Luke and Dani barely made it into the house before they stripped down. The huge place was empty, as Benny’s men had scattered to the winds when he died. David was in rehab, so he was gone as well. Heaven only knew where the staff had disappeared to. Dani suspected that if anyone thought to check the sideboard, the silver would likely come up missing. But who cared? They actually had the place to themselves. Time for each other. Alone.
It wasn’t passion and lust that drove them from their clothes. It wasn’t even the need to find themselves in a heated embrace. The fact is, they both had blood and dirt and smoke in their clothing and permeating their hair. They stripped on the way up the stairs, just to get rid of the last of the death and destruction that lingered with them.
Dani paused a moment to stare in wonder at the tatters of what had been her wedding gown only that morning. How was the mind supposed to process the last day, the last week? Being held prisoner and forced to marry in a ruse to bring her father out of hiding was the last thing she could have imagined when she’d gotten off the plane for her brother’s graduation. Had only a month passed since then? She let the heavy fabric fall to the floor, kicking it aside, never wanting to see it again. All that dress could represent to her now was pain and uncertainty.
This moment. This was real. This was them, near each other, lost in the wonder of being free. There were no more prisons.
With that in mind, Dani grabbed Luke’s hand and pulled him away from the room that had been assigned to him. She led him to the master bedroom, the one Benny had been using before... well, before she’d sent him plummeting to his death with a thrown Champagne bottle. To be fair, he’d been trying to kill her at the time. Luke discovered why she’d chosen that particular spot when they entered the bathroom. He stopped and stared wide-eyed at the opulent five-piece bath that he could have fit his entire apartment into. The tub was big enough to float a yacht, and the shower stall large enough to wash an elephant. It had no less than four showerheads embedded in the ceiling and the walls. She shook her head a little, having expected it of her father to build such a luxurious retreat. Thankfully someone had been in to clean at some point before absconding with whatever cufflinks still remained in her father’s jewelry box. Fresh towels lay ready for use; the sink positively gleamed. Satisfied that no trace of mobster or father remained, at least in here, she kicked the door shut with her foot and drew Luke toward the shower with a smile that felt suddenly shy.
The funny thing was, neither of them was exactly feeling sexy under the circumstances, but Dani still had the presence of mind to share the faucet. She stepped in, turning the water to the parboil setting, and sighed as the water sterilized her scalp.
Oh yeah, baby... that... there...
Luke looked at the water and the steam that rose from it like she’d woken something from hell that really wanted another five minutes sleep, and decided that despite being the gorgeous naked woman that she knew she was, he was going to wait and take a shower that was less... deadly. He reached up to touch his hair and pulled back fingers that looked sticky. And red.
He stared at her wide-eyed a minute, and stepped into the stream of water. And screamed.
“WHAT?” Dani yelled, whirling to look past him, half-expecting an intruder in the bathroom. Given the last month they’d had, she doubted she’d even be surprised at this point.
“It’s hot!”
She blinked. “It’s not that hot!”
“Not if you’re a lobster!” He pointed to the way her skin was turning red.
She rolled her eyes and turned the water to something less scalding. “Better?”
***
OKAY, SO IT HAD BEEN a hell of a day, but things were certainly shaping up. Despite the ridiculous temperature Dani had set the water to, there was something about watching her skin turn bright red that was uniquely appealing. It put a pretty flush to her cheeks, giving her an almost shy appeal totally at odds with her character. My blushing bride. He grinned at the thought, deciding it was probably safer not to share, and grabbed a bottle of body wash and filled his hands. Slathering her body gave him an excuse to run his hands everywhere he wanted: under the arms, over the breasts, rubbing the mixture on her butt cheeks and then reaching between her legs and slathering her there for good measure. Because, after all, one needed to be thorough.
She batted his hands away, squealing, as he forgot the soap entirely and instead just rubbed the bits that brought her nipples up in hard peaks. Then she grabbed at the bottle of body wash to retaliate with all the fervor of someone with something to prove. The brat. Trying to bring him to his kn—
He moaned and staggered a little. She’d rubbed the soap into the hair on his chest and had been slowly working her way down between his legs. Okay, he could see her point. Teasing her like—
He simply could not think when she was pulling on him like that. He braced himself against the side of the shower, half turning and getting a face full of water, as he’d forgotten the multiple heads. He came up sputtering as she abandoned his shaft and went to his balls, massaging his sac until he was begging for mercy, ending the battle by rubbing cleanser on his ass, finishing the job with a sharp smack that rang wetly in the small space.
He raised an eyebrow and stared at her.
She stared right back. Defiant. An absolutely evil glint in her eye.
“You do realize this means war,” he murmured, grabbing at the bottle and upending it, pouring a liberal amount of soap into his palms.
Cleanliness was abandoned entirely, not that it was a necessary focus in the amount of soap used. Hands found excuses to grope, to pinch, to prod. Soap flew, until finally, breathless with laughter, Dani begged off from more with the excuse that they were running out of hot water, and that she had enough soap in her hair to need to rinse it. Run out of hot water? In this palace? He countered that the temperature was finally bearable, and only just missed getting hit in the privates with the empty bottle of body wash while she turned and rinsed the last of the soap down the drain.
