Chapter10
Luke let Elizabeth into the house, feeling the pins-and-needles tingling through his body as they both entered. They’d gone to dinner, they’d seen a movie at the AMC just outside the Loop, and now they would spend as much of the next forty-eight hours as possible having sex, in the hopes of getting Elizabeth pregnant. He had been waiting for the night to come for days, and he had--in the interests of doing his very best--not even indulged in any “stress relief” in the meantime or at all since the last time they’d had sex, when she’d met up with him the first time.
But Luke was nervous just as much as he was interested and on the edge of arousal at the thought of being with Elizabeth again. The more time they spent together, the more he found himself feeling old stirrings of what had been between them. That was dangerous, and Luke knew it. You can cross that bridge when you come to it; right now, just think about how good it will be.
“Why don’t we focus on getting comfortable first?” Luke leaned in and pressed his lips lightly to Elizabeth’s forehead, reaching out to find her hand and giving it a quick squeeze.
“That might help with the awkwardness,” Elizabeth agreed.
“And this will technically be the last time you can drink, won’t it?” They’d both discussed the issue and decided that Elizabeth wouldn’t consume alcohol anymore once they were actively trying and once there was a chance that she could be pregnant. Since she was ovulating, she could become pregnant within the next several days. While all the books and doctors said that so early on in the pregnancy, it wasn’t likely to make much difference, especially since it wasn’t as though Elizabeth drank every day, but neither of them wanted to take any chances.
“That’s true! I should enjoy it,” Elizabeth agreed. Luke went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of prosecco--one he’d bought to replace the one they’d consumed before--and a few glasses, and they went into the living room together.
“Why don’t we open this bottle up, and you can enjoy a glass of it while I give you another foot rub?” Luke grinned at Elizabeth as they moved towards the couch.
“Okay, that definitely sounds good,” Elizabeth told him. Luke waited for her to get comfortable on his couch, and then he sat down, pulling her feet into his lap before tackling the important task of opening the bottle of prosecco. He got the bottle open and poured two glasses, handing one off to Elizabeth and clinking the other one against it. He sipped and then set his glass and the bottle aside on the coffee table, turning on the TV and pulling up Spotify to start some music to set the mood.
He had a special mix, and it started with Daniel Johns’ “Aerial Love,” which began to fill the room, vibrating around them with the bass tones before the crooning voice of the singer and the synthesizers and other instruments came up around it. Luke went to work, carefully peeling off Elizabeth’s socks and setting them aside.
“Good to know you don’t have stinky feet,” he told her with a grin, and Elizabeth rolled her eyes, aiming a playful pretend-punch at his shoulder.
“Less talking, more rubbing,” she said with false severity, wriggling into the right position on the couch next to him. Luke snickered and began to rub her left foot first, working the arch and up to the toes, down to her heels slowly. Just like before, it worked like a charm.
Between the sparkling wine and the massage, Luke knew that Elizabeth was relaxing. Luke worked on first one foot and then the other, until he felt Elizabeth’s whole body start to relax. He watched her carefully, working up to her ankles and then her calves as the music played on, swirling around them.
Instead of going in for the kiss, though, Luke let the massage end just under her knees and sat back; just being close to Elizabeth was enough to make him start to feel the heat rising in his body, enough to make him want more. It was too easy for him to remember just how delicious she had looked naked that first time, too easy to recall how good she had felt, the sounds of her moans filling his ears.
And after not getting himself off for a week, he knew that the first time they had sex again, he wouldn’t be able to last long; he had to savor it, even if they had the next forty-eight hours to get as much pleasure as they could out of each other’s bodies.
So, instead of moving to sex right away, he sipped some of the prosecco he’d poured, and they talked about anything but sex or the chances of conception; there was a little less than ten years of living to catch up on between them, after all. Luke knew it was dangerous to go that route; he could already feel himself starting to get attached to Elizabeth. He also knew that the best way to get a woman fully and completely in the mood was to build up to sex as gradually as possible.
“I have a question for you,” Elizabeth said when they’d consumed about half the bottle between them.
“What’s that?” Luke felt the effects of the alcohol a little bit, but he knew that he would definitely still be able to perform. Just having her legs in his lap, knowing that the rest of her was so close at hand, was enough to give him the start of an erection.
“When was the last time you slow-danced with someone?” Luke raised an eyebrow.
“Slow-dancing? Really, Lizzie?” He’d fallen back on the nickname he’d used for her in high school without completely realizing it, but it felt good; it felt right.
“Really, Luke. When was the last time?”
Luke shrugged. “It’s probably been a year or more,” he admitted. “Why?”
