Love Me (3 page)

What had being the good guy ever gotten Luke?

A couple of “perfect” girlfriends that he hadn't been able to fal in love with, no matter how hard he tried. And a job that was slowly kil ing him.

The dark side reeled him in and he no longer bothered trying to resist.

“Everything’s different tonight,” he told Janica and when she simply said, “Yes,” then kissed him, her mouth on his was al it took to seal his deal with the devil.

Luke Carson's saint days were through.

Janica couldn't get enough of Luke.

She could feel the warmth of his skin beneath his clothes as her hands roamed down his back, then back up and across his broad, muscular shoulders, but it wasn't good enough. She wanted to know the feel of him beneath her fingertips.

Skin on skin.

Let the love begin.

Oh yeah.

She couldn't remember ever feeling like this, so utterly consumed by a man, so frantic to get him naked, to feast her eyes and hands and mouth on every inch of his body. Sex had always been at the top of her favorite-things list, but this desire—this total, al encompassing need—was something else entirely. So different, in fact, that as she yanked his T-shirt out of his pants and broke their kiss long enough to pul it up over his head, she started freaking out a little bit. Because with his torso bared before her, with al of that hard heat at her disposal to caress and run her tongue across, she wanted so many things so powerful y al at once that instead of being able to do any of them she found herself paralyzed.

Pressing her hands flat against his chest, she could feel the beating of his heart against her palms. A hard, fast pounding that mirrored her own heartbeat. So many years she'd dreamed of this moment, so many years she'd thought it would never come, and now that it had, she felt almost frightened. She lifted her eyes to his at the exact moment that her heart said,
I love you
.

No.

She stumbled back from Luke, or tried to, but his arms were faster than she was.

She hadn't read love in his eyes at any point so far tonight, only lust. Pure lust. And now he was saying,

“Yes or no?” in a low voice that rumbled through her entire body like a sensual earthquake.

Oh god. It couldn't be true.

She couldn't be in love with Luke.

Of al the stupid things to feel for him, love was definitely the stupidest.

She swal owed hard, made herself locate her voice, which felt like it had dropped way down deep into her toes.

“To what question?”

“Tonight. This. You and me.”

Ah, now she got it. He was asking her if she could forget about who they were. About their past. About how this could thoroughly complicate their future. He was asking her to make a choice between risking everything she was for this one night...or running scared from it.

She hadn't been afraid of anything for a very long time. So why, she wondered helplessly, was she afraid now?

And why had her brain actual y thrown the word love into the mix?

His hands were warm on the smal of her back, just above the curve of her ass. The heat of his bare chest radiated out to her as she stood in his arms. A bonedeep longing to shut her eyes and lay her head against him while he held her close hit her hard.

God, what was wrong with her tonight? Here she was on the verge of getting everything she'd ever wanted and instead of grabbing Luke with both hands, dragging him to her bedroom, and having her dirty way with him, she was freaking out.

“Yes or no?” he repeated.

She tried to say yes, but al she could get out was, “You already know the answer.”

He shook his head, just as she'd known he would. He wasn't the kind of man you could fool. He was too smart. Too quick.

“I want to hear you say it, Janica. I need to hear you say it.”

His need rocked through her. She couldn't say no to him. Just as she couldn't say no to herself, to her own desperate need.

She licked her lips. Opened her mouth. Final y whispered, “Yes.”

That one smal word was al it took for him to take over. His hands moved so fast from her back to the low neckline of her short black dress that her breath caught in her throat.

Through the thin fabric she could feel his hands on the curves of her breasts and her nipples beaded almost painful y. Because she was smal enough to let the built-in bra in the dress do the work of keeping everything in place, her nipples jutted out at him, silently begging him to touch her.

A split second later, he ripped the front of her dress open, ful y exposing her breasts to his hungry eyes. She gasped in shock. Who was this man, she wondered as she instinctively moved to cover herself. Before she could, his hands came around her wrists to hold her arms at her sides.

