by C. A. Harms
“Going for a third, huh?” Lisa said with a laugh. “I’d say that stare has a hidden agenda that Maddy is beginning to feel too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so nervous.”
I wanted to tell them both to let it go, but I remained quiet. Saying anything to either of them would only open the opportunity for the two biggest gossip queens to hound me for more.
A few minutes later, our waitress set the beer on the table. I held up a five dollar bill, but she shook her head. “It’s been taken care of, darlin’.” She turned slightly to the side and pointed in Lucas’s direction. “The handsome guy in the red shirt said to tell you to drink up, because you and him have some things to discuss.”
A rush of excitement fueled by nervous energy ran through me. I squinted and looked at him in confusion, and the smirk he shot at me made my knees weak.
I lifted the bottle to my lips, trying my best to seem unaffected, and knew I was failing. I struggled to be confident and the Maddy I’d fought so hard to become, but that only grew more difficult with each second.
We were two stubborn people battling for control over the situation from the opposite sides of a bar.
This could get interesting.
I looked away from him, closing my eyes as I took one big swallow after another.
The girls began whispering, “Chug, chug,” and I tried not to laugh. The beer was half-gone when I decided to lower the bottle to the table to take a breath. I was just about to lift it again when Luke stood from his table, and I froze as he moved toward me with purpose. With each step, my heart beat faster.
“He is so sinful,” one of the girls at the table whispered. I wasn’t sure who stated that fact because I couldn’t look away from him.
He slowed to a stop only a few feet away and I smiled at the determined and incredibly sexy look on his face. Holding his hand out toward me, he grinned back.
“Dance with me, Madelyn.”
It was a statement that he refused to let me argue with, and had any other man asked it, I may have tried. But with him things had always been easy, even when they weren’t.
“Come on.” He offered me that confident look. “You know you want to.”
The ornery part of me that always found it easy to joke with Lucas wanted to be playful. But the part of me that had longed for him to hold me was stronger. It was the same part of me that had always wanted him to look at me just as he was now, and it had me placing my hand in his.
I ignored the looks of interest people shot in our direction as he moved me past the tables toward the dance floor, then playfully spun me in a circle before pulling my body to his. I laughed as he dipped me backward, and he joined in when he lifted me back toward him and saw the happiness on my face. Gently, and with great skill, I might add, he placed his hand on my lower back and slid it down, applying just enough pressure to move me in to him as close as possible.
The slow, tantalizing movements of his hips against mine made me forget the words that only moments ago were on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to be sassy and in control, but it was nearly impossible. He smelled amazing and gave me little opportunity to think as his hands and body moved with mine.
As he curled his upper body closer to me, his slow, even breaths as fanned over my neck. And for a moment, I wondered just how he could be so calm. We were closer together than we’d ever been before. I swear I could feel his heart beat against me as he leaned over, his mouth hovering near my ear.
“So,” he whispered. I wasn’t sure if it was the way his breath tickled over my highly sensitive skin, or the huskiness lacing his voice, but chills covered my neck and shoulders, ran over my back, and continued throughout the rest of my body. “Strictly friends, then?” he added. “I’m thinking that isn’t truly what you want.”
On instinct I tilted my neck to look up at him and was suddenly caught off guard. This movement brought our lips closer when he didn’t move back. Once again, the words lingering in my mind faded fast.
“Because that’s not all I want for us,” he confessed, and I stared back at him with surprise. “Tell me I’m not imagining what’s going on here; this heaviness in my chest every time I’m near you.”
Luke moved in closer and skimmed the tip of his nose over my jaw, causing my eyes to close involuntarily. I had never in my life felt this completely lost in a moment. I felt so light and airy, I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. I felt like I was floating.
“Because that’s what you do to me, Maddy,” he whispered as he carefully moved his lips along my cheek toward my mouth. Had I moved even the slightest bit, our lips would be touching. “You make my heart beat so fast,” he continued. “You make my mind race, and this possessive need I have to protect you and make you mine is crippling. I can’t think straight.”
His confession shocked me but also made me want him to claim me. I wanted to be his.
“I want you, Madelyn,” he said just before his lips skimmed over mine much too quickly.
Chapter 15
LUCAS
She whimpered and I swear I could feel it in every part of me.
I had to be sure she wanted this. Once I kissed her, there was no going back. One kiss would lead to more, and damn it, I wanted more. I wanted it all. I have never wanted anything more.
“Tell me you feel it,” I begged, staring back at her with a deep ache in my heart. Waiting for her to answer was like a slow form of torture. Whenever I wanted anything in life, I just went after it. But Madelyn was different; she was my light. Had I not been a jerk with an ego the size of Texas, I would have known that years ago. There was no way in hell I would ever let that happen again. In my eyes Maddy was already mine. I just needed her to accept that.
“I feel it,” she whispered, and the ache inside me intensified. I knew now that our lives were about to change. “I’ve always felt it, even when I was nine and you were ten.”
I remembered that sweet little girl with pigtails skipping down the old gravel road smiling big and telling me she’d one day marry me. Guilt hit me as I remembered all the times I’d pretended she was just some silly kid with big dreams.
