Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek) (26 page)

As he looked down into her scowling face, his eyes glittered brighter. He bent down and kissed the snarl from her lips. “Can’t help it. I’m happy.”

“About turning me into a basket case?!”

He shrugged, blithely unapologetic. “You turned
me
into one.”

“I think you’ve always been crazy and you’ve now infected me with it,” she muttered.

“Sweetheart, that’s why they call it being crazy in love.”

She harrumphed and remained stubbornly silent.

His face turned serious then. “Dani, I’m not going anywhere. You can trust—”

“NO,” she cut him off in rough denial, her voice firm, distant. “Don’t promise me anything. Just
don’t
.”

Luke frowned, and she could see him struggling not to pry. She hadn’t told him anything about her past relationships. And she wasn’t going to.

“Dani,” he said quietly, “look at the universe’s track record with my life.” He shrugged self-deprecatingly. “Trust me, I know there are no guarantees in life. While I can’t make any guarantees, I can tell you what I
do
know. I know how I feel about you. And my not knowing what the future holds isn’t going to stop me from wanting you in my life.” He turned her face up to his. “What I need to know is if that’s enough for you to let me be a real part of your life too.”

Her eyes searched his. “I want it to be,” she breathed.

He exhaled raggedly. “That’s a start.”

“But it might take time—”

“I’m not in a rush.”

She thought about that for some long seconds. “I’ll try,” she said finally.

“I’ll take it.” He swept her into his arms and kissed her long and hard.

She broke off the kiss before he scrambled her brains fully. “But this doesn’t mean I’m some exclusive possession of yours now. You can’t get jealous every time I talk to Rylan.”

“Honey, I wasn’t jealous, I was envious. And hurt that you never felt you could come to me. I know you need Rylan. Just don’t forget I’m part of your life now; you can need me too.”

Dani nodded silently, burrowing in his embrace as he wrapped his arms around her. When she finally looked up to meet his gaze, she felt her heartstrings tug. The unfiltered trust now naked in his eyes where there was once a wary curtain of ‘casual’ affection showed her just how much he’d been holding back for her benefit. But now he was removing all the barriers, entrusting her with his heart and looking so vulnerable it made
her
heart ache.

A gift like that from a man like Luke…

She couldn’t possibly accept without first being sure he knew exactly what he was getting into. How broken she was. How she’d jeopardized his life’s work just a few months ago…

“There’s
something I’ve been meaning to tell you— ” she began softly.

“I just have one last question—” he said at the same time.

She shook her head nervously. “You go first.”

“You sure?” The second she nodded, his words rushed out as if a dam had broken. “Okay, will you
please
tell me who gave you that Valentine gift? It’s making my gut burn. I won’t get mad, and I swear I won’t attack the guy.”

Something told her he’d crossed his fingers behind his back before making that declaration. She shifted her eyes from her desk drawer back to him. Back to the drawer.

“I’m faster than you,” he assured, correctly judging her intent.

“It’s not a gift for me,” she said slowly. “It’s a gift
from
me.”

“For who?!” he demanded.

She rolled her eyes.

A light entered his. “Me?” His expression became achingly tender and then utterly confused. “Wait, if it’s for me, why did you unwrap it? Are you not going to give it to me anymore?” He frowned. “Is it because of that interview with the douchebag on the news?”

Cringing, she looked up at him with regret written all over her face. “You watched that?”

“Yeah.” He shifted his eyes away, hiding the hurt that came stabbing back.

She put a hand on his arm. “That guy caught me off guard. I didn’t know what to say. I mean I haven’t even admitted it to you yet. Why would I say it on air?” she rambled.

Gradually, a grin stretched across his face.

“What?” she asked suspiciously.

“You said ‘yet’ just now.”

Her lips became a flat line. Then, as if avoiding the possibility of letting any more damning evidence slip out, she went to grab the gift. Gruffly shy, she stuffed it into his hands.

“Are you sure, sweetie? Honestly, I’ll understand if you’re not ready to—”

“Oh, just open it.”

He took it from her gently, as if it did indeed hold all of life’s secrets.

“It’s no big deal. It’s just a silly—”

He quickly placed his fingers on her lips. “Don’t. Let me open it. Let me experience it.”

She watched as Luke’s eyes widened when he saw what was nestled inside the box.

A photo of the two of them. She distinctly remembered the day captured in the photo, though neither of them could’ve possibly known a camera was on them. She and Luke had been eating lunch at Ocotillos, and he’d automatically passed her the Sriracha sauce she liked on her sandwiches. The camera had caught the expression on her face when she’d looked up at him in surprise. In that one moment, she’d looked so unguarded, so happy, so…in love.

Seeing the photo again made her heart swell with the same feelings she’d had that day.

“Xoey took that picture with her camera phone one day when we were here,” mumbled Dani, shoving her hands into her pockets nervously. “I thought you might like it.”

He nodded, still speechless as his gaze shifted to the intricate brushed-steel frame holding the photo. In silent wonder, Luke slid a finger along the carved ridges, instantly identifying the twined images scrolling all around the metal perimeter. “Dani, where did you get this?”

Shrugging, she casually explained, “I had it made. My friend knows a tattoo artist who also does metal etch work so I drew a design and asked him to carve it. It’s nothing fancy...”

“It’s juniper and hops,” he broke in, his voice rough with emotion. “It’s you and me.”

She blinked past her surprise. “Yes.”

“I love it,” he said softly.

Embarrassed, she tried to put the cover back on the box. “It’s just a little trinket.”

“Dani,” he rumbled tenderly, “I won’t let you keep insulting this amazing gift you’ve given me.” With no more warning than that, Luke brought his lips down on hers, swallowing her gasp as he tugged her into a long, hot kiss that left them both breathless.

“But it
is
. It’s just a—“

His eyes gleamed like hot coals before he raided her mouth again.

“—Valentine,” she substituted weakly, trembling by the time he lifted his lips from hers.

“One that speaks volumes,” he pointed out with rough male satisfaction.

She raised an eyebrow at his possessive tone and swept an investigative glance down south to the now very snug fit of his jeans. A slow, enticing smile lit her face. “This is not
that
big a deal,” she argued, her eyes glittering in a silent dare. “It’s barely a gift.”

Looking both amused and turned on, he lunged forward and caught her around the waist, lifting her onto her desk for another drugging kiss. Before he could go for an extra dose of word exorcising, however, he stopped and looked around. Cursing silently, he then pulled back.

At least he tried to.

It was clear the rocking of her hips against his was severely hampering his progress.

“
Jesus
. Why are you forever arguing with me?”

“It’s like foreplay,” she admitted, pressing her lips to his neck, trying to drive him wild with tongue and teeth, suction and heat. “Know what comes after foreplay?”

Luke groaned and quickly backed away. “Honey, try to remember we’re in your office,” he reasoned, in a voice that said he was seconds away from forgetting it himself.

Dani closed in on him, tracking him as she pulled her t-shirt over her head. “There are only a few people left here and they’re all up on the roof. The walls are plaster, the door solid oak,” she replied, her voice thick, eyes hooded. “Soundproof.”

“You’re not thinking clearly, babe. It’s the adrenaline—don’t growl at me. I’m trying to be noble here, dammit. We can argue again later and have hot make-up sex. At
home
,” he negotiated, looking very much like a man barely holding onto his resolve.

Slowly, she undid her jeans. “It wasn’t the arguing; it was watching you open the”—her eyebrows pitched up in playful defiance—“
silly
gift.” She grinned when he almost
reacted. Then she grew serious. “That was the first time I felt...” Her voice went soft and she shrugged helplessly. “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m feeling. All I know is that I want you.” Stone-washed denim and a tiny scrap of lacy cotton puddled at her feet. “Right here, right now.”

Pure, explosive desire flooded his face. He hauled her up against him, his hands and mouth roaming every square inch of her body. As if he couldn’t taste enough, touch enough.

Eyes fixed on hers, he walked backward toward the couch, shedding his clothes as he did in that masculine tug-and-throw method that was so damn sexy to watch.

Dani stalked him the entire way, starving eyes drinking in his every step.

She all but pounced on him when she saw the condom.

“So, right here, right now, huh?” he repeated her words back to her in a smoky growl, catching her hips to keep her standing before him even as he settled back against the cushions. “Because you feel the same way about me as I do about you?” Leaning forward, he trailed a path of soft kisses across the sensitive curves of her belly.

He was trying to torture the answer out of her...and it was starting to work. “We covered that already,” she replied evasively when she could catch her breath. “I said I did, didn’t I?” She broke through his hold and began lowering herself atop him.

“No you didn’t.” He halted her descent at the very last second. “You didn’t say it.”

“It was implied,” she sliced out jaggedly.

“Not good enough,” he grated through his teeth, his ill-timed stubbornness showing no quarter as he held her firmly in midair. “Even if you’re not ready to tell me you love me, at least admit you’re falling for me, Dani.”

Her eyes widened. Completely without defenses, she looked at him, straight into his heart, his soul. The same way he was looking at her. When he shifted, kissing hot flesh to even hotter flesh, she snapped. “
Fine!
I admit it. Happy?! I’m falling so hard for you that—”

Air hissed through her teeth when his hands clenched and drove her down onto him.

Swiftly, he flipped her onto her back and gripped the back of the couch, knuckles strained white. “I’m falling hard for you too,” he rasped roughly before surging into her with a force that stole her breath. Eyes locked on hers, he moved with arduously bridled thrusts. Achingly slow.

Somehow that made it hotter, better than ever.

Soon, she was clutching his shoulders as shivers of electricity shot down her core and blinding pleasure built to a crest. Her body arched as the unexpected release charged through her, whipping all around, throwing her into a vortex of twisting pleasure she’d never before felt. It swept through her, scattering her, jolting her again and again. She was mindless, boneless by the time every last bit of pleasure pulsed through her and bliss pulled her under.

Never had she come that hard in her life.

“God, I’ll never get tired of seeing that,” whispered Luke against her skin.

Draped against him, languid and boneless, Dani belatedly realized that he had let her rip through her orgasm without seeking his own. The aftershocks that were ebbing through her were undoubtedly torturing his still savagely rigid arousal, yet he simply held her, letting her body settle into a luscious slumber. She raised her eyes to his in question.

He bent to collect an untamed kiss. “Remember what we were arguing about the other day? How I think pro sports officials using video replay more and more is changing the game?” he asked, his voice stormy as he hungrily explored her ear with his tongue.

She could barely remember her own name, let alone whatever he was talking about. “Hmmm?” she managed. Pretty good effort on her part, considering.

“I decided you’re right, sweetheart;
it
can be a good thing.” He slid behind her and placed slow, deliberate kisses up her spine.

“It?” she managed to stutter out, the incredible sensations stealing the oxygen required for anything beyond monosyllabic answers.

“Instant replay,” he replied with a wolfish grin as he plunged back into her soft heat.

Hours later, back at her apartment, snuggled in bed next to Luke, it vaguely occurred to her she was supposed to tell him something. But as her eyelids grew heavy and her brain fuzzy, she couldn’t reach the niggling reminder. Even the muffled ringing coming from the living room seemed miles away. Her cordless phone, perhaps? It was probably wedged in her sofa cushions.