Lucky Devil

by Cat Miller

  He ran a single finger slowly down Everly’s cheek, causing a chill to race over her skin.

  “It’s you, Everly. There’s something about you I can’t fucking resist. I don’t even want to anymore. I sent Cammie away because I knew I couldn’t sleep with her when all I could think about was you. Then when I saw you, here in the corridor.” He looked to where she’d been standing when he caught her gawking at him and Cammie as they made out in the hall. “I knew it wasn’t just me in then. The look on your face.” He cupped her cheek with his big hand. “I hurt you. I saw real betrayal in your pretty eyes. If you didn’t feel this pull as strongly as I do, you wouldn’t have reacted with tears of hurt and shame.”

  “I, well, I guess I thought we were working on something real. You know, something more than just a slave and her owner for a month. So, yeah, it hurt to see you like that with someone else.” No sense in denying the truth he’d clearly read on her face.

  “I sent Cammie away as soon as I shut the door on you. Believe it or not, we’ve been friends for a long time. I explained my situation and she left. When Dolce called Rourke, I was with him and Jennifer in the Capone room. I came to your door first, but you were already gone. So I went to have a few drinks while I tried to figure out how to ask for something I’ve never once felt like I needed.”

  He took her hand and brought it up to his lips. He placed a tender kiss on the knuckles. Then he met her eyes as he turned her hand over and placed a kiss in the center of her palm where a blister had formed from her hanging from a pole for several agonizing minutes.

  “Forgiveness. I’ve never wanted for it. Never gave a shit if I hurt someone else. But I need your forgiveness. I fucked up. I’m sorry. We only have a week left. Can you forgive me now so we can enjoy the rest of our time together?”

  Disappointment flooded her heart. For just a moment, Everly had believed that Luc was inviting her into his life for real. She wanted it so badly, but Luc didn’t. He was only talking about the next week. She wanted forever.

  “I don’t know, Luc. I think it’s time for me to go home.” She looked away, trying to come up with a feasible lie that didn’t make her sound like a silly girl mooning over the man she couldn’t have. “I think my run in with Archie and his friends tonight says it all. I need to get out of dodge. Clearly my father has more debt than Mills and I realized.”

  “No one will bother you tonight. I’m going to deal with Archie tomorrow as well. He won’t be bothering you ever again. I can promise you that, Everly. Come inside with me. I want to have a look at your leg and that bruise spreading on your face. Your hands also need some attention.”

  He maintained a gentle grip on her hand being careful not to squeeze the injured appendage. He tugged her back to his door. “I’ll find you something comfortable to put on and you get some rest. The rest can be sorted out in the morning.”

  She should say no and storm off. He’d hurt her. Badly. But what good would it do her to leave now. She was going to go to her own suite and try to get some sleep. She’d pack and leave in the morning. The question was, would she actually get any sleep before she had to make the long drive to Colorado? Probably not. She’d be imagining every little noise she heard was Archie coming to claim repayment in the worst way possible.

  “Alright. I’m tired and sore. I could use some sleep,” she relented.

  Luc tried not to look triumphant when he opened his door and pulled her inside, but she saw the small smile on his lips.

  He moved her past the austere living room and down the hall to a giant bathroom. It was even more spa-like than the bathroom in her suite. Luc’s guest bath was a multicolored stone masterpiece from floor to ceiling. The shower didn’t have a door. You had to walk around the corner to get to the massive, private bathing area with four shower heads. There was also a sunken tub that would fit several people.

  “Get a quick shower while I find you something to put on and order a couple ice packs. I’ll see if Dr. Russell has anything for those bruises.” He quietly exited the bathroom.

  Everly was a little dazed. So much had happened in the last few hours. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and cringed. No wonder he told her to shower. Her messy up-do was no more. Curls stuck out at odd angles all over her head. Her dress was ruined. There were a few rips. Both she and the dress bore dirty patches from her struggles with Tony, the manhandling thug. She stripped out of her ruined clothes and figured out the electronic shower system on her own.