“No. Let me see you.” His chest was rising and fal ing hard. “I've waited so damn long.”

His eyes burned her skin, causing a flush to travel al across her breasts. But the heat did nothing to stop her nipples from hardening further.

“My God, you're beautiful.”

No one had ever looked at her this way, like she was absolutely, impossibly perfect.

“So beautiful, Janica, I can't believe it.”

She tried to say something but she stil couldn't catch her breath. Not with her dress ripped open to her waist. Not with Luke's eyes drinking her in. Not with those wonderful things coming from his mouth.

Not with her wrists immobilized by his strong grip. And then he was bending his head down and she felt the first flutter of his soft hair against her col arbone as he lowered his mouth down over one breast. A low, uncontrol able moan of pleasure shook her throat. She wanted to put her hands on the back of his head, hold him there forever against her, but he wouldn't let her go.

Al she could do was stand there and let him taste her. Oh my god. His tongue. And then—yes, yes, yes!—his teeth were lightly scoring her sensitive flesh.

“
Luke.”

His name was a plea. For mercy.

Or maybe, for the exact opposite.

And that was when she realized he understood her better than she did herself, because instead of letting up, instead of giving her a chance to catch her breath, he shifted his dangerous attention from one breast to the other.

The touch of his lips, his tongue, the dark stubble on his jaw, stroking across her untouched skin, sent another jolt of pure desire through her, head to toe, strong enough that she didn't know how her body was managing to hold it al inside without breaking apart. She arched into his mouth to get closer, every cel in her body focused on three square inches. His jaw was covered in rough stubble and she loved the way it felt as it scraped and scratched against her skin. And then his mouth was traveling up over the smal curves of her breasts, across her col arbone, settling in the hol ow. His tongue tasted her there, and it struck her that feeling Luke's kiss on her shoulder was one of the most erotic moments of her life, outranking every orgasm she'd ever had with anyone else.

She wanted to taste him too, wanted to run her hands and mouth over every inch of his beautiful body. But he was stil holding her too tight.

She tried to pul herself out of his bonds and his hands tightened on her wrists.

He pul ed his mouth away from her skin. His eyes were dark, dangerous.

“Don't fight me. Not tonight.”

It wasn't just the sensual spel he had wound around her or the look in his eyes that had her giving in. It was the fact that those five words, said in such a commanding voice, held not only more desire than she'd ever known, but also more pain.

Luke needed her.

She'd never been the kind of woman who looked for broken men to try and heal. But Luke wasn't just any man. He had always been special. Even when she wished he wasn't.

“Okay,” she whispered. “I won't.”

Pleasure flared in his eyes, but instead of his mouth coming down on hers again, hot and hard and hungry, he released her wrists and a moment later his strong, warm fingers were stroking her hair, the tops of her shoulders, the backs of her arms. Like a cat, she rubbed against his hands.

For how rough he'd been with her dress, considering how tightly he'd held her to him, now his touch was gentle. But stil al -consuming.

And with the real world completely suspended on its axis for one night, it was the most natural thing in the world to look at him and say, “I've always thought you were so beautiful.”

But it wasn't enough to say it, she had to feel his beauty, had to get inside it, become a part of it. She raised her hands to his face, pressed her thumb to his lips, her other hand stroking the light stubble across his jaw. More words floated into her brain and she knew how good it would feel to say them aloud.

“I've wanted to touch you for so long, from the first moment I saw you.”

She waited for a flash of regret at tel ing him a truth she'd hidden from him for so long, but it never had a chance to come. Not when his eyes were burning with desire as he looked down at her, his hands now at the smal of her back, pul ing her even closer. And then he was turning his face into her hand, his tongue brushing against the tip of her thumb.

Her heart raced beneath his lips as he moved to circle the pulse point on her wrist with his tongue. She could feel herself melting deeper into him, completely losing the thread of where she ended and he began. She shivered almost violently at the pleasure of it, closing her eyes and sinking deeper into the wonder of being with Luke.

Thinking how much she wanted this, how good it felt, the word, “Final y,” left her lips.

