Before Heather could say anything else, Jane turned and left the rest room, not sure where she would go but dreading having to go back into the reserved dining room and finish having dinner with so many people she didn’t want to see.
But where else could she go? It would be too obvious to just disappear from the rehearsal dinner when she was one of the wedding party. She could say she’d gotten sick, which was true, but then someone might insist on driving her home.
Her stomach clenching, she entered the restaurant dining room again and immediately spotted Luke sitting alone, sipping a glass of water. Some small part of her reached out to him, wanted to run into his arms, but she stood still, unsure. Then he turned and read the emotions on her face like the oddly perceptive male that he was, and without hesitation he stood and went to her.
“What’s wrong?”
Jane bit her lip, imagining how foolish she would sound if she admitted she’d just discovered the guy she’d been mooning over since college doing the wild thing with her sister. And then the truth of it hit her all over again. She willed herself not to gag.
Luke grasped her shoulders and pulled her to him, then encircled her with his arms. She rested her face against the solid wall of his chest and tried to compose herself enough to make it out of the room without calling attention to herself.
“Let’s go outside,” she whispered.
He guided her out the door, through the main restaurant, and into the parking lot, led her to his car and helped her into the passenger seat, then went to the driver’s side and got in himself.
“I don’t guess we could skip out early without invoking everyone’s wrath,” he said, and Jane laughed in spite of herself.
“Let’s just run away and blow off the whole wedding.” She found a tissue in her purse and began dabbing at her eyes, hoping to escape looking like a raccoon. “It shouldn’t be happening anyway.”
“Why not?”
Jane stared out the window for a moment, unsure of how much she could tell him. But she knew Luke, knew he could be trusted, knew that if she were going to tell anyone a secret, he’d be the best person to choose.
“I caught my sister and Bradley in the rest room having sex.”
“Your sister? Which one?”
“Heather.”
He stared at her hard, as if waiting for her to take back the accusation.
“Seriously. I’m not making this up.”
“I didn’t think you were. But what about Michael? What about the wedding?”
“I guess it’s still going to go on, unless Michael somehow finds out.”
“Somehow? We have to tell him.”
Jane flashed him a look of warning. “No, we don’t.”
“What the hell are you saying? That you’re willing to protect your sister’s adultery?”
Jane shook her head, too confused to know anything for sure. “No, it’s not about that. I don’t think it’s our place to say anything. That’s something Heather has to tell him herself.”
“They’re about to get married tomorrow!”
“I know, but maybe we should stay out of it. They love each other, they make each other happy—and what if we ruin that? Heather’s betrayal is something she has to deal with, and it’s something they’ll have to work through on their own.”
“Is that what you’d tell people in a book or your column?” he asked, sounding more bitter than curious.
“I honestly don’t know what I’d say. I’m just too freaked out right now to think clearly. I need a little time.”
“Okay, so we’ve got until tomorrow morning to decide what to do.”
She let her head fall back against the headrest and closed her eyes. “Deal.”
“I mean it, Jane, we find a solution we’re both happy with, or I’ll go straight to Michael with this information regardless of what you say.”
Jane squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “Okay.”
“Are you ready to go back in?”
“No!” Jane said too harshly, then softened her tone. “I just need a few more minutes.”
“So, Heather didn’t know how you felt about Brad?”
She winced, wishing they could have avoided any talk of Bradley Stone. “She did, I think.”
“He’s an even bigger jerk-off than I thought he was.”
“Go ahead, point out that you were right about him and I was wrong.”
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“But you were thinking it.”
“No, I was thinking that I wish you hadn’t gotten hurt.”
“Well, you were right, and I was wrong. You win.”
“Jane, it’s not a competition.” He reached across the cab and took her hand in his.
But he had known Brad was a jerk, and she hadn’t. She’d been a fool—a fool who dished out relationship advice for a living. So that made her a charlatan too.
Jane recalled the night at the wedding shower, when she’d been so sure Bradley had looked at her with interest in his eyes. If there had been any interest, she understood now, it had been purely based on whatever he thought might have gone on between Jane and Luke in the bathroom, not any real attraction to her. Maybe he’d just been wondering if she put out for any guy who wanted some action.
“Thanks for trying to warn me about him, anyway.”
“Any time.”
It struck Jane then how attentive Luke was, how attuned to her emotions. He’d comforted her without hesitation, in spite of the way she’d treated him, and he’d known just what she needed and when.
She took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, I’m ready to go back in, but could you do me a favor and stick close by? I don’t think I can handle dealing with much small talk tonight.”
“No problem. I’ll just tell everyone you need to get laid.”
“Ha ha.”
He was only joking, but Jane realized the truth of it—she could think of nothing she’d rather do than spend one last night with Luke, forgetting all her cares in his arms.
“Will you come home with me tonight after dinner?” she blurted before she could talk herself out of it.
Luke stared at her for a few moments before speaking. “You’re inviting me to bed?”
