“Yes.”
“Did you kill them?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He smiled at her vehemence. “Vicious little thing, aren’t you?”
She shrugged silky shoulders. “I’m not little, and yes, if necessary, I can be vicious.” She hesitated. “Can I see your back?”
Lucan looked surprised for several seconds before visibly forcing the tension from his shoulders. “Hell of a thing to want to look at,” he murmured as he rolled over onto his stomach.
Becca quickly placed her hand over her mouth to stop herself from gasping or crying out as she looked at the myriad scars that covered the whole of Lucan’s back. The desecration of that flesh seemed all the more shocking because the skin on his chest and stomach was completely smooth and unblemished.
There were other cuts besides the names of his torturers, most of them having healed badly, causing ridging or puckering of the skin in places.
Becca reached her hand out, but stopped just short of her finger coming into contact with that ruined flesh. “Is it okay for me to touch you?”
His shoulders tensed. “As long as I know it’s you doing the touching, yes. But why would you even want to?”
“So I can do this…” Becca bent at the waist so that she could press her lips gently against one of the cuts on his shoulder. “And this.” Her lips lingered on the scars on his other shoulder, feeling how Lucan’s back went rigid for several seconds before he once again forced himself to relax. “And this. This. And this, as a thank you for your service.” She continued to kiss each and every scar down his back.
“Becca?”
“Yes?” she murmured against the heat of his skin.
“You should probably go back to your own bedroom now.” His voice had gone so low, it was almost a growl.
“I should?”
“Hmm.”
“Why?”
“Because once I turn over, I might not be able to let you leave.”
“I don’t— Oh,” Becca gasped as Lucan did exactly that.
He held her gaze as he pushed the duvet down about his thighs. Becca couldn’t stop her gaze from moving lower. His engorged cock was surrounded by dark curls at the base, thick veins running along its length, pre-cum beading the slit at the tip of the glistening and bulbous top.
She couldn’t look away. She didn’t want to look away.
Lucan was every bit a man, the hard and muscular planes of his body absolutely nothing like the much younger man who had been Becca’s first and only lover three years ago.
Every muscle and sinew was defined on Lucan’s body, with not an ounce of superfluous flesh on those wide shoulders and chest, his eight-pack visible in a tight vee that went all the way down to his aroused cock.
Becca clenched her hands into fists to stop herself from reaching out to touch that silky smooth and engorged skin, her fingers aching to trace along those throbbing veins from base to tip.
Which was when she also became aware of the tightness of her hardened nipples pressing against and visible through the silky material of her nightgown, along with the hot slickness between her thighs. That slickness increased as Lucan’s heady male musk invaded her senses.
She stood up abruptly. “I— This was a mistake. I hope the rest of your night is free from nightmares.” She turned and hurried to the doorway.
“Becca.”
She stilled but didn’t turn. If she did, she might not be able to resist running back to him and begging him to make love to her.
Three years without even thinking of or wanting sex, and yet just a few hours of knowing Lucan and her whole body felt hot and tingling. Her engorged nipples ached, and between her thighs was swollen and hungry. Hungry for Lucan. His cock was so big, it would stretch her to her limit, but she wanted it. She wanted him, had done so almost since the first moment she looked at him. His absolute maleness was beyond any and everything she had ever known before. Her male friends were all from academia and tended toward the cerebral rather than the physical. An evening with any of them was usually spent discussing art. She wasn’t even sure she could speak at all at this moment in time!
“Becca.” The warmth of large hands landing lightly on her shoulders told her that, while she agonized about this attraction she felt toward Lucan, he had gotten out of bed and was now standing directly behind her. “Turn round and look at me.” The softness of his tone didn’t make it any less an instruction.
An instruction Becca was totally unable to resist.
Chapter Eight
A sob caught in her throat as she slowly turned in response to the compulsion in his voice.
“Good,” he approved. “Now look at me.”
Instead, she kept her lashes lowered, staring down at the long length of his bare legs and feet to the carpeted floor between them. “We shouldn’t do this, Lucan.”
Lucan was of the same opinion. Except… He’d been fighting his attraction to Becca since the moment he first set eyes on her. Since getting to know her, he’d learned she was unlike any other woman he’d ever met, buttoned up and almost prim on the outside, but with a passion and fire raging inside her Lucan somehow knew only he aroused and could assuage.
No, their situation wasn’t perfect, far from it, and that would become all too apparent the moment they met up with his brothers and her sister.
But continuing to resist Becca, when she was so damned beautiful and feisty, was proving impossible. Especially now, when she was all sleep tousled.
Her blonde hair was loose about her shoulders. Her green eyes had a feverish glitter. A flush had traveled from her cheeks and down her throat to the fullness of her breasts outlined against the silky material of her nightgown.
There was nothing buttoned up or prim about Becca right now.
Lucan wanted her, and be damned with what tomorrow might bring. All of it. Any of it. Hailey. Haydn. The rest of his brothers. His parents. This, here and now with Becca, was all that was important.
Becca was all that was important.
