23. charlee
TWENTY-THREE
charlee
“Lucas,” I began, not even knowing what I planned to say.
He slid off the bed, running his hands through his hair. The muscles of his biceps bulged even through his long-sleeve shirt. Since his back was to me, I had no idea what he was thinking. Sitting up, I tried to unscramble my thoughts too.
Hard to do when you’d just had the best orgasm of your life.
Lucas’s technique, coupled with him taking control, coupled with the fact that it was, in fact, Lucas between my legs? I’d never, ever experienced anything like it and was pretty certain I never would again.
But something was wrong.
“What is it?”
He turned to me, his face looking almost as if it were in pain. One quick glance down gave me the answer. It didn’t matter that Lucas wore jeans. He was obviously about to burst through them.
I stated the obvious. “There’s nothing stopping us, really, from having sex.”
I wanted that. Wanted to know him completely.
“Except there is. Once we go down that path—”
“It’ll be difficult to come back. I get it.”
His gaze held mine. This off-the-charts chemistry between us, this bond that both of us had already known was there, even though we weren’t much more than kids back when we dated. . . yeah, I got it. And was all in.
Lucas, however, was not.
“What is it going to take for you to see I’m not that seventeen-year-old girl anymore, Lucas?”
His eyes swept from my face downward to where I had come apart from his tongue just a few minutes ago. Looking back up, he said, “I am clearly aware of that fact, Charlee.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem? Why are we playing these games? Pretending to be together, testing my father, which we haven’t even attempted to do yet, so I’m not even sure of the point of all this. Let’s just make it the real deal. He’ll know soon enough either way, and then you’ll see how little his thoughts about us matter to me.”
For a second I thought he’d agree with me, but instead he let out a deep breath, clenched his jaw and looked down to where his jeans bulged. He shook his head, about to say something, but he didn’t have a chance.
I crawled across the bed to him.
“Charlee,” Lucas began, as if it were a warning.
I didn’t take it.
When I was at the edge of the bed, I swung my legs around and let them drape off the side, not bothering to hide the fact that I wore nothing on my bottom, including underwear. Sitting there, I put the nail in the coffin.
“Let me get you off too.”
“Dear Lord,” he muttered under his breath. Then suddenly, Lucas’s entire demeanor shifted. From reluctant lover to the man who called me his “good girl,” he unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans in record time. Standing in front of me, he pushed them down, underwear included, and took himself in his hand.
“You wanna get me off?” he asked as if he doubted my words.
I nodded as he stroked himself. I wished I could see the veins in his arms or at least his arm ink, but both were all covered up.
Just at the perfect height to take him into my mouth, just like I remembered, when Lucas first guided his dick into me, I started sucking gently. Wanting to please him. Licking and swirling with my tongue, relishing the sounds he made. After a second, Lucas removed his hand, and I took its place with my own.
Lucas told me what he liked as he pumped into me. “That’s it, baby. Take all of me,” he said, his hands on the back of my head.
I did, though not so easily.
“Fuck, Charlee.” He was simply a man expressing pleasure, but the way he said those words. . . His voice, so deep and sexy, could earn the man money if he weren’t opening up a tattoo parlor.
Dear Lord.
“That’s it, baby. Whose dick is in your mouth?”
And now, I was beginning to get wet again.
“Mmmm,” I murmured, unable to say more. But as he pumped into my mouth, I wanted to take more of him. His tightening grip on my hair told me that my efforts were appreciated.
“Fuck,” he cried out. “Charlee. Fuck, you are unbelievable.”
I hadn’t used any special techniques yet. The few tricks up my sleeve would go unused. Because he was definitely getting close. The sounds he made and the intensity that met me with each thrust told me so.
As did he.
“I’m gonna fucking come for you, Charlee,” he said, just before he did. “Fuck,” he ground out again as he unloaded himself into my mouth. I took it, swallowed, and licked the tip of his dick clean, pulling away and wiping my mouth.
Lucas let me go, tipping his head up and closing his eyes. When he opened them, it was to stare at me. “Jesus, Charlee. You are fucking incredible.” He tucked himself away, lifting up his jeans and re-buckling them. A shame, because he really did have a magnificent dick. The perfect size, actually.
