Dinner was steamed wild rice, grilled mahi-mahi with a light dill sauce, and burnished Brussels sprouts served on fine china with linen napkins. Candles graced the table. The whole thing looked like a freaking banquet, making this the strangest confinement in history. Dani took a cautious bite, trying to understand the look on Luke’s face. He simply stared at the plate in front of him. She felt a pang of jealousy, and hoped that someday he would look at her that way.

Luke ate as if every bite was an orgasm and closed his eyes more often than not, visibly wanting to savor the taste on his tongue. It was good, it was very good, but Father had always hired good cooks; it was his one concession, to pay for the best help. At least in regard to the kitchen. That trait, sadly, had not extended to the household guards. Or thugs, whatever they called themselves now. She hadn’t seen a single one of her father’s men since he’d left, with the exception of one or two who might have come with the house back when he’d bought it. Which meant they had few allies.

She sighed and speared a piece of fish, wondering why she was the only one seeming to care that they were all under house arrest. She’d even gone so far as to arrange a fucking escape, and there Luke sat, eating as though he hadn’t a care in the world.

Correction, Luke ate like a man who hadn’t eaten in days. Halfway through the fish, it suddenly occurred to her that maybe he hadn’t.

“Good fish?” she asked when she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

The room was so quiet she was starting to be able to hear people chew, and it was getting on her nerves. David’s head shot up like he’d heard a gunshot, and Benny glanced up from the newspaper he habitually read while eating. The fact that he found newspapers to read had fascinated her for days. You’d think a guy with Benny’s connections would have at the very least had an iPad like the rest of the known universe.

“Are you asking?” David shot back, his eyes darting from Katie to Benny, and back to her as if he couldn’t quite figure out a place to rest them. “...or telling?”

“I was asking Luke,” Dani emphasized the name, “if his fish was good.”

“It’s incredible,” Luke said slowly, reaching for another forkful only to find the plate empty. The silver clattered against the china with a soft forlorn sound. The look of disappointed shock was so heavy on his face, Dani nearly laughed.

“Please,” she said, lifting her plate in his direction, “finish mine. I can’t eat this all much, and I like the sprouts better.” She slid the rest of her fish onto his plate and asked for someone to pass the bowl with the vegetables though, truth be told, she despised Brussels sprouts. Which was only one more sacrifice she was making today for Luke, and would also likely turn out to be just as unappreciated as the first one.

I am so going to have his hide for coming back. What the hell was he thinking?

“I see the pizza didn’t ruin your appetite, Mr. Milligan,” Benny said with a smirk as he turned the page of his newspaper and shook it out to better read some story on the bottom of the page.

“Pizza?” David glanced warily from Luke to Benny, as though trying to puzzle out some joke where the punchline was in a foreign language. “You had pizza?”

“Seems our Mr. Milligan went out for pizza today,” Benny said from behind his paper, and clucked in dismay. “Did you see this? They arrested Moretti, and put it on page eight. Page EIGHT, I tell you...”

Luke waved his fork in protest. “No. Pizza and beer! If you’re going to do something, do it right.”

Benny chuckled and turned another page. Behind the paper there came the sound of a fork against a plate, indicating the crime boss was still eating. “The alcohol certainly seems to have improved your spirits, Mr. Milligan.”

Dani eyed Luke suspiciously. He’d been drinking? Well, that certainly would explain things...

“I’m sorry, Luke,” Katie said, looking more at the table than at anyone there. “I don’t understand, you went ‘out for pizza’?”

“It seems that some of the meals taken to Mr. Milligan’s room were being misdelivered,” Benny explained, refolding the newspaper and setting it next to his plate, folded over to show a grainy picture of a man being led away in handcuffs. “I looked into that matter, and it appears to be true, though we may never know the reason.” He shook his head and tapped the paper. “Page eight. I tell ya... there was time was a guy like that would have been front page.”

“Oh, come on...” Dani muttered, and felt Luke kick her under the table. More than a little peeved by now, she kicked back. Hard. She heard him bite back a grunt and returned to the meal with a rather satisfied smirk as she dipped a sprout in melted butter and popped it into her mouth.

The butter didn’t really help.

“But to avoid any further accidents of this nature, Mr. Milligan will be joining us for breakfast and dinner.” Benny ducked his head a little, in a mocking obsequiousness that made half the people at the table flinch. Ever the smiling and beneficent despot.

Luke didn’t seem to notice. In fact, if anything, he and Benny were seeming more and more like besties. Dani narrowed her eyes, the Brussels sprout in her mouth becoming impossible to swallow.

“Thanks.” Luke smiled around a generous portion of fish. He took a long swig of the wine and nearly moaned in delight.

