Loose Ends (Magnolia Series Book 1) Page 13

  “You don’t have a choice. You walk away now this whole thing blows up bigger than shit. You know it and I know it. They aren’t messing around this time.”

  “Fuck.”

  “I just have one question for you and I want total disclosure.”

  “Yeah?” Luke didn’t know what Cole wanted to ask but he braced himself for the worst case scenario.

  “Are you in love with her?”

  “Fuck no!” he answered instantly. “Jesus, I don’t do that shit. Love is a word used by delusional people to explain their raging hormones.”

  “Okay. I just wanted to know.”

  “I’m trying to stay close to her. If that means I have to fuck her to complete this job, then so be it.”

  “Not really a hardship, I’d imagine. That girl is something else.” Cole whistled.

  “I suggest you back the hell off before I come over there and knock your pearly whites down your throat,” Luke warned.

  Cole threw his hands up in a sign of surrender. “Hey, man, I get it. You’re marking your territory. I promise to stay out of your way as much as possible. Which room do you want me in?” Cole stood and stretched his back, the sound of his spine realigning echoed in the gazebo.

  Luke didn’t respond; he only began the short walk to the house. Damn it, this was a complication he didn’t need right now. But Cole was right, if they found out what he’d been doing with Ava, this would turn from a controlled situation to complete chaos in no time. Now he had to deal with keeping track of her and Cole. What a way to end what had been shaping up to be a fun-filled night with Ava in his bed.

  ***

  “Hey, I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back in,” Ava said to Luke as he came into his bedroom and sat down on the end of the antique bed. The frame creaked with the weight of his body.

  “Cole’s staying here while he’s in town.” Ava noticed an irritated quality to his voice.

  “Okay. I can leave in the morning.” She didn’t want to leave, but if he wanted her to go while his cousin was in town, far be it from her to stand in the way of family time.

  “You’re not going anywhere. I wanted to warn you, that’s all.” Luke stood from the bed where he’d been removing his shoes and disappeared into the in-suite bathroom.

  She sat there trying to come up with reasons why he’d ‘warn’ her about Cole staying. The only thing she could come up with was the obvious so she stood from her comfy spot and found him brushing his teeth at the sink. “Is he some kind of ladies’ man? If so, don’t worry, I don’t have any interest in him.” She wanted to make sure Luke knew she wouldn’t be jumping on the Cole wagon anytime soon.

  Luke spit out the toothpaste in his mouth and rinsed with a handful of water. He dried his face with the towel from the rack nearby and turned to her, “I didn’t mean you would want to jump his bones, Ava.” He added a small laugh.

  “Then why would you warn me?” She went back into the bedroom and sat in the center of his large bed.

  “He’s nosy. Asks a lot of questions. Didn’t figure you’d want to be caught with your pants down, so-to-speak.”

  “Thank you for looking out for me but there’s only one person here who I want to have my pants down around.” She punctuated her comment with a sweet smile hoping he got the hint. It wasn’t a usual thing for her to be so hungry for someone, especially when she’d had a huge helping of him not even an hour ago on the lawn. Heck, even the thought of what they’d done sent shivers racking her body.

  Luke stripped down to his underwear and climbed on the bed in front of her. For a few brief moments all he did was stare at her. He didn’t make a move to touch her and she wondered if something was wrong. “Everything okay?” She pulled her hand up to chew on her nail.

  Luke reached forward, stopping her before she had a chance to bite down on her own finger. “I just want to look at you for a minute.”

  “Ah, maybe you’ll have to pick me out of a lineup one day and you’re committing me to memory just in case?” She certainly hoped that wasn’t true.

  “No, I can’t get over how damn beautiful you are.” Every word he spoke had such sincerity behind it. It wasn’t forced and it didn’t feel like he was slathering on a thick layer of bullshit just to appease her. He was being one hundred percent real.

  “You’re not so bad yourself.” She chuckled, reaching out to cup his stubble-laden cheek in her soft palm.