“Do you really want me to stop?” He lowered his head so that she had no choice but to look at him. Her pupils were completely blown, cheeks flushed, her lips slightly parted. The bottom one was swollen from where she was chewing on it. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll step away,” he assured her huskily.
Did Becca want him to stop?
She’d never wanted anything or anyone as much as she wanted Lucan to make love to her right now. She wanted his strength. His sensuality. To be the one to break through that distance and air of danger that followed him like a cloud. She wanted all of it. All of him. The strength, sensuality, and the danger.
She pulled away from his hands on her shoulders, able to see his look of disappointment before it was quickly masked behind his normally cold façade.
She also saw the fire ignite again in the dark depths of his eyes as, instead of leaving as he had expected her to, Becca reached down to grasp the bottom of her nightgown with both hands and slowly pull it up and then over her head before dropping it onto the carpeted floor.
She stood tall and proud, and completely naked, as she lifted her chin and met his gaze head-on.
His throat visibly moved as he swallowed before speaking. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Becca gave him a skeptical grimace. “You aren’t wearing your glasses.”
Lucan chuckled huskily. “I can see perfectly with my good eye, and through that, you’re so beautiful, you take my breath away.”
She gave him a tentative smile. “I’ve always thought my breasts are too large and totally out of proportion to the rest of me.”
Strong and slightly calloused hands cupped beneath the weight of those uptilting breasts tipped with deep-rose-colored nipples. “Maybe they were just made this way so they would fit perfectly into my hands.”
Her blush was one of pleasure. “That sounded almost romantic.”
“Only almost?” He g
ave a shake of his head. “Damn, I must be losing my touch.”
Becca eyed him ruefully. “I don’t believe for one moment that you’re a player.”
He sobered. “Because I’m not. What I say, I mean. You are very beautiful, Becca.”
“So are you,” she came back shyly.
His smile disappeared completely. “My scars—”
“Are part of what make you who and what you are,” she assured.
“Beautiful?” he echoed skeptically.
“To me, yes. Because you lived through and survived the torture in the same way I lived through and survived losing my whole family.”
He flinched. “Becca—”
“Lucan,” she came back dryly before giving an involuntary shiver. “Are we both just going to continue standing here stark naked and getting cold, or are you going to take me to bed so we can both be warm again?”
“When you put it like that…” Lucan stepped forward and easily lifted her into his arms. He laughed as she quickly looped her arms about his neck. “I won’t drop you,” he teased her as he carried her to the bed and gently laid her down on the bottom sheet.
He remained standing beside the bed, looking down at her from beneath hooded lids.
Becca stared right back, not speaking, totally overwhelmed by the fierce maleness of him. She longed to touch the smooth skin of his muscular shoulders and chest. To curl her fingers about the length of his cock, slowly pumping so that more pre-cum bubbled to the surface through that slit at the top. She wanted to lick that hardness from base to tip, before tasting and sucking down his creamy release.
“Are you really sure about this?” He still hesitated to join her.
Becca felt slightly self-conscious splayed out on the bed completely naked. But not enough to deter her from what she wanted. “Very sure.” She sat up so she could reach out and clasp his hand to pull him toward her. She kept pulling until they were both stretched out full length on the bed. She turned toward him, but no longer touched him. “Will you make love to me, Lucan?”
Lucan knew he should say no. That he ought to pick Becca up and return her to the bedroom across the hallway.
Except his self-control was shot, and the unvarnished truth was that he desperately wanted to make love to Becca. To claim her. To own her.
“Please,” she murmured achingly.
The last of Lucan’s control broke at the sound of that husky plea.
He moved so that he was lying between her parted thighs, his weight on his elbows as he claimed her mouth with his own.
She tasted delicious. Hot and sweet, with an underlying edge of sharpness. Much like the woman herself.
Lucan devoured that deliciousness for long and pleasurable minutes before running the tip of his tongue along and then between her plump lips to thrust into the inferno of heat of Becca’s mouth.
Lips claimed each other hungrily. Tongues dueled. Hands caressed and learned each and every contour of warm, aroused flesh.
“Yes!” Lucan groaned as Becca’s hand first cupped his balls and then stroked along the hard length of his cock. “More,” he groaned as he fell back onto the pillows at her side to look at her between narrowed lids. “More. Please.”
Becca only had those past two less-than-enjoyable experiences to guide her, but they were surely enough to tell her what she didn’t want. One thing she certainly didn’t want was for Lucan to leave the bed unsatisfied or disappointed because of her lack of experience.
The difference with Lucan was that she wanted to give him pleasure in any way she could. What she didn’t want was for Lucan to call a halt to this because he sensed her inexperience.
So she did what she had wanted to do since the moment she first saw him naked. Her palm curled about the base of his cock, her fingers barely able to meet about his girth. Her lashes lowered to rest against her cheeks as she lowered her head and took the bulbous and reddened top of Lucan’s cock into her mouth. She lick and sucked, swallowing down every drop of his pre-cum.