  She felt so much better after the shower. The hot water had eased away some of her aches, and it was good to feel clean. Somehow, washing after those awful men had touched her was important. Not to mention, she’d gotten pretty sweaty and rolled on the floor more than once. Yuck.

  When she left the shower, there was a pair of men’s boxers and a white men’s undershirt on the padded bench seat in the corner. Everly pulled them on and brushed out her long hair with a brush she found in a drawer. There was an unopened hotel toothbrush waiting for her on the sink. Once all of that was done she felt nearly human again.

  Luc knocked on the bathroom door.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure.” She felt suddenly shy. He hadn’t wanted her in his suite before, so she really felt she was imposing.

  The door opened, and Luc bustled in with an armload of supplies. He set everything on the counter and looked her over from head to toe. If she wasn’t mistaken, there had been a little growl. What was it with men when they saw a woman in their clothes? Some men seemed to like it. He was looking at her in the oversized shirt and baggy shorts as if she were in a sexy nighty.

  “You look much more comfortable, baby. Come here and let me tend to you.” He gripped her waist and set her on the counter so he could get a good look at her various bumps and bruises.

  Everly watched while Luc carefully rubbed ointment into the bruise on her knee. He put the same ointment on her face where Tony had hit her and knocked her out. Then he used something different on her tender palms. He wrapped both hands in white gauze and taped it into place.

  Being this close to Luc while he treated her with tender care would make her forget this was only for one more week. She wasn’t sure she could stay another week. The more time she spent with Luc, the more leaving was going to hurt.

  “Stay there, please. I forgot something.” He kissed her mouth lightly and hurried away.

  Everly listened to him move around the kitchen and hurry back down the hall. He held out two pills and a glass of ice water.

  “Dr. Russell suggested you take something for the pain and inflammation. He wants to see you tomorrow so he can be sure those palms aren’t getting infected.”

  “Okay. Thank you.” She took the pills and swallowed them down.

  Luc took the bottle of water and set it on the counter. Then he stepped between her legs, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tight to his chest. He just held her there while he breathed deeply and trembled a little.

  “I’ve never been so afraid in my life. I walked in, and you were dangling from the fucking ceiling,” he said against her damp hair.

  It hadn’t actually been the ceiling, but she knew what he meant. It had frightened her so badly that she was frozen with it.

  “They dragged you over the rail and I didn’t know what they were doing to you. There was so much blood on the stairs.

  “I was so out of my mind with worry and rage that Rourke had to restrain me. I almost ran in there unarmed and unprepared. I just wanted you back. I needed to get to you. Then when we found you were unconscious and hanging there in that motherfucker’s arms. I swear I roared I was so enraged.”

  Luc kissed the side of her head and squeezed her tighter.

  It must have been Luc she heard snarling as she passed out. She’d thought it was a wild animal. Everly wrapped her arms around Luc and stroked his back. He was really shaken.

  Luc brushed a fingertip over her eyebrow and examined her bruised face. He brushed his lips
over the bruised area. Then, he kissed her chin. Her eyelids. Her nose. Her forehead. She felt very cherished in his arms. Then Luc placed a kiss on each corner of her mouth. She parted her lips and breathed in his air.

  Luc took that as an invitation, and maybe it was. He took her mouth in a ravenous kiss that made her head spin. She was instantly drunk on the taste and scent of him. He thought she had a hold over him? It was quite the opposite. She couldn’t say no to him even after he hurt her so deeply.

  This was bad, bad, bad, but Everly was feeling like bad might be the new good. Why couldn’t she have just one more night with Luc? Would it make leaving tomorrow harder? It surely would, but she was already screwed. She wasn’t going to love him any less by morning.

  * * *

  Luc scooped Everly up off the counter and carried her into the hall. He was going to go to his room, but changed his mind. He didn’t like the idea of Everly in the same bed where so many other women had been. And wasn’t that telling?

  He took her into the spare bedroom and laid her in the center of the bed before he crawled over her and pressed his body to hers. He wanted to feel every inch of her petite frame under him. He was careful not to bang her injured knee.

  Everly accepted his weight, spreading her shapely legs to cradle his body with her own. He kissed her without any of the finesse or skill he was known to have with ladies. He was swept up in the emotional aftermath of nearly losing Everly, first to his own stupidity, and then to Archie. Everly allowed him to have his way. She seemed too stunned to respond at first. That wasn’t good enough.

  Luc needed Everly as hot as he was for her. As long as she was an eager and willing participant, he didn’t feel like a monster with a captive. He would never force her or any woman. She could leave at any time, and judging by her words not long ago in the corridor, she knew it.

  He cupped the back of her head and kissed her more deeply, claiming all the sweetness that was her mouth. He swiveled his hips, slowing, rubbing his cover shaft against the heat between her thighs. He needed her moaning into his mouth and ripping at his clothes the way she had before.

  Finally, she was an active participant. She kissed him back. When she sucked on his tongue, he knew her passion was catching up to his.

  Yes! That’s what he needed. The press of her hands and the scrape of her nails told him she wanted him physically in spite of the fact that he’d truly fucked up with her, but she was somehow far more distant than she’d ever been before.

  Luc wasted no time stripping and tugging Everly free of the shorts and shirt he’d loaned her. He was desperate to bury himself in all that slick heat. He couldn’t wait. He had to have her.

  Luc entered her slowly and began the steady, sliding rhythm he knew would offer her the most pleasure. Everly lifted to meet him stroke for stroke. She egged him on with the sweet purring noise she made as she grew closer and closer to climax.

  Luc wasn’t going to make her climax until she needed it as much as he needed to give it to her.

  * * *

  Everly wrapped her legs around Luc’s waist and crossed her ankles so she could drive her heels into his ass. He’d been fucking her at a delicious, maddening pace. She was close to coming. She panted and begged Luc for the orgasm she desperately needed. He groaned with approval.

  Luc changed his angle of penetration just slightly, lifting her legs higher up his body. Every thrust and withdrawal of that impressive cock massaged her in just the right way. Then, he let her have it. His stride quickened. Doubled.

  Everly was reaching for the release that built and built inside of her. Tension spread from her belly to every limb. She dragged her teeth over the sensitive skin under Luc’s ear. Like a wild thing, she pulled his hair and moved into his strokes. She burned for the pleasure he could give her.

  Luc liked her loss of control. He groaned and urged her to take what she wanted and give him what he needed. His movements became erratic. He ground his pelvis down against hers, and the added pressure on her clit was just the spark she needed.

  She didn’t think either of them was prepared for the magnitude of the climax that shook them both to their foundation. It struck hard and searing. The heat of it spread over her in waves.

  Everly’s lips parted but no sound escaped. Her silent scream was met by a vicious sounding shout that bubbled out of Luc. He thrust deep one last time and held himself there as he shook and said her name again and again. He collapsed on top of her, and Everly wrapped her arms around him.

  Everly didn’t remember much after that. At some point, Luc must have moved off of her, but she couldn’t recall when. She fell into a deep sleep in no time.

  Morning came, and Everly woke to light streaming in through a crack in the curtains. She was in bed alone. She rolled to her side and stretched out a hand. The other side of the bed was cold. Luc must have been gone for a while.

  Everly pulled the blanket up to her chin and winced when she bumped her new bruise. She sighed and rolled to her back. She had a decision to make. So she was glad to have some alone time.

  Luc wanted her to stay for another week. True to form, he’d admitted that he wasn’t now, or likely ever, going to be ready for a permanent relationship. He’d also said a lot of contradictory things. Like he couldn’t be with another woman. He didn’t want to. He wanted her for as long as he could have her.