  His head tilted to the side molding into her hand like it was meant to be there. Warm breaths tickled her wrist as he did nothing but look directly into her eyes. What he was seeing, she’d never know. “Come here.” He reached out and pulled her into his lap. Her legs stretched out beside him, her front connecting with his. “Are you okay?” His question threw her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean are you okay with what happened…what we did earlier?” This side of Luke was an enigma. The moments when he showed insecurity and vulnerability were more frightening than the ones when he showed his more dominant side. But she was beginning to develop feelings for both sides of the man underneath her.

  “Of course I am. It was…perfect.” She sighed wistfully as she thought back to the intimate moments they’d shared. She honestly couldn’t have thought of a more perfect interlude.

  “It was pretty damn special.”

  “It was,” she echoed him.

  “You’re probably tired. Let’s get some sleep, okay?” She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed a bit by his suggestion of sleep, but she was tuckered out from the eventful day she’d had.

  “Sleep sounds wonderful.” Ava climbed off his lap and went for the door.

  “Where the hell are you going?” Luke jumped up and met her.

  “Downstairs. The couch is down there.” Pointing to the door she looked over to Luke who had a look of pure confusion on his face.

  “You’re not sleeping on the couch.”

  “I’m not? I thought you’d want me to sleep there.” She didn’t know if he wanted her in his bed tonight, he’d never said as much.

  “Hell, no. I want you in my bed so I can hold you.”

  “Okay.” Ava smiled and went back to the bed. She threw back the blankets and slid herself in. Luke walked over and stood beside the other side but didn’t make a move to climb in with her. “Oh, am I on your side?”

  “No. But you’re wearing way too many clothes to be sleeping in my bed.” He shoved his underwear down his legs and slid under the covers with her.

  “Didn’t know this bed had a dress code,” she said while lifting her t-shirt over her head leaving her breasts exposed.

  “It does. The dress code is naked so I can touch you if I wake up in the middle of the night.” He reached over and grazed the back of his knuckles across her sensitive nipple.

  Ava sucked in a breath at the contact and closed her eyes. “Luke,” she breathed.

  “These need to go, too.” He pulled on the waistband of her sleep shorts. It didn’t take her long to shed those as well and drop them off the side of the bed to join her shirt. “Dress code accomplished.” He grinned.

  There was only one lamp in the room and it sat on the nightstand on Luke’s side of the bed. With a light click it was turned off and the room was bathed in a slight glow from the moonlight peeking in through the slit in the curtains. Ava startled when she felt Luke’s hand graze her breast once more. “I thought we were sleeping?” she questioned as she held back the moan that wanted to escape.

  “We are.” His hand now cupped her tender swell and squeezed slightly.

  “This doesn’t feel like sleeping,” she joked.

  “What does it feel like?” His voice was low and gravelly, a tone that told her he was turned on.

  “It feels like you’re touching me.” He stopped and pulled away. “No, don’t stop.” Her words came out strangled. Soon his hand was back but this time it trailed a path down her stomach and drew lazy circles right above her aching sex. “Tou
ch me, please,” she whispered in the dark.

  “Where?”

  “Lower.” He dipped one finger lower and continued his circles around the wet flesh of her swollen clit. Her back bowed as he teased and tormented her with his finger and soft pants fell from her lips as she tried to keep herself in check. But she needed more. He must’ve sensed her building frustration because he scooted closer, grabbed one of her thighs and pulled it from the other. “Spread your other leg wide for me.” She immediately did as he instructed and he rewarded her by sliding his hand over her folds. “Do you have any idea how hard it makes me knowing you’re all spread out, waiting for me?”

  “No,” she answered honestly. She’d never been desired to the extent that he was claiming. It was causing excitement and nervousness to rain down on her like a torrential downpour.

  “Feel that?” he grabbed her hand and wrapped it around his hard as steel cock. “You do that to me,” he growled.