She blushed and stared out the window. Finally she looked back over at him to find his expression neutral. “Just for tonight, for old times’ sake?”
He looked out at the parking lot, and in the silence, Jane’s nausea returned. He had every right to say no, but she’d be crushed if he did.
“Okay,” he finally said. “I’ll come home with you tonight.”
13
Sex should be the physical evidence of love that exists between two people, not a pop quiz that determines whether you’ll go on a second date with him.
—Jane Langston, from Chapter Eight of The Sex Factor
IT TOOK ALL of Luke’s willpower not to tell Michael the truth or escort Brad out of the building and beat him senseless in the parking lot. He held it all in only because he’d told Jane he would do so, at least until morning.
By the time they made it back into the restaurant, Heather had told everyone she’d heard Jane getting sick in the rest room, and that she wasn’t feeling well. It turned out to be the perfect lie for the occasion, causing everyone to leave Jane alone, and allowing her to slip out of the rehearsal dinner early. Luke begged off attending the bachelor party, claiming he wanted to follow Jane home and make sure she got settled in okay.
So what if everyone mistook him for the doting boyfriend? Under different circumstances, that’s what he might have been. He didn’t entertain any more illusions that Jane would ever want a relationship with him, but at least he’d given it his best try. And tonight, for whatever it was worth, had the feel of an ending—a long, drawn-out goodbye. She was inviting him to bed one last time, and he was powerless to turn her down.
As he followed her back to her place, he steeled himself for the inevitable and vowed to put any goodbyes out of
his head until tomorrow. He tried not to worry about Jane’s physical safety, resistant as she was to any more of his professional help. He’d done as much as he could in the past month, anyway. Regardless of the fact that she’d relieved him of his duties as her bodyguard, he’d still conducted random surveillance of her house, without ever seeing anything suspicious. And he’d checked up on her as discreetly as he could to make sure she was okay.
The past month apart from Jane had been a long, slow form of torture. He’d forced himself not to call or make any kind of direct contact with her. After the way she’d said goodbye to him, as if they had nothing more than a business relationship, he could only wait and see if she came to her senses. Obviously, she hadn’t, but he had one last night to show her why they were meant to be together.
Tonight, he wanted to think only about the two of them, and like Pavlov’s dogs, his body responded instantly to the pleasures that awaited when he imagined a night in Jane’s bed…or on her floor, or in her bathtub.
When they pulled into her driveway, Luke parked behind Jane, and his pulse began to race. By the time they were at her front door, his entire body pulsed with anticipation. Jane said nothing as she let him into the house and closed the door behind them.
They stood in the darkness, and Luke understood by the way she made no move to turn on the lights that she didn’t intend to waste any time with small talk. Her face, illuminated by the porch light outside the foyer window, was a calm mask hiding what he suspected was a torrent of emotions.
He had no intention of just doing a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am. There were things that needed to be said. If she wanted to say goodbye, she needed to understand what she’d be leaving behind—what she’d be missing out on.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“Yes. Are you?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t sure.”
She lifted up her dress and tugged it over her head, then let it drop to the floor. Luke watched, mesmerized, as she removed her bra, then her heels and panty hose, and finally her panties. She stood before him naked, as tempting as ever.
He reached out to touch her, but she dodged his hand.
“No, no,” she chided. “Tonight, I call the shots. You’re not my bodyguard anymore, so I don’t have to do as you say.”
A little smile betrayed her act, but Luke was more than willing to play along.
“Hmm, I do whatever you say?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re not going to tell me to do anything scandalous, are you?”
“I’m afraid so. Will that be a problem?”
Luke pretended to give the question some thought. “I think I can deal with scandalous.”
“Good, then come with me to the kitchen.”
“The kitchen?”
“I’m hungry. I was too upset to eat at the restaurant.”
Following her, he admired the curvy shadow of her figure in the darkness and imagined what they might do once Jane had gotten one of her appetites sated. He had some ideas—him, her, the kitchen table, a few well-placed squirts of whipped cream…
“Babe, you could have done some of this nude snacking while I lived here, you know. I wouldn’t have complained.”
“I’ll bet.”
She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a cheesecake. “Want a piece?”
“Mm-hmm, but not of the cheesecake.”
When she turned to the counter and the light from the refrigerator illuminated her profile—the sweet curve of her ass, the lush slope of her breasts, the erect nipples that were an invitation to his mouth—he had to grip the table and will himself not to take her on the counter right then and there. He watched as she put a piece of the cake on a plate and then switched on the light over the stove, which cast a soft, warm glow on the kitchen, just enough so that Luke could see the luscious details of her body, the dessert she was making him wait for.
She brought her plate to the table and sat down, but Luke was too mesmerized by the sway of her breasts to be tempted by cheesecake. She cut a bite with her fork and offered it to him.
“No, thanks. I’m saving my appetite.”
“There aren’t many things I love more than cheesecake,” she said, then took a bite, letting the fork slip between her lips on the way out in a motion so slow and seductive it made him think of her mouth on his cock.