Dani was going to wind up spitting her vegetables into her napkin in a moment. She grabbed at her water glass and washed the thing down, promising herself to swear off the sprouts forever. She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Uncle Benny...” she said, her eyes still on Luke, who seemed oblivious to not only the tension at the table, but to the subtext of the conversation. “Is it okay for Luke to join us later?”

Benny added a lump of sugar to his after-dinner coffee. “Join you? Where?”

“The library, of course.”

Benny looked at her for a long moment. Luke took another flake of the fish and David leaned in to ask in a loud whisper if there was any pizza left in the room. Or beer. Especially beer.

The request seemed to strike Benny’s funny bone. “Jimmy!” he called to the man standing at the door. “Let them play in the library tonight. I’ll be... busy tonight, so keep it respectable, nothing loud.”

“Thank you,” Dani murmured and looked to Luke, who was finishing off his wine. The last time she’d seen him look that sated, she’d been in his bed.

“Nothing recorded?” Luke asked, a smile on his face at odds with the sudden hard glint in his eye.

Dani blinked.

Wait a second...

“Mr. Milligan.” Benny set down his coffee cup and leaned forward, elbows on the table, fingers steepled, in such a classic villain pose that Dani would have laughed had there not been minions everywhere with itchy trigger fingers. “Have a good evening. Jimmy, spread the word, Mr. Milligan has free run of the house, the same as the rest of our guests. Boys and girls, come and go, just don’t leave the house until after the wedding.” He trotted toward the door, tucking the newspaper under his arm, uncharacteristically pleased.

“Why?” Dani heard someone say in her voice.

“Why what?”

Dani swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Why are we suddenly allowed to roam about the house? What changed?”

Benny smiled, lips curving up, but his eyes remained cold and dead. “David, do you have anywhere to go? Anywhere you want to run off to?”

David looked up, shocked. “Uh... no...”

Benny shrugged. Without a word he strolled out of the room, and the four shocked young people still at the table looked from one to the other, not a one of them sure how to break the silence.

Luke spoke first. “I came back because he was going to kill you for it. He knows I won’t leave without you.”

“What does that have to do with...”

Katie stepped in, “You won’t leave without David,” she said simply, as though Dani were a particularly slow child. “All he has to hold on to is David, who is not particularly inclined, I suspect, to go anywhere.”

David looked from one to the other, his eyes so cold and calculating that for a moment Dani forgot he was on her side. Kinda. “So, it’s my fault?”

“And what of you, Ms. Linnear?” Luke reached for the bottle and poured the dregs into his cup. “Which one of us are you bound to? Who holds your loyalties?”

“My family holds my loyalties, Mr. Milligan,” she said after a moment, her voice cool and unfriendly, “my family, my honor, and my self-interests. If you all stay, I am, at best, inconvenienced. If I leave... my family has long been dependent on this one for its fortunes, Mr. Milligan. We’ve suckled at the Rineheart teat for many years. It would be a devastation.”

Luke looked up at Jimmy for a long moment. Jimmy smiled and left. They were alone.

“What was that all about?” Katie asked.

“Just reminding him that he didn’t have to look up someone. The old man said we had the run of the place...” He stood, took the cup with one hand, and held out the other to Dani. “I for one am curious about the ‘no tape’ concession.”

Dani stood and smiled. “Give us a good head start and... knock twice when you get there, won’t you?”

“You’re blushing.” David observed, and pointed to her face.

“She’s engaged,” Katie said, and stood to grab another bottle off the rack behind them. “You ever heard of ‘blushing brides’?”

Luke leaned in and kissed Dani’s neck, just below the earlobe. His breath was hot against her neck, sending little ripples of awareness all the way down to her toes.

Oh, yes. She was supposed to be in love with him.

Funny how it had been nearly impossible to remember that when he’d ruined her entire rescue attempt.

He whispered quietly in her ear, “I need a computer,” and pulled the lobe into his mouth.

Damn, that felt good.

Wait... a computer?

Her mind turned to mush.

***

“NOT HERE,” DANI MUTTERED when her brain kicked into gear again. “Weren’t we on the way to the library?”

“The library. Of course...” Luke’s face was inches from her own, so close that she could fall into those eyes and get lost there forever. His hand, she noticed, was still creeping up inside her shirt.

“Will you cut that out?” She swatted his hand away, then grabbed it for safekeeping. “We’ll see you later...” she muttered in passing Katie, who looked as though she was trying not to laugh. David, she noticed, wasn’t happy in the least. Screw him. He deserves to be miserable. Stupid kid brother. Idiot.

“Should I have saved him some pizza?” Luke asked as she towed him out into the hallway, and she swatted at him, laughing, though she was still mad at him. Funny how she could be positively giddy in his arms, and still want to punch him in the face. All at the same time.

She shoved him through the library doorway, letting the door bang shut behind her. Hard. There wasn’t a person in the house who didn’t know where they were right now. Granted, they likely knew before she’d even gotten to the library. It just felt better this way. Like she was in control if she were the one to tell them, instead of having Benny’s spies doing all the work.

Luke half-stumbled, and righted himself in an instant, coming around to greet her, eyes wary, hands in a somewhat defensive stance. Tang Soo Do. Interesting.

Suddenly sparring with him sounded quite...fun. He seemed to think so too, for suddenly she was in his arms. She squeaked a little as he pulled her in and started kissing along her neck in the most blissful way.

Wait, why should he get all the fun?

“Why the hell did you come back?” Dani hissed while her hands found their way under his shirt. Her leg curled up behind his as he leaned her against the credenza. His hands lost no time in exploring her body as his mouth returned to her neck.

“Benny put word on the street that you marry or die,” he whispered back into her ear, and tore the back of her shirt free of her jeans. She was starting to regret dressing up for dinner. It seemed this would have been much easier in her shorts. His strong hands caressed and massaged and tore into her all at once as he pressed her more firmly into himself.

And most assuredly he was happy to see her.

Anger melted away, replaced by desire... and a trace of fear. Benny’s going to kill me? It didn’t compute. And it was hard to think when he touched her like that.

Dani shoved the question aside for a minute. He was there. She was there. They were alone. Who knew how long they had, and how many people were listening. If she was going to be humiliated about this later, she was going to at least take a moment to enjoy what he was doing.

Her body arched against his. Oh, hell yeah. She was lost in him, deeply entrenched in him. Her body didn’t know that this was all for show, and she wasn’t about to tell it otherwise. So what if he was only doing this to be able to talk in whispers, so that they could plan. So that they could figure out a better escape, because she apparently had been an idiot to not leave when he did earlier in the day. But even this was risky. After the recorded sex, it was impossible to say with any certainty that what they said wouldn’t be overheard. Was she truly safe?

Should she really be indulging in this right now?

But her body refused to be fooled. It knew primal lust and need, and it knew that she wanted him, more than anyone or anything. If she died tomorrow, at least she would have this tonight. So she allowed herself to enjoy the feeling of his chest under her hands, the muscles that rippled, the light scattering of coarse hair. She let herself breathe in his passion. Let his hands on her skin burn in pleasant ways, let his lips excite her passions. She moaned before she could stop herself.

“How do you know?” she whispered, trying to distance herself from the act, to pay attention to the life and death decisions they were discussing, but he was so... oh, yeah. He knew where to touch a girl...

“Randy told me,” Luke said between kisses, his lips against her ear. “Word gets out fast. Apparently even the good guys have an ear to the ground.”

“Or a mole!” It came out louder than she intended, and she covered by gripping him hard through his pants so that he was the one to moan. Her turn to whisper in his ear. “Tell me there’s someone inside we can trust.”

“I don’t know... I don’t know anything more than what I told... you... wow... don’t stop...”

She gripped him. Hard. “You shouldn’t have come back.” She pulled away and reached for his belt. If it had to be a charade for him, she was going to enjoy the hell out of it. He didn’t have to love her, but Katie had been right about her loving him. Needing him. She fumbled with the buckle, pulling so hard to release the belt that she nearly toppled them both, but he grabbed her cheeks and lifted her, planting her on the credenza. That motion helped as she tore at the button of his pants.

“I’m not going to let you get killed.” His hands skimmed her sides from her waist, moving under her bra, freeing her breasts into fingertips that tormented and teased.

“I told you, Benny would never kill me...” She leaned forward and popped the buttons on his shirt. She heard a small clattering sound as something landed somewhere out of sight. In a moment he was free, unclothed, and lying magnificently large in her hand.

“He’s...”

Whatever it was got lost as he yanked on her jeans, barely opening them in his enthusiasm to get them off her and having to struggle to get them past her hips. The moment seemed oddly comical and she stopped suddenly in her twisting and gyrating to get free, and just looked at him. He met her gaze, concerned. Dark with passion. And for a moment they just stood, staring at each other. Conversation spent, frantic groping suspended, he hovered between her legs, his tip at the glistening opening of her sex. They locked eyes and just... looked at each other.

Then, as if by some unspoken signal, he slid into her, pressing softly, firmly, as though time had stopped as his sex touched hers and only now began to restart in hesitation and slow penetration. He filled her; she wrapped the other leg around his waist and pulled him in. Time began to find the rhythm again.

He pressed into her fully. By the time he was as deep as he could go, and the wonder of his hardness filled her, deliciously stuffing her senses, time sped up to catch up. He pulled out and slammed back in, running through her folds, his thrusts gaining speed, slamming into her until the credenza danced beneath them. A lamp jumped and fell, rolling back and forth on the surface of the table; knickknacks lost their careful placements and tried to change positions, jumping and cavorting as he took her, as she absorbed him.

