Chapter 16
Luke and I have been talking a lot more lately, and I am starting to have a hard time remembering why we ended things so many years ago.
At the time, we were both searching for different things.
I wanted to settle down, and he wanted a life of adventure.
But he’s older now. He has been great to talk to; we have fun together; he makes me laugh, and he is so damn sexy.
That checks all of the important boxes, right?
The other night, we stayed in, ordered food, and binge-watched a popular Netflix series that neither of us had gotten around to watching.
Luke arrived at my house ten minutes after our agreed-upon time, which is typical Luke behavior.
It’s been so long since he annoyed me with his constant tardiness, I find myself feeling charmed by some things never changing.
I met him at the door, and he leaned down to kiss me on the cheek.
This kiss was so innocent, just a fleeting moment, but it was enough to heat my skin.
Because middle-aged Luke is so, so hot. He is, once again, without glasses.
I grabbed him by the arm, pulled him through the door, and dragged him toward me until we were standing just inches apart.
“Happy to see me?” he asked, with a huge, sexy grin on his face. He has little crinkles around his eyes that appear when he smiles widely. It was almost enough to make me strip by the front door, knowing full well Jenkins is watching from her porch with a telescope under the guise of stargazing.
I looked up at him and pulled him just a bit closer. “Yes. I can’t stop thinking about the last time you were here.”
“You mean the breakfast we had together?” he teased.
“Before that.”
“Oh yes, the house tour. I also enjoyed that,” he whispered, his lips coming closer to mine.
To my horror, I let out a little giggle at his teasing. He was giving me star eyes, and I was acting like a little schoolgirl with a crush. He lifted his hand to my chin and pulled me the rest of the way toward him, our lips meeting for the briefest moment.
“I’ve been thinking about you, too. However, you need to prove to me you don’t just want me for my body.” I rolled my eyes and let out a huff. “Let’s proceed with the plan of ordering food and watching something. I need to keep my strength up, just in case…”
I got to work ordering food while he scrolled through my Netflix account. The sight of him sitting on my couch with the remote was such a throwback to our twenties that I could hardly get over it. It felt like all the time had passed and nothing at all had changed, in a good way.
“Hey, I know I’m way behind the times, but have you watched Ozark yet? It doesn’t look like it,” he commented, referring to a show I had on my list of things to watch.
“I have been meaning to, just haven’t got around to it yet. The food will be here in forty-five minutes. Let’s get it started.”
I walked over to the couch and sat down at a respectable distance, with about half of a cushion separating us.
Luke immediately grabbed my arm and dragged me over to him.
I snuggled up against him and rested my head on his shoulder.
It felt like sinking into a warm, cozy bed after a long day.
He smelled fresh out of the shower and exactly how I remembered him.
It wasn’t long into the first episode before he lay down on the couch and pulled me up to his chest, laying me out in front of him.
He started running his hand down my arm, my side, my thigh, and working his way back up.
I was only wearing leggings and a thin tank top, so his touch warmed my skin and was definitely a distraction.
Soon, his hand was leaving the path of my side and was working its way toward my backside.
I looked up at him, and something struck me. “Hey, what happened to your glasses?”
He laughed loudly and removed his hand from my ass as I had startled him. “Oh, those sexy, old things? I had laser surgery. My vision is so bad that I still wear glasses often, but I was able to get rid of the old monstrosities. Do you miss them?
“They were an acquired taste, but they became such a part of you. I never minded them.”
I tried to focus back on the show. A couple of minutes later, his hands started to slide up and down my back again and eventually made their way under my shirt. The heat of his hands on my back was enough to completely distract me from the task at hand.
“Hey, buddy, you’re making it difficult for me to concentrate on what is happening in this show.”
He responded by putting his hand on my ass and giving it a little squeeze.
“This show is so sexy, I can’t help it,” he responded, rubbing warm circles up and down my thighs.