That was what she’d intended, of course, and he was playing right into her hands.
“I bet I can name the things you love more than cheesecake.”
She raised an eyebrow at him as she took another bite. “Go ahead and try.”
Luke hesitated for only a moment, wondering what she’d make of the fact that he knew her so well, that he’d paid such close attention to her in the two weeks they’d lived together. “Dark chocolate, the imported stuff. Perfect, ripe peaches. Coffee, which you like to drink with whole milk. Chicago-style pizza with pepperoni. Key Lime pie.”
“You’ve done your homework.”
“And those are just in the food category. I could keep going.”
“Please do.” She smiled, clearly enjoying the game.
“Okay… You love the scent of freshly cut grass. The feel of humidity on a warm night. Bathwater just short of scalding hot.”
She ate the cheesecake slowly as she listened to him. What Luke understood about her that he suspected she didn’t understand about herself was that Jane was a profoundly sensual woman.
All her written advice about restraint and the negative impact of sex were evidence of her denial. She didn’t understand how essential sensual experiences were to her happiness. And in the past two months, Luke had unlocked that side of her in bed, unleashed the wild lover inside of her that had needed for years to escape.
No, she may not have understood it, but he hoped that tonight, if he accomplished nothing else, he could show Jane her sensual nature.
“And when it comes to more physical pleasures…”
“You have a list of my bedroom preferences?”
“A mental one. There usually isn’t time to take notes.”
She finished the last bite of her dessert and pushed the plate aside. “I’ve always suspected cheesecake is a dish best eaten naked.”
“Is it?”
“Maybe if we’d been sharing it, and you’d been naked, too.” She stood up and came to him, placing her hands on his shoulders.
When she straddled his lap, her breasts were nearly at mouth level, and Luke was reminded of the dessert he’d been longing for all evening. But he’d agreed to play by her rules tonight. That didn’t mean he couldn’t gain the advantage.
“You love to be kissed, long and slow, and especially on the neck.”
Jane smiled. “What else?”
“You love when I bite your nipples. When I run my fingertips along your skin lightly, with a feather touch. When I bring you just to the edge of climax, and then pull back and make you wait a little longer. And you love when I quiet your moans with kisses.”
“Is that all?”
“That’s just the PG-rated list.”
She dipped her head down and kissed him, a slow, exploring kiss—a promise of more to come. “I want to hear the adults-only version.”
“I’ll need to do some demonstrations for that list.”
“Aw, come on, quit with the shy act. You’re not afraid to talk dirty to me, are you?”
He grasped her hips and pulled her closer until his rock-hard erection pressed into her crotch. “If I start talking dirty, I’m gonna have to start acting dirty, too.”
“Oh yeah?” The wicked smile she flashed made it clear that’s exactly what she wanted.
He rocked his hips against her, and she closed her eyes and let out a little gasp.
When he stilled, she shook her finger at him. “No fair, unauthorized hip thrusting.”
“See what I mean? My self-control is slipping.” He mentally forced his hands to remain still on her hips, not to
explore even more tempting territory.
“Guess I’ll have to speed things along a bit then, hmm?”
“I don’t need speed so much as I need…stimulation.”
Jane loosened his tie, then pulled it off and flung it aside. After she unbuttoned his shirt, she moved to his belt. Then the button and zipper on his pants.
Her fingertips brushed the ridge of his erection, and Luke’s heart rate went up.
“How about I tell you what you like.”
“Babe, I like it when you breathe in my direction. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what guys want.”
“Maybe not, but it does take a little extra attention to notice what really presses your buttons.”
In spite of himself, Luke felt flattered that she’d paid attention, too, that she might know his desires, as well as he knew hers.
“Okay. I’m listening.”
“You’ll need to take those clothes off.”
“To listen?” he asked, but he was already setting her on her feet. Then he was up and tugging off his shirt, kicking off his shoes, stepping out of his pants and briefs.
“I’ll be doing a hands-on demonstration, if you must know.”
He stood before her completely naked, his cock straining toward her like a racehorse ready to burst from the gate. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Sit back down.”
He did as she commanded, she knelt on the floor, between his legs. Her gaze remained locked with his as she slid her hands up his inner thighs, stopping just before ground zero.
“You love it when I tease you,” she said. “When I come this close to touching you where you want to be touched, and then make you wait.”
He did love it. And that was exactly what she did. Her fingers lingering on his thighs, she tickled and massaged, dancing around where he really wanted to feel her touch.
Then she moved closer. She slid her fingers through his pubic hair, down along the edge of his scrotum to the base of it, where she began to massage lightly. Luke’s breath caught in his throat.
And when she dragged her fingernails lightly over his balls, he moaned deep in his throat, sat back in the chair, settled in for a nice long wait. Judging by her slow, deliberate seduction, she had no intention of rushing things along the way his little head would have tried to do, had he been in charge. Luke closed his eyes and focused all his attention on her touch.
What A Girl Wants (Harlequin Blaze) Page 19