That night, when she went to bed, he was the last thing on her mind before she fell asleep.
And the first thing on her mind when she woke.
* * *
The next morning, Kat spotted Bella traipsing along the trail alone. Twenty minutes later, Bella was back. Again alone.
Had something happened to Luke?
Kat headed toward Bella, her mind still locked on that question.
She immediately thought of the men Luke had confronted yesterday. Then of the person that had been threatening her at home. Of the driver that had almost run her off the road. Fear exploded into her veins. What if one of them had come looking for Luke after he’d helped her? Or come looking for her, and instead had found him? Had someone hurt him?
And was it her fault?
“Bella! Hey, pretty girl, wait up.”
It was a testament to how well Luke had trained Bella that she stopped and waited. Kat had seen Luke give the dog hand commands on occasion and she held her hand up, palm down, and Bella sat.
Kat immediately approached the little dog, squatting in front of her and rubbing her behind the ears. “What are you doing out here all alone, girl? Where’s Luke?”
Bella’s soft eyes met hers and her pink tongue came out and swiped Kat’s hand. Kat looked at Luke’s cabin, hesitating. After that incident by the lake and her subsequent behavior in the shower yesterday, she’d told herself repeatedly that she needed to stay away from Luke. She was far too attracted to him and didn’t need that kind of distraction.
When Bella whined softly, more alarm bells went off in Kat’s head. Distraction or not, she owed Luke for helping her yesterday. Rising, she snapped her fingers the way she’d seen Luke do. Bella followed as Kat made her way to Luke’s cabin.
She was probably overreacting thinking anything was wrong. Chances were Bella had simply gotten outside without Luke noticing. She needed to make sure though. Even if Luke was fine, she’d return Bella and see if she could patch things up with him. They didn’t have to talk. They didn’t have to be friends. But she’d thank him again for his assistance the day before and hopefully they could at least be civil to one another.
Trepidation filled her belly and she had to force herself to breathe evenly as she walked up to Luke’s cabin. The door was unlocked and there was no sound from inside.
She looked down at Bella, who sat, obviously reluctant to go into the cabin, and that made Kat’s tension tighten another few notches.
Swallowing hard, she stepped into the cabin, Bella beside her.
She started and her mouth dropped open.
If there had been any one word she would have chosen to describe Luke it would have been
controlled.
And yet, he looked anything but at the moment.
Luke sat on the couch, head tilted back, eyes closed. Although he now wore a button-down shirt rather than his LAPD tee, the shirt was wrinkled, he needed a shave, and there were lavender-hued circles below his eyes. The place didn’t smell like alcohol, but on the coffee table in front of him sat an open bottle of whiskey and an empty shot glass.
Kat took a step back. The last thing she needed to do was get mixed up with a drunk. Only, her mind rebelled at characterizing Luke that way. He didn’t look drunk so much as drained. Empty. In pain.
Her eyes fell to the framed photograph clutched in his fingers. It was the one of him as a child with the man in uniform. It was the cause of the pain radiating from him, she imagined.
Her heart fluttered with sympathy and she was overwhelmed by the need to go to him, caress his cheek, and cradle him in her arms. But he was a stranger. A stranger who, while he’d helped her yesterday, had also been angry with her. A stranger she shouldn’t get involved with.
Just a minute ago, she’d been fearful that the trouble that followed her had affected Luke. She couldn’t let it affect him or anyone. Her life was a mess. She was a mess. Even if she wasn’t in potential danger, that was still true.
But she couldn’t just leave Luke like this.
She took a deep breath. “Luke.”
His eyes slowly opened and he didn’t appear surprised to find her inside his cabin. It was as if he’d almost been expecting her. “Hi, Kat.”
Kat drew in a long breath. “Hey. Uh, Bella got out so I brought her home. I think she’s hungry.”
Luke stood and placed the frame on the coffee table. “Thank you. I actually let her out to do her business in the back yard. There must be a loose board in the fencing or something.”
“Oh.”
They stared at one another silently and Kat fought the urge to squirm. “Well, like I said. I think she’s hungry. If you’ll tell me where her bowls and food are, I can take care of that.”