  It had been her mission to make Luc see that they belonged together. She loved him, but she couldn’t tell him that yet. He’d run for the hills and never come back. Look what had happened when he heard his employees thought that they were in a real relationship. Luc took off for days and returned with another woman to prove them all wrong.

  It was a delicate situation now. Luc was beginning to see her as more than a play thing. He was coming around slowly, and he might not even know it. Could she stay another week and continue her assault on Luc’s formidable walls to see if things continued to progress? Or should she cut her losses and get her ass home before she ran into any more trouble?

  Whether now or a week from now, it wasn’t going to hurt any less. If they got any closer, it could hurt more, though.

  The bedroom door opened, and Luc pushed in a room service cart. He smiled at her as he whisked the lids off two overflowing plates with a flourish.

  “Breakfast is served.”

  She giggled. It was just a little too unnatural to see him as a server, but it was really cute. He was being playful in a way he hadn’t up to this point. Maybe he really was coming around.

  “What’s on the menu?” she asked. “I’m starving.”

  She was climbing out of the bed to help, but Luc stopped her.

  “You stay right there. I’m going to serve you in bed. Then Dr. Russell is going to pay you a visit. I’m glad he had something for those bruises. Your face doesn’t look nearly as bad as I thought it would.”

  Everly’s face was tender when she touched it. It hurt a bit when she spoke. She wasn’t eager to see how she looked.

  Luc carried Everly’s plate to her on a tray. She’d never had breakfast in bed before. It was a novel experience. She ate her omelet, fruit, and toast, while Luc had steak and eggs on a small table he pulled up to the side of the bed.

  They ate and made idle conversation, but she knew he was thinking about the same thing she was. Would she stay another week or pack up and leave today? Things had turned a total one-eighty in the last twenty-four hours. Everly felt a bit like she’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

  Yesterday, she’d been anxiously awaiting Luc’s return. He’d been dreading seeing her and wishing she’d just go away. Now, she was afraid to spend any more time with him, and he was trying to get her to stay. Life is so much stranger than fiction.

  After the meal was consumed and dishes returned to the tray, Luc pushed it out to the corridor for room service to take away. He ushered her back into the shower, but he joined her this time. Luc washed every inch of her body and did his own close-up examination of her injuries.r />
  His roaming hands and soapy muscular body left her hot and aching but didn’t attempt to satisfy the lust she could plainly see standing at attention. They had an appointment to keep, so he gave her a clean pair of shorts and another shirt. She looked like a midget in his clothes. She had to roll the boxers a few times at the waist so they’d stay around her hips

  Dr. Russell came to examine Everly. Luc hovered in the corner supervising and asking questions. He wanted to know if she needed x-rays, but the doctor felt it was just bruising. She had good range of motion in her leg and her jaw. There was some swelling, but that would go down.

  Luc wanted to know if she should have something stronger for pain, but Everly didn’t want anything narcotic. She didn’t like how that stuff made her feel.

  The doctor told him to call if she changed her mind and was feeling uncomfortable. He could send her something up right away.

  She was fine. Just a little banged up. Her hands were sore, and so was her knee and jaw, but Luc had been right. It didn’t look nearly as bad as she expected.

  She thanked the doctor for the house call. He was such a caring man. Some doctors made you feel like they were in a hurry to get you in and push you out. Of course, he was treating someone at his employer’s request. That would make anyone pretty attentive, but she’d received the same care down in the clinic. He was just that kind of doctor.

  Once the doctor was gone, Luc settled her on the sofa for a day relaxing with movies.

  “I’m not going to the office today.”

  Her mouth must have fallen open with her surprise.

  “Don’t look so shocked, Parker. The boss can take a day off every now and again.”

  The day passed with neither of them mentioning her intention to leave. They watched a few movies. They had sex there on the sofa several times. It was like they couldn’t get enough of each other.

  Everly decided to take it one day at a time. She and Luc were getting closer. He had softened considerably. She would stay tonight and see what happened tomorrow. And maybe the day after that.