Pretend You're Mine: A Small Town Love Story (23 page)

Luke levered his hips up and wrapped a hand in her hair.

Harper slicked down over him again and again.

“Baby.” She heard the need, the fear in his rasp.

With her free hand, Harper palmed his heavy sack. She tugged and rolled in a rhythm that matched her mouth.

His grip on her hair tightened and she knew he had no idea he was hurting her. It made her feel powerful, driving him to the edge like this.

He took a step back, his cock releasing from Harper’s mouth. “I’m too close,” he whispered. Luke pulled her up to standing and twisted her away from him. While one hand worked at the nipple of her breast, his other hand plunged into the waistband of her underwear.

Harper moaned, rocking her hips into his.

He answered her silent plea by slowly penetrating her with one finger. Harper leaned back against his chest and closed her eyes. The slow shallow thrusts and rough fingers tugging at her nipple unraveled her.

“Put your hands on the bed,” he ordered quietly.

Harper bent from the waist and braced herself against the mattress with her hands. Her breasts hung down heavily, nipples brushing the soft quilt.

His hand briefly left her breast to tug her underwear down in the back to expose her. She felt his lips and then teeth grazing her skin high on her cheek. Still stroking her from the front, Luke slid another finger inside her.

His erection was hard against her ass and she could feel a sticky wetness transferring to her skin.

“Luke,” she whispered.

He responded with another thrust of his fingers. Harper cried out as he hit the most sensitive spot.

He withdrew and brought both hands to her breasts. Rolling and tugging the nipples with his fingers, he milked her breasts as they hung.

Harper shifted her hips back and up and sighed when his erection nestled between her thighs. “Please, Luke,” she begged.

He pushed her forward on the bed and rolled her over onto her back. Harper bent her knees and planted her feet on the edge of the mattress to give him full access.

“You drive me crazy.” He knelt on the floor and pulled her hips towards him.

When he pressed his mouth to her underwear, Harper gasped and levered her hips up.

“I love how responsive you are.” Luke pulled the cotton to the side and ran a trail of kisses from her knee up the inside of her thigh.

She felt his breath on her and shivered. Using his tongue, Luke gently probed between the lips of her sex.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

His tongue stroked up to her sensitive nub and her legs quivered. Harper’s hands fisted at her sides. His magic tongue licked its way to her opening and pressed into her. She arched against his mouth. “Lucas!”

He replaced his tongue with his fingers and drove into her while his mouth moved back to her folds. He teased and probed while his fingers slammed into her again and again. His tongue settled into a steady, driving rhythm that took her to the edge.

Harper fought the build. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but his hand forced her hips to be still.

The need hollowed her out. There was nothing left inside her except the craving to be filled. Luke’s fingers drove into her again and she immediately closed around them. His tongue spread her folds and stroked her swollen bud. She shattered against him, tightening on his fingers and arching against his mouth as the orgasm blossomed into a controlled explosion.

Luke groaned against her, his desire ramping higher. He reached down to stroke his cock against her opening. “Baby, I need to be inside you.” His voice was rough.

“Let me ride you,” she whispered.

He climbed onto the bed and lay on his back, still stroking himself. Harper worked his underwear down his legs and off. Luke helped her discard her own before lifting her to straddle his straining erection.

She paused with her wet entrance encircling the head of his shaft.

“I love you, Luke,” she whispered, watching his eyes go glassy as she slowly lowered herself down onto him. Inch by inch, she welcomed him into her very core. Completely filled, she leaned forward, her breasts dangling just above his hard mouth.

He took the peak of one breast in his mouth and Harper began to ride with slow, deep strokes.

Luke clamped his hands on her hips to control the rhythm. His thick shaft stretched her to a point that was almost pain. His hips levered up and he hit bottom inside her.

Harper moaned against the soft tugs of his mouth on her breast. The pulls were echoed in the muscles that delicately clamped down on his straining cock.

She reared up and rode him, slowly, deliberately. Their gazes locked as Harper set the rhythm for release.

“Yes,” he drew out the word on a long exhale. “God, yes.”