He took that moment to capture her mouth in his, wrapping his body around hers. His hands were gentle as he pulled her in close, reaching up to tenderly rinse the soap from her scalp, reveling in the way his fingers tangled in the silken strands.
She opened to his kiss, tongue meeting his in a joyful dance, even as her hands, so small compared to his, moved down over chest and hips, ending in a slow stroke of his rising manhood. He gasped against her mouth, and she pulled back just enough to murmur, “I think I win...” before turning off the water, reaching for the towels.
Not about to let her get away that easily he grabbed her, his hardness between her legs, and she pulled back, laughing. She broke free of the bathroom and ran, towel flapping behind her like a cape, naked into the master bedroom.
Luke took off after her and found only the towel at the doorway. He dashed into the hall and followed her soft padding footfalls down the main stairs into the entryway. His towel snagged on the banister on the landing, and he abandoned it easily. The house was theirs, after all. Intent on following, he spied her as she ran down the last part of the staircase and ran in hot pursuit, but when he arrived at the bottom of the staircase she was nowhere to be found.
He stood and pondered a minute, then walked the width of the entrance to the door to the study. He threw the door open with an “AH-HA!”.
The room was empty.
He stood there, trying to decide whether to try the kitchen or dining room next, and yelped when she grabbed his balls from behind. He spun and caught her wrist as she tried to escape, pulling her to him, feeling her tight body against his.
“I want to make love to you in every room in the house,” she whispered in his ear, nipping at the lobe, sending shockwaves through his system.
“Am I going to have to play hide and seek?” He smiled against her neck, leaving a trail of tiny kisses that left her breathless.
Dani laughed and pushed him away, palms flat against his chest. “Do you know how silly you looked with that thing pointing straight out ahead of you like a bobbing divining rod?”
“It seeks out beautiful naked women,” he said, and grabbed her cheeks to pull her to him.
“Does it work?”
“So far, so good,” Luke chuckled. “Just the rooms in the house? How about the tennis court and the swimming pool and, let’s see...”
“Oh, a real outdoorsman, are you?” Dani teased, giving him a playful squeeze. She pulled away from him and spun, dancing across the floor to the front door. “Why not? Let’s start in the front yard and...” She opened the door.
Luke wasn’t sure who was more surprised: Dani or the Atlanta police force who had arrived en masse complete with SWAT team. Maybe it was the state police or the FBI, who were currently arguing over jurisdiction while their naked suspects chose that moment to flash them.
“SHIT!” It might have been Luke who said it, it might have Dani. Certainly, the young policeman in the riot gear was too tongue-tied at Dani’s nakedness to have completed an entire thought. His eyes never left her...assets.
Dani slammed the door and locked it. She turned to Luke, hands out in a ‘what the hell are we going to do’ sort of gesture.
“Clothes!” he yelled, and they pelted up the stairs to the rooms they’d been held in for weeks.
I am not getting stuck in this damn house again! I’m not getting stuck in this damn...
“This is the police!” A bullhorn broke through his thoughts as he skidded through the bedroom doorway, landing half against the dresser. Thankfully it was already broken, and therefore finding clothes was a matter of merely reaching in and grabbing what was there. He found underwear, hopping on one foot frantically, trying to get it on.
“This is the FBI!” called a new voice. “Come out with your hands in the air!”
Luke could hear a helicopter getting closer. Great, maybe that was Benny’s men coming to get revenge. It would complete the day. He pulled on a shirt and leapt into a pair of jeans. Wait, hadn’t he seen his wallet in the master bedroom? He hadn’t seen it in weeks.
The helicopter seemed to want to land on the roof, it was so close. He grabbed some socks and pushed them in a pocket. Holding his tennis shoes, he ran to get his wallet just as the pounding began anew on the front door.
He nearly ran into Dani coming out of the bedroom. She had his wallet and watch. How she’d known to grab them he had no idea, but never had he wanted to kiss her more than in that moment. He noticed she’d managed to pull on a t-shirt, bra and shorts; like him, she carried her boots with her.
She grabbed his arm. “Now what? I thought your friend fixed this!”
“I guess he’s not much of a friend!”
“What the hell is his problem?” Dani yelled. “He was invited to the wedding!”
A door broke open. Luke rushed to the top of the stairs, but the front door was holding under the pressure of the pounding.
“DADDY?”
Edwin Rineheart stood at the end of the hallway, the light streaming in behind him. He’d broken through a door that apparently led to the roof, where Luke could hear the whine of rotors.
“Come with me if you want to live,” he said in a bad accent. Then he laughed. “I always wanted to say that!”
Dani looked at Luke, her eyes wide. Panicked. He shook his head no. “You can’t trust him!”
The front door shattered open and the SWAT team broke through.
“On the other hand—” Luke grabbed Dani’s hand and bolted after the retreating back of the man who had started this whole mess.