Chapter 38
I stared at his hand, held palm up and steady between us. “Y-your mother? Those women?”
“I’m not asking them to dance, Asher. I’m asking you.”
Was this real? Was I dreaming? “I don’t know how to dance.”
Luke grinned, just a twitch at the corner of his mouth. “I’ll show you, if you’ll let me.”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Was this a test? I didn’t want to embarrass him or out him, but his voice was getting to me. The warm timbre ran smoother than the chocolate fountain I’d been ready to curse not two minutes ago.
“I missed you,” I whispered, still not taking his hand, kind of afraid of it, but needing to say the words before all of this ended. “I love you. I love you so much.” My voice cracked on the confession as the tears spilled. “And I miss you terribly.”
“Asher.” Luke closed the distance between us, one arm sweeping me against his chest. He cupped my cheek, pressed his forehead to mine. “I love you, Asher.”
Breath shuddered hard against my ribs.
“Please, can we start over? As it should’ve been. Months ago, when we first met, when I should’ve seen the man I’d grow to love in that hallway outside the men’s room. Can we do that now? Will you, Asher, be mine?”
“No, well, I mean yes, but call me Asher again in front of all these people. Call me Asher, not Ashley.”
“Asher,” he whispered and rubbed his forehead back and forth on mine. “Asher. Asher Brandt, the man I love. My playboy.”
“Ah, fuck me,” I breathed.
“Yes, but dance with me first? Your mother wants pictures.”
I choked on a laugh, then nodded. “Yes. Yeah, okay.”
Luke swept me into the dancers, just as the first strains of “Lover” by Taylor Swift began to play. His confident strides and strong arms had me floating, my toes barely touching the floor as he held me to him, wrapped in his arms, wrapped in his love for all to see.
Luke hummed along with the song, and I softly sang the few words I knew until my voice grew too hoarse with emotion.
He moved me into the middle of the dance floor. Couples swayed around us like extras in a movie. My friends and family stood at the edge, watching and holding each other, Momma in tears while the others grinned.
Luke tipped my chin with his fingertips, moving us gently from side to side, then placed his warm lips to my jaw. “Give me the chance to make this right,” he whispered, then kissed under my ear.
I lowered my head to stare into his soul-deep gaze, searching for answers. “Who … You’re doing this for you?”
“I’ve already done it for me. I told Paul and Mary and William.” He nodded toward the crowd around us. “And Mother and Father just figured it out.”
The angry couple stood to our right.
“Look at me, Asher. Only me.” Luke pressed his forehead to mine and held me even tighter as we slowed to a stop. “Now, I’m doing this for you, for us.”
He kissed me so, so softly. Luke kissed me in front of a room full of people as tears trailed down my cheeks, then brushed his thumbs along my wet jaw.
“I love you, Asher. Please allow me to prove it.”
“I think you’re off to a great start,” I whispered through my shivering chin.
He breathed a chuckle over my lips, and I couldn’t stop from kissing him again.
“Is this okay? I can kiss you?”
“Yes, please do. Often. Always. Forever.” Luke grabbed my hand and spun me out and back in. His hold tightened on my lower back as he brought our bodies so close there was no mistaking what this display was about.
“I missed you,” I said once more. “Never let me walk away again, okay? I may put on a good show, but that killed me. I won’t survive it next time.”
“Let’s hope there is never a next time, because it killed me too.”
“I’m sorry. God, I didn’t want to hurt us.”
“Asher, Shh. It had to happen, but it’s over now. We broke. We destroyed that path. Now, let’s make one together.”
“Fuck.” I dropped my head to his shoulder. “Fuck, yes. I want that.”
“Come home with me?”
I pulled back a few inches, more than I wanted but enough I could see him, smile for him. “You’re done puttin’ on a show?”
“Well, we could fuck here, but your family and friends like me at the moment. I don’t want to ruin that. And we might get arrested.”
I chuckled. “I don’t think I’m ready for that sort of record.”
“No? Maybe a record of how many times I can make you come? How many times I can get you to shout my name? How many times I can tell you I love you before you’re sick of it.”
I shook my head. “Won’t happen.”
“I love you.” He kissed me. “I love you. I love you.”
“I love you, Luke.”
He kissed me once more, teasingly chaste, then turned us toward the exit.
Luke kept his arm around my waist and ignored every glance, stare, and curious busybody we passed.
I waved at the Hickory Bend crew. Momma blew me a kiss, and Percy bounced on his toes.
Michael snarled, and Jamie poked him in the ribs.
His usual frown was a beautiful smile for a change.
“I can’t believe no one spilled the beans. When did you plan all of this?”
He laughed, a dark rumble from his chest as we waited for the valet to bring his car around.
“I’ve been planning for about two weeks. Your friends and family only knew recently.” He raked a heated stare over my face and upper chest. “God, you’re sexy as fuck.”
The Range Rover stopped beside us. A valet rushed to open the passenger door with blushing cheeks and a shy smile.
Luke raced along the streets to get us to his place. I petted his arm, his leg, his cheek. I couldn’t stop touching him. He was real. This was real. He parked under his building not a moment too soon, and then we tried to walk and make out at the same time.
I tackled his buttons in the elevator and had his jacket, vest, and shirt open by the time we made it to his floor.
“Damn. You’re gonna kill me.”
He unlocked the door, and I backed inside, pulling him along by his clothes. The door slammed closed, and we were alone.