  Ava reached down and pressed his hand to her center. “You do that to me.” Her head rolled toward him so she could see his face in the moonlit room. “I want you.” She’d grown past the point of being shy about her desires. Luke elicited some sort of sex crazed maniac in her and she wasn’t about to apologize for it.

  Luke took no time at all in throwing back the sheet that concealed their bodies and settling himself above her. She lay there with senses that were hyper-alert, every single nerve ending firing on all eight cylinders. His heavier weight settled next to her as he used his hips to mock thrust against her ready and waiting flesh. She’d tried to control her reactions to him but it was a losing battle equivalent to the Battle of Troy. Luke was the one sealed in the Trojan horse, waiting to destroy her senses with the wicked things he did to her body.

  “I want to take this slow, sweetheart,” he said as he leaned his head to hers and brushed his warm lips to hers. “I want to savor this body.” He ran his palm down her side, tickling slightly as he went.

  Ava began to squirm with need. She’d thought of herself as a patient person. After all, patience was a virtue. That thought made her giggle to herself. From the position I’m currently in, it doesn’t seem like I have many virtues left.

  “Hey,” Luke pulled her attention back to his rugged face. “Stop swimming around in that head of yours. Just feel.” He grabbed his hard length and placed it at her entrance. With a slight push of his hips he entered her only about halfway but she needed so much more. The desire to be filled completely by him clawed at her like a catnip crazed feline, accosting its favorite scratching post. What seemed like hours ticked by as he used her agony to torture her by only allowing her to have him bit by bit. Ava’s hands reached down to grab the firm muscles on his ass and pull her to him. “Ava,” his voice held a hint of warning, “Stop forcing this. I want to make slow sweet love to you. Can you handle that?” his tone softened.

  “Yes,” Ava whispered while her eyes filled with unshed tears. She didn’t want them to spill onto her cheeks and show Luke how she felt. This whole thing between them wasn’t about emotions; it was just two people being together in an intimate capacity. She had no business trying to sort through the myriad of feelings swamping her.

  Just as she relaxed a fraction more, Luke took the opportunity to slide the rest of the way into her warm waiting body. Her breath caught at feeling all of him within her. Sex never was an emotional thing for Ava. She didn’t care one way or another about it. And towards the end of her relationship with her previous boyfriend, it became evident that sex was just another way for him to control her. There was no way in hell she was letting that happen again. Focusing on just the physical feeling was what she’d intended to do, and was succeeding currently.

  “Not sure I’ll ever tire of this,” Luke punctuated his words with deliberate, languid strokes in and out of her depths. His unhurried pace seemed to chip at her resolve even more as she felt the sensations building in her heated core. How Luke was able to take her from freezing cold to boiling in a matter of strokes was beyond her. But she welcomed it with open arms. “Tell me what you need,” he began to grind his pelvis against her clit each time he immersed himself him her wet heat.

  Ava didn’t want to tell him that what she really needed was something he couldn’t give her. Safety, a future…no, Luke couldn’t guarantee any of those things. They were wants that she’d stuck in a small box in the back of her mind. The box was locked up tight with zero hope of breaking the code. The day she fled from her old life in Chicago was the day everything she’d ever hoped for and dreamed of went missing in action.

  “Ava, focus on me. On this.” Luke drew her attention back to what he was doing to her body. He continued his ministrations—taking her further to the peak she wanted to dive off of.

  Their heavy breaths dusted around them like a cloud that couldn’t be waved away. Their combined moans called to her and with each second she felt her body come alive even more. The way Luke slid his bare flesh in and out of her was something to behold. God, she wanted this tender moment to last a lifetime.

  “Sweetheart, I’m close,” Luke sounded as if he were gritting his teeth. She wasn’t quite there yet though.

  “Do it for me, please,” she pleaded.

  “Not unless you go with me.” His control was slipping; she knew by the tensing of his muscles.

  “No. I want to see you when you come.”

  “Jesus.” He rose up enough to prop himself on his elbows, his face only inches from hers. “Tell me to do it, Ava.”

