Chapter Twenty-Three

Lucas was awakened from a deep sleep by something stirring beside him. He slowly opened his eyes to find Amy next to him, bringing the events from the day before to the forefront of his mind. The two of them were facing each other, and she was staring at him, looking shocked, embarrassed and a little panicked.

“Morning,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”

Her eyes opened wider at his casual words. He knew she was confused. She was most likely wondering how they’d gotten into bed together, and more importantly, wanting to know if they’d done anything.

“Don’t look so panicked; all we did was sleep. You were freezing all day and night until I climbed in bed and shared my body heat,” he said lazily. It felt so natural waking next to her. He couldn’t remember ever having slept so well. He hadn’t woken up once during the night.

“Excuse me,” she said as she tried to untangle herself from his body. “I … um, need to use the bathroom.” Her cheeks turned red. He let her go, and she quickly jumped from the bed.

Lucas was glad to see some restored strength in her and was grateful he’d dressed her. He wouldn’t have been able to handle watching her walk naked from the bed. Not after her body had been molded to his the entire night.

He continued lying there, not able to get out of the bed. He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers that would show her the restraint he’d used in letting her go if she happened to walk out of the bathroom when he was still not dressed. When he heard the shower start, he finally moved, a bit disappointed she wasn’t coming back to join him.

Amy was in the bathroom long enough to make Lucas worry. He was about to go in after her when the door finally opened. She was wearing the robe he’d seen hanging off the back of the door.

She took his breath away.

Even pale, underweight and makeup-free, she was spectacular. He was beginning to think it wasn’t going to be a hardship, in the least, to wake up next to her every day. He thought they could actually make the marriage work.

As his gaze traveled down her oversized robe and rested on her covered belly, he was once again sobered to think his baby grew there. They were going to be a family. The thought scared him enough that he swiftly brushed past her and shut himself in the bathroom.

What was he doing? Yes, they needed to get married, but why was he getting so sentimental? They had an arrangement, one she hadn’t technically agreed to yet, though he knew she would. She didn’t have a choice.

Lucas turned the shower on and stood under the spray for ten solid minutes, not moving, just letting the hard jets ease the ache in his shoulders.

He was used to dealing with a lot of stress, but since meeting Amy, his levels had tripled. It was either from his constant state of arousal, or the fact that he wanted to strangle her. She was…exasperating.

None of that mattered anymore, though, because she’d soon be his wife. He had to smile as he realized his life would never be dull again.

Lucas finished his shower, then strode from the steam-filled room with only a towel covering him. As he walked into the bedroom, he found Amy sitting on a chair, lacing up a pair of her tennis shoes. She looked up and their eyes met, and Lucas instantly hardened, his towel not doing much to hide his desire.

“Um … I’ll … um … let me get out of your way,” Amy gasped as her eyes dilated. When her head dipped down and she looked at his predicament, then licked her lips, he nearly dropped to his knees.

Slowly he made his way to her chair, standing in front of her, his chest dripping water. She slowly leaned back, her head level with his stomach, causing a myriad of ideas to flash through his mind.

“If you weren’t on strict orders to rest today, I’d take you over to that bed, slowly strip off the clothes you just put on, then lick your body from head to toe. Even the thought of doing that is causing me intense pain right now,” he said, watching her reaction. She wasn’t unaffected by the power pulsing between them.

Why he was torturing himself even more, he didn’t know, but he was almost past the point of no return. It had been too long since he’d felt her in his arms, sunk inside her flesh, satisfied them both.

“I want you so badly,” he whispered, his throat so tightly closed, it was hard for him to even speak.

Amy said nothing as her eyes moved down to the tent his erection was making of the towel. Tentatively, she reached her hand out, then ran a finger across the stiff point in the towel, making his knees almost buckle. Her hesitant touch was the biggest turn-on of his life.

He realized they’d made love so quickly the only time they’d been together, she hadn’t even had time to see him, let alone do any exploring.

“We can’t have sex, Amy, but we can lie in bed together,” he said before ripping the towel from his body. His confidence soared as she gasped, her eyes never leaving his manhood.

He knelt before her and started undoing the shoes she’d just put on, pulling them off, before running his hands up her legs to grip the soft curve of her hips. He pulled her to a standing position, her stomach pressing into his face.

He breathed in her scent as he slowly hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her sweats and began pulling them down her legs. Her hands moved to his shoulders and he felt tremors rack her body as he slid his fingers down the inside of her thighs.

He could touch her, taste her, explore her beautiful body, without hurting her. He had to do something, anything to relieve the pain he felt.

Her pants bunched at her feet, and he carefully lifted one foot, then the other, and tossed the pants somewhere behind him. She stood before him in a T-shirt that just skimmed the top of a pair of tiny lavender panties, barely covering her from his view.

His hands moved to her rounded backside, then tugged, making her stumble into him. He pushed his hands up and moved the T-shirt out of his way so he could press his face against the tiny swelling of her stomach. His seducing tongue trailed her silky flesh, and a soft moan drifted to his ears as her hands tightened on his shoulders, and her knees began to shake.

He moved his arms down, supporting the back of her thighs as his mouth traveled across the curve of her stomach and he bit the elastic at the top of her panties. Moving lower, he carefully ran his tongue along the outside of the delicate lace, dampening the material as his hot breath drifted over the thin fabric.

“Lucas,” she moaned, her entire body trembling. Slowly he moved back, getting to his feet, his arms supporting her the entire time.