His eyes narrowed, then fell on the bottle of liquor on the coffee table before meeting her gaze again.
“I’m not drunk,” he said softly. “Just…tired. I had a drink last night.”
For some reason, she believed him. Despite her worry, Kat kept her voice even. “Then I can still feed her. Since you’re tired,” she said.
He shook his head. “It’s okay. I’ve got it. You should go.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that an order?” She cocked a brow then smiled to indicate she’d been joking.
He blinked then frowned. “More like a suggestion. I’m not in a great place right now.”
“No. It doesn’t look like it. Can I help?”
He hesitated. Shook his head.
“Right.” She looked around, spotted Bella’s empty food bowl and picked it up. There was water in the other bowl but she grabbed that one too so she could freshen it.
“What are you doing?’
“Filling Bella’s bowls.”
He stared at her. Even unkempt he was the sexiest man she had ever seen. That he was not used to people seeing him this way was obvious. He was confused and trying to get his head clear and he wanted her gone, but she wasn’t going anywhere. Not until she knew he was okay, and that Bella was taken care of.
“I can do that.”
“I know you can. Why don’t you go take a shower instead,” she said as she turned away and set the bowls down on the counter. “You helped me, now let me help you. That’s only fair and it would make me feel bad, not to mention insulted, if you say no.”
She reached to turn on the water when Luke’s hands gripped her upper arms and he turned her, gently but firmly. His hands left her arms and landed on the counter on either side of her.
Her breath caught, her eyes widened, and a beat of desire throbbed low in her body.
His scent washed over her, and his eyes held hers. She couldn’t look away. The urge to run her hands over his shoulders, to squeeze the muscles and test their strength, was so strong her hands came up but she halted them just in the nick of time.
“You shouldn’t be so bossy, Kat. Especially with a man you barely know.”
Kat swallowed hard. The pulse at the base of her throat raced and jumped, and her knees were weak. She’d never been so excited. Her lower body tilted toward his but he stepped back. As she watched in disbelief, he began to unbutton his shirt, his eyes still locked on hers.
“Wh—what are you doing?”
“Getting ready to take a shower, like you told me to.”
“Ah. Well…that’s probably not going to reinforce your message that I shouldn’t be bossy. Not when this is the result.” Nervously, she licked her lips.
He followed the movements of her tongue closely. A naughty smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You sure about that? You haven’t really seen everything yet.”
Shirt unbuttoned he pulled it off and as his magnificent chest came into view, she exhaled loudly. “Nope,” she said. “That’s not going to make me less bossy.”
He laughed. “Then I’ll just have to get used to you being bossy. As long as you’re willing to take orders yourself, that shouldn’t be a problem.”
She gasped.
His rippling muscles shone in the soft light coming in from the windows. Shadows created craters under each individual muscle, defining them even more. A soft, thin line of hair trailed down from his belly button, disappearing under his jeans. There were several scars on his body that intrigued her. A long scar on one side of his stomach, and a rounded scar just below his shoulder. Not that she was any expert, but it looked like a bullet wound of some sort.
He’d probably been shot in the line of duty.
Her heart clenched at the idea of him being hurt. Almost dying. As a cop, it would be a possibility he’d face every day. The knowledge should have eviscerated any hint of desire she felt for him. Instead, it made her more desperate for his touch. For his kiss. For indisputable evidence that this gorgeous man was healthy and alive, blood flowing, heart beating, lungs filled with air.
Luke stared at her, eyes hooded and drowsy. Heat curled deep in her belly and the sheer intensity of her reaction had her grasping for control.
“Shower,” she blurted out.
He grinned wickedly, hesitated for a tension-laden moment, then stepped back. Turning away, he left her standing there, caught in a web of desire and wanting.
* * *
In the bathroom, Luke turned on the shower water, stripped, then stepped under the spray. Head bent, palms braced against the shower wall, he let the cool water sluice over his body and closed his eyes, trying to get his rioting emotions under control.
What the hell had happened? Yesterday morning, he’d helped Craig and Brandon pack up their stuff so they could head back to LA. Afterward, he’d had every intention of telling Kat who he was and why he was really here. He shouldn’t have waited. He should have headed back to the city, and as far away from Kat as possible.
