by Tia Siren
“You need to get this drinking under control,” Toby said, gravely. “You’re going to kill yourself going this direction. You’re lucky your father’s friends are a bit too drunk themselves to notice this shit.”
“I know,” Luke said, and he opened his eyes to focus on Toby. “No more for the night. Just let me drink this water with Paige for a few minutes. I’ll be down there as soon as it gets better.”
Toby glanced over at Paige. “You okay with him here?”
“I’ll be fine,” Paige said, nodding. “Maybe we can figure out the endless drinking part.”
“Let me know what you find,” Toby replied, and he walked away to leave them alone in the hallway with the echo of their dinner guests’ chattering.
Swallowing another blast of icy water, Luke looked over at Paige with a surge of gratefulness. He reached out to gently clasp her hand in his own. Much to his relief, she didn’t pull away from his touch this time.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Who’d think someone like me is a prick?”
Her lips curved up at the sarcastic question. “You’re not if you don’t drink. You’re normal when you’re sober.”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been sober,” he said, snorting harshly. “It’s always been one hazy blur for me.”
“You can change that. It’s your life.”
“You’re always so positive,” he murmured with a shake of his head. “I got lucky when Shannon told me about you.”
Paige tensed. “I don’t want to talk about that, Luke. I’m still angry about all of it.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and he was. “It was fucked up. I know it was, but wouldn’t you agree that we both benefit from the situation now?”
“Benefit how?” Her eyes narrowed. “My life is complicated right now because I agreed to this. I changed my life to fit yours. And how is this benefiting you?”
Anger crashed over Luke as he returned her intense gaze. “It certainly isn’t because the only thing I’m getting out of you is a few damn kisses that drive me crazy. I’m going crazy.”
“Poor Luke,” she said, and stood up from the bench with an angry huff. “Someone is making you responsible for once. If you didn’t agree with my vows, then why did you ask me to do this?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Luke said, rising from the bench as well. Thankfully, the world didn’t sway beneath his feet. “You were my only option at the time. I didn’t know what exactly I wanted then.”
“And what the hell do you want now?” she snapped. “What do you want? You want your money? You want me? What is it that you want exactly?”
Chapter Nine
Paige
“What the hell do you want then? What do you want? You want your money? You want me? What is it that you want exactly?” Her words echoed in her head as silence surrounded them.
Luke stood motionlessly on the other side of the hallway while the party inside the dining room continued. She watched the conflict in his eyes before something else entirely covered them.
Desire. Lust. It made the cerulean color of his eyes go dark and stormy. It made him dangerous, and she instantly realized she was trapped. Run. What are you doing? RUN.
“I want you to stay,” he said, his voice a low husky timbre. He stalked toward her with casual grace. “I want to kiss you again, badly.”
Her heart pounded hard. Her back collided with one of the wooden pillars, and before she could slip away, Luke’s arms circled her, trapping her between him and the pillar. Her eyes widened in fright, but also from the desire she felt sparking inside her.
“I want to kiss you,” Luke repeated, one hand reaching out to cup her jaw in his hand. “I just want to feel you underneath me, squirming in pleasure. That’s what I want right now.”
“Th-that wasn’t what we agreed upon with your lawyer,” Paige said, her voice wobbly from his proximity. He smelled fresh too, like he had just jogged through the cool air outside. “Remember? We agreed that there wouldn’t be any physical contact unless—”
“Fuck that contract. I’m going to kiss you, Paige, and I know you want to kiss me too.”
His lips crushed against hers. This kiss wasn’t like the one they had exchanged that day in the garden. It wasn’t a brush, a peck on the lips. Luke kissed her greedily and coaxed her lips open to sweep his tongue into her mouth. The taste of him overwhelmed every bit of her senses as his hands smoothed down the sides of her body to grip her hips.
