An Eternity in a Moment

by K Carothers

  “One more.” Luke drew her legs up, easing them open. “You’re almost there.”

  Erin scrambled for the last one in her mind. “I know it,” she gasped. “It’s—it’s on the tip of my tongue.”

  “I want you on the tip of my tongue,” he said, and dropped his head down between her thighs.

  It was all over then, and her mind completely surrendered to sensation when she felt the warm tip of that tongue touch the most sensitive spot on her body. She cried out and arched up against him, clutching fistfuls of the bedspread as he mounted an assault on her senses like no other with that tongue. Then he slid his fingers inside her, finding the second most sensitive spot she’d never known she had, and stroked her there as well until she was delirious with sensation, every touch, every movement more exquisitely pleasurable than the last. She knew where he was taking her this time and finally grabbed his head to bring him back up to her, wanting him inside her before she got there.

  Luke blazed a path of fiery kisses over her belly, her breasts, and her neck as she led him up. Then he thrust into her, hard and deep, closing his eyes in rapture as he felt the sweet, wet heat of her body surround him completely. “God, Erin,” he groaned, trying not to climax right then and there. He hadn’t expected control would be a problem again, but it was. She affected him, body and soul, in a way no other woman could, and he had to fight hard for that control.

  Erin had long since let him free her of the invisible bonds of restraint, a slave to pleasure alone. She slid her hands over his buttocks and urged him to move, then pleaded for more when he did, her body demanding its own release. And she found it without any prompting, riding pleasure to its apex and letting out a cry of uninhibited bliss as it splintered into a thousand fragments of heavenly sensation inside her.

  Luke felt her let go and couldn’t help but follow. He dropped his head down against her shoulder with the mind-blowing pleasure of it, moaning her name as their bodies convulsed together, again and again…and again.

  “Sweet Jesus, Erin!” he breathed when it was all over, and collapsed backward onto the bed.

  Erin turned and nestled against him. Then another new sound escaped her—a purr. She giggled when she heard it, and looked up at him in amusement.

  Luke chuckled. “You never did get that last T, honey.”

  Erin purred again. “I like how you say that.” No one had ever called her honey before. She slid all the way on top of him and buried her face in his chest. There was a fine sheen of sweat on his skin, and she dipped her tongue down to taste it. She thought of Wesley and how he would sometimes lick her as he purred. She felt like a cat at the moment.

  Luke groaned. “You’re going to break me, woman.”

  “Well, at least you’ve got a doctor here.” Erin rested her chin on his chest and gave him a Cheshire cat smile.

  “A doctor who’s possibly drunk and doesn’t remember the last T of cardiac arrest,” he teased.

  It came to her then. “Toxin. Or tablet. They both fall under that T, and refer to either a poison or a drug.”

  Luke grinned. “Like alcohol.”

  “Mmmm.” It came out as another purr. “More like you.”

  “Am I a poison or a drug?”

  “Definitely a drug.” Erin slid up higher, and their lips met in a slow, lingering kiss.

  “I’m addicted to the taste of you. I want more,” Luke murmured against her mouth. “And more.”

  “I know.” Erin lifted her head and looked down at him in wonder. “I never imagined it could be like this, Luke.”

  “Neither did I,” he said, smiling up at her affectionately. “Even in the million fantasies I’ve had about you, I could never come up with anything this good.”

  “So you’ve thought about us in bed together before, have you?”

  “Ever since I was six. Although I wasn’t exactly sure what we’d do in bed until my brothers filled me in a few years later.”

  Erin smothered a laugh. “Why didn’t you ever say anything? You hardly said two words to me back when we were in school.” But she wondered if he would have been able to get through to her all those years ago. He probably wouldn’t have, given how closed off she’d been, and then she might never have gotten a second chance with him. She found the thought disturbing and put it out of her mind. All that mattered was that he was here with her now.

  “You’d be surprised how insecure a guy can be when it comes to a girl, especially one he really likes,” Luke said, running his fingers through her hair. “And the more he likes her, the harder it is for him to talk to her. That’s why I could barely get two words out when I was around you.”

  “You’ve said a whole lot more than two words recently,” Erin teased. “Does that mean you don’t like me as much?”

  “No. Now I know you at least like me back a little.”

  “I like you back a lot more than a little.”

  For a moment neither of them said anything else as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Then Luke slid his hand out of her hair and cupped her face. “Erin, I—” But before he could finish her cell phone started buzzing on the dresser.

  “It’s probably Jenna,” Erin said.

  She got up to retrieve the phone and saw that it was indeed Jenna. “Hey, Jen. Is everything okay?” she asked.

  “That’s the question I was going to ask you,” her friend said with relief clearly in her tone. “Luke didn’t call, so I started imagining all kinds of things, and none of them ended well.”

  Erin smiled wryly, coming back to sit down on the edge of the bed. “Such as Luke finding me in the hotel with Chase McKellar, and then killing him?”

  “Yes, that was one of the more concerning scenarios,” Jenna responded with a sheepish laugh. “You didn’t sound like yourself on the phone, Erin. After what happened at the café, and then with the baby, I was worried you might do something, well… that you normally wouldn’t.”

