Chapter Nine
Paige
“What the hell do you want then? What do you want? You want your money? You want me? What is it that you want exactly?” Her words echoed in her head as silence surrounded them.
Luke stood motionlessly on the other side of the hallway while the party inside the dining room continued. She watched the conflict in his eyes before something else entirely covered them.
Desire. Lust. It made the cerulean color of his eyes go dark and stormy. It made him dangerous, and she instantly realized she was trapped. Run. What are you doing? RUN.
“I want you to stay,” he said, his voice a low husky timbre. He stalked toward her with casual grace. “I want to kiss you again, badly.”
Her heart pounded hard. Her back collided with one of the wooden pillars, and before she could slip away, Luke’s arms circled her, trapping her between him and the pillar. Her eyes widened in fright, but also from the desire she felt sparking inside her.
“I want to kiss you,” Luke repeated, one hand reaching out to cup her jaw in his hand. “I just want to feel you underneath me, squirming in pleasure. That’s what I want right now.”
“Th-that wasn’t what we agreed upon with your lawyer,” Paige said, her voice wobbly from his proximity. He smelled fresh too, like he had just jogged through the cool air outside. “Remember? We agreed that there wouldn’t be any physical contact unless—”
“Fuck that contract. I’m going to kiss you, Paige, and I know you want to kiss me too.”
His lips crushed against hers. This kiss wasn’t like the one they had exchanged that day in the garden. It wasn’t a brush, a peck on the lips. Luke kissed her greedily and coaxed her lips open to sweep his tongue into her mouth. The taste of him overwhelmed every bit of her senses as his hands smoothed down the sides of her body to grip her hips.
And Paige responded to the passion sparking inside her. Wrapping her arms around those broad shoulders, she kissed him just as fervently, letting out her pent-up frustration and tension. She poured herself into that kiss and took the opportunity to feel the strong muscles coiled under the fabric of his shirt.
A low groan rumbled in Luke’s chest as he tore his lips away to trail down the column of Paige’s neck. She tilted her out of instinct, giving him better access while letting out a shaky moan.
It wasn’t until Luke’s hand slid up the front of her torso to cup her right breast that Paige felt alarm shoot through her. What am I doing? She yanked herself out of Luke’s strong grasp to stumble away into the cold air of the hallway.
Luke shook his head as frustration filled his eyes. “Paige—”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I-I-I can’t do this. I have to go.”
“You can’t go,” Luke said, the picture of calm. “Look outside, dear. There’s snow coming down. My drivers have been drinking as well. You are stuck here with me whether you like it or not.”
She glanced out the window with a sinking realization that Luke was right. It was snowing heavily, the first snow of the season, and no one was sober enough to drive her far into the night. She was utterly stuck with the one person who could undo her within a matter of seconds. And judging from his calculating expression, Luke had every intention of figuring out how to get her into his bed.
Eventually.
“Leave me alone,” Paige said, taking a step back. “I mean it, Luke. Leave me alone.”
“You’re in my lodge,” he said, shaking his head at her. “You are not in control here.”
He reached for her again, but this time Paige slipped away. She walked unsteadily down the hallway in the direction of her suite, Luke’s eyes threatening to burn holes in her back. Slamming the door shut, Paige sank back against it with a shaky sigh.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered to herself. “I can’t do it. All of this is too much.”
She needed to get out while she could. Damn the consequences, or how furious Luke would be for losing his inheritance.
There wasn’t any cell service when Paige pulled out her phone from her purse. The snowstorm had effectively knocked out the cell towers, apparently. She moved through the front sitting room and to the joined bedroom, where she sat down on the edge of her bed to reach for the landline phone on the nightstand. It rang, much to Paige’s relief, after she dialed her parents’ house number.
It went to voice mail a few seconds later.
“It’s me,” Paige said shakily. “Can you guys give me a call back at this number? I need your help with something.”
Hanging the phone back up, she started the process of unbuttoning her blouse to get ready for bed. There was no chance in hell she would be returning to that dinner party to appease Luke or anyone else there. She was exhausted from trying to fight and pretend that the entire thing wasn’t getting to her head.
The door to her room opened abruptly. Paige’s fingers stalled in sheer surprise when she saw Luke walk in without pause. “Excuse me! I’m getting undressed here. Get—”
“Would you like me to help you with that?” Luke asked dryly. He shut the door behind him and then locked it.
That click made Paige’s heart pound furiously in her chest. She rebuttoned the two buttons and pointed a finger at him.
“Leave,” she said. “Get out, now.”
“No,” Luke said, and took a step toward her with narrowed eyes. “I’m tired of fighting this attraction, Paige. I’m damn tired of fighting against it.”
“Fighting against what?”
She took a step back when he took another step toward her. Pivoting on her heel, Paige backed away from the side of the bed to the leather couch that sat directly in front of the fireplace. A fire still smoldered there from earlier. The heat of it touched the back of her bare legs.
“I’m tired of fighting against the attraction I feel for you,” he said, a notable tremble to his voice. “Do you have any idea how hard this is for me?”
“What? Keeping it in your pants?”
He stopped walking. “It’s not a crime to be attracted to someone. I don’t know why you talk about it that way. Did something happen to you?”
“I have my reasons,” she said flatly. “Don’t push it, Luke. This wasn’t in the criteria of information you needed to know.”
Paige turned away from him, which proved a fatal mistake. Strong hands touched her shoulders then, but it wasn’t a sexual touch. It was a consoling and concerned touch that unarmed her immediately.
“Hey,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was such a sensitive thing for you.”
“You have no idea,” she whispered back, her eyes fluttering shut. “Please, Luke. Just let me be and go away.”
“I’m not going to leave until you tell me why you feel the way you do.”
“You don’t need to know any of this information,” she said, shrugging out from beneath his hands. “Why do you care?”
“Because I—”
He stopped before he could say the last part of that sentence. Paige opened her eyes as she turned around to look at him. Standing there in front of the fire, she watched an inner conflict wage a war in Luke’s eyes. Because I care. She could read that sentiment loud and clear, even if he looked uncomfortable letting it show.
Running a hand through her hair, she debated whether she wanted to hash out what had happened with Marcus a few years ago. She had already had a few glasses of wine, and she didn’t want to become a blubbering mess over something that had happened four years ago when she’d been a teenager and an idiot.
“Here,” Luke said, and he sat down on the edge of the couch. “Come sit down and just tell me what the issue is.” He smiled thinly. “Spare us both the fight, Paige. Whatever it is that is bothering you needs to be said.”
He patted the leather cushion next to him. Paige lowered herself onto the couch while she twisted her hands nervously in her lap.
“I honestly don’t know where to begin,” she said.
“The beginning is a good start,” Luke said, shrugging his shoulders. “Just a suggestion. Start wherever you want.”
“It was just a prank when I was sixteen that I can’t shake.” She trailed a hand over the cool leather to avoid Luke’s eyes. “It’s stupid. It was four years ago, but I was sixteen when the football star of my high school took up an interest me. I thought it was a dream come true, because no one had ever paid attention to me.” She swallowed thickly as that painful humiliation crashed over her again. “We had a class together, so we were spending tons of time together working on a project. We hung out behind my parents’ back quite a bit because they didn’t approve of me dating until eighteen. I knew something wasn’t right, but I kept hanging around him because it felt good to be wanted. Well, it was prom night when he asked me to go outside with him to his Jeep.”
Luke’s hand reached for hers. Their fingers interlaced, and it provided a nice distraction from the swell of emotions in her. She concentrated on the feeling of Luke’s calloused fingers twined through hers as she continued. “We started to mess around in the back seat. I kept thinking we should stop, but I didn’t want to risk losing him. It was so painfully awkward too.” Her nose wrinkled at the memory of Marcus’s hands fumbling at her. “We didn’t go all the way, but what he did do hurt, and he wouldn’t stop when I asked him to. That’s when the cops rolled up to find us in the back seat, but I also found out that his ex-girlfriend had been filming the entire thing. She posted it on the Internet out of revenge, so it’s followed me every single day of my life.”
“What a bitch,” Luke said, shaking his head. “People do fucked-up things out of revenge. I know how it feels to have something recorded that you wish wasn’t.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You do?”
“It was years ago,” he said, nodding. “I had too much to drink and left the bar with this woman I barely knew. I know, a real shocker.” Paige straightened her face with an apologetic grimace. “We ended up having sex in the elevator, but neither one of us realized there was a camera there. It recorded us the entire time until we go out. An employee posted it to TMZ, and then reporters started following me around after that.”
“It’s humiliating,” Paige mumbled, wiping at the tears that were stinging her eyes. “It follows you everywhere too.”
“I know. I’m sorry that happened to you. It shouldn’t have happened to you. You don’t deserve that type of shit.”
She shrugged while trying to fight back emotions. The past two weeks filtered through her along with the already conflicted feelings she had for Luke. Everything felt like a confusing blur as Luke pulled her sideways into his lap. He wrapped his arms around her while they sat together in silence, watching the fire smolder in the fireplace.
Despite the warning bells still in her head, Paige let herself sink into the strength of Luke’s body as he pressed his lips into her neck. He then kissed his way up to press a gentle kiss to the corner of her lips, and it prompted her to turn to face him.
Their lips met in a slow and heated kiss, their tongues tangling. They stayed like that for a long time with the dying fire glowing in the fireplace. Luke’s hands start to trail up her legs in a northerly direction, and those couple glasses of wine suddenly felt too much.
Paige’s heart repeatedly slammed into her ribcage. She felt every inch of Luke’s calloused fingers as they ran up the curves of her legs and gripped in all right places to make her squirm in pleasure. When he reached for the hemline of her skirt, Paige shot a hand down to grab his strong wrist before it could continue upward, despite the ache between her legs that begged her to let him touch her.
“Luke,” she warned, her voice hitched with desire. “We have to stop before—”
“Before what?” Luke asked. His eyes were dark with desire, a cloudy and violent storm lingering over the ocean on a hot summer day. She sweltered under the intensity of it. “What is it that you want?”
Those sinful fingers reached up to inch their way past the hemline of her skirt. Her fingers tightened around Luke’s wrist while indecision washed over her. He had to make it so incredibly hard—sticking to what she had promised herself years ago in high school.
“You’re an adult, Paige,” he said smoothly. “Heaven is not going to crack open and smite you down despite what your family has told you.”
“I never said it was because of that,” Paige said, a bit defensively. “I just—” Those fingers crept up even farther until they rested on her upper thighs. She bit her lip to keep herself as motionless as possible. He was teasing her, pushing her limits.
Her eyes fluttered closed when his hand drifted up further to sensually trace the lace of her underwear. One touch wouldn’t be so bad. It’s only one touch.
Luke let out a soft groan before leaning forward to press his lips against her neck. He teased the skin there, nipping softly and then trailing down to the crook of her shoulder. It was damn impossible not to feel the heat that wanted to consume her. Every little touch, every kiss, all of it, she wanted it. She couldn’t resist a man like him easily. He knew his way around a woman’s body even if she didn’t know what she wanted.
His index finger dipped down beneath the elastic band of her underwear. Paige’s eyes widened in shock when she felt that finger move farther.
“Luke—”
“Shh,” Luke murmured against her neck. He shifted her easily onto his lap so that she sat sideways. It put her left thigh in contact with a hard and throbbing bulge in his pants. “Just relax, Paige. Just enjoy this.”
His words were honeyed. They floated over her in a soothing wave that calmed the ebb of nerves in her. No one had ever touched her like this before. She had only ever experienced fumbling around in the back of Marcus’s car a few years ago.
There was no fumbling when it came to Luke’s fingers. One strong arm curled around the back of her waist to steady her. The fabric of her skirt hitched up her thighs. Her fingers were still tight around Luke’s wrist as that finger inched closer and closer until it made contact with the center of her.
The intensity of that brush of his finger against her nerves and core crippled her. A gasp escaped her lips. That flicker of heat and pleasure filled her rapidly. She dimly felt Luke growl into her neck before that finger was replaced with even more. His hand moved against her mound expertly, teasing her in a sensual rhythm that she was utterly powerless against.
Luke’s lips pressed up against hers in a fluttering series of kisses to let her gasp and moan at the sensations spiraling through her body. She could feel the heat radiating off Luke as well while his hips ground up against her thigh with eagerness.
“You feel so good,” Luke whispered hotly against her mouth. A finger dipped into her. “You’re so tight. I don’t even know how the fuck I’m going to last in you.”
“I-I—” Words were lost to her. She couldn’t even formulate a coherent thought with the feel of Luke’s fingers pressing against her intimately.
He increased his rhythm then until her hips were twitching with pleasure. Sweat poured down the back of Paige’s neck as something delicious built up inside her. It caused her hips to twitch upward while an abrupt cry escaped her lips. She was dashing blindly toward what felt like a sweet orgasm.
Her back made contact with the cool leather, but Luke’s fingers didn’t stop. Instead, he knelt between her bent knees while pushing her skirt all the way up. His eyes flicked over the exposed skin hungrily, and if it weren’t for that hot feeling coursing through her, she would’ve flushed with embarrassment.
“Keep going, baby,” he said. “Let yourself go. I can feel how close you are.”
Paige’s fingers clutched desperately at the leather to root herself there. It all became too much. She felt herself come hard in violent shudders that ripped through every inch of her body. Sated, she fell against the leather cushions and pillows while trying to regain her breath.
She came back to when Luke reached down to unzip his pants. Nerves crashed down on her, chasing away that thumping pleasure in her body.
“Luke,” she started, shaking her head, “we can’t do this here. Toby or someone is going to be here any minute.”
That caught Luke’s attention. A wicked grin tugged at his lips.
“You’re right,” he said. “So, I’ll settle for something else in the meantime.”
Wariness filled her when Luke reached into his pants. Her eyes flicked down to take in his hard erection, and she swallowed the thick lump of desire at the back of her throat.
He has every right to walk around the way he does.
She stood stone still, taking in the sheer size of him. The tip of his cock glistened as he reached forward to grab her trembling hand.
“Touch me.”
Paige’s eyes widened at the command. “What?”
“Do it quickly,” Luke said, guiding her hand to his arousal. “I can hear Toby coming up the hallway outside.”
The heat and hardness surprised her as Luke circled her fingers around him. It would never be possible for them to have sex. The size, the length of him. Paige swallowed thickly as Luke guided her hand up and down him in a hurried fashion.
Those nerves faded away as she watched pleasure contort Luke’s face. His head was tilted back slightly as low-throated groans left his mouth. His skin was a simmering rosy red while his hips bucked under her hand’s movement.
“Keep going,” he gritted out, thrusting openly against her hand now. “Keep going, baby. Don’t stop.”
His hand released her wrist to clutch at the couch when his body spasmed with his own orgasm. He let out a sharp cry while he released himself onto her hand and thighs. Paige let go of him quickly as the front door opened, followed by Toby’s voice calling out for them.
Luke lifted his head to look down at her. There was something about this gaze that was different this time around. She couldn’t decipher it though.
Footsteps approached the bedroom.
“Better make yourself decent,” Luke said. “Although, I’m sure Toby’s used to stumbling in on me like this.”
He laughed while quickly zipping up his pants. Distantly, she wiped herself dry with the edge of the blanket that was on the back of the couch before rising to her feet. Her legs threatened to give out from the conflicted feelings rushing through her. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Luke as he wiped his forehead clean of sweat.
“I need to go back to New York,” Paige said. “I need to get back to my dorm to study for my exams I have to make up tomorrow night.”
It was a flat-out excuse and lie to run from the intensity of the situation between them. Luke knew it, too, from the cool look he sent her.
“You don’t have to regret what happened,” he said a bit sharply. “I don’t know the bullshit your parents put in your head—”
Spite filled her at the mention of her parents. “Don’t talk about my parents like you know them, Luke. They are good people who raised and loved me.”
“They filled your head with bullshit. It’s okay to be attracted to someone, and to be with them in whatever way you want.”
“Get out,” Paige cried, rising from the couch to shove him in the chest. “Get the fuck out of my room, you heartless drunk.”
“Luke?” Toby called out, knocking on the door. “Are you in there?”
“Yes,” Luke said. His eyes glittered angrily as he rounded the couch to the bedroom door. He paused before opening the door, giving Paige a look that rooted her to the spot. A long moment had passed between them before he opened the door to step out. Then the door slammed shut, vibrating in the frame, and she heard them walk away and out of her suite.
She let out a trembling breath before collapsing on the side of the bed. There was no hope of escape tonight. Even if a part of her wanted to get behind the wheel and navigate through the blizzard conditions, Luke was right. She was stuck in the lodge with him no matter what happened.
“What have I gotten myself into?” Paige whispered, rubbing at her face in frustration. She had told Luke about one of her biggest scars, but that hadn’t mattered when it came to the magnetic tug she felt between them. She didn’t think of things like that when she was with him, and that unnerved her more than anything.
Rising, she readied herself for bed by slipping into a sleeping shirt. Sleep took her surprisingly fast, and it wasn’t until blankets were being tugged back from her legs that she woke to a completely pitch black room. The fire in her fireplace was now completely out.
Luke’s spicy and familiar cologne filled Paige’s lungs. She lifted her head to gaze him as he slipped into the bed next to her, a mixture of alarm and sleepy confusion filling her.
“Luke?”
Strong arms wrapped around her waist in response. A scruffy and wet cheek pressed up against the back of her neck.
“I’m not trying to do anything,” Luke said. The tremble in his voice disarmed the tension in Paige’s spine. “I just want to lay here next to you. Please.”
She could smell the whiskey on his breath again, but true to his word, he didn’t make any advances. The muscles in Luke’s body relaxed a moment later, and the mattress shifted from the extra weight. He was asleep and snoring within a matter of minutes, one arm wrapped around her waist tightly.
Paige let her head fall back down on the pillow, because it was pointless to try to move away. If she moved, he would wake, and her head already ached from their previous argument. She was still angry with him, though, for his harsh words—even if it had been the alcohol talking.
These were the moments that made it hard to see Luke as any other man. He was the type of man haunted by demons who lashed out at anyone or anything. She also had a feeling he didn’t just sleep with anyone. Ever.
Her heart skipped at the thought.
It’s just an arrangement, Paige. She forced her eyes to close, trying to drift back to sleep with Luke’s strong body curled up against hers in a protective gesture. It’s just a business deal for us both.