I would never again construe anything she said as silly.
Madelyn Emery was and always would be mine; she always had been. I was the one who hadn’t accepted it, but now I had.
I widened my stance and lowered myself enough to bring us at eye level as I gripped the back of her neck. At any other moment, I may have laughed at how her eyes widened in surprise when she noticed the way I was looking at her, but not now.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to realize that you were my girl,” I whispered, and she relaxed in my hold. “I’ve got a lot of making up to do.” I smiled as she continued to watch me with curiosity. “How ‘bout we start now?”
I didn’t give her the chance to respond. She’d already given me all the clearance I needed. I moved in and covered her lips with my own, slowly at first, tasting her and feeling brash from how tranquil she felt in my arms, as if one kiss made her feel weak and needy. Everything around us ceased to matter except for the two of us. With one hand still resting on the back of her neck, I lifted my other and covered her jaw as I held her close. Letting go of her was not an option.
When she placed her hands at my sides, I shivered. I had to maintain my composure. There would be a time and a place for me to let go. A moment when we could both get lost in the desire we felt, but here in a bar with an audience was not that time. I’d have to kill anyone who even glanced in her direction when she was aroused. That was for me, and only me.
So for now, I continued to kiss her because it was long overdue and I’d been fantasizing about it for days. I would show her through gentle touches and sweet words just what she means to me, and later, there would be nothing holding me back.
From the way she gripped my sides, I could sense she wanted it too. I tried to pull back from the kiss for just a moment to give us both a chance to catch our breath, but she sucked on my bottom lip.
“We need to slow down,” I said in a hoarse whisper.
“We’ve waited long enough,” she insisted, and I wanted to laugh at her demanding tone. She was really sexy in this state.
“Well isn’t this all cozy and sweet.”
I looked back over my shoulder only to come face-to-face with Deacon. He was pissed, but I sensed he was attempting to control it. But with his nostrils flaring, his hands fisting, and the way his glare was shifted between Madelyn and me, it was impossible to miss.
“‘We’re only friends and nothing is going on between us,’” he sneered as he took another step toward us. “I knew it was bullshit when you said that, and not even a week after I called it quits with you, I find you two sucking face in the middle of a bar.”
“You called it quits?” Maddy growled. “I called it quits, asshole! You were just too stupid to catch on. You actually thought I just needed to spend more time with you and it would all work out. The thing was, I could barely tolerate you during the limited time we had, so I wasn’t sure how the hell more time would help.”
I didn’t much care for the way this dick was huffing at Madelyn, but I let my girl fume. Granted, I did maintain my position between them, because no fucking way would I let him anywhere near her.
“I should have ended things a long time ago, but each time I tried to reason with you, you’d pretend I was exaggerating or something,” she added. “Deacon, you’re a jerk. A self-centered prick who only thinks about himself. You and I were never gonna make it.”
“So you hop into bed with the asshole who tossed you away without looking back?” Deacon seethed. “I never would have taken you for a slut, Mad, but—”
The guy hit the ground before he could finish his sentence.
I didn’t even think twice about my actions. I’d warned him that I wouldn’t tolerate anyone disrespecting Maddy, and I meant it. This shit had gone on for far too long. She didn’t owe this jackass an explanation, and we didn’t have to explain our relationship to anyone. I’ll admit I may have pushed a little to ensure that she realized it was time to drop him, but she already knew what an asshole he was long before I arrived back in Alvord.
Deacon sat on the ground in the center of the dance floor, shaking his head as if trying to clear his vision. I hovered over him, waiting—no, daring—him to make a fucking move. People had begun to gather around, but I didn’t take my eyes from him.
“Luke.” Maddy gripped my arm and tried to pull me back. “Let it go,” she insisted.
The problem was I couldn’t let it go. My heart was racing, my irritation was through the roof, and it was all aimed at the sack of shit grinning up at me. Yeah, he fucking grinned, and it enraged me.
“You think you’re gaining some prize with her,” he said as he wiped the blood from his lip, “but you aren’t. She’s a frigid bitch. It was like banging a mattress.”
I barely heard anything over the blood rushing through my head. As he sat there looking up at me, seeming pleased and proud of himself, his words rang through my mind. My fist clenched, I reared back, and the sound of my hand connecting with his jaw echoed throughout the bar.
Chapter 16
MADELYN
“Lucas,” I yelled as Shannon and Lisa held me back. “Damn it, Luke,” I screamed louder this time. Only it didn’t faze him as he and Deacon continued to roll around on the floor, fists flying.
Jeb and a few others moved to break up the fight as I stared at them, shocked at the way things had shifted.
“That’s enough, man,” Jeb said as he moved between the two of them. Calvin, another guy who works for Jeb, bearhugged Luke and yanked him backward and away from the dance floor.
“Come on, Mad,” Shannon said as she pulled me toward the exit. “Jeb talked Willis out of calling the cops by promising we’d get Luke out of here.”
“Luke?” I said as she pulled me along. “What about Deacon?”
That ass had started this. I had half a mind to go back and punch him a few times myself.
