With a Little Luck (14 page)

Her breathing was so shallow it was almost nonexistent when Luck dragged his mouth from her lips to nibble at her throat and trail its way up the pulsing vein to the sensitive hollow below her ear. Eve quivered with the intensity of the passions he was arousing.

“I’ve needed this for so long, Eve,” he declared in a voice thick with desire, the heat of his breath inflaming her skin. “I’ve been so empty. Fill me up, Eve. Fill me up.”

But she didn’t need to be urged. Her hunger and emptiness had been as great as his. Her eagerly parted lips were already seeking his when his mouth came back to claim them. The whole weight of him was behind the kiss, bending her backward farther and farther until she slipped off the pillow onto the carpeted floor.

Within seconds they were lying together, and the hard pressure of his male body was making itself felt on every inch of hers. No longer needing to hold her, his hands were free to explore the soft curves that had been against him.

When Luck shifted his position to make a more thorough discovery, a shirt button caught in the eyelet lace of her blouse. He swore under his breath, impatient with the obstacle as Eve was. There was a reluctant delay as Luck paused to free the button. When his knuckles rubbed against a breast, Eve couldn’t help breathing in sharply at the inadvertent contact, a white-hot rush of desire searing through her veins.

Her reaction didn’t go unnoticed. The instant he had rid himself of the impediment, his hand covered her breast and a soft moan of satisfaction trembled from her throat. He kissed the source of the sound and unerringly found the pleasure point at the base of her neck that sent excited shivers over her skin.

With her eyes closed to lock the delirious sensations of supreme joy forever in her memory, Eve caressed the taut muscles of his shoulders. His deft fingers unfastened the front of her lace blouse and pushed the material aside. When his hand glided inside her brassiere and lifted a breast from its confining cup, she was a churning mass of desire.

Her clamoring needs were almost beyond endurance as his mouth traveled downward from her collarbone to nuzzle the slope of her breast. His leg was hooked across her thighs, and she was rawly conscious of his hard need outlined against her hip. The ache in her loins ran wild when his mouth circled the sensitive peak of her breast. She was writhing inside.

“I thought you told me only married people did that, dad.”

Chapter Eight

TOBY’S VOICE SHATTERED the erotic moment into a thousand pieces. Both of them froze at the sound of it. Then her fingers dug into his muscled arms in embarrassed panic when her suddenly widened eyes saw the pajama-clad boy leaning casually over the back of the couch.

Luck reacted swiftly, using his body as a shield to hide her nakedness while he quickly pulled her blouse over her breast. Eve had a glimpse of the savage anger that took over his hard features before he turned his head to glare at Toby.

“What the hell are you doing out of bed?” he demanded harshly.

“I woke up ’cause I was thirsty, so I came out to the kitchen to get a drink,” his son explained, unabashed by the intimate scene he had interrupted and apparently oblivious to the awkward situation he was causing. “How come you were doing that if you and Eve aren’t married?”

“You’ve got two seconds to get into your bed,” Luck warned. “Or, so help me, you won’t be able to sit down for a month!”

“But I was only wondering — ” Toby began to protest, frowning in bewilderment.

“Now!” Luck snapped the word and brought a knee up as if to rise and carry out his threat.

Toby pushed off the couch and started toward the hallway, grumbling to himself. “You keep telling me I should ask questions when I don’t understand. I don’t know why you’re yelling at me for doing it.”

“Go to your room and stay there.” The line of his jaw was iron hard.

The response from Toby was a loud sigh that signaled compliance. The instant he was out of sight, Luck sat up and combed a hand through his hair before casting a grimly apologetic glance at Eve’s reddened face. She sat up quickly, half turning from him to button her blouse, nearly mortified to death by the incident.

“I’m sorry, Eve,” Luck sighed heavily.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she murmured self-consciously, and tried to restore some semblance of order to her tousled clothes.

She wasn’t sure which embarrassed her more — what Toby had seen or what he might have seen if he’d come a few minutes later. She had been lost beyond control, her sense of morality completely abandoned.

“I’m going to have a talk with that boy.” Irritation vibrated through his taut declaration.

“You shouldn’t be angry with him.” Despite the embarrassment Toby had caused, Eve defended his innocent role in the scene. She scrambled to her feet the minute she was decent, and Luck followed to stand beside her. She was too disconcerted by the incident to meet his eyes squarely, so her sidelong glance fell somewhere short of his face. “Toby didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Luck muttered, more to himself, as he sent a hard glance toward the hallway to the bedrooms.

Then he was bringing all of his attention back to her. She stiffened at the touch of his hand on her shoulder. There were still yearnings within her that hadn’t been fully suppressed and she didn’t want things to get out of hand twice.

“Eve — ” he began in a low tone that seemed to echo the buried wants inside her.

She knew she didn’t dare listen to what he wanted to say. “I think you’d better take me home, Luck,” she interrupted him stiffly.

Even without looking at him, she sensed his hesitation and trembled inwardly at the thought of trying to resist him if he decided to persuade her to change her mind. She didn’t think she’d have the strength of will for a long struggle.

“All right, I will.” He gave in grudgingly and removed his hand from her shoulder.

“I think it’s best,” Eve insisted faintly.

“Of course.” There was a clipped edge to his voice. “Give me a minute to tell Toby where I’m going.”

“Yes,” she murmured.

He moved reluctantly away from her and Eve shuddered uncontrollably when he was out of the room. She had known she loved him, but she hadn’t guessed at the depth of that emotion. She had nearly lost all sense of morals for the sake of the moment. It was sobering to realize she would probably do it all over again, given the opportunity.

When Luck entered the bedroom, Toby looked at him with affronted dignity. The urge to grab the boy by the shoulders and shake him hard still rang strong within Luck. It was all he could do to hold onto his temper and not let it rage.

“I’m taking Eve home.” The anger was there in his abrupt tone of voice. “When I get back, you and I are going to have a talk.”

“Okay,” Toby agreed with equal curtness. “But I don’t see what you’re so uptight about.”

“Don’t say another word,” Luck warned, “Or we’ll have that talk now.”

Toby pressed his lips together in a thin straight line that showed his resentment for the browbeating tactics. Pivoting, Luck walked from the room.

His anger came from an unbridled instinct to protect Eve. It had run strong and hot within him, imposing the need to shelter her body with his own and later to lash out at his son for the mental harm he’d caused.

When he rejoined her in the living room, Luck noticed how much further she had withdrawn into her shell. His senses remembered the way she had responded to him without inhibition. They craved it again, but after the way his own son had embarrassed her, he couldn’t bring himself to impose his desires on her to know again that wild feeling she had aroused.

Without a word she turned and walked to the door, avoiding his look. Left with no choice but to follow her, he turned his head to the side in a grim kind of despair. Powerful feelings began to make themselves known to him. Uppermost remained the need to right whatever damage had been done to her sensitive nature.

A RAW TENSION dominated the drive to her parents’ lake cottage. Eve sat rigidly in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead. Luck had made a couple of attempts at conversation, but her short one-word answers had ended it. She felt that she didn’t dare relax her guard for a second or all her inner feelings would spew forth.

She could only thank God she was adult enough to recognize that Luck could want to make love to her without being in love with her. Her embarrassment would have been doubled otherwise.

Luck stopped his car behind her father’s sedan. This time he switched off the engine and got out to walk around the hood and open her door. He silently accompanied her to the front porch.

“Good night, Luck.” Eve wanted to escape inside the cabin without further ado, but he wasn’t of the same mind.

His hand caught her arm near the elbow. “I’m not letting you go inside feeling the way you do,” he said.

“I’m all right,” she lied.

His other hand cupped the side of her face, a certain grimness in his expression. “I don’t want Toby’s interference spoiling those moments for us.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Eve tried to evade the issue.

“It does matter,” Luck insisted. “It matters a great deal to me.”

“Please.” It was a protest of sorts against any discussion of the subject.

His hand wouldn’t let her move away from its touch. “I’m not ashamed of wanting to make love to you, Eve,” he declared. “And I don’t want you to be, either.”

His bluntness seemed to weaken her knees. After avoiding his gaze for so long, she finally looked at him. His steady regard captured her glance and held it.

“Okay?” Luck wanted her agreement to his previous statement.

“Okay.” She gave it in a whisper.

He kissed her warmly as if to seal the agreement, then lifted his head. “You and I will talk about this tomorrow,” he said. “In the meantime, I’ve got to go back and have a little father-to-son chat with Toby.”

“All right.” Eve wasn’t sure what he wanted to talk about, and that uncertainty was in her voice.

Luck heard it and seemed to hesitate before letting her go. “Good night, Eve.”

“Good night.” She called softly after him as he descended the porch steps to his car.

Returning to the cabin, Luck went directly to his son’s bedroom. He switched on the light as he entered the room. Toby sat up and made a project out of arranging his pillows to lean against them. When Luck walked to the bed, Toby crossed his arms in a gesture that implied determined tolerance.

“Sit down, dad,” he said. “I think it’s time we talked this out.”

Luck didn’t find the usual amusement in his son’s pseudoadult attitude and had to smother a fierce rush of irritation. “I’ll sit down,” he stated. “But I’m going to do the talking and you’re going to listen.”

“Whatever you say.” Again there was an exhibition of patience with his father.

“Do you have any idea how much you embarrassed Eve?” Luck demanded, taking a position on the edge of the bed.

“You kind a lost your cool, too, dad,” Toby pointed out calmly.

“I said I was going to do the talking,” Luck reminded him sternly. “It wasn’t so bad that you walked in when you did, Toby. The part that was wrong was when you stayed.”

“I wanted to find out what was going on,” he explained with wideeyed innocence.

“It was none of your business,” Luck countered. “There are certain times when a couple wants privacy.”

“But you told me that happened when the two people were married.” A faint light gleamed in Toby’s eyes, betraying his supposed naiveté.

“That is beside the point.” The line of his mouth became grim as Luck’s gaze narrowed on his son. “Right now, I want you to understand that what you did was wrong and you owe Eve an apology.”

“Was what you and Eve were doing wrong?” Toby inquired.

“Toby.” There was a warning in his father’s voice not to sidetrack the conversation with his own questions.

“Okay,” he sighed with mock exaggeration. “I’ll apologize to Eve,” Toby promised. “But since you like Eve and you want to do things with her that married people do, why don’t you marry her? Did you find out if she has staples in her stomach?”

“Staples?” Luck frowned, briefly avoiding the first question.

“Don’t you remember when we met that real sexy blonde on the beach and you said you didn’t want to marry anyone with staples in her stomach?” Toby reminded him.

It took Luck a minute to recall his reference to the centerfold type. “No, Eve isn’t the kind with staples,” he replied.

“Then why don’t you ask her to marry you?” Toby argued. “I’d really like it if she became my mother.”

“You would, huh?” He tilted his head to one side in half challenge. “After what you pulled tonight, she might not be interested in becoming your mother even if I asked her.”

A look of guilty regret entered Toby’s expression. “She was really upset, huh?” He was worried by the question.

“Yes, she was. Thanks to you.” Luck didn’t lessen the blame.

“If I told her I was sorry, maybe then she’d say yes if you asked her,” Toby suggested.