Skin Deep (11 page)

“Leah,” I growled.

Allie broke in, trying to prevent the
argument brewing. “Leah, cut it out. You wouldn’t do that to your
sister, and its just mean trying to provoke her like that. Emma,
you’re stuck. Deal with it. And enjoy it, honey!” She grinned,
waggling her brows at me.

I sighed, clearly not getting anywhere in
this conversation. My phone beeped and I looked at it. It was a
message from Luke, asking where I was.

Out. We’re done, remember?
I typed and
hit send.

I took a big bite of my sundae, then tipped
the bowl up and took a big gulp of strawberry daiquiri. Allie and
Leah were talking about some dress Allie had at her store that she
thought Leah would look good in. My phone beeped again.

No. We’re not. Where are you?

I sighed before responding:
I said I was
out. Luke, you can’t just barge into my life and take over. You
cant just get it into your head that I’m yours, either. We fucked.
That’s it
.

You know, for such a cute little thing,
you’re a real pain in the ass. Where are you, Emma?

“OH MY GOD!” I shouted as I read his last
text and then growled low in my throat.

Allie reached over and yanked my phone out of
my hand. She looked at me, shook her head, and then started
typing.

“Allie! Don’t you dare, you interfering
little witch!” I yelled.

“Too late!” she said, handing my phone back
to me.

I heard my phone beep again, almost
immediately. Shooting a death stare at Allie, I opened the
message.

On my way.

I stood up and grabbed my purse, digging for
my keys. I couldn’t find them; however, I did hear a slight
jingling coming from my left where Leah was sitting.

“Leah,” I gritted out, my jaw clenched tight.
“Give. Me. My. Keys.”

She gave me a blank stare while trying to
keep from grinning. “What keys?”

“LEAH!” I yelled. “Give me my keys! Now!”

She gave up the fight and just grinned
unabashedly at me. “Nope.”

I repeated myself again, and when her answer
didn’t change, I lunged at her. She squealed and tossed the keys to
Allie who caught them and took off running inside the house, while
Leah headed around the side of the house through the yard. I
followed, hot on Allie’s heels, yelling threats at her. She ran
through the house and out the front door, heading off the front
porch and into the yard where Leah was waiting to grab my keys
again.

Allie got about three feet into the yard
before I managed to twist my fingers into the back of her shirt and
pull, tackling her into the grass. We rolled, her trying to get
away, or at least find an opening to toss the keys to Leah, and me
trying to hold on to her as I worked my way up her body to get to
her hand.

A shadow fell over us as we struggled on the
ground and Allie and I both looked up. Dancing grey-blue eyes
looked down at us, and I slumped over Allie, laying my forehead in
the grass and groaning. Allie laughed and pushed me off to the side
before accepting the hand that Luke held down to help her up. He
stood her on her feet and reached down for me. I got to my feet
myself, avoiding his hand.

Luke just shook his head and sighed before
asking Allie and Leah, “Is she always this difficult?”

Leah, big fat mouth that she is, replied,
“Eh, she wasn’t always. Douche Bag Brad did a number on her.”

He quirked a brow at her response, silently
entreating her to expound on just who Douche Bag Brad was.

I shot Leah a glare, daring her to say
another word before I turned to Luke, crossing my arms in front of
me. “What are you doing here? I thought I told you that we were
through!” I shouted at him.

He just smiled at me and calmly said, “That’s
just it. You think too much, sugar. We’re not done, not by a long
shot.” He looked over at Leah, who had taken my keys back from
Allie, and asked her, “You good to take her car back?”

Leah nodded, her and Allie both grinning
widely.

Luke grabbed my hand and pulled, tucking me
into his side, his arm wrapping around my shoulders as he started
walking me toward his car parked in front of Allie’s house.

“Luke, wait!” I yelled, frantically trying to
think of a way to stall him. “My purse! I need it!”

“No you don’t,” he stated.

“My cell phone!”

“Don’t need it either, sugar.”

He stopped us by the passenger door of his
car, opening it and lightly pushing me in, one hand on the top of
my head and one on my hip. He closed the door as soon as I was
completely inside and walked around to get in.