Just as he’d feared from the beginning, his feelings for Kat were overshadowing his professional instincts; it had never been clearer to him than it had been yesterday, after he’d confronted those men on the trail. As a professional bodyguard, he’d have done exactly what he’d done, but he’d have been cool and calm, emotion left out of it. Instead, it had taken all he’d had not to rip apart the men who’d hassled Kat.
The visceral possessiveness she stirred in him was not normal. He’d been relieved he’d gotten to her in time to help her, but mostly he’d been angry. Most of that anger had been directed at the men, but he’d also been pissed by the fact she hadn’t walked away from those punks long before getting so close to them. He’d wanted to shake her, to kiss some sense into her, and he’d walked away to avoid that very thing. Back in his cabin, he’d been torn about what to do next. Leave? Or stay and protect her? Because God knew she needed it. So what if the old man hadn’t purposely run her off the road? There was still the matter of the stalker that had been threatening her. And clearly she wasn’t about to exercise caution even though she was a woman on her own here. Walking away from her had suddenly seemed like the last thing he should do, and his feelings on the matter had simply been strengthened by the fact that yesterday had been the anniversary of the day his father had been shot dead, all because his partner had failed to back him up.
Last night, unable to risk getting drunk and leaving Kat vulnerable, Luke had taken a single shot of whiskey in his father’s memory. Then he’d decided that he wasn’t going to tell her the truth and he wasn’t going to leave. Not yet. What he would do was distance himself from Kat as much as possible. Protect her from afar.
She’d blown that intention to hell and back when she’d shown up.
The last thing he’d expected was for her to barge in this morning and start giving him orders. It had immediately pricked at his dominant side, and he hadn’t been able to control himself from backing her up against that counter. But he couldn’t regret doing so. Couldn’t regret seeing her eyes go wide or feeling the flames of heat when her hungry gaze had wandered over his naked chest to land on his mouth.
She’d wanted him to kiss her, bad. And he’d come damned close to doing so.
Luke turned up the hot water, hoping it would relax his tense muscles, but he should have turned the water ice cold instead. Because right then, the hot spray pounding his skin, a nasty little fantasy played through his head.
Kat was in the shower next to him. Her eyes roaming all over his body before stopping on the heavy flesh between his legs.
His wrapped his hand around his cock and began jerking himself off, squeezing and then pumping along the shaft to the head. He gasped softly.
The fantasy continued.
Kat would stare, hypnotized as he stroked himself. Then an anguished sound would push out of her throat. Kneeling between his legs, her heavy breasts swaying with her movements and making his mouth water, she’d push his hand away, wrap her own fingers around him, and suck and lick his cock as he looked down and watched. She’d suck him in with force, taking him deep into her throat, as deep as she could, but even after quite a bit of time he wouldn’t be anywhere close to coming.
She’d take that as a challenge, and pull out all the stops, licking the shaft up and down, sucking it hard until the head hit her throat, manipulating his testicles with her hand, gently raking the tender skin along the head of it with her teeth until he was quivering and groaning…
Luke came hard and suddenly. He stifled a groan and opened his eyes, using his forearm to brace himself on the shower wall. His legs shook slightly and it took him a while to recover.
Eventually, he finished his shower and dried off. He padded naked into the bedroom to grab some clothes and dress. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the ground.
What the hell was he going to do? He wanted Kat Bailey more than he’d ever wanted anyone, and the knowledge that she wanted him back was playing with his head. It was also eating away at his resolve. He was trying to do the right thing, but she’d come to him this time completely on her own, with no manipulation or effort on his part. That counted for something, didn’t it? Besides, he didn’t just want to fuck her, he genuinely cared about her and wanted to keep her safe. If she wanted him close, why shouldn’t he give them what they both wanted?
Finally, he stood. When he opened his bedroom door, he smelled a delectable aroma. He heard Kat singing softly in the kitchen and he listened intently. Her smoky, low voice was pleasant and warm, and he walked toward her, never wanting her to stop.