18. Scarlett
Scarlett
Oh my God. That was so much fun. I felt lighter and freer than I had in days. Poor Luke did not seem to feel the same.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked him again.
He could barely move with how tense he was.
I had always thought of Luke as fearless.
He had never given me any reason to think anything else of him.
But I should have suspected something was up when we pulled into the lot of the sports complex earlier.
Now that we had spent two hours simulating skydiving, I was energized and relaxed, and the stress of the last few days floated away in the wind.
Luke, on the other hand, was stress city.
I did learn something new though. Apparently, Luke was afraid of heights—or, more accurately, according to him, afraid of falling from heights.
“I’ll be fine. I’m just going to… uh… lay down for a while.” He shuffled his way to his bedroom, not even bothering to close the door. I heard him hit the mattress with a groan.
I went to the kitchen and poured us both a glass of water. Then I popped into the bathroom and grabbed a couple of over-the-counter pain relievers for him .
“Knock, knock,” I said, standing in the doorway.
“Mmmm,” he groaned.
“I come with the gifts of water and Tylenol. Can I come in?”
“Of course you can,” he grumbled.
I put the water and two pain relievers on the bedside table and took a seat next to his splayed-out body. He was starfished, face down on the covers, like he’d just dropped there and couldn’t be bothered to move.
“I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t realize you were going to hate it as much as you did. I wouldn’t have suggested it if I had known.”
“Did you have fun?” he asked.
I didn’t even have to think about it before I answered. “Yeah. I loved it. It’s not as much of an adrenaline rush as the real thing, but it was still so much fun.”
“That’s all that matters.”
A smile tugged at my cheeks with his words, backed up by his actions.
He didn’t need to come with me today. And once he knew my plan, he could have turned it down.
He could have stood back and not participated.
But he didn’t. He was with me through it the entire time, holding my hand as manufactured wind held us in place above the ground.
Luke Wilder was a good man.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“A massage,” he huffed.
My face flushed, but Luke still had his head smushed into the mattress, luckily, so he didn’t notice.
I let my eyes trail over his broad shoulders, muscular back, ripped biceps, and firm butt.
Luke wasn’t just a good man. He was a remarkably good-looking man.
We were friends. Friends helped each other.
And if what Luke needed was a massage, then I was more than capable of assisting.
And the thought of me roaming my hands over his body was too enticing to deny.
I shifted on the bed and straddled his butt, placing my hands on the tops of his shoulders by his neck.
Luke stiffened beneath my touch. “Letty,” his measured voice called. “I was just kidding. You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. I want to,” I told him quietly. “But if you don’t want me to…” I moved to get off him.
“No,” he said quickly. “Stay. If you want. I just meant that you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Was he breathing faster? I knew I was.
I settled back on his butt again and reached out for his trap muscles.
They were so tight and knotted beneath my fingers.
I dug my thumbs in deep, rotating in a circular pattern.
The sound he made was part growl and part moan.
It was the sexiest thing I had ever heard.
I dug in again, pushing the muscles away from his neck.
“That feels so good,” he mumbled.
“Do you want me to keep going?”
“Shit, Letty. I don’t ever want you to stop.”
I bit my cheek, trying to keep the smile off my face.
After a few minutes on his traps, I moved my hands down to his mid-back. I rolled my fingers into his skin, pulling at his shirt every other pass to straighten it out.
“You can take it off. If you want. I mean, if it’s in the way,” Luke said.
“Well, considering we were playing a strip card game not two nights ago, I don’t see any reason to get shy now,” I said with a lot more confidence than I actually felt.
Seeing Luke’s bare chest the other night had sent a flurry of butterflies through my belly.
I could only imagine what touching him was going to do.
I slid my hands up Luke’s back, gathering his shirt as I continued to trail higher and higher, until finally I pulled it over his head.
I let the shirt hit the floor and took a moment to admire him.
His back was as well-defined as his chest had been.
Each muscle looked like it had been outlined and contoured for maximum effect.
The broadness of his shoulders slowly tapered off to slim hips, where his joggers were sitting low.
“You okay? If you’re uncomfortable, Scarlett…”
“No. Sorry, I was just…” I trailed off for a second, trying to figure out where that sentence was going. “Honestly, I was just looking at you. You have a really nice physique, Luke.”
“You think my muscles are attractive,” he joked.
Screw it. Honesty is the best policy, right? There was nothing wrong with saying that he looked nice. It was the truth, and he deserved to hear it.
“Yeah, I do.”
My hands roamed his back. I pushed the heel of my palms into the muscles on either side of his spine. My fingers traced his sides, wrapping around his back and dragging across his skin back to the center.
“You can’t say things like that when you have your hands all over me. It isn’t fair.” His voice was low, almost rumble-sounding. It sent a shot of heat to my center.
“What isn’t fair about it?” I asked. My heart was already beating faster. The more time I spent with Luke, the more this tension between us seemed to grow. Lines that we had never once come close to were being crossed more and more .
I continued to tend to his tight muscles, digging deep with my palms and caressing with my thumbs.
“I don’t get to touch you back.”
My hips shifted on reflex, seeking some sort of friction to ease the pressure growing in my core. Luke growled in response. His hands clenched into fists as his body tightened beneath me.
I didn’t know if it was the adrenaline still coursing through my body from earlier or the way Luke was responding to my touches, but a bold feeling overtook my senses. I leaned forward and placed a kiss to Luke’s upper back, dragging my clit across his ass along the way.
In a flash, Luke flipped me off his back, rolling us so that I was lying on my back with him hovered over me.
His usually green eyes were dark with a heat I had never seen before.
His breathing was coming quick as he held himself taut above me, his lightweight jogging pants doing nothing to hide his impressive erection.
“What are we doing, Letty?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
Luke thrust himself against me slowly. My head fell back as a moan slipped past my lips.
“I can’t risk you.” He thrust again, equally as slowly. “I can’t lose you.” Again, his cock dragged against my throbbing center. “We need to figure out if this is what we want before we start something.”
“Should we stop this while we figure that out?”
“Probably.”
“Do you want to stop?” I asked.
“Fuck, no,” he groaned. “Tell me to stop, Letty.”
My breath hitched with every drive of his hips. “I don’t think I want you to stop,” I told him honestly.
He dipped his head and pressed his lips to my collarbone as the rest of his body steeled, hovering above me. With his head still in my neck, he mumbled, “Until you know for sure, we’re not going there.” He pulled his head up and locked eyes with me. “You mean too much to me to risk it.”
I wanted to take it back. I did know. I had known as soon as he told me about his divorce that I wanted a chance to make Luke Wilder mine.
But now that the opportunity was here, it felt too monumental.
It sounded cliché, but having Luke in my life as a friend was far more important than risking it all and losing him.
He seemed to feel the same way, and I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to cross that line from here.
Luke rolled to his back and lay beside me, both of us breathing heavily. “I need to take a shower,” he said.
Trying to lighten the mood, I joked, “You shower a lot, you know that?”
He got out of bed and looked down at me splayed out on the mattress. His eyes raked over me, from my copper-red curls to my light pink–painted toes.
“Only when I’m around you, Letty.”
My face flushed, catching the meaning behind his words.
“Oh,” I breathed. Images of Luke stroking his thick shaft as he sought to find relief, with me on his mind, played out in my imagination.
Luke’s smirk was pure cockiness like he could see inside my head. He strolled from the bedroom and straight into the bathroom.
While he was in the shower, I changed into my work clothes. I was on the night shift tonight. Considering I had barely left my house in three days and I hadn’t been at work since the note was left on my car, I was feeling a little anxious.
Luke’s expression dropped, scowling when he caught me in the kitchen getting some food to bring to work with me.
“What are you doing?”
“Packing some snacks.”
“Are we going somewhere?” he asked. His arms were folded over his chest, a challenging tilt to his chin.
“I don’t know what your plans are, but I have to be at work soon, so I’m getting some things together.”
His scowl deepened, and he opened his mouth to say something. Before he had the chance, I cut him off.
“Luke, we both knew the time would come where I would have to join the real world again. I know you wish you had more leads to go on, but as long as I keep my head down and don’t get caught, no one will know that I’m helping you and Wes. I’ll just have to be more careful.”
Between the tick in his jaw and his hard, dark stare, I got the impression he didn’t love that plan.
“No fucking way are you to get involved in the Redmond case again. I don’t want you anywhere near that case. Whatever Wes needs, I’ll figure it out.”
“That’s not fair. I was part of this. I want to help. And I have better access than you do. Tonight, for example. I’m going to have the entire station almost completely to myself.”
“And you’re going to do your job like it was any other night. I’m serious, Letty. We don’t know the veracity of the threat, and until we do, I need you to stay away from this case.”
I wanted to argue, to tell him that I could take care of myself, but he was looking at me with such desperation that I caved.
“Fine. For now. I’m not done with this conversation though,” I said, my arms crossed in front of my chest .
The relief on his face was palpable as he blew out a breath.
“That’s good with me. You look mad at me. Come here,” he said. He opened his arms, and I stepped into them without hesitation.
Luke wrapped me in his freshly showered scent. Whatever was happening between us, I really, really liked that I could now touch Luke like this. I slipped my hand beneath the back of his shirt and was rewarded with a quiet growl.
“You were right. This does make me less mad at you,” I teased.
Luke’s rumbled laughter made me smile.
“Who are you working with tonight at the station?”
At least one other person was assigned the night shift so no one was ever by themselves. It was usually one of the lieutenants, but sometimes the rotation was off, and another officer would pull the short straw.
“Captain Langston, I think,” I told him as I pulled back.
“Good.” He nodded. “If you see Monroe, try to keep your distance, okay?”
“Yes, Dad.” I rolled my eyes.
Luke raised one eyebrow, a grin slowly tugging at his lips.
“I thought it was supposed to be daddy?”
“No,” I said. “Not doing that.”
“No?” A mischievous glint lit his eyes. I hadn’t seen Luke this flirty and playful…
ever. He was always more serious than his brothers, more stoic than the other officers at work.
This new side of him, a side of him that only I got to see, would be dangerous for my crush.
If it was just a crush. I didn’t know what we were anymore.
“We’re not there yet.”
“Yet?” He was openly smiling at me now, his straight white teeth on full display, set behind his perfect lips.
“Stop repeating me. Just no.” I shook my head. “I’m not kink shaming anyone, but I promise you, I do not want to be thinking about my father in times of… stuff,” I said, waving my arms around like that was helping me make a point.
Luke burst out laughing. He had to wipe the tears from his eyes before he could respond. “Noted. And I thought I knew all there was to know you about, Letty Girl. Learn something new every day.”
“Well, I should get going,” I said.
“Okay, I’m going to head back to my place since you’re not going to be here anyway. Call me when you get home just so I know you’re safe?”
“Promise.”
I was glad I had a shift tonight. Not just because I needed to feel like a real person again and get back into the routine of life but because it would give me a chance away from Luke to figure out what our changing relationship meant.
We hadn’t really crossed any lines. We could keep things the same as they always were—or we could risk it all.