I turned to him. “Resorting to kidnapping
now, are we? Where do you get off?” I huffed.

“In your tight little body,” he responded,
deliberately twisting my words.

I gasped as butterflies started dancing in my
belly at his words, while other parts of me became damp. No! Not
going there, not giving in! I sat quietly for a minute, twisting my
hands in my lap.

“Where are you taking me, then? Will you
please just take me home?” I asked the last question quietly,
pleading with him and hoping that he would fall for it.

“No, and you’ll see. We’re almost there,” he
replied.

I didn’t say anything else, just stared out
the window as he drove. After about fifteen minutes, we turned onto
a narrow lane, winding back through the trees. We pulled up in
front of a two story log cabin style house with large windows
framed by red shutters, a red tin roof, and a wraparound porch. It
was beautiful, set back in a clearing in the woods, and it looked
so homey and inviting. I wondered who lived there and asked Luke
the same.

“I’ll show you,” he said.

We got out of the car and walked up on the
porch. Luke slid a key into the lock and opened the door, stepping
back to let me pass.

I stared at him, not moving into the house
like he intended. “You live here?” I asked.

He nodded. “Well, me and Brandon and
Doug.”

“Doug?” I asked. I got my answer when a large
yellow lab came bounding out the door at me, tail wagging, tongue
lolling out the side of his wide open, full of large, sharp, pointy
teeth mouth…yikes! I took a step back as he gathered himself to
leap at me, terrified that I was about to be eaten. I looked at
Luke, waiting for him to do something, say something, anything to
save me, but he just grinned at me.

I felt two saucer sized paws come up on my
shoulders, surprisingly gentle, and a big, wet tongue licked up the
side of my face. My eyes flew open (I didn’t even realize that I
had closed them) and I stared into deep brown doggie eyes. My heart
melted and I brought my hands up to rub his soft, floppy ears.
After a second, he dropped to the ground and ambled away.

Luke smiled. “Emma, meet Doug. He likes
you.”

I smiled back. “I think I like him, too. He
just caught me off guard and he’s so big!”

We both turned to watch Doug as he marked
about a dozen trees before ambling back towards the porch. He
walked up the steps and stopped by my side, where he reached his
nose up and nipped the sleeve of my hoodie in his teeth, tugging me
towards the door. I walked inside, not given much choice.

I heard Luke laughing behind me as he
followed, closing the door behind him. Doug let me go once I
cleared the door, walked to a large overstuffed tan couch, climbed
up on it and laid down with a sigh.

I looked around the living room, surprised by
the openness and warmth. It was definitely lived in, but not
cluttered or dirty. To the left, a wide staircase led upstairs, and
the kitchen was on the other side of the living room, separated by
a long breakfast bar, complete with stool seating. To the right was
a door I assumed would be a closet, and then a hallway leading to
unseen rooms.

As I stood there taking everything in, I felt
Luke come up behind me and lift my hair over my shoulder sweeping
it off my neck. He then leaned in and pressed his lips softly
behind my ear, kissing my tattoo. I felt myself melting back
against him and stiffened, refusing to give in to the need starting
to course through my body.

“Luke,” I whispered. “Why did you bring me
here?”

He answered me with his mouth still against
my skin. “So you can know me. And because I’ve been dreaming of
having you in my bed since I touched you the first time.” He
pressed kisses down my throat, nipping my skin when he reached my
shoulder.

I shivered at the feel of his teeth, closing
my eyes at the sensation. I started to turn, forgetting for the
moment that I was fighting against this, when he stepped back,
dropping his hands from me.

He sat on the couch beside Doug, stroking his
head absent-mindedly as he began speaking unexpectedly.

“I bought this place for me and Brandon after
Lenny passed away. He had left us a pretty good sum in addition to
the shop. Brandon could have gotten his own place, but honestly,
neither one of us wanted that. This is the first real home we’ve
ever had, and we’ve only really had each other.” He paused as I
crossed the room to sink into the overstuffed armchair that matched
the couch he and Doug were sitting on.

“Our parents died in an accident when I was
twelve. They weren’t the best of parents, but they were our
parents, you know? Anyway, we were sent to live with my dad’s
brother, who unfortunately, was a drunken asshole. He liked to come
home from work and get shit faced. He had a wife, if you could call
her that. She was treated more like a servant, though she was
probably the nicest anyone had ever been to either of us.

One night, Brandon wasn’t feeling well and
ended up getting sick in the hallway as he tried to run to the
bathroom. He was only ten, you know? So he called for Celia, hoping
she’d come help him, maybe mother him a little. Instead, he got
Stu. Stu stumbled down the hall, saw the mess, and starting yelling
at Brandon, telling him he was a worthless piece of shit that did
nothing but make messes and cost him money. I had run out of my
room when I heard him start yelling to get to Brandon. Brandon was
crying, trying to explain that he didn’t feel good, but Stu didn’t
want to hear it. Didn’t want to hear it so much that he backhanded
Brandon across the face, splitting his lip and knocking him to the
floor. He raised his foot to kick him. A ten year old! He was gonna
kick him in his ribs or his face, hell, I don’t know which for
sure, but I knew that I wasn’t going to let him.

I screamed at Stu to stop, then I tackled
him. I hit him over and over again until Celia pulled me off of
him, then he just laid there. I never figured out if he had passed
out from being drunk or if I had knocked him out, but Celia grabbed
us up, packed our clothes into two large trash bags and drove us
down to the Juvenile Detention Center. She told the guard on duty
that they couldn’t take us anymore, not that we were bad kids, but
we just weren’t wanted. We spent the night in a holding room and
they put us in a foster home the next day.”

Luke stopped talking for a minute, looking
over to me and searching my face. I don’t know what he was looking
for, but he must have seen what he wanted because he continued.

“We bounced from home to home until I was
eighteen. I had always taken care of Brandon, so the day I turned
eighteen, I packed us both up and we took off on our own. I managed
to do well in school through the years, regardless of what was
happening around us. I graduated, and I was gonna do everything in
my power to make sure Brandon did the same. We lived in a shit hole
motel in Timbleton, and I did odd jobs to make money. I had saved
enough that we were doing okay, still living in the motel, but we
didn’t care, and I decided I was going to get my tattoo. My life
was changed that day, and I’ve never looked back.”

I sat quietly, watching him watch me, but not
knowing what to say. In the end, I didn’t say anything, just got up
and walked to him, pulling him to his feet and pointing upstairs.
He twined his fingers in mine and we walked up the stairs, heading
through a door at the end of the hall.

I pushed him down onto the huge king size bed
dominating the room, following him down and laying my body over
his, claiming his lips with my own. We both were breathing heavily
when I slid to his side and sat up, undressing first myself, and
then working on his clothes with his help. After we were both
naked, I straddled him, my knees on either side of his hips,
positioned myself over the velvety hard length of him, and pushed
down, taking him deep inside me.

I rode him slowly, sliding up and down his
hardness, running my hands up his chest, down his arms, entwining
our fingers and raising his arms above his head, leaving our hands
clasped. I soothed him with my body, my eyes locked onto his, his
heat burning me from the inside out.

Then Luke pulled his hands from mine, grasped
my hips hard, and began thrusting up into me, rolling his hips as
he did which rubbed the tip of him against that secret place inside
of me that made me sit up, throw my head back and fist my hands in
my own hair as I slammed myself up and down on him, riding him
harder and faster until I shattered, screaming out as I came around
the hot, hard length of him pumping into me relentlessly.

He followed me over, groaning out his release
and holding my hips tightly to his, grinding me against him until I
came again, shuddering in his arms as I collapsed on his chest. He
held me tightly to him, still buried deep in my body, his face in
my hair.

I felt his lips move, but didn’t hear what he
said. Bracing my elbows on the mattress beside his head, I raised
myself enough to look down into his face.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head slightly before saying,
“Thank you.”

I frowned. “Thank you for what, Luke?”

“Thank you for just being you. You didn’t
stare at me in horror or pity like every other person who’s known
my background. I don’t talk about it much, and Brandon doesn’t
really talk about it at all. But it is what it is, it made us who
we are today. And you just accepted it, but at the same time, you
offered me comfort,” he replied. “So, thanks.”