Dead People (35 page)

He hugged her, and for a second she was engulfed in a sense of warmth and caring. Then he pulled away.

“You really can turn solid,” she whispered.

“I have to go now, but I’ll be back.”

She nodded. As he disappeared, so did the sense of warmth, leaving her cold and alone and wondering what was next.

Chapter Forty-five

Asleep in her bed, Erin looked at peace for the first time since Cassie had met her. Standing in the semi-dark bedroom, Cassie felt an ache in her throat. Lower, she felt another ache.

She put her hands over her belly. Her womb.

While telling Luke about her breakup with Frank, she’d made an intentional omission. The part where he told her he never planned on going through with the wedding because he didn’t want mutant children. Her stepmother had warned him that her mother was strange and any children of Cassie’s were bound to be the same.

Gazing at Erin, she knew this was the closest she’d get to being a mother.

She hadn’t known it would hurt this much. Like a knife in her heart.

Why did Vanessa Desidero, a junkie who cared more about feeding her habit than her child, get to be a mother and—

No! She slapped her hand over her mouth. She wasn’t going into that “poor pitiful me” corner of her mind. She’d been there once or twice. It wasn’t a fun place to visit, and it sure as hell wasn’t a fun place to live.

Time to stop feeling sorry for herself and do something about it. If even Joe was telling her to have sex with Luke...

She was letting her ex-fiancé stop her from getting what she needed. Why use Hunk to satisfy her body’s normal desires when the real thing was available?

A moment later, she stood outside Luke’s door. She heard music, something jazzy and sweet, with fuzzy sounding horns. She raised her hand to knock and took a deep breath. Her heart thumped liked one hundred drums playing at once. Her head felt light, too light. Maybe she was still feeling the effects of the medication and should be—

Wimp! In a second she’d squawk like a chicken. Be bold, she ordered herself. You’re not a chicken. You’re a leopard stalking your mate.
 

Mate for one night.

Would a leