Luke (14 page)

So did she.

His hands were on the move again, over her legs, fingers outstretched … until they almost reached … the apex of her thighs. Now it was her turn to suck in a breath, her hips arching toward him, waiting, desperately waiting. Then he touched, and she cried out.

"You're so beautiful, so perfect." Carefully, slowly, he bent his head…

She felt his warm breath brush over her and went utterly still, suddenly a little unsure. "Um … Luke—"

"Shh…"

"But—" At the first touch of his tongue she nearly exploded.

At the second touch she did.

Brilliant lights, blood roaring in her ears, skin too tight for her body, heart threatening to burst out of her chest, the whole enchilada as she came wildly, helplessly.

And came. And came.

Finally, after what might have been two seconds or two hours, she was flat on her back, blinking at the ceiling, fists in the sheets, legs held open by Luke's wide shoulders.

He lifted his head from where he'd been kissing her inner thigh. "You okay?"

She considered. "I can't feel my toes."

He lifted up a little. "Better?"

"No."

His face fell, and she nearly laughed, but this was not a laughing matter. "Do you want to know what would make it all better?" she whispered.

He didn't look sure, and she nearly laughed again because how often did she get to see Dr. Universe look unsure? "What would be better," she said, "is you inside me."

His smile was slow and wide and stopped her heart. Then he gave her what she wanted, he was inside her, and her heart started up again in a slow, heavy beat because nothing, nothing, had ever felt so right.

"Faith." He cupped her face and leaned in to kiss her as he slowly withdrew, his hot, hard length dragging on her hot, wet flesh, and just when she started to whimper in protest, he came back with one long thrust. Then another. And another, and she felt that tight, unbearable, anticipation build back up.

"Again," he urged against her mouth. "Come for me again, Faith." And to ensure she did just that, he slid a hand between them, cupped a breast and stroked her nipple with a slightly rough thumb.

Gasping, she arched into him.

"That's it…" His hand skimmed over her quivering belly now, down, down, until his thumb could help keep up the rhythm in the wet curls between her legs, all while he urged her on with soft, sexy words no man had ever uttered to her before.

Fingernails embedded in his butt, head tossed back, dark and needy noises being ripped from her throat, she came completely undone for him. Again. Vaguely she heard him lose control, too, with a rough, guttural groan and her name on his lips as he sank over her hot, damp, replete body

Dazed, she held him to her, drowning in pleasure, drowning in him.

Unbelievably, she started to doze … all the way up until she realized they hadn't given a single thought to birth control.

Some health professionals they were.

* * *

A few minutes later, Luke got the bum's rush out Faith's door. On the porch in the cool night air, he turned to her just as she shoved his jacket in his hands and shut the door on him. "Faith—"

She opened it a crack. "I've got to get up early."

"Yeah." But that wasn't the issue and he knew it. He could tell by her glossy eyes and pale skin she was just as blown away as he was—hell, make that terrified—by what had just happened, by how they'd so completely lost it. "Faith, we didn't use birth control."

She let out a shrill laugh, then covered her mouth.

"You noticed," he said, then scrubbed his face with his hands. "I've never forgotten before. Christ, I'm so sorry. I swear to you, you won't catch anything—"

Another half-hysterical laugh escaped her mouth and with a sigh he pushed the door all the way open and gathered her resisting body close. "If it's a pregnancy you're worried about, we'll deal with it. Together. Okay?"

She didn't answer so he pulled back to see her face. "Faith. We face it together."

She dropped her hand away from her mouth. "We're
professionals.
I see the effects of teens not using birth control every single day— My God, I coach them all the time on the importance of abstinence, and what do I do? I get so completely carried away—"

"We,"
he interrupted. "It was a
we
thing tonight in the carried away department."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah." And there was no excuse, none.

"I mean, we even planned this," she said, baffled. "I even purchased—" Breaking off, she blushed.

"I did, too." He patted his back pocket. "Maybe I should pin them to my shorts next time."

She bit her lip. Glanced up at him. "Next time?"

"Isn't there going to be a next time?" Please, God, let there be a next time.