Every thrust, every stroke was an expression of love.

He thrust with his hips once more and he erupted on a shout. She followed him into oblivion.

Harper was drowning in the darkness between them, but had no desire to save herself. This was a relationship that could wreck a soul. And it was over.

T
he gray light from the window told Harper she still had time before the alarm, but falling back to sleep was not an option. The day she had dreaded was here. Never again would she wake up to find herself cradled in Luke’s arms.

So many things ended today. She wasn’t ready to let go, but it wasn’t her choice.

She studied him in his sleep as she had their first morning together. She let her fingers trace the phoenix over his heart, silently willing him to be safe while memorizing every plain, every line of his body.

How was she supposed to go back to a regular life after this?

Luke’s eyes opened, sleepy hazel stared back at her.

Harper sighed and cupped her hand to his face.

Luke kissed her palm. “Are you ready?”

“Nope.”

“We’re still good, right?”

Harper smiled. “Yeah, we’re good. I’m just going to miss you for the next ten years or so.”

He pulled her in to him and tucked her head under his jaw. Luke pressed a sweet kiss to the top of her head and held her to him until his alarm sounded.

***

T
hey met Luke’s family at the base. The parking lot was packed with family members saying their good-byes. Harper tried not to stare at the bus in front of them. The bus that would take Luke Garrison forever from her life.

There wasn’t time to waste. The schedule had to be kept.

Luke, dressed in fatigues, stowed his pack on the bus and returned to them. Harper watched him walk down the line, hugging and shaking hands. Claire dragged him in for a long hug. “Come home safe,” she ordered.

“Don’t I always, Ma?”

He shook Charlie’s hand and gave James a resounding slap on his back. “Don’t forget to mow my lawn, lackey,” he reminded his brother.

“Don’t forget to come home to annoy the shit out of me.”

“Boys!” Claire censured them.

Luke moved on to Sophie and Josh, wrapping them both in a bear hug. “Take care, Soph,” he told his sister.

“You, too, Uncle Luke. We’ll be missing you.” She sniffled and Josh patted her face.

And then Luke was standing in front of Harper.

He cupped her face in his hands and looked into her eyes.

“Thank you, Harper. For everything.”

A single tear slid down her cheek. She shook her head. “I should be thanking you. This was the best month of my life.”

“Tell me one more time.”

“I love you Lucas Garrison and you’d better come home safely to your family or I’ll come back and kick your ass.”

He grinned. “That’s my girl.”

He lowered his lips to hers and held, softly, tenderly. She could taste the salt of her tears on his lips.

Luke pulled back slowly and wiped away her tears with his thumbs. When Harper’s lip trembled he pulled her in tight.

“I’ll be thinking about you,” he murmured in her ear. “Be good. Be safe.”

“Back at you, Captain.”

He ran his thumb across her lower lip and smiled.

When he turned, Harper almost grabbed him. She wasn’t ready for this. She needed just a little more time.

She watched him stride across the parking lot where the rest of the unit was forming a line at the bus. She was proud and scared and sad all at the same time.

Sophie’s arm settled around her shoulder, anchoring Harper to the spot.

“It’s going to be okay, Harp.” But her voice wavered, too.

Claire stepped to Harper’s other side and put her arm around her waist. “We’re all going to be okay. Together.”

Harper nodded, eyes never leaving Luke’s retreating form. She knew there was no “together” in her future. She was an outsider, not family.

Luke paused on the lowest step of the bus and turned. He raised an arm in a wave.

Harper blew him a kiss. She saw his fingers close and smiled.

***

H
arper climbed into the driver’s seat where Luke had sat barely an hour ago and pulled the door shut. She hid the tears that were starting behind sunglasses and waved to Luke’s family as she guided the truck out of the parking lot and back onto the road.

He was gone. The man who had her heart was forever out of her life and she was expected to carry on as if everything was normal. How did the people in real relationships with children and responsibilities do it? Wave stoically as their partners, their rocks, their hearts left them to live another life. One that could never be fully shared or understood.

