Chapter 18
T heir guests left late that evening with Luke practically shoving them out the door. Aldo was on the front porch, offering to give Gloria a ride home, when Luke shut and locked the front door behind them.
It made Harper tingle with the thought that he wanted to have her alone so badly. Luke pushed her back against the door and kissed her with a heat that scorched. “We’ll clean up the kitchen tomorrow,” he decided.
Harper nodded. “Definitely.”
“Shower?”
“Yes, please.”
He dragged her, laughing, upstairs to the bathroom and turned on the water.
Luke pulled his shirt over his head while Harper pretended not to watch. When he slid his jeans down his muscular thighs, she wet her lips. His underwear clung to the bulge between his legs.
“What?” he demanded.
“I was just wondering how it’s physically possible for a human being to be so perfectly formed.” She stepped forward to trail her fingers over his chest.
Luke smirked and stilled her hand on his skin. “I was wondering how it’s physically possible for you to still have all your clothes on.”
Harper pulled off her sweatshirt and tossed it at him. Her shorts came next. The second her bra hit the floor, Luke was dragging her into the steaming water.
They stroked and played, raining wet kisses on slick skin.
Luke moved behind her and squeezed her shampoo into his hand. Harper let him work his strong fingers through her hair under the spray.
He lifted her wet tresses from her back, lips brushing the nape of her neck. Goosebumps cropped up even under the heat of the water.
She turned in his arms, letting the water cascade down her back. “My turn,” she said, nipping his lower lip with her teeth.
He let her lather him with body wash. Harper took her time, smoothing her hands across his chest and across his stomach. His cock twitched the closer her strokes came to it. He dropped his forehead to hers. “Baby, you drive me crazy.”
Harper gripped his shaft in her soapy hand. “Right back at you. Put your hands on the wall,” she whispered.
He hesitated, and she slid her hands lower to cup his heavy sack. “Please, Luke?”
When he finally did as she asked, she sank to her knees under the spray of the showerhead.
“Harper.”
She didn’t bother hiding her triumphant smile before she took him into her mouth.
Luke swore, and Harper slid her lips further down his shaft. Resting her hands on his thighs, she could feel the tension running through his body.
She moaned and felt him get harder instantly. His hips flexed, forcing him deeper into her mouth. Again and again. She eagerly met his short, fast thrusts.
“My God, Harper.”
He grabbed her under the arms and pulled her to her feet and out of the shower.
“I don’t want to come yet.”
Skipping the towel, he pressed her against the vanity and used his knee to spread her legs wider. He took a hand and swiped a path of steam from the mirror. “I want to see you,” he said, lips moving against her ear, eyes never breaking from hers in the reflection.
She shivered against him.
“Trust me.”
Harper nodded. She did. Something deep inside her recognized him. Knew him.
Luke slid his hand slowly down her spine following the trail of water from her wet hair to the cleft between her cheeks. His fingers lightly traced the water’s path, skimming over her anus. She tensed.
“I’ve never?—”
“Put your hands on the counter.” He reached up and squeezed more water from her hair, and she felt it trickle down her back to her behind. Harper shut her eyes as his hand once again followed the water.
“Open your eyes, baby.” He said it so softly, so sweetly, Harper couldn’t disobey.
Luke’s hand snaked around to the front, and he cupped her sex, fingers pressing into her lips. “I can feel how wet you are for me.” His fingers spread her open and found her clitoris. He rubbed gently with the pads of his fingers. A smooth, circular motion.
Harper felt the heat pool between her legs, the familiar heaviness deep in her belly. She had no control around him. She was always wet for him.
Luke’s gaze followed the trails of water from her hair as they made a lazy path to her nipple before beading and dripping off.
With his other hand, he took one of hers and brought it to her breast. Harper squeezed, and she heard him exhale behind her. His busy fingers pressed against her in approval. Harper cupped her breast and tried to focus on Luke’s eyes in the mirror.
He was fiercely in control but still exploring. She wondered how far he would take it. How far she would let him go.
Watching her, Luke straightened a finger and drove it inside her. Harper felt her knees buckle, and she bumped back against him. His cock rubbed between the cheeks of her behind. He gripped his shaft and slapped it lightly against her back.
Harper moaned and moved her fingers to tug gently at her nipple. Luke withdrew his finger and replaced it with two. He leaned over her, pressing her forward, and she had to bring both hands to the counter to steady them.
Luke reached around to cup her other breast, rubbing his thumb over her straining nipple. Everything he did to her felt like heaven and torture at the same time. Sheathing his fingers in her to the hilt, he curled them inside her.
“I’m going to watch you come.” He whispered it darkly against her hair.
Like she was under a spell, her body obeyed.
He drove his fingers into her again, and she shuddered, already at the edge.
He kneaded her breast and pressed his cock against her cleft.
She felt herself tighten around his fingers as his other hand tugged at her nipple.
Harper fell forward on the vanity and let the sweet waves take her.
Luke’s eyes never left hers, and in them was possession.
She felt the last of the orgasm slide through her and braced herself, catching her breath. “Jesus, Luke,” she whispered over her pounding pulse. Her body felt like it was designed for his.
He withdrew his fingers and held them up to her. She could see the slick coating and blushed. It was a dark pleasure.
Luke leaned back, still clutching her breast, and moved his hand to the small of her back. She felt his thumb press against the top of her cleft before his wet fingers traveled lower still.
She inhaled sharply when his fingers found her anus. She had never been touched like this before. Never been this vulnerable. Luke paused, applying a slight pressure with his finger. Harper felt a need she had never known begin to build. She pressed her back against him, testing the sensation.
