Chapter Twenty
Charlotte
An ache built in Charlotte’s middle as he scooted closer and put his arm around her. The way he’s looking at me. Holy hell, we might just burn this place down. He was obviously waiting for her answer, and she had one, but her heart was so full, she needed a minute. Just one.
He’d come. Like a freaking knight on a snowmobile, Luke had driven up a mountain to be with her. All because he knew she needed someone. That had to be the single most romantic thing anyone had done for her…hell, maybe would ever do for her.
She’d been so wrong about him.
Charlotte took a breath, then leaned forward to kiss him. Slowly, pouring everything in her heart into the kiss. Luke’s arms came around her, and it felt right. Yesterday had been about heat, urgency, need. The need was here tonight, but it was a slow burn. The best kind.
Dying to touch him, she slid into his lap and tugged his shirt over his head. He was so beautiful, wonderfully made. He worked hard for it, too. She trailed her fingers across the hard muscles of his chest, his shoulders, his stomach. He was breathing faster now, watching her. Smiling, she pulled her own shirt off, then slipped the elastic out of her hair. Not knowing he was coming over, she’d dressed for comfort, not to impress.
Not that he seemed to care.
Gripping her thighs, he stood in one fluid motion and carried her to the bed. Maybe tonight nothing would come between them.
He laid her down, then gently tugged off her yoga pants. Goose bumps rose on her skin as he stripped off his jeans and climbed onto the bed next to her.
“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed as he kissed the hollow at the base of her throat. “Every inch of you.”
His lips trailed lower, to her collarbone, down to her breastbone, then the tops of her breasts. His other hand slid over her stomach to her thighs, stroking the outside, then the inside, before drawing his finger higher. Charlotte whimpered. Any coherent thought had gone out of her head, eliminating everything but his hands and mouth all over her skin.
“So beautiful,” he murmured against her stomach, continuing his torturous touch.
Oh God. She felt drunk, dizzy, and they hadn’t even gotten to the best part yet.
Time to fix that.
She wriggled lower and reached for him. His eyes fell closed as she stroked him, and a low groan rose in his chest. “Don’t make me wait.”
Luke stared into her eyes, his gaze hungry and tender at the same time. “Whatever you want, lovely Charlotte.” He shifted on top of her, hovering, giving her a close-up of his pecs and shoulders. She shivered. His body felt perfect against hers.
He bent to kiss her, then gently pushed her legs apart with his knee. She wanted this, needed it. Badly. But, deep down, she knew being with him meant more than just giving in to the sparks between them.
So much more.
And, as he sank into her, she decided she’d made the right decision.
Luke grabbed a stack of note cards from her dresser, flipping through them. “Okay, I hope these are flash cards, because if you read about tryptic digestion for fun, we need to talk.”
Charlotte laughed and tried to grab the cards from him. “They’re study aids.”
“Hmmm.” He shuffled the cards. “I have an idea. We could study naked.”
She rolled over to look at him. “Are you serious?”
“Sure.” He peered at the first card. “Stereocilia are primarily responsible for…A) smell, B) uh, pre…”
“Proprioception,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “What the hell does that even mean?”
“You know when you get turned around really fast and your inner ear freaks out?”
“Uh, SBXer here.”
She took the card from him, smiling. “They help with the perception of how your body moves through space.”
“Learn something new every day. Next question.” He shuffled through a handful of cards, shifting against Charlotte’s side and sending tingles running down her arm. “Okay, don’t laugh at how I pronounce this one.”
She stretched under the blanket Luke had thrown over them, trying to maximize body contact. “No promises.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He cleared his throat. “Which of the following structures does not have a vascular supply: Tra…trabecular bone, uh, hepatocytes.” He paused. “Shit, Charlotte, how the hell do you memorize all this?”
“I’m going to spare you, because I know this one is the cornea, but the answer to your question is: study, study, study.” She smiled up at him as he shuffled the cards. It was really sweet that he was interested in helping her succeed, but his forehead creased more and more as he flipped cards. “You could learn this stuff if you wanted to.”
“I’m better with numbers.” He kissed the side of her head. “Ask me how a profit-loss report works, and I’m your guy.”
She leaned into him. “That, and you have excellent proprioceptive abilities.”
“I’d like to believe so.”
She laughed. “You ride down a mountain at a bajillion miles per hour, while turning and jumping off cliffs—”
“Kickers.” He sounded amused by “cliffs.”
“Kickers. Anyway, if that doesn’t define exceptional proprioceptive abilities, I don’t know what does.”
He dropped the cards back onto the nightstand and nuzzled her neck. “I’ll take your word for it.”
Charlotte’s toes curled. “Does that mean our study break is over?” she asked. “After two whole cards?”
“Um-hmm,” he murmured against her collarbone, working his way lower until Charlotte gasped. “I’d rather study anatomy with a more…practical lesson.”
Charlotte’s body felt boneless as his fingers explored. “I’m okay with that.”
Her sentence trailed off with a moan, and he chuckled. “Best class ever. Are sexual reproduction questions on this test?”
“Hmm?” Her mind was fuzzy, and she couldn’t focus on anything but what his right hand was doing. “Yes. Lots of questions.”
He pushed himself up to hover over her, eyes bright with want. “Then I think I need a private tutorial.”
“I never realized peanut butter and chocolate chips could taste so good.” He took another bite. “If Michael saw this, he’d have my ass.”
“He can’t have it.” Charlotte wagged her spoon at him. “That ass is all mine.”
He smiled lazily at her. “Is it now?”
They’d slept for a few hours, had sex again, hardly able to keep their hands off each other, then realized they were both starving. It was just past midnight.
“Hey.” Luke reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Merry Christmas.”
“You, too.” She sighed. How much joy could one person’s heart hold? “I, um, didn’t get you anything.”
“Yeah, you did.” He waggled his eyebrows. “And it was exactly what I wanted.”
She laughed. “You sound like you mean that.”
His smiled faded into something more serious. “I do.”
“Oh.” Charlotte flushed, her chest a tangle of excitement, confusion, want, doubt. “Me, too.”
Now that was true. She’d been with four guys, and none had come close to this. Hell, not one had paid much attention to anything but her breasts. Luke was an equal opportunity kind of guy, and she definitely liked it.
But it was more, wasn’t it? She was falling, hard. Not only was Luke an excellent lover, but he was a great guy on top of that. And so hot. He was the real deal, and he’d walked through the café door when she’d needed it most, even though she hadn’t realized that at the time. Thank God he’d been persistent.
Luke got up, and Charlotte had to watch. He’d only pulled on his jeans to come downstairs, and the play of muscles in his back as he raided the fridge was too good to miss.
He came back with a plate of cheese and crackers. “So we can pretend we’re eating real food.”
Heart aching in a good way, she laughed and took one. “I’m a bad influence.”
He gave her a dose of lazy, sexy smile. “I’ll make us egg white omelets in the morning, counteract the midnight snack. Then again, it’s Christmas—maybe we should have pancakes.”
Charlotte grinned. “Chocolate chip pancakes.”
“It’s a deal.”