Chapter Twenty-Two
Luke trails his mouth down my spine, leaving hot, wet kisses behind. I tingle all over, and I’m already wet between my legs—again.
I gather all my willpower.
“I have to go.” My voice is a little breathless despite my firm resolve. I blame Luke for being a steak, and myself for having been a hamburger eater.
“It’s only six thirty,” he murmurs against the small of my back. “And Sunday.”
Heat spreads through me, leaving me restless. He’s already figured out all my sensitive spots.
“Yeah… But I have to run.” The desire unfurling inside me has leached my voice of all conviction, and my protest ends on a squeak as he bites my butt cheek.
“Seriously? This isn’t enough cardio for you?” He licks the spot. “Come on. I’ll let you be on top this time.”
I laugh breathlessly, then moan when his nimble fingers dip between my legs. God, it’s so, so tempting. And he’s right. It’s early and Sunday. Maybe I can delay my run. Just a little bit. “You’re worse than the snake with the forbidden fruit.”
“If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a prince,” he whispers, his breath hot on the sensitive skin behind my knee.
“Half an hour,” I moan into my pillow.
He wicked laughter shakes the mattress.
Despite his promise, he doesn’t let me be on top, the sneaky bastard. And he doesn’t go for a quickie. Instead, he uses the time to wring one orgasm after another out of me, his mouth, fingers and that gorgeous body all working together to drive me insane, one stroke at a time. Every cell I have is lax and drained, but somehow humming at the same time. I vaguely notice his gaze flick to the bedside table, then he swiftly wraps himself in a condom and pushes into me.
I’m so swollen and sensitive, I cry out in delirium. “No… I think I’m done,” I say in a pant.
“You’re nowhere close to finished.”
He pulls back, then drives into me again, his pace relentless. Sweat slickens my skin, and my heart beats and lungs burn as though I’ve been running for hours. Luke doesn’t just keep up; he surpasses me. And he isn’t going to find his release until I find mine.
I’m so primed that it only takes a soft, slick caress over my clit for me to scream his name as another orgasm rocks me. He finally climaxes, his strong hands on my hips.
When my breathing finally settles, I open an eye and glance at the radio clock. “Forty minutes,” I groan.
“I came exactly at the thirty-minute mark,” Luke says, his smirk entirely too self-satisfied.
“I’ll take your word for it.” I huff, then burrow under the blanket. “I need to get up and get going.”
He strokes my back with his fingertips. “It’s really cold outside.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“This bed’s really warm…”
“It is indeed.” I snuggle closer because everyone deserves a moment of “Do I have to get up? Pleeeeeaaaaase?” before dragging themselves out of bed.
“I don’t have anything to do today,” he says, pulling me closer.
I’ll bet he doesn’t.
“Your heart rate definitely hit the fat-burning zone.”
More like the “oh my God, oh my God, I’m coming again” zone. “That’s not why I run.” I stifle a yawn. “You’re lucky I don’t need a lot of sleep. Otherwise I’d be grumpier than a homeless hermit crab.”
I force myself up, and my gaze lands on the heap of clothes on the floor. Sadly, I didn’t pack my overnight bag because I didn’t know Luke would be back in town…or that I’d be spending the night at his place. I almost never spend the night at anybody’s place. I get up and grab my phone.
“What are you doing?” Luke asks.
“Calling Uber. Need a ride home so I can change.”
“Give me a minute.” He climbs out of bed, totally shameless as he parades around naked, but then, why should he be ashamed when he has a physique like that? The way his lean, defined muscles move is art. “I’ll drive you.”
“Really? You don’t have to.” I throw his words back at him: “The bed’s warm, and it’s cold outside.”
Smiling, he kisses me on the forehead. “Might be warm, but it doesn’t have you in it anymore.”
By the time I’ve finished in the bathroom, put on the clothes from yesterday, and gone downstairs, Luke’s already in the kitchen, dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans. I sniff. “Coffee,” I whisper reverently.
He hands me a travel mug. “I wasn’t sure how you like it, but there’s some cream and sugar.”
“Your research didn’t tell you?” I tease.
“Alas, no.”
“Thanks.” I dump a bunch of sugar into the brew and sip. Ahh. Coffee, the elixir of almost all that is great in life, how I love thee. I should be awake by the time I’m ready to run.
Luke takes a cup for himself. “You know, you could skip a day. I’ll make it worth your while.” He waggles his eyebrows, shooting me a lascivious look.
I sigh. “I’d love to, but…nope.” Before he can speak, I add, “I’ve never felt this conflicted about my morning run, though, so don’t say a word to tempt me or I’m going to start calling you Sauron.”
“Why Sauron?”
“Because he’s evil. Created the ring to tempt good.”
“Don’t have the ring…but I do have the cock.”
“One cock to rule them all…?”
“Who said anything about ‘them all’?” He gives me a sweet look. “One woman is enough.”
My cheeks grow warm, and my lips twitch in a beginning of a grin. “Maybe later.”
He smirks, then leads me to his car. Outside, it is indeed chilly. I shiver. I can never get used to the winter morning temperatures.
“Why do you have to run?” he asks, opening the passenger door.
“Because it’s fun,” I answer out of reflex. It’s what I tell everyone who asks, but then I pause. Luke isn’t like everyone, and I don’t want to give him a pat response. “Well, really it’s to remind myself not to put things off.”
He quirks an eyebrow.
When he’s behind the wheel and has started the engine, I continue after taking another big swallow of the coffee. “I was pretty good in school. Even in subjects I didn’t like, I could do okay by cramming the day before a test. Of course, I promptly forgot all the stuff I crammed, but who cares, right? It’s a bad habit, and I learned that the hard way when I got to college and couldn’t recall anything from trig class.”
“Why did that matter?”
I sigh at the memory. “Because I was in calculus. So I had to struggle to reteach myself trig.” I shudder. That was about as pleasant as hymen that won’t stay torn. “Trigonometry is still my least favorite math, mainly because my teacher was an idiot who shouldn’t have been teaching anything beyond pre-algebra, but also because of how I approached it.”
“Okay. But how does that relate to running?”
“If I hadn’t been cramming, I would’ve remembered enough to get by in calculus. I mean, no matter how much I hated trigonometry or how legit terrible my teacher was. Anyway, that’s when I decided to start an activity I couldn’t cheat on, and I chose running. You can’t cram for a race. If you miss four days of one-hour workouts, you can’t run five hours on the fifth day and make up for it. It reminds me to keep things honest and not to put off whatever tasks need to be done that day.”
Luke sticks out his lower lip. “Huh. Well, as annoying as I find your morning run to be today…that’s a wise answer. And not at all what I expected.”
“What did you think it was about?”
“Being in shape.”
I snort. “I wouldn’t be this dedicated to a cause that minor. Like you said…you could’ve kept my heart rate up.” And it would’ve been hella more fun than running in the cold. And today’s my high-intensity day, too.
The car stops in front of the townhouse. Luke turns, rests a forearm on my headrest, and runs his fingers gently through my hair. “Will you spend the rest of the day with me after your run?”
My breath catches at the tenderness and admiration in his dark blue gaze. Nobody’s ever looked at me this way. And I instinctively realize what I have with Luke is more than just fun sex or chemistry. It’s something far more important…
Almost like love.
My heart stutters for a moment, the sensation unfamiliar but not entirely unpleasant. I blink, then shake myself. I’m a planner. I like having goals and figuring out how to achieve them. But this…this is just so unexpected.
And I don’t like surprises. Not to mention, Luke isn’t the kind of surprise that’s going to stick around. He doesn’t even live here.
Still…
“Yes,” I whisper.