"But we were so stupid about it."

"We won't ever be again," he vowed, so shockingly close to begging he had to forcibly close his mouth.

"There's five weeks left," she said very softly.

"I want every one of them."

"That's what I promised you. But … for the rest of tonight I think I'd like to be alone."

Suddenly he wished he'd negotiated the
sleeping
part, too. It'd have been nice to stay with her curled in his arms all night long.

And while he was at it, he should have negotiated for more everything, since unlike all of his other sexual escapades—of which there hadn't been as many as he'd liked to think—he wanted more. Lots more.

"Good night, Luke."

He wished he could see her face, but she'd stepped into the shadows. Apparently he was the only one here dwelling over their decision. Not good. Not good at all. "Good night, Faith."

* * *

Faith didn't know what she expected the next night. She got out of the bath and put on a robe as she thought about it. Would Luke come, even though it was a weeknight?

Or would he wait until the next weekend, until after they'd worked together all day? Certainly the weekend would be more convenient for him, because she imagined his busy schedule wouldn't permit him much of a personal life on the weekdays, plus certainly he wouldn't want to see her again so soon—

Her doorbell rang and she nearly swallowed her tongue.

Oh God. He'd come.

No. No, it couldn't be Luke, he'd just seen her yesterday, surely he wouldn't want to…

The surge of hope and joy that whipped through her was nothing short of pathetic.

But it turned out to be Shelby, dressed to the nines in a little black cocktail dress and heels, her blond hair artfully piled on top of her head. She held a casserole dish. "Here," she said. "I made extra. High on the protein, no sugar."

Faith took the delicious-smelling dish. "You cooked for me in that?"

"No, I cooked for my date." She let out a wicked grin. "He's getting a casserole dish, too, but for him, I also made dessert."

"Hey, I want dessert."

"His comes in black silk," she said with a low, throaty laugh. "So you'll have to make up your own—" Breaking off, she glanced over her shoulder at the sound of someone coming up the stairs. Her smile turned speculative as Luke came into view. "Well, look at that … you might get your own dessert after all."

Luke lifted a brow at that comment. He wore black as well, but not silk; black jeans, a black T-shirt, and in the moonlight looked tall, dark and devastatingly handsome.

"Dr. Walker…" Shelby turned back to Faith and jerked her eyebrows so high they disappeared into her hair. "Just what Faith ordered." With a laugh at her own inside joke, she leaned close to Faith and kissed her on the cheek. "I'd say have a good evening, sweetie, but I can see that you most definitely will. Nightie, night. Don't do anything I wouldn't do now … well, on second thought, there's nothing I wouldn't do, so have at it."

Faith listened to Shelby's heels clicking as she walked off into the night, her heart starting a heavy beat of anticipation.

"That smells good," Luke said into the silence, gesturing to the casserole she held. "You going to share?"

She eyed him. "You didn't come over here to eat."

"No, but we're going to."

"My blood sugar is fine at the moment."

"Good. After we eat, I'm going to remove every stitch of clothing you're wearing."

He said it so conversationally, it took the words a moment to sink in. Once they did, her heart kicked into an even higher gear.

"And then … I'm going to make you wild."

"Awfully cocky," she managed evenly though her thighs tightened. So did her nipples.

"Yeah. I'm going to make you scream, too," He said this softly, silkily, and stepped even closer, still not touching her in any way.

And still her pulse doubled.

Tripled.

"I'm, um, not really much of a screamer," she said, quite proud of the fact her voice hardly quivered at all, though she was having a huge amount of trouble breathing and her knees had liquefied.

Holding her gaze prisoner, he took advantage of the fact that her hands were full of the hot casserole dish and tugged on her robe, completely exposing one bare breast.

Her gasp echoed around them.

"Mmm," rumbled from his throat. Then one big warm hand cupped the fullness, plumping it up for his seeking mouth, which was warm and greedy.

Staggering back a step, she hit the doorway.

"Hold on to our dinner now," he said around his mouthful, and using his teeth, gently plucked at her nipple. "Still got a grip on it, Faith?"

She whimpered and locked her knees together to keep from falling.

"Faith?"

"Y-yes."

"That's a girl."

And he locked the door behind them, after which he proceeded to make good on his promise to remove every stitch she wore, make her wild … and make her scream.

Chapter 11

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F
or the next few weeks Luke raced through his days at the hospital, enjoying his work as much as ever.

And enjoying his time off more than ever.

In the physicians' lounge after a particularly long shift, he gathered his things, shoveling them into his duffel bag, his mind already racing to the night ahead.

He thought he'd take Faith out for dinner, then planned on a delectable dessert by moonlight—Faith by moonlight.

"You out of here, Dr. Walker?"

Luke shouldered his bag and turned to face Dr. Nicole Mann, one of the youngest and most acclaimed new doctors they had. "That I am."

She was dark-haired and petite, and incredibly dedicated to her job at the hospital, specifically working for him in the E.R. The day Luke had been "sentenced" to work at the clinic, she'd come by his office—the only one to do so—offering her sympathy. She, more than anyone here on staff, understood his passion, and felt it as her own.

"You seem … lighter on your feet these days." She tilted her head, studying him for a moment with a little smile touching her mouth. "And, dare I say it, even happy. You get another promotion I didn't hear about?"

"No."

"You done working at Healing Waters?"

"No."

"Well, then." She smiled expectantly. "What's your secret?"

Faith, he nearly said, and bit his tongue. She wasn't what was making him feel like dancing down the hospital hallways. Nope, it was…

Ah, hell.

It was Faith.

"Maybe it's because you have only three weeks left at the clinic."

Three weeks and then no more steaming hot, unbearably erotic rendezvous with Faith?

And suddenly he wondered why he'd ever agreed to that stupid time line. Why had he ever imagined it would be enough?

"I bet you'll be thrilled to get away from all those froufrou oils and self-healing crap, and come back to the scientific basics."

"Actually, the alternative therapies Healing Waters utilizes have been around for centuries," he said. "Longer than our scientific methods—" He broke off and stared at her, horrified at himself.

Had he just … defended alternative healing practices?

Dr. Mann looked just as shocked. "Yes … well, good night, Dr. Walker." Fast as she could, she hightailed it away from him.

Because, clearly, he was crazy. He'd have hightailed it away from himself, too.

Good God, what was happening to him? All his sexual affairs ended sooner or later, and he'd always been fine with that.

Maybe it was because they were impatiently waiting for Faith to get her period. She claimed to be completely irregular, often going two months in between, but he wanted to be sure. He couldn't just walk away until he was certain that there were no ramifications from their oversight. Surely Faith would know before his time was up.

Then, definitely then, he'd be ready to move on.

He left the hospital. And though he'd been looking forward to dragging Faith into his arms, he turned toward the beach instead, and went home. He didn't need to see her every single day. Nope, he sure didn't.

Undoubtedly she'd be grateful for the night off. After all, soon enough—in three weeks—they wouldn't be seeing each other at all.

* * *

Luke didn't come to her that night. Or the next.

And by Saturday, Faith wasn't sure what to think, except that she'd gotten way too dependent on his warm, strong arms, his melting smile, the way he made her feel.

She'd made a deal with him, a deal that was nearly over, and given his lack of appearances this week, it might already be over, and she would live with it.

Immersing herself in opening the clinic for the day, she was behind her desk going over the schedule when Luke walked in.

"Morning," he said.

Her heart had taken off before she even lifted her head from the schedule. He stood in the doorway already wearing his white coat over dark blue trousers that fit his long, powerful legs. Her head swam at just the sight of him, so she hoped he'd stay far, far out of her way for the day or surely she'd give herself away by drooling.

"Morning." Scooping up the schedule, she rose and walked around her desk, figuring she'd just walk right on by—without looking directly at him, because it was like looking directly into the sun, it was hazardous to her health—and go on with her day. Only
she
would know everything within her trembled to reach out for him. Only
she
would know she strained her nose to catch at least a little scent of him—