  Which was, in fact, true. Erin glanced down at the bag on the floor that contained the unopened vibrator. “Did you tell Luke what happened at the café?”

  “Yes, I did, and I’m sorry. I know it wasn’t my secret to tell. But I was worried about you.”

  “No, it’s okay. You saved me the embarrassment of having to tell him myself.”

  Luke sat up behind her, wrapping her in his arms. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.” Then he leaned closer to the phone and said into it, “Hi, Jen. Sorry I forgot to call.”

  “That answers another one of my questions. Is Chase there too—and in one piece?”

  Erin grinned. Considering she and Luke were sitting in the hotel room quite naked, Jenna had no idea what she’d really just asked. “No, but he’s in one piece as far as I know. He left before Luke even got here. We really did just meet for drinks. And I also told him right from the start that I was interested in someone else.”

  “Who?” Luke quipped.

  Jenna chuckled at the other end of the line. “I’d better let you go so you can answer that. As for me, I’m going to bed, now that I won’t be dreaming of murder and mayhem amongst my friends. I’ll leave the front door unlocked since we haven’t made another key yet—if you even come back tonight.”

  “Of course I will. I’ll be home in a little while.”

  “Take your time then. Goodnight to the both of you.”

  “You too, Jen.” Erin smiled, laying the phone down on the nightstand. Luke pulled her back against him, brushing light kisses over her neck, and she closed her eyes with a soft sigh of pleasure, murmuring, “I think you might know all my secrets now, Detective.”

  Luke froze for an instant. He knew one of her secrets better than she did. But now wasn’t the time to tell her, at least not without casting a very dark shadow on the best night of his life. It could wait. “There’s nothing you can’t tell me. I want to know everything about
you, Erin Harris.” He pressed a kiss on her cheek. “Do you mind me calling you that? I know it’s not your legal name, but I can’t seem to get myself to say that one. Although I’m also kind of partial to Sally Ride now, too.”

  Erin laughed softly. “You can call me whatever you want.”

  “Then I’m going to call you beautiful,” Luke said, kissing her shoulder. “And sweet.” He slid his hands up over her breasts. “And most definitely sexy.”

  “Mmmm. I’ve never been called that before, either.”

  “Then the men you’ve known have been fools.” Luke dropped his hands back down to her waist. “And your ex was the biggest one of them all.”

  Erin shook her head. “I’m the one who’s been a fool. Things have happened in my life that were out of my control, but I’ve let them control me ever since. Jenna made me see that. I’ve spent most of my life hiding from who I am, hiding the scars and hoping they’d go away. But they won’t. It just doesn’t work like that.”

  “You couldn’t have grown up in the environment you did without there being scars, Erin. They were inevitable.”

  “I know, and I have to accept that I’ll never be perfect. But I guess the world would be a pretty boring place if everyone was.”

  Luke wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Whatever imperfections you think you have are perfect to me. They make you who you are.”

  “Well, I still don’t want to be quite so imperfect,” Erin said. “Today when I delivered that baby I realized you were right—I have been giving up on myself, in so many ways. And it’s time I start fighting just as hard for me as I do for other people. I guess I could go see a shrink and sit there for months on end rehashing my past and how it affects my life now—Jenna did say I need to talk about it. But I’m not sure a therapist is the best thing for me. In medicine I’ve always been better at doing something—taking action—rather than talking. So I decided to apply that to the rest of my life, starting tonight…with sex.”

  A half-smile crossed Erin’s face. “I couldn’t even say the word without feeling awkward about it until Jenna made me repeat it the other day. I’ve always been uncomfortable with sex, and I was afraid if we became intimate the issue would come between us. So I…Well, I bought a vibrator and hoped I might be brave enough to use it after a few drinks. I was planning to imagine you here with me.” Despite her embarrassment over admitting all that, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Then you actually showed up in the flesh and made my adventure to the adult entertainment store quite unnecessary.”

  Luke nuzzled his face in her hair. “I’m curious to see what my fill-in looks like.”

  “I don’t even know myself,” Erin said with embarrassment returning to her tone. “I called ahead and told the woman who answered to put their top-selling brand in a bag and leave it at the checkout for me to pick up later.”

  Luke chuckled. “Did you frame Sally Ride for that, too?”

  “I probably would have if she’d asked.”

  “Okay, now I really have to see what you got.” Luke leaned over and picked up the bag.

  Erin felt her cheeks get warm. “Luke, really…”

  He grinned and reached into the bag, pulling out a clear plastic box containing a purple vibrator. “Wow, waterproof, multi-speed, with massaging beads to boot.”

  “Luke, please, put it back,” Erin implored, averting her gaze in mortification.

  He didn’t listen, and instead opened the box.

  Despite her chagrin, Erin’s eyes strayed back to the vibrator after he took it out, and she inspected it with reluctant curiosity. “That thing looks like some kind of alien weapon. And why is there a piece sticking out like that?” She leaned closer. “Is that a bunny?”

  “Yes, it is,” Luke told her, doing his best to keep a straight face. “I believe they call it a rabbit.”

  Erin glanced up at him. “I know you’re laughing at me, Luke Mathis.”