His hands were on her breasts; she couldn’t even tell anymore if he was under the shirt or he’d torn it off. It didn’t matter, and she no longer cared. All Dani knew was that he was taking her, that she was feeling him, even if he was driven by lust and vengeance. Maybe she was driven by love, though she hesitated to call it that right now, when everything was so wondrous and amazing. Maybe knowing they could both die tomorrow made everything sharper, more bittersweet. But she had tears in her eyes as the orgasm tore through her, sending the lamp finally from the table, and scattering the small pieces of oddments to the winds.

She cried out, grabbing him hard, her nails in his back, her body clamping down on his, trying to imprison the thickness within her, but she was too wet, he was too strong, and he powered through her orgasm as she trembled and shook. It didn’t stop. This time, the orgasm didn’t stop. It rolled over her and consumed her, and he kept thrusting, using, demanding, and the climax refused to end.

He groaned and arched, and grabbed her breasts as his own orgasm came over him, and the waves of pleasure and lust running through her milked him, pulling from him all his seed, his need and his lust for her. Her legs contracted on their own, pressing him deeper as he came. His hands found the perfect painful squeeze against her breasts, and for a moment the room darkened and began to fade, and then the raging storm broke and she convulsed into his chest, her body jerking and her breath coming back.

He collapsed against her then, out of breath and shaking, and she realized just how tired he was. What had he gone through today, that had taken him from her and then back to her? As he lifted his head their eyes met, and she saw with a certain wonder that he truly was worried about her. No... afraid. As if she would disappear if he took his eyes off her. In shy wonder she raised a hand and touched his cheek, her own chest rising and falling rapidly as she sought to catch her own breath.

“Luke...”

But she didn’t know what to say. He leaned forward, kissing her once, his lips tender upon hers, allowing for a moment to think that maybe he did love her and that this wasn’t all for show. But when he drew back, there was a remoteness to him already that let her know she was losing him, that he was already fading from her world.

When he pulled out of her, the friction of his softening cock sliding out caused another mini-aftershock. It was enough to take the last of the little chessmen off the surface, a pawn, sending it hurling to the carpet to languish with its fellows; she shuddered and laughed, and tried to find something witty to say about scattered chess pieces, or the havoc that he’d caused.

That he still caused when he looked at her that way. In the way that her heart gave a funny thump when he touched her hair before stepping backwards, away from her.

So it was that Dani found herself half-naked in the library, unable to move for the tremors that ran through her body.

He pulled up his pants and came back to her, zipping up as he approached. He held her in his arms, brought his mouth to her neck and buried it there, kissing, suckling, licking the sweat he’d caused and holding her tightly. His left hand slipped to her bare ass, and he held her against him as she spasmed once more and her breath finally caught with a certain embarrassment that she was still so aroused, and he was... already quite done.

Especially when he spoke.

“Help me get into the office,” he whispered in her ear.

Dani fell against him in that embrace. You have such a way with words, Luke. A veritable chatterbox.

At the same time, who did she have to be mad at other than herself? He might have come back because she was in danger but it didn’t necessarily mean anything, did it? A man didn’t go into law enforcement, unless he had a strong desire to serve and protect. How much more did a federal agent want to change the world? He wasn’t about to leave any civilian in danger, end of story. Here she stood, her body aching with what had to be some of the best sex she’d had in her life, and she was standing there suppressing hysterical giggles as she tried to imagine how the conversation would go with her friends from here, if they could see her now.

So, how did you know he was in love? The way he said, ‘help me into the office’, of course. That’s the way women have been able to tell for centuries.

Suddenly furious, she pushed him back and found her clothing. Her jeans lay beneath her feet. Her underwear... well, it had seen better days. The boy was seriously bad for anything made of lace. Or silk. Or pretty much anything she wore beneath her clothes. She held the panties by the side that was still intact and gave him a look. He wasn’t having to wear jeans commando. It was hardly fair.

At least he was missing a button. Though she suspected the shirt he’d changed in to for dinner might have been David’s, which was why it had strained so hard to contain his barrel chest to begin with. He’d hardly care that she’d ruined something that belonged to her stupid brother.

She sighed and went searching for her shirt, finding it under the lamp on the floor. Or what was left of the lamp.

Her mother would be having fits if she’d seen what her daughter had done to this room.

No. She paused in stepping into her jeans. Her mother would have been proud that she’d been able to express her love in such a passionate way. Because, regardless of how they each thought of it, regardless of how either of them would describe this moment in years to come, Luke Milligan, or whatever the hell his last name was, might have gotten laid tonight.

But she had made love.