“What? My old man can’t take it?”
Luke snapped. Like fucking hell. His eyes flashed with something twisted and hungry. He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back.
“Fuck,” he hissed and licked a stripe up my neck.
Clothes fell in a trail to the nearest surface. We only made it as far as the kitchen counter. Luke hoisted me onto it, got my pants undone, yanked my boxers low enough, and engulfed me in his mouth.
“Mmm, shit.” I leaned back on one hand and held his cheek with the other.
He hummed around my length, working me into a fast and dirty frenzy with his tongue and throat. His arms came around my waist, hugging me as he sent me soaring.
The lights were off, with the sparkling downtown streaming in the open curtains, lighting our way as we caressed and renewed this longing for each other.
“Luke, I’m close,” I panted.
He growled, doubled down, and I shot off with a groan, whispering his name. As the waves receded, following a deep need to devour him the same way, Luke licked me clean, tucked me in, and stood between my spread knees.
“Stay with me tonight, tomorrow night, for as long as you can.”
I nodded with my fingers seeking his jaw and kissed him. “As long as you’ll let me.”
He grabbed my hips and pulled me off the counter. My hand in his, he led me upstairs. The urgent need met, in me, at least, we finished undressing slowly, kissing every inch we uncovered. My heart slowed, but my tingles still raced. I needed him. Just anything, everything, I needed it.
Luke walked me into his shower, then pushed me against the wall and jacked my already hard cock.
“You,” I begged. He hadn’t come.
Luke shook his head. “Not yet. I need to do this. Please.”
I didn’t understand, but I nodded without a word and took his emotions. He kissed me deeply as he brought me to a knee-buckling orgasm. I was limp in his arms as he hummed in my ear, swaying as if the music from the ball still played around us, and washed me clean.
“Let me take care of you,” he whispered.
“Let me love you,” he breathed against my ear.
“You’re a miracle. My miracle.” His soft words continued across the skin of my cheek, my neck, my shoulder.
“Perfect for me,” he said before closing his mouth over one nipple for a gentle suck.
“A fantasy at my fingertips.” He did the same to the other one.
“The air in my lungs.” He kissed one rib, then another. “You taste like a dream.”
This was worship. Luke was fucking worshipping me, adoring every inch of me. He dropped to his knees, hugged my waist, and I cradled his head, protecting him in this vulnerable moment.
“I died without you,” he said, lips against my navel. “Make me new,” he begged. “Give me the chance to be strong for you.”
“Luke,” I cried. He tilted his chin high, fresh tears in his eyes to match mine. “I love you.”
“I love you.” He kissed my stomach.
He let go of me when I bent to kiss his lips.
I pulled him to his feet and turned the water off, understanding his desperation, his near fear that I’d disappear before his eyes and this was all some elaborate dream to continue the anguish we’d been in, because I’d been there too.
This unbearable torment that deceptions still lingered, that we’d have to part again.
That I’d walk away or he would. That this night would end before we could make ourselves believe it was real.
Luke laid me on his bed, then came over me.
“Are you really here?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
He tucked his face against my neck. “Good.” He kissed my pulse, beating for him, always for him.
I reached between us. Luke adjusted so I could lazily stroke him as he mouthed his way across my chest.
“No hurry.”
“I need your come.” I gripped his shoulders to force him to look at me. His pupils were blown, their glittery black depths as deep as this thing between us. “Please. I need you losing your mind for me. I have to know you’re falling apart like I am.”
Luke smiled. It came on slowly, hungrily. “Oh, my little playboy, I’m barely holding it together.”
“Show me, old man.”
He reached for the lube, then knelt between my legs. “Has this body missed me?” he asked and circled my cockhead with a dripping fingertip.
I nodded, then hissed when he reached behind himself. “Nuh-uh, baby.”
Luke bit his lip, lashes lowering in submission, then moved to lie beside me, ass in the air. “Like this? You want to watch?”
I nodded, getting to my knees as he sank one finger all the way in.
“Fuck, that’s hot.”
“Mmm.” Luke pushed in a few times, then added a finger. “Yes, fuck.”
“You’re doing so well. Want me to take over?”
He nodded and withdrew. I had my fingers lubed, dripping more between his cheeks, and pressing inside in about ten seconds.
“Oh God. Shit, you’re so tight.”
Shivers raced along his spine. “More. I’m ready.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I pulled free, lubed my dripping cock, and lined up.
“Promise me tomorrow. That’s all I want, an eternity of tomorrows.”
I pushed against him. “Tomorrow, you’ll be in my arms when you wake up. And the next tomorrow, and the next. Every single tomorrow I have is yours. Now, let me in.”
He inhaled, expanding his ribs, and did just that. “Yes, fuck.” Luke groaned as I sank deeper. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for giving me this, giving me you.”
Curving over his back, I kissed behind his heart, buried under muscle and bone, deep inside him where I was, where I would be forever.
When skin slapped on skin, in as deep as I could go, I nipped his side and grinned. “Want me to wreck this hole? You want to be sore?”
“Mmmph, yes, God, please.”
I pulled out and slammed in. “Like that?”
“Asher,” he breathed.
“Ah, fuck. Say it again.”
“Asher!” Luke shouted.
I’d never tire of hearing this man call my name. Asher. No one else.
And as promised, the first of many I intended to keep, Luke woke in my arms, both of us greeting the new day with a smile.