” Even to his own ears, it sounded like a growl. She was right. He growled. He reached for her and pulled her into his arms, dusting little kisses across her forehead, her nose, her chin. “How was your day?”

“Sleepy.” She fluttered her eyes closed.

Walking backwards with her, he slammed the door closed with his foot. “Sleepy? You didn’t get a good night’s sleep last night?”

“Someone kept waking me up.”

“That’s so rude.” He cupped her breasts and carefully kneaded the full flesh.

“Isn’t it?” Her head lolled back.

The neck of her shirt was stretchy, and he started moving it out of the way so he could taste and suckle her neck. Luke sucked hard, filled with the caveman urge to mark her as his with the imprint of his mouth.

She gasped and dug her fingernails into his shoulders. “I’m hoping to get better sleep tonight.”

Pulling back, he laughed. “Fat chance. I hope you brought an overnight bag.”

No answer. The beet-red flush on her face gave her away though. His desire increased, if at all possible. Oh, yeah. She wanted him too. Not that he’d doubted it in any way, but her residual shyness was charming and damn adorable.

“Come to my room.” He tugged her hand, leading her down the hall.

She dragged her feet. “Aren’t you hungry?”

This was a stupid question. He was so hungry for her he could barely walk. “I’m trying to take care of it.”

“No!” She laughed. “For dinner.”

“Later.” Much later. Who needed food when he could nibble on her ribs and her other tasty parts.

“Oh, my God. What are you wearing?” she asked with a laugh.

“What?” He glanced down at his T-shirt. He laughed, too. Every time he saw this shirt, he still laughed. It said ‘Here’s a Photo of my Nuts,’ and above was a pair of peanuts in top hats, old-school Polaroid-picture style. “Funny, huh?”

“Okay, I can admit it. That one’s not so bad.”

“If it offends you, I can take it off.”

Her eyes widened and she said in a very unconvincing voice, “Yes, I am. I’m very, very offended.”

“My apologies, ma’am.” Ripping his shirt off and tossing it to the carpet, he stopped in front of the mattress on the floor and felt a moment of guilt. These weren’t exactly romantic circumstances they were in. Maybe tomorrow night they could go to her place. He figured her to be the big-bed type, with lots of pillows and a fluffy comforter.

Unfortunately for now, this was going to have to do. He drew her to him for a kiss. She tasted minty, her breath a strange combination of hot and cool. His urgency relaxed. She felt so good, so right, in his arms.

Pulling back, he traced the vein that pulsed in her neck. He loved the long, delicate curves of her, with all these dips and grooves to settle his tongue into. He did so now, stretching the neck of her shirt down so he could flick his tongue into the valley behind her breasts.

They both groaned. Sucking on the soft flesh, he slid the shirt down farther. Hands on his head pushed him away.

Startled, he looked up at her. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re…” She paused to take a deep breath. “You’re stretching my shirt out. It’ll be ruined.”

Why women cared about these things, he’d never know. She could tear, stretch, mutilate every shirt he owned during the height of passion and he wouldn’t blink. Nor would he ever regret his loss. But he didn’t want to come off as a bully. She’d never let him live that down.

“Sorry.” He abandoned the neck of the shirt and grabbed it at the bottom, pulling it up and over her head in one smooth motion. Then he nearly stopped breathing.

Sheri wasn’t wearing her work bra. She was wearing something that was designed to torment him. It was pink, a frothy scrap of lace that barely covered her nipples. That it did was incidental, since it was see-through. The thing was pushing her breasts up and together so there was the most delicious swell of creamy flesh above the lace.

He’d never taken her for the type to wear pink. Or lace. Sheri was pretty no-nonsense most of the time. But she also had a shy, almost whimsical side to her, and this side obviously shopped in lingerie shops and knew how to please a man. Or drive him insane.

He felt cross-eyed. Incapable of speech. He stared, painfully drawing a ragged breath in.

Her eyes went wide. “Don’t you like it?” She licked her lips. “I thought you would.”

“Like it?” he croaked. “Oh, baby, I… Oh, Sheri, it…” He swallowed and collected his thoughts. Ripping his eyes away from her cleavage, he forced himself to meet her worried eyes. “You’re gorgeous. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” Taking her hands, he kissed her gently and whispered in her ear, “I like it. It turns me on. Like it really, really turns me on.”

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been a hand stroking across the front of his jeans. He froze. He was supposed to be comforting her. He was the seducer here. Wasn’t he?

Shy Sheri was no more. A glimpse of her face revealed a wicked determination stealing across her features. A hand tugged at the button that held his pants closed. Once undone, that same hand darted in and wrapped around him.

“Does this turn you on?” The little smile on her face indicated that she already knew the answer to her question.