A sob escaped her and she pulled over to the side of the road, her vision clouded with tears that scalded her eyes. The ache in her chest spread to her throat. 

Her heart broke for the men and women separated by war and duty. The fear that clutched at the hearts of those at home, never quite dissipating. At least in their case, the ones left behind could work to build their lives and the lives of their family so the man or woman they loved could come home to it.

Harper’s life, as she had so quickly grown accustomed to it, was gone. Never to return. Even after Luke came back. He wasn’t coming home to her. Benevolence would no longer be her home.

She let silent sobs rack her shoulders until her head sank to the steering wheel. She loved him.

She loved him now and she knew for certain she would love Luke Garrison for the rest of her life.

From the truck’s console, Harper’s phone signaled a text.

She wanted to ignore it. She would rather wallow and wail on the side of the road for as long as it took to feel better. There was no room for the outside world right now. But shutting down wasn’t an option. It was never an option. She pulled her phone from the console and swiped the screen. It was a text from Luke.

––––––––

S
tay.

H
arper shifted the tray to her left hand so she could plug in the order for table seven and close out table twelve.

She sidestepped a pack of giggling 30-somethings on their way to the ladies room and nodded at the couple at the pool table who signaled another round. Hustling to the far end of the bar, she started reloading her tray.

It was a busy Friday night. The warm May weather made it too tempting to spend the night at home. It seemed like a large portion of the town’s population had decided dinner and drinks were the way to kick off the weekend. Harper didn’t mind. The busier the better. If she kept moving her mind stayed quiet.

But the ache in her chest? Well, that never left her for long.

Not with Luke Garrison seven thousand miles away and one month into his six-month deployment commanding his National Guard unit in Afghanistan.

“Bank’s looking good tonight, Harp.” Sophie winked from her position behind the taps. “What kind of treasure are we spending our hard earned tips on?”

Harper tucked the back of her Remo’s polo back into her denim skirt before hoisting her tray. It was their favorite game to play at work. “Matching unicorn tattoos.”

“Love it!”

Her tray full of beer and her mind full of Luke, Harper spun back into the fray.

A month into it and she was still getting used to being in a very real, very long distance relationship. They had planned to go their separate ways, parting as friends. She had been trying to prepare herself to mourn their relationship while forging a new life alone.

But one word had changed everything.

Stay.

His text had arrived just as the full reality of saying good-bye had hit her. Sitting in his truck sobbing at the thought of a life without Luke. Her hands shook so hard she could barely reply to the text.

What??

I want to come home to you. Stay.

It wasn’t an “I love you,” but it was enough. His text had found its way through her despair and given her hope. He was offering her a life and a future. With him.

They had talked that night before his flight. And a desperate hope had bloomed in her chest.

“I got on that bus and realized that if you weren’t there when I came home I’d go back to the same existence. And I don’t want to just exist anymore. Baby, I know it’s a lot to ask. Six months is a long time to wait, but I want you there,” he told her.

Her eyes swam in tears as she nodded silently. “Luke, if there’s anyone worth waiting six months for, it’s you.”

“Back at you, baby.”

So she stayed. She canceled her interview in Fremont and unpacked her boxes and bags. And her first night alone in his house, she went stark raving mad.

Knowing that it would be six long months before she felt Luke’s hard body raging over her, or caught a quick glimpse of that dimple, fed her desperation to find a distraction.

But what?

Since moving to Benevolence her entire focus had been on Luke. Luke’s incredible body, Luke’s home, Luke’s work. Luke’s really incredible body.

That first night, she lay awake in the center of the bed wearing one of his t-shirts and stared at the ceiling until dawn. For the first time in her life, she had stability, she had a future. She just didn’t know what to do with it.

She did her best to stay busy.

Harper took up knitting. Until she pierced her knuckle with the knitting needle and bled all over the silky ivory yarn that wasn’t looking anything like the pattern anyway. Scrapbooking was next. Until she realized she had nothing to scrapbook. There were only so many silly stickers and borders you could stick to a page without any actual photos.