“He’s being removed too, but we can’t remove them together.” She laughed it off, but I found no humor in this. “They’ll get him out once we’re gone.”
I stumbled out the back door and looked around for Lucas.
“Where’s Madelyn?” His shout echoed through the parking lot.
I hurried to my truck, and as I rounded the front, I found the guys standing on the opposite side at the back. Lucas still looked furious, but when his gaze landed on me, something changed. His shoulders relaxed as he stopped pacing at stared back at me with a solemn look on his face, or maybe it was regret.
“I’m sorry, Mad,” he said in a desperate whisper, and the words made my heart ache. “I shouldn’t have….” He shifted his gaze to the ground.
I moved to him and gripped his shirt at the waist. He lifted his head, and again his eyes met mine.
“You were defending me,” I said and he nodded.
“Forever,” he whispered without pause.
That one word had never meant more to me than it did coming from him right now. Tilting my head back, I looked up at him and he leaned in closer, pressing his lips to mine. The brief, gentle kiss felt like an instant calm after the crazy we’d all just witnessed. He rested his forehead against mine and we held one another in silence.
***
As we walked up the stairs to my apartment, my hand was behind me, and my fingers were locked with his. My heart raced as I reached the top landing and placed my key in the deadbolt, and my hand shook as I twisted it.
I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment, trying my best to slow my rapid heartbeat. The moment Lucas’s arms wrapped around me from behind, my body jerked in surprise.
“Why are you shaking?” he asked as he stepped up closer behind me and his chest pressed to my back.
“I’m nervous,” I confessed. “But I’m not scared,” I added, leaning back against him. We remained in this position for a moment as Lucas buried his nose in my hair and slowly breathed me in. Then he leaned back and I felt at a loss with his body no longer pressed to mine, until he slowly turned me in his arms.
As I faced him, he slouched just enough to brush his lips over mine, and again my eyes fluttered shut. “There’s no reason to be nervous, Maddy,” he assured me before pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “Tonight I just want to hold you.”
I opened my eyes wide in surprise. He chuckled, reaching out toward the key that was still in the door handle and turning it. “I’ve thought of that very thing so many times over the last few weeks. Not to mention”—he pushed open the door behind me, and his grin grew wide—”I think I twisted wrong when I slugged that piece of shit. My shoulder is a little stiff.”
My gaze shifted between his face to his shoulder, and then I remembered his leg. “Luke.” I shook my head and he chuckled, regaining my attention.
“My leg is fine,” he said, backing me up into my apartment. “But, sweetheart, feel free to rub me down and work out the sore spots if it’ll make you feel better.” He chuckled again when I arched a brow at him and he tapped the end of my nose with the tip of his finger. “Or we could just lie in bed and watch a movie.” He shrugged and squished up his nose and mouth in the weirdest of ways.
“You are such a clown,” I said, pushing against his chest. A mischievous look took over his face, and I tried to back away only to be swooped up and tossed over his shoulder. “Put me down, you goon.”
Here I was hanging over his shoulder, my hands resting on his lower back as he turned and locked my front door. He then kicked off his boots one at a time and moved across my tiny apartment.
“What are you doing?” I asked, laughing when his hand slid over my side. “Lucas,” I squealed when he began tickling.
“What’s wrong, babe?” he taunted. “You don’t like being tickled?”
“Lucas Rivers,” I sc
olded, and he laughed even harder as he tossed me onto my bed and I bounced against the mattress. “I swear I am gonna—”
Luke reached behind his head and lifted his red T-shirt over it. He discarded it, then ever so slowly he crawled across my bed and positioned his body over mine. I was frozen as I carefully scanned over his chest with hungry eyes.
“You’re gonna what, darlin?” he asked as he arched his brow. “You need to remember something, Maddy.” He leaned in closer and kissed me softly. “I know you’re harmless. You try to come off all intimidating and mean, but sweetheart, you’re like a sweet little kitten.”
“A kitten?” I asked, trying my hardest not to sound all breathy. Having Lucas this close, his bare chest pressed against mine, was making it hard to concentrate.
“Yeah,” he said, burrowing closer as I parted my legs to accept his body as it settled there. “If you’re cuddled right, your growl turns into a sweet purr. You’re my kitten.”
I couldn’t argue. I didn’t want to. “Then cuddle me,” I insisted, arching my neck and practically begging him to kiss me. He wasted no time moving in and sealing his lips with mine.
What was meant to be a gentle kiss quickly deepened as I hooked my leg around his waist and pulled him in tightly. A deep groan escaped him when I lifted my pelvis to grind against him. I just wanted to forget about what took place at the bar. I wanted to wipe that part of the night from my memory and focus on Lucas and me.
He was my happy place.
For longer than I could remember, I’d imagined what it’d feel like to have Lucas touch me and love me. What his hands would feel like as they explored my body, making me his, claiming what I was always ready to give him. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I would actually get the chance to fulfill those fantasies.
And those fantasies didn’t compare to the way being in his arms actually felt. Emotions ran through me like a freight train. My head was spinning, my heart was racing, and I felt as if I couldn’t get close enough.