Going up onto her toes, she stretched her neck up so that she could rub her cheek against his. And again, that innocent brush of skin against skin, jaw against jaw, was one of the most sensual experiences of her life.

She wanted more.

More. More. More.

Utterly overwhelmed by the waves of ecstasy washing over her, she realized that she was already right there, on the verge of climax.

So good.

Better than she could ever remember feeling. With nothing but his mouth on her wrist, one hand on her hip, his taut muscles pressed along hers, she was nearly at the peak, on the verge of fal ing over the edge at the slightest additional provocation.

Amazingly, at the same time, she felt that she could hang in this moment forever, sensual y suspended in time.

It was instinctive for her to try to grind herself against him, to try and crest the peak that was right there before her. She'd always been in charge of her own pleasure, and none of her lovers had ever tried to get between her and a climax.

But Luke clearly wasn't like any lover she'd ever had, because instead of helping her come, he moved her wrists back to his hands and shifted her away from him, just far enough that she was left panting with need, close enough to the edge to practical y be able to taste it.

She opened her mouth to beg him to let her come, but with only a look he reminded her that she had promised not to fight him.

And, God, it was a turn-on to let him be in control.

“I want you naked,” he growled and she would've ripped her dress al the way off, but he stil held her firm. And then, he was kneeling before her, pressing his mouth into her bare stomach, dipping his tongue quickly against her exposed bel y button.

“So damn beautiful,” she heard him murmur again against her skin.

It felt like al the blood in her body was pooling between her legs. She was throbbing, aching.

Just the thought of Luke stripping off her panties had moisture slipping and sliding from her body. But, shockingly, it seemed he wasn't in a hurry anymore. Leisurely, his mouth moved across her stomach, his lips sucking, his tongue sliding against first one hip bone and then the other.

With nothing but the gentle press of Luke's mouth against her bel y, she was nearly there.

Frustrated by his slow pace, she silently begged him to move his mouth lower, lower, lower while she rocked her pelvis against him.

“Please,” she begged. “That isn't where I need you.”

But he acted as if he hadn't heard her plea and as his tongue continued its slow swirls of pleasure against her skin, she remembered the look in his eyes when he'd begged her not to fight him tonight.

Her thoughts swirled in a jumbled fog of arousal, her brain working so much slower than it usual y did, as if she wasn't taking in enough oxygen.

Was this what he meant when he'd asked her if she was ready for 'this'? Had he been asking her if she could physical y withstand letting him tease her mercilessly?

And did he expect her to hand over complete control of her body to him?

But as his mouth continued to kiss and taste and nip at the skin across her stomach, she realized that none of the answers real y mattered. She'd been waiting for five years – no, a decade or more - for this moment to come to fruition. And now that it was here, she would wil ingly walk down whatever path he wanted to lead her down.

Deep down, she knew that Luke Carson was destined to give her great pleasure. Bigger and better than she had ever dreamed was possible.

And, if dreams real y did come true, maybe he'd give her even more than pleasure.

Maybe he'd give her love.

Final y lul ed into Luke's new slow pace, into the dreamlike state of being held steady by his hands and rocking her abdomen softly against his sweet mouth, into the fantasy of loving and being loved, she wasn't at al prepared for him to abruptly drop her wrists and rip her dress completely in two.

Luke had never seen anything—or anyone—more arousing.

With Janica nearly naked before him, he remained on his knees and looked his fil . She was thin, but not at al too thin, her hips curving out slightly from her smal waist, her breasts exactly the right size for his hands. His mouth. For him to slide his cock between.
Later,
he silently told his cock, which leapt at the idea of getting near her breasts
.

At getting near her period.

Beneath her dress, now messily ripped down the middle and lying on the wood floor, she wore only a thin pair of silk panties. His moment of surprise over the daisy yel ow fabric—he had assumed they'd be black or blood red to go along with the oversexed image she put out, rather than a sweet patch of innocence—barely had time to catch hold in his brain.