When their eyes met and he saw the intense lust pooling within them, he almost forgot he had to be careful with her, almost forgot his own name.

He lowered his mouth and gently kissed her, sliding his tongue along her lips before slipping it inside the recesses of her mouth. Before he let the kiss go too far, he again stepped back, then lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.

He crawled in next to her, his hand immediately drifting to her stomach, then running down the outside of her thigh before coming back up on the inside. He stopped at the junction between her thighs, her moist heat already soaking her panties.

“I have to stop,” he said as his finger slipped inside the fabric and he circled around her swollen flesh.

“Please don’t,” she sobbed, making him look up to see a tear falling down her face.

“Am I hurting you?” he asked as he immediately began pulling his finger away, terrified he’d gone too far.

“No, I need … please … so much pressure,” she begged, her hands gripping the blankets.

Though he knew he might actually explode, he knew what she was asking. He pulled away long enough to grip her panties and remove them, then he pulled off her T-shirt and tossed it aside.

He took a moment to enjoy the view of her stretched out naked in front of him, her beautiful body glistening in the dim bedroom lights, her thighs open for his pleasure. He wanted so badly to sink inside her silken folds, but he wouldn’t risk hurting her.

He could certainly pleasure her, though. He bent and took one of her pert nipples into his mouth, making her cry out his name.

Then he moved his hand down her body and started rubbing a circle around her swollen flesh. Her hips rose, pressing harder into his fingers as they worked her body.

Within a minute, she fell apart, her body shaking as she climaxed, her cries echoing across the bedroom. He slowed his rhythm, making sure to draw out her pleasure, as he lifted his head and swallowed the rest of her cries with his mouth. His erection was pulsing with its own need for release, but he tried to ignore it.

After several minutes she stopped shaking and her body relaxed. He was on his side, facing her as he ran his hand upward and into her hair. She turned into him, pressing her hips against his, causing his throbbing member to push into her thighs.

He brought his lips back to hers, his kiss gentle, telling her everything he couldn’t admit out loud. He was coming to the realization he cared about her, way more than he ever possibly imagined.

“Can I … I want to … um … touch you?” she tentatively asked, her face turning red at her request. His shaft jumped at her hesitant words.

Not able to speak past the desire clogging his throat, Lucas nodded his head, and then turned onto his back. He gripped her hand and placed it on his chest, then slowly pushed it lower.

He watched her face as her eyes focused on their joined fingers, slowly moving across his quivering stomach. He took a deep breath, then guided her hand to the head of his arousal and then up and over it.

As she slowly moved her fingers across his skin, he gritted his teeth, chanting in his head that he could handle it. He didn’t know how, but he had to.

He removed his hand from hers, letting her explore on her own, as he fisted his fingers into the sheets, holding on as if his life depended on it. He was too afraid he was going to grab her if he didn’t hold himself down.

Her fingers softly trailed up and down his thick shaft, over and over again, circling around his stiff flesh as she became braver.

When his pleasure glistened on the tip of his erection, she ran her finger against it, then used his own fluid as lubrication as she tightened her fingers around him and started moving up and down his flesh.

“You’re so soft, like satin, but so hard at the same time. It’s … well, really beautiful,” Amy whispered, her eyes not straying from his lower body.

The only reply he could give was a deep moan of pleasure as his body began to prepare itself for release.

His sound seemed to spur her on, because she shifted, getting a tighter grip on him as she quickened her movements, making his breath start escaping in pants.

“Amy, I can’t … I’m going to come if you don’t stop.”

“Yes, please do,” she whispered, excitement lacing her tone.

“It’s messy,” he ground out, not wanting to horrify her.

Her only reply was to move down his body, and then he felt the pad of her tongue licking across the head of his straining erection. That was it. Her tentative movements sent him over the edge, and he yelled out as he felt the explosion start surging forward.

“Amy,” he warned as her lips closed around the top of his arousal while her hand continued moving up and down.

Her reply was again nonverbal as she sucked him hard, the tip of her tongue sliding across his head.

His body tensed as his release washed through him, feeling as if it started at the tip of his toes and traveled all through his body before exploding through his shaft.

As he felt the first wave of his pleasure leave him, Amy never let go, her mouth continuing to suck him even harder, if that were possible.

He looked down as his body continued releasing into her warm mouth. Her eyes were closed, pleasure consuming her face as she sucked on him. After several moments, his body fell back to the bed, completely sated.

Amy’s lips relaxed, releasing his head as her fingers continued to trail up and down. She gently licked along the still sensitive flesh for a few more moments, touching him as he began to soften.

“So amazing …” she again murmured before she finally crawled up the bed. “Thank you.”

He looked at her incredulously as she thanked him. What blew him away was that she was completely serious.

“No, really, the thanks are all on me,” he said with a huge grin as he quickly reached out and grabbed her, flipping her onto her back and half covering her body with his before he reached down and kissed her, hard.

When he lifted his head, they were both slightly breathless, but she had a glow in her cheeks that hadn’t been there the day before.

“You’re on bed rest, woman. Quit looking at me like that, or I’m going to forget,” he warned, though a smile played on his lips.

She smiled at him before her eyes grew sleepy. With much more gentle movements, he flipped over on his back and pulled her in tightly against him. She didn’t hesitate as she snuggled against his chest, then fell asleep within a minute.

Lucas wasn’t far behind her.