  She lifted her hands and stroked the sides of his stubble covered cheeks. “Come for me, Luke.” Her voice was tender and caring. He didn’t reply, only locked gazes with her and sped up his movements slightly. If she wasn’t paying such close attention to how his body felt, she would’ve missed it. Still he held back for some reason. Why? She wasn’t sure. But Ava wanted him to use her body for his pleasure only. Maybe it was to prove to herself that he was just like all other men, selfish. Or maybe she wanted to watch the emotions play across his face when he tipped over the edge. She didn’t have to wait too long to experience the latter either. With a final thrust of his hips, a low growl that escaped his throat and his head tossed back, Ava saw everything she wanted to as Luke poured himself inside her body.

  Once he was spent, he slowly rolled from atop her body and lay next to her. She managed to roll her body over so she was looking at his more than handsome face. “Why did you let me do that?” He brushed a few hairs from her forehead.

  “I wanted to see you.” Luke pushed at her shoulder until she was on her back once more. “What are you doing?” She watched as he pressed against her side and began to lift her leg over his thigh.

  “I’m not letting you go to sleep when you’re aching like you are now.” His hand slid down her body and began to toy with the sensitive flesh between her legs. “Move your other leg out a bit so I can touch you.”

  “You don’t have to do that.” She was serious. As much as she loved the thought of him taking the time to pleasure her, she felt it was unnecessary.

  “But I want to do it.” He didn’t waste any time plunging two of his rough digits into her delicate folds. He pulled them out and rubbed moisture over her sensitive clit.

  “Mmmmm,” she whimpered arching her back.

  His fingers traveled back inside and he began to fuck her with his hand. “Do you have any idea how sexy it is to know my cum is inside you right now?”

  “Oh, God,” Ava groaned. Damn she loved the foul things that came out of his mouth.

  “That I’m spreading it around with my fingers and soon you’ll come all over my hand?”

  “Luke, I need…” she struggled for the words.

  “Relax. I know what you need.” The fucking motion of his hand picked up speed and his breathing did as well. “I want you to let go for me, sweetheart. I want you to give me everything you have. Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” she whined as her release teetered on the edge.

&
nbsp; “Let me have it, give me what I want.” Luke’s rough voice spurred her orgasm into hyper-speed as she felt her pussy begin to flutter around his fingers. “More, I want more, Ava.”

  Soon she was giving him all she had as the quakes spread over her body and her sex pulsed in steady waves around his hand. He heightened the sensations by giving her more of what she wanted. Screams tore from her lips as her eyes unfocused. All she could make out was the sounds of Luke urging her on. When her body decided it had no more to give, she went lax in what felt like a heap of bones on the bed beside him.

  “Now that,” he kissed her softly on the lips, “was fucking beautiful.” Luke rained down small kisses on her neck, both breasts and even her bare stomach as she lay there trying to recover. Her eyes fluttered shut and the last thing she remembered before sleep overtook her was Luke saying, “Sweet dreams, my gorgeous girl.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Something startled Ava awake during the middle of the night. She wasn’t a very sound sleeper anyway, but the noise she’d heard made her sit straight up in bed. Her heart beat rapidly in her heaving chest as she sat there listening again. Thump. The noise was back. Thump. There it was again. Five times she counted the strange sound and finally she decided to do some investigating. Glancing over at a slumbering Luke, she decided not to wake him. She’d go downstairs and try to find the source of the thumping sound on her own. Quietly sneaking out of the bed and pulling on her t-shirt and shorts, Ava walked to the door and pulled it open. Her gaze kept going back to the amazing man lying amongst the rumpled sheets—only his torso covered with the white fabric. Her body warmed instantly as she took in his frame with the incandescent glow of the silver moonlight. No, she wasn’t going to wake him. She could handle this on her own. So she opened the door—hoping Luke wouldn’t wake from the sound of the antiquated hinges grating on each other—and stepped out into the darkened hallway. Her bare feet didn’t make a sound as she traveled over the smooth hardwood and found herself at the top of her favorite thing in Luke’s home…the grand staircase.