And Paige responded to the passion sparking inside her. Wrapping her arms around those broad shoulders, she kissed him just as fervently, letting out her pent-up frustration and tension. She poured herself into that kiss and took the opportunity to feel the strong muscles coiled under the fabric of his shirt.
A low groan rumbled in Luke’s chest as he tore his lips away to trail down the column of Paige’s neck. She tilted her out of instinct, giving him better access while letting out a shaky moan.
It wasn’t until Luke’s hand slid up the front of her torso to cup her right breast that Paige felt alarm shoot through her. What am I doing? She yanked herself out of Luke’s strong grasp to stumble away into the cold air of the hallway.
Luke shook his head as frustration filled his eyes. “Paige—”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I-I-I can’t do this. I have to go.”
“You can’t go,” Luke said, the picture of calm. “Look outside, dear. There’s snow coming down. My drivers have been drinking as well. You are stuck here with me whether you like it or not.”
She glanced out the window with a sinking realization that Luke was right. It was snowing heavily, the first snow of the season, and no one was sober enough to drive her far into the night. She was utterly stuck with the one person who could undo her within a matter of seconds. And judging from his calculating expression, Luke had every intention of figuring out how to get her into his bed.
Eventually.
“Leave me alone,” Paige said, taking a step back. “I mean it, Luke. Leave me alone.”
“You’re in my lodge,” he said, shaking his head at her. “You are not in control here.”
He reached for her again, but this time Paige slipped away. She walked unsteadily down the hallway in the direction of her suite, Luke’s eyes threatening to burn holes in her back. Slamming the door shut, Paige sank back against it with a shaky sigh.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered to herself. “I can’t do it. All of this is too much.”
She needed to get out while she could. Damn the consequences, or how furious Luke would be for losing his inheritance.
There wasn’t any cell service when Paige pulled out her phone from her purse. The snowstorm had effectively knocked out the cell towers, apparently. She moved through the front sitting room and to the joined bedroom, where she sat down on the edge of her bed to reach for the landline phone on the nightstand. It rang, much to Paige’s relief, after she dialed her parents’ house number.
It went to voice mail a few seconds later.
“It’s me,” Paige said shakily. “Can you guys give me a call back at this number? I need your help with something.”
Hanging the phone back up, she started the process of unbuttoning her blouse to get ready for bed. There was no chance in hell she would be returning to that dinner party to appease Luke or anyone else there. She was exhausted from trying to fight and pretend that the entire thing wasn’t getting to her head.
The door to her room opened abruptly. Paige’s fingers stalled in sheer surprise when she saw Luke walk in without pause. “Excuse me! I’m getting undressed here. Get—”
“Would you like me to help you with that?” Luke asked dryly. He shut the door behind him and then locked it.
That click made Paige’s heart pound furiously in her chest. She rebuttoned the two buttons and pointed a finger at him.
“Leave,” she said. “Get out, now.”
“No,” Luke said, and took a step toward her wi
th narrowed eyes. “I’m tired of fighting this attraction, Paige. I’m damn tired of fighting against it.”
“Fighting against what?”
She took a step back when he took another step toward her. Pivoting on her heel, Paige backed away from the side of the bed to the leather couch that sat directly in front of the fireplace. A fire still smoldered there from earlier. The heat of it touched the back of her bare legs.
“I’m tired of fighting against the attraction I feel for you,” he said, a notable tremble to his voice. “Do you have any idea how hard this is for me?”
“What? Keeping it in your pants?”
He stopped walking. “It’s not a crime to be attracted to someone. I don’t know why you talk about it that way. Did something happen to you?”
“I have my reasons,” she said flatly. “Don’t push it, Luke. This wasn’t in the criteria of information you needed to know.”
Paige turned away from him, which proved a fatal mistake. Strong hands touched her shoulders then, but it wasn’t a sexual touch. It was a consoling and concerned touch that unarmed her immediately.
“Hey,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was such a sensitive thing for you.”
“You have no idea,” she whispered back, her eyes fluttering shut. “Please, Luke. Just let me be and go away.”
“I’m not going to leave until you tell me why you feel the way you do.”
“You don’t need to know any of this information,” she said, shrugging out from beneath his hands. “Why do you care?”
“Because I—”
He stopped before he could say the last part of that sentence. Paige opened her eyes as she turned around to look at him. Standing there in front of the fire, she watched an inner conflict wage a war in Luke’s eyes. Because I care. She could read that sentiment loud and clear, even if he looked uncomfortable letting it show.
Running a hand through her hair, she debated whether she wanted to hash out what had happened with Marcus a few years ago. She had already had a few glasses of wine, and she didn’t want to become a blubbering mess over something that had happened four years ago when she’d been a teenager and an idiot.
“Here,” Luke said, and he sat down on the edge of the couch. “Come sit down and just tell me what the issue is.” He smiled thinly. “Spare us both the fight, Paige. Whatever it is that is bothering you needs to be said.”
He patted the leather cushion next to him. Paige lowered herself onto the couch while she twisted her hands nervously in her lap.
“I honestly don’t know where to begin,” she said.
“The beginning is a good start,” Luke said, shrugging his shoulders. “Just a suggestion. Start wherever you want.”
“It was just a prank when I was sixteen that I can’t shake.” She trailed a hand over the cool leather to avoid Luke’s eyes. “It’s stupid. It was four years ago, but I was sixteen when the football star of my high school took up an interest me. I thought it was a dream come true, because no one had ever paid attention to me.” She swallowed thickly as that painful humiliation crashed over her again. “We had a class together, so we were spending tons of time together working on a project. We hung out behind my parents’ back quite a bit because they didn’t approve of me dating until eighteen. I knew something wasn’t right, but I kept hanging around him because it felt good to be wanted. Well, it was prom night when he asked me to go outside with him to his Jeep.”
Luke’s hand reached for hers. Their fingers interlaced, and it provided a nice distraction from the swell of emotions in her. She concentrated on the feeling of Luke’s calloused fingers twined through hers as she continued. “We started to mess around in the back seat. I kept thinking we should stop, but I didn’t want to risk losing him. It was so painfully awkward too.” Her nose wrinkled at the memory of Marcus’s hands fumbling at her. “We didn’t go all the way, but what he did do hurt, and he wouldn’t stop when I asked him to. That’s when the cops rolled up to find us in the back seat, but I also found out that his ex-girlfriend had been filming the entire thing. She posted it on the Internet out of revenge, so it’s followed me every single day of my life.”
“What a bitch,” Luke said, shaking his head. “People do fucked-up things out of revenge. I know how it feels to have something recorded that you wish wasn’t.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You do?”
“It was years ago,” he said, nodding. “I had too much to drink and left the bar with this woman I barely knew. I know, a real shocker.” Paige straightened her face with an apologetic grimace. “We ended up having sex in the elevator, but neither one of us realized there was a camera there. It recorded us the entire time until we go out. An employee posted it to TMZ, and then reporters started following me around after that.”
“It’s humiliating,” Paige mumbled, wiping at the tears that were stinging her eyes. “It follows you everywhere too.”
“I know. I’m sorry that happened to you. It shouldn’t have happened to you. You don’t deserve that type of shit.”
She shrugged while trying to fight back emotions. The past two weeks filtered through her along with the already conflicted feelings she had for Luke. Everything felt like a confusing blur as Luke pulled her sideways into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her while they sat together in silence, watching the fire smolder in the fireplace.
Despite the warning bells still in her head, Paige let herself sink into the strength of Luke’s body as he pressed his lips into her neck. He then kissed his way up to press a gentle kiss to the corner of her lips, and it prompted her to turn to face him.
Their lips met in a slow and heated kiss, their tongues tangling. They stayed like that for a long time with the dying fire glowing in the fireplace. Luke’s hands start to trail up her legs in a northerly direction, and those couple glasses of wine suddenly felt too much.
Paige’s heart repeatedly slammed into her ribcage. She felt every inch of Luke’s calloused fingers as they ran up the curves of her legs and gripped in all right places to make her squirm in pleasure. When he reached for the hemline of her skirt, Paige shot a hand down to grab his strong wrist before it could continue upward, despite the ache between her legs that begged her to let him touch her.
“Luke,” she warned, her voice hitched with desire. “We have to stop before—”
“Before what?” Luke asked. His eyes were dark with desire, a cloudy and violent storm lingering over the ocean on a hot summer day. She sweltered under the intensity of it. “What is it that you want?”
Those sinful fingers reached up to inch their way past the hemline of her skirt. Her fingers tightened around Luke’s wrist while indecision washed over her. He had to make it so incredibly hard—sticking to what she had promised herself years ago in high school.
“You’re an adult, Paige,” he said smoothly. “Heaven is not going to crack open and smite you down despite what your family has told you.”
“I never said it was because of that,” Paige said, a bit defensively. “I just—” Those fingers crept up even farther until they rested on her upper thighs. She bit her lip to keep herself as motionless as possible. He was teasing her, pushing her limits.
Her eyes fluttered closed when his hand drifted up further to sensually trace the lace of her underwear. One touch wouldn’t be so bad. It’s only one touch.
Luke let out a soft groan before leaning forward to press his lips against her neck. He teased the skin there, nipping softly and then trailing down to the crook of her shoulder. It was damn impossible not to feel the heat that wanted to consume her. Every little touch, every kiss, all of it, she wanted it. She couldn’t resist a man like him easily. He knew his way around a woman’s body even if she didn’t know what she wanted.
His index finger dipped down beneath the elastic band of her underwear. Paige’s eyes widened in shock when she felt that finger move farther.
“Luke—”
“Shh,” Luke murmured ag
ainst her neck. He shifted her easily onto his lap so that she sat sideways. It put her left thigh in contact with a hard and throbbing bulge in his pants. “Just relax, Paige. Just enjoy this.”
His words were honeyed. They floated over her in a soothing wave that calmed the ebb of nerves in her. No one had ever touched her like this before. She had only ever experienced fumbling around in the back of Marcus’s car a few years ago.
There was no fumbling when it came to Luke’s fingers. One strong arm curled around the back of her waist to steady her. The fabric of her skirt hitched up her thighs. Her fingers were still tight around Luke’s wrist as that finger inched closer and closer until it made contact with the center of her.
The intensity of that brush of his finger against her nerves and core crippled her. A gasp escaped her lips. That flicker of heat and pleasure filled her rapidly. She dimly felt Luke growl into her neck before that finger was replaced with even more. His hand moved against her mound expertly, teasing her in a sensual rhythm that she was utterly powerless against.
Luke’s lips pressed up against hers in a fluttering series of kisses to let her gasp and moan at the sensations spiraling through her body. She could feel the heat radiating off Luke as well while his hips ground up against her thigh with eagerness.
“You feel so good,” Luke whispered hotly against her mouth. A finger dipped into her. “You’re so tight. I don’t even know how the fuck I’m going to last in you.”
“I-I—” Words were lost to her. She couldn’t even formulate a coherent thought with the feel of Luke’s fingers pressing against her intimately.
He increased his rhythm then until her hips were twitching with pleasure. Sweat poured down the back of Paige’s neck as something delicious built up inside her. It caused her hips to twitch upward while an abrupt cry escaped her lips. She was dashing blindly toward what felt like a sweet orgasm.
Her back made contact with the cool leather, but Luke’s fingers didn’t stop. Instead, he knelt between her bent knees while pushing her skirt all the way up. His eyes flicked over the exposed skin hungrily, and if it weren’t for that hot feeling coursing through her, she would’ve flushed with embarrassment.