“So good,” Lucan gave a breathless groan, his back arching off the bed as his cock amazingly grew thicker and longer. His hands moved to grasp her shoulders, holding her in place as he began to thrust his hips up in sync with her sucking.
Becca was determined not to gag as Lucan’s cock hit the back of her throat, forcing the muscles there to relax so that he could thrust deeper still. She was able to feel that steel encased in velvet as it slid slickly past the muscles at the back of her mouth and down her throat. She breathed through her nose, able to hear the effect it was having on Lucan as he groaned and gasped while her throat allowed each deeper thrust until his cock was seated to the root, dark pubic hair tickling her nose.
She moved her other hand lower so that she could cup the tautness of his balls inside his sac, rolling and lightly squeezing them as he slowly slid his cock back. It allowed her to breathe for a second or two, before he thrust that heavily leaking cock back down her throat.
Lucan gasped. “Don’t stop. For God’s sake, don’t stop.” His hands moved to grasp her breasts, pulling and squeezing the sensitive nipples in the same rhythm as he thrust his cock down her throat.
Becca could feel the pressure building between the slickness of her thighs, her clit swollen and throbbing. She needed— She wanted—
The rhythm of her caressing and sucking Lucan’s cock faltered when Lucan released one of her breasts, and seconds later, she felt long fingers probing her wet folds before pressing against her aching clit.
“I’m going to come,” Lucan warned gruffly, the fingers of one hand pulling on her nipple and the other pressing and squeezing her clit. “Come with me, Becca!”
Whether it was the fact he used that affectionate name for her, or that the combined pleasure of his hands was just too much, Becca had no idea. All she was aware of was the hot spill of Lucan’s creamy release down her throat at the same time as her own climax exploded and reverberated through her whole body.
It was beyond wondrous. Beyond anything Becca had ever imagined or known before. Above and beyond anything she’d ever dreamed of.
She’d read and enjoyed romance novels in the past, but she’d always thought, from her own brief experience with a physical relationship, that the pleasure the hero and heroine found together had to be exaggerated.
If anything, those book had underplayed the pleasure of being with a man she—
What the hell!
A man she what?
Loved?
How could she possibly fall in love with a man she’d only known for a matter of hours and knew was still keeping secrets from her?
Because she was positive Lucan was doing that. Had sensed his hesitation and careful choice of words whenever she broached the subject of who had asked him to protect her.
“Becca…?”
She was careful to avoid Lucan’s probing gaze as she carefully released his cock before moving to lie down beside him.
Lucan moved up onto his elbow, his gaze searching. “What just happened?” he demanded.
“If you don’t know, I must have done it wrong?” Becca gave a husky and self-conscious chuckle. It was difficult for it not to be husky when she could still feel the length and thickness of Lucan’s cock down her throat and taste his release on her tongue.
“You did it exactly right. Perfect, in fact.” He studied her through those narrowed lids. “But you suddenly went quiet on me, became distant. Did I hurt you?” His fingers curled about her throat in a gentle caress.
Becca immediately felt the kick of arousal in response to that show of dominance. “No, you didn’t hurt me,” she reassured.
“Then why won’t you look at me?”
She gave a shaky laugh. “Am I not allowed to feel a little shy after we just enjoyed a sexual release together?”
“You’re allowed to feel anything you want, both before and after.” The intensity of his gaze remained fixed on her slightly swollen lips. “What you aren’t allowed to do is shut me ou
t.”
She glared up at him. “It was a first for me, okay? As a result, I’m feeling a…a little fragile.”
He frowned. “It’s the first time you’ve sucked a man’s cock?”
“Well, yes, definitely that,” she admitted uncomfortably. “But it’s also the first time I’ve… I’ve—”
“The first time you’ve climaxed?” Lucan stared at her incredulously.
Her glare deepened. “Is that so hard to believe?”
“Honestly? Very,” he confirmed. “How can that even be possible? You’re twenty-three, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well?”
She breathed out deeply through her nose. “I haven’t exactly led a traditional life,” she reminded. “My parents died when I was fifteen, and I had to move to another country, away from my sister and all my friends and everything that was familiar. I didn’t even have the chance to see my sister again before she also died a year later. I feel genuine affection for my foster parents, but I don’t let new people into my life. You—well, you didn’t give me any choice.” She shook her head. “This thing between the two of us isn’t normal for me.”
For Lucan either.
How could it be, when it was nothing like his usual hookups.
Until he left the army, the women he’d slept with—except he’d never actually spent the night with any of them, only had sex with them—had known he was only home on leave for a limited time. He rarely saw the same woman twice, and always made sure they knew it was a one-time thing only. That he wouldn’t be calling them again when he was next on leave. Maybe not the most romantic approach, but it was at least honest.
The last five years, even those few hours of physical release had been few and far between as he closed himself off more and more from any but the most essential social interactions. His family was the only exception, but even they knew not to push him or intrude too deeply on his need for solitude. The last time that happened, when they’d all decamped to the family cottage in Scotland for a nostalgic holiday together, Lucan had taken off within hours of their arrival and disappeared for three months.
Lucan (Steele Protectors 6) Page 7