“Put on a slow song. I want to slow-dance with you like we did at Homecoming,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh, come on,” Luke said, shaking his head even as he reached for the controller. He scrolled through his mix and found a song that he thought might suit. “Just for that, we’re going to slow-dance to Hanson,” he added. Elizabeth let out a delighted laugh.
“I didn’t even know you had any Hanson on your playlist,” she said, giggling again.
“I put it on here for you, since I know you wish I was Taylor Hanson,” Luke told her. Elizabeth snickered and shook her head even as Luke changed the song to one of the band’s later tracks. He rose from the couch, reluctantly letting Elizabeth’s legs fall from his lap, and she got up as well--if a little unsteadily.
As the song came up, Luke reached for Elizabeth’s waist and rested his hands just above her hips. She draped her arms around his shoulders, and they fell into the beat. At first, it was a great deal like high school: both of them almost at arm’s length from each other. But as they moved together, their bodies shifted closer, as if drawn magnetically.
Luke gently pulled Elizabeth against him, letting his hands move to the small of her back to hold her there, and Elizabeth’s arms tightened slightly around his shoulders as they swayed together. She rested her cheek against his chest, and Luke closed his eyes, letting his chin rest on the top of her head, and that was exactly like high school too, when things had been so much less complicated.
The song moved into another one--Silverchair’s “Miss You Love”--which wasn’t exactly romantic but was still in the same kind of beat, and Luke and Elizabeth continued dancing, picking up the pace of their steps as the melody moved into the slightly more up-tempo chorus. Luke breathed in the scent of Elizabeth’s hair, reveling in it as they moved together.
He shut out the warning voice in his mind that this was exactly the kind of thing he should avoid if he wanted to keep from becoming too attached--and keep Elizabeth, in turn, from becoming too attached to him. It felt good just to dance with her, just to hold her in his arms and feel her body against his.
As the song finished, Luke couldn’t help himself anymore; he reached up with one hand and tilted her face up, away from his chest, and kissed her lightly on the lips. He held back for a moment, giving Elizabeth ample opportunity to pull back if she didn’t want it, but after she began to respond to him, he deepened the kiss, pressing her body tightly against his. They slowed down and then stopped dancing altogether, standing in the middle of Luke’s living room and kissing more and more passionately.
Luke let his hands wander over Elizabeth’s curves, moving up to cup her breasts and then down to her hips, reminding himself of everything he had enjoyed about her the first time they’d had sex. Luke ducked down to Elizabeth’s neck and began to nibble along the column of her throat, working down from the spot underneath her earlobe, down to nearly her collarbones, and then back up along the other side, until he came to her ear. “This is getting pretty hot,” he murmured in her ear. “You’re ready for this, right?”
“If I wasn’t ready for this, I definitely wouldn’t be here right now,” Elizabeth replied. “And I did sign a contract.” Luke pulled back slightly, looking into Elizabeth’s eyes.
“If you don’t want to try right now, we don’t have to,” he said, although every cell in his body screamed out at him not to; he wanted to get off as much as he ever had in his life.
“No, I want to try,” Elizabeth said, leaning up onto the balls of her feet to kiss him lightly on the lips. “That’s what I’m here to do, right?”
“Right,” Luke agreed. He pulled her close to him again and kissed her eagerly on the lips. Luke could feel the tension in his own body, the way it was humming through his veins. You’re here to have forty-eight hours of as much sex as possible with this woman. Worry about feelings later, he thought as the kiss deepened and heated up once again. Luke made himself hold back from going any further for a while longer, lingering at Elizabeth’s lips, letting his hands trail over her body slowly.
Any pretense of dancing had long since been abandoned, but Luke didn’t want to move towards the couch or even to the guest bedroom just yet. But he also didn’t want to stop things altogether. It was actually nice, for once, to just stay in the moment, to be with someone, to be attracted and on edge, and to feel like he could pop almost at any time without going for it.
“Are we actually going to get down to sex tonight, or is it just going to be extended foreplay?”
Luke laughed at Elizabeth’s question and shook his head.
“I thought you wanted a romantic night,” he countered.
“I did, but I also know I’m only ovulating for a limited time,” Elizabeth pointed out. “Are you not ready for this?”
“I am,” Luke said. He guided her hand down to the front of his jeans. “I definitely am. I haven’t done anything down there since you went back to Portland to pack things up.” Elizabeth barely touched him, and Luke groaned.
“Oh, I can see that you’re ready for this,” Elizabeth said, smiling at him slightly.
“Do you want to go into the guest room?”
“Why don’t we start right here? That couch looks comfortable,” Elizabeth said.
“That sounds like a plan,” Luke said. He steered her towards the couch.