He caught me staring at his crotch. And then did something totally unexpected, given how he’d been acting all night. Lucas climbed into the bed next to me, pulling me against him. He was fully clothed. I was missing my bottom half. It was not at all how I’d imagined us being intimate the first time, but nothing about this “new” Lucas was expected.
When he kissed my head and wrapped his arms around me, I had no words. Never had I felt so safe in my life. Confused? For sure. Sated? Absolutely. Still turned on? If I thought about this night too hard, abso-fucking-lutely.
But also, safe.
And more than a little confused. For now, I’d just close my eyes for a few minutes and revel in the current circumstances of being in Lucas Warner’s arms.
“Charlee?”
When I woke up, it took me a second to realize where I was. And then another second to realize. . . “Oh shit, what time is it?”
“Just after seven,” Lucas said. He was lying on his back, hands folded under his head, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
“Seven? Are you serious?” I jumped out of the bed. “How is that possible? I don’t sleep past six. Ever.”
Lucas looked at his watch, then back at me with a smirk. “Interesting. Being that it’s after seven.”
“Did you. . .” Realizing he was in sweats and a T-shirt, I answered my own question. “You’ve been up already?”
“I have. Rarely sleep past five. Took a shower, then laid back down. I’ve been watching you sleep for the past hour.”
Watching me sleep. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
That was oddly. . . comforting. And romantic. But also problematic. “I’m supposed to be at a manager’s meeting in an hour. By the time I get home, change, get down to Taughannock. . . Shit.”
“Sorry, baby,” he said.
I tried not to read into the nickname. It was the whole “good girl” thing, all sexual. I certainly wasn’t Lucas’s baby.
Even if I really wanted that.
“If I’d known, I would have woken you up. You looked so peaceful.”
“No, it’s not your fault. What time is it exactly?”
Lucas looked at his watch again. “Seven-oh-eight.”
Shit. I was going to be late. “Ugh.”
“Can you go right from here?”
That would get me there in time, but I looked down. Jeans weren’t unheard of since we all went fairly casual at these meetings, but. . . “I do have a blazer in my office that I suppose could dress this up.”
Lucas nodded to his bathroom. “There are toothbrushes under the sink. Not much else that’ll help you but. . .”
It would have to do. “You could give me a ride? I know you have two clients today.”
Lucas would begin taking clients this week, without advertising much, and sort of soft opening the studio.
“Not until this afternoon. Go ahead, I got you. But sorry to say, not much for breakfast here.”
“It’s fine, thanks, Lucas,” I called, heading to the main room to grab my purse and then head into the bathroom. When I’d said the apartment was sparsely furnished, I wasn’t kidding. But it was neat. Orderly. Not unexpected for a military guy.
I had my backup purse, so not a ton of makeup, but after brushing my teeth, fixing my hair and doing what I could with what I had for my face, I didn’t look completely like I’d spent the night partially clothed in Lucas’s bed and was about to have every manager for all of my father’s properties at a meeting in less than an hour.
I was about to put on lipstick when Lucas stopped me.
Reaching around to the front of me, he took the lipstick tube from my hand. Then, pushing my hair to one side, he proceeded to kiss everywhere. My neck, behind my ear. A jolt of sensation coursed through my body as he spun me around and finally kissed my lips.
Slow. Sensual. Lucas’s tongue demanded my own, and I gave it freely. My arms looped around his waist to steady myself as we stood there, intertwined, and kissed for far too long. Until it occurred to me why I was getting dressed for work in Lucas’s bathroom in the first place.
“I really have to get going,” I said, pulling away finally.
“Let’s go.”
Just like that, he backed away, highlighting the most confusing part about this “new” Lucas. He was so hot and cold. One minute, he embraced me in a way that made me think I was the only woman in the world. A few seconds later, he was just the opposite. I pictured him in his shop, surrounded by beautiful women, tattooing one while another gazed longingly at him. The man in the center, for his part, somewhere in between completely oblivious to it all and deciding which of them he wanted to take home that night.
Quite a visual, and one Lucas wouldn’t likely appreciate.
The enigma that was Lucas Warner alternately attracted and confused me, and last night hadn’t helped.
If anything, I was more confused than ever.