“So far, I have picked up themes of money, drugs, and murder. I’m worried about you if that type of behavior turns you on.”
I turned my body back toward him slightly to look at him, which caused his hand to move to the front and then to the inside of my thigh.
He had a sexy grin and leaned in to kiss me.
A real kiss this time, not the granny kiss he offered me when he first arrived.
My body turned more fully toward his, and he grabbed my face to deepen our kiss.
Our bodies were lined up, pushing into each other from our chests to our thighs.
Then, the doorbell rang.
I pulled back slightly and said in a hushed tone, “Our food is here.”
“You want me to tell them to leave?” he replied. “I’m suddenly a different type of hungry.”
With a shake of my head, I pushed off of him and stood up to answer the door.
“Remember, you need to keep your strength up?” I said, walking toward the entryway.
“That was the Luke from the past. He was an idiot.”
I grabbed the food from the delivery driver and gave him a generous tip since he had to drive out to the boondocks to bring us supper.
When I turned around, Luke was standing right behind me.
He grabbed the food from my hands and went off toward the kitchen.
I turned around to lock the door and turn off the front light once the driver made it back to his vehicle.
By the time I started walking toward the kitchen, Luke was back in front of me—no food to be found.
“I put the food in the kitchen. Seems pretty hot. We’d better let it cool off,” he said, pulling me down the hallway, toward my bedroom. A room we never made it to the first night he stopped over, other than on the house tour.
“Luke. We have all night.”
“Cassie. I want you now.”
Luke pulled me toward the bedroom in a tangled dance of our bodies as we kissed.
His hands roamed down my sides and around to my back.
When we got to the bedroom, he grabbed my ass, fully lifting me up, which was possibly the hottest thing to happen this decade.
I am not a tiny girl, and his walking with my legs wrapped around his waist was almost enough to push me over the edge.
When we reached the bed, he literally threw me down on it and then threw himself on top of me.
My legs parted to make room for him as we continued our steamy makeout.
I pulled his shirt over his head, and he returned the favor.
My hands skated down his chest and stomach.
The Luke I dated in my twenties had the body of a young man, thin and smooth.
Grown-up Luke had man-muscles and a sprinkling of chest hair that faded out on his stomach.
Not wasting any time, we made fast work of getting the rest of our clothes off.
Luke made his way down my stomach, kissing a path to between my legs.
My eyes were locked on him, the sight almost too hot to handle.
While I could have died happy with him there, I pulled his arms up, needing more of him.
I reached for him, stroking him gently a few times, which had him groaning.
Luke settled between my legs and sank into me.
After a very short time, he whispered in my ear, “I need to see you,” and did a smooth rolling maneuver that had me on top of him.
He was right. The view was better this way.
He relaxed into the bed while I did all the work, which I didn’t mind at all.
He eventually eased his hand between my legs, rubbing small, gentle circles.
One benefit of having sex with someone for years and years is that they know what you need.
There would be no awkward moments of lying there incomplete with someone who knew how your body worked.
As I was about to finish, I smashed my lips to his, using the kiss to stifle my moans. Apartment living for so many years has made me conscious of being quiet. Even though I have a whole house now, there is no need to give Holly and WJ fodder for neighborhood gossip.
Luke returned the muffled groan into my mouth and pulled me close. I stuck my face in the crook of his neck, enjoying the warmth of his body and his slightly sweaty, mostly Luke, smell. I could live here, in this moment, and be perfectly happy.
We eventually made our way back to the kitchen to our unbelievably cold food. I dished up some plates for us while Luke got us some drinks from my garage fridge. We settled at the counter to eat our reheated takeout. Luke raised his beer bottle toward me in a cheers gesture.
“We deserve a cold one, babe. We put the work in tonight.”
He was not wrong. However, it was going to take more than a cold beer to cool down the heat I had for this new, older version of Luke. Everything with him has been great. Comfortable. Familiar. Hot. It was always nice being with him. Why did I ever stop?