  He did laugh then. “It’s a clitoral stimulator, Erin. When a woman inserts the shaft, that part rubs against the clit for “extreme stimulation,” as the package says right here—if you’d bothered to look.” He grinned and twisted the bottom open. “Let’s put some batteries in and see if this thing actually works.” He fished through the bag. “Where are they?”

  “Don’t they come with it?”

  “No, you have to buy them. What about lube, did you get that?”

  Erin stared at the vibrator blankly for a moment, and then understood. “Oh.”

  Luke shook his head and laughed again. “Honey, I don’t think you were going to get very far with my replacement tonight.”

  “I probably would have chickened out anyway.”

  “I believe the operative word is rabbit, not chicken.”

  It was Erin’s turn to laugh. “Touché, Detective. But in any case, that’s why I requested a room with a Jacuzzi. I figured if nothing else, I could at least get used to being in the water. I’d rather not recreate yesterday’s melodrama in the pond anytime soon.”

  “I wouldn’t mind recreating at least some of that,” Luke murmured, kissing her ear. “Minus the swimsuits, though.”

  Erin smiled. “Some of that is actually what started all of this, you know. When you went upstairs to change after we brought Jenna in yesterday, I told her how I felt about you, and mentioned getting a vibrator.” She laughed shortly. “I thought I was joking at the time. But that’s what we were talking about when you came back downstairs, not jump starting my car—at least not the way you were thinking.” She looked up at him and a helpless giggle bubbled out of her.

  Luke remembered what he’d said to them, and a crooked smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Ah, it all makes sense now. I thought both of you were suffering from heat stroke.” Then he turned his attention back to the vibrator. “So what do we need to power this thing up? It looks like three double-A’s.”

  “Luke, we don’t need to use that. The problem I bought it for has definitely been fixed.”

  “But there’s another problem we might be able to fix,” he said thoughtfully. “You have some powerful emotions associated with water, and we need to replace them with other ones, feelings that you aren’t likely to forget either. And I think I know a way to do it—if we could just get a hold of some batteries.” Then a possibility occurred to him. He set the vibrator down on the nightstand and picked up the alarm clock next to it. “Or maybe we do. There could be some in here as a backup in case the power goes out.” He opened the battery compartment in the back. “Damn! Only one.”

  He set the alarm clock down and looked speculatively around the room, then up at the ceiling, and a slow grin broke across his face.

  Erin followed the direction of his gaze. He was looking up at the smoke alarm installed in the ceiling near the end of the bed. “Luke, you wouldn’t…”

  “It’s probably hardwired, but I’ll bet there are backup batteries in there, too.” Luke eased away from her and stood up on the bed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some double-A’s.”

  Erin watched in amused disbelief as he walked across the bed and reached for the smoke alarm. “Detective Mathis, I can’t believe you’re going to steal smoke alarm batteries from the hotel.”

  “I’m not going to steal them. I’m just going to borrow them.” Luke laughed at himself as soon as he said it. How many times had he heard that line before? Then he twisted the cover off. “Bingo! Two double-A’s.” He pulled them out and replaced the cover, grinning down at her. “Hopefully they work because you should’ve set this thing off by now.”

  He turned toward her, still standing on the bed, and she got a full view of him from head to toe. “No, I think it should’ve gone off for you.”

  Luke sat down, tossing the batteries onto the bedspread, and cupped her face in his hand. “Is your smoke alarm going off, Sally Ride?”

  “Oh, yes,�
�� Erin answered in a low, seductive tone. It was yet another new sound, and she liked it. “But I’m not alarmed, just very turned on.”

  “There’s no question your battery is working fine,” Luke murmured, and lightly kissed her mouth.

  Erin slid her hands around his neck, wanting more. But he eased away with a smile and stood up, pressing a kiss on her head. “Let’s save that for the water.”

  He went over to the Jacuzzi, and her eyes were drawn to his naked backside as he bent down to close the drain and start the faucet. Then he turned around and walked back toward her, and she unabashedly studied other well-proportioned parts of him. In the past her fascination with the human body had always been purely scientific, how all the systems functioned together in such an amazing way to sustain life. She’d never thought of the human form itself as a work of art, a thing of beauty, until now.

  The vibrator, however, did not look like a work of art in any way, shape, or form. And when he picked it up and sat down next to her again, Erin eyed it with trepidation. “So what exactly is this idea of yours?”

  “We’re going to have a swimming lesson, and the rabbit and I will be your instructors.” Luke installed the batteries and turned it on. “Jackpot!”

  Erin watched the rabbit ears vibrate, not quite sure what to make of it. Then he hit more buttons and the ears quivered wildly, while the shaft gyrated faster and faster. And her eyes widened in shock.

  Luke chuckled at the look on her face and turned the vibrator off. “We’ll save this for the water too.”

  “Luke, that thing looks like it belongs in a science fiction movie, certainly not…there.” Erin knew she was blushing again. She’d done that more times in the last few days than she had in her entire life.

  “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Luke said, flashing her a grin as he set the vibrator on the bed. “It would just be a shame if you made that trip to the toy store for nothing.”