He smiled grimly in the mirror and tugged at her nipple again.
Rolling it between his finger and thumb, he mimicked the pulls of a mouth on her.
Harper’s lips parted, and she felt him shift his weight into her.
His fingers ever so slowly breached her opening, and she gasped. It felt wrong. It felt good.
She could see the set of his jaw in the mirror and knew he was struggling to hold back. Harper shifted back against him, urging him deeper. Slowly, he fingered her hole, filling her. He reached his hand across to the other breast rubbing his palm lazily over the nipple.
His fingers withdrew and thrust in again and then again. A slow, consuming rhythm. She felt herself flex towards him every time he withdrew. She could feel juices gathering between her thighs and mingling with the water on her skin.
This wasn’t healthy, to have her body need his like this.
He withdrew his fingers, and she felt him grip his shaft.
Luke slid the rounded head of his cock between her legs, gently probing. She met his gaze in the mirror. Her breathing was shallow. She swallowed, desperate to be filled.
She felt the pressure as his wide crest breached her sex. Felt the gasp escape her lungs as he invaded her. Harper’s head spun, but she never took her eyes off his in the mirror. Those hazel orbs bored into her, seeing every corner of her dark soul. She was exposed, possessed.
“Luke,” she whispered. She tried to buck against him. To make him move.
He held her hips still with his rough hands. They stayed that way for what felt like an eternity. He pulled out slightly. Harper moaned, and it was all the encouragement he needed to bury himself in her. She cried out in triumph. Luke brought a hand around to tease the lips of her sex apart.
He filled her in a way no man ever had.
She couldn’t catch her breath as he started to move. His fingers teased a sweet spot, and his shaft stretched her to capacity. Something was building in her. It was a wall of pleasure so towering, she knew she couldn’t survive the break .
Harper could see sweat forming on his brow, his gaze still burning into her.
The thrusts were coming faster now, and he gave a quiet grunt with each one.
He was going to come like this. Just knowing it put a crack in her wall.
Luke reached around her and cupped her breast again. He tugged on her pebbled nipple.
It happened in an instant. The wall broke inside her just as Harper felt Luke’s first shudder of release. He let loose deep inside her. She clamped down on his shaft and shattered around it. Luke released her breast and gripped her chin in his hand, watching her as they both came apart.
“Where did you get these?” Luke asked, lazily running his fingers over twin scars high on her hip.
Harper was draped over him, naked on the bed in a post-orgasmic coma. She shrugged and buried her face in his chest. He shifted her to the mattress and sat up.
Harper snuggled face down into his pillow and ignored him as he studied her skin.
“Harper.” He poked her butt cheek.
“Mmm.”
“Harper Sue Ellen Wilde.”
She rolled to her side. “That is definitely not my middle name.”
“I don’t know your middle name, so I had to make one up.”
“So you went with Sue Ellen?”
“It seemed like a good fit.”
“It’s Lee actually.”
“Parents fans of To Kill a Mockingbird ?”
“Very good.” She arched an eyebrow.
“I’m more than just a pretty face.”
Harper’s gaze trailed down his naked body. “Oh, I can see that.”
“Hey, I’m not a piece of meat, and I asked you a question.”
Harper sighed and rose up on her elbow. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because they look like cigarette burns.”
“Good eye.”
His blood went icy in the span of a heartbeat. “Who did it? Was it that asshole Ted?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, it wasn’t Ted. It was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter who it was.”
“Like hell it doesn’t. Someone burned you with a fucking cigarette, and you’re telling me it doesn’t matter?”
Harper sat up. “I really don’t like talking about it.”
“I really don’t care. Tell me who did this.”
He saw the little muscle in her jaw tic and tried to relax. Yelling at her wasn’t exactly a smart way to make a woman open up. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Baby. You can trust me.”
“Why does this matter so much?”
Because you matter. He stopped the thought before it became words. Words that couldn’t be taken back. Shit.
“I don’t like feeling like you’re hiding something from me.” He was such a fucking hypocrite.
“I’m not hiding anything, Luke. It’s just, it’s something I’ve never told anyone.”
“Tell me what happened.”
She sighed, and he knew he had won.
“When I was in foster care, I was living with this really nice family. A mom, a dad, two brothers. I thought that they might adopt me. It was great until they got pregnant again and got a job offer on the other side of the country. I was transferred out of their house into another one. That family wasn’t as nice. ”
Luke lay back down on the bed and pulled her in to his side. He stroked the smooth skin of her back as she talked.
“It was an older couple, and there were a lot of kids in the house. Some fosters, some not. They were always yelling, the kids were dirty, there was never enough food. ”
Luke could feel his heart rate ratcheting up and forced himself to keep his touch gentle.
“After I had been there a week, the mom left, and things got ugly fast. The man had a nasty temper, especially when he drank. Every payday, we’d all do everything we could to stay out of his way. But someone always got noticed. And once or twice, it was me.”
Luke felt sick to his stomach. “How old were you?”
“I was twelve. I was the oldest in the house.”
“Did he ever do anything…” Luke couldn’t get the words out without choking on them.
“Sexual? No, just regular run-of-the-mill physical abuse.”
“What happened to him?”
“Jail.”
“Is he still there? Is he any kind of threat to you?”
“He’s still there.”
He kissed the top of her head and held her close, forcing himself to be gentle when the rage pounding through his veins wanted to destroy something.
“Thank you for telling me, Harper.”
When she didn’t respond, he nudged her chin up. “I’m sorry. I hate that that happened to you.”
“Me, too. Let’s talk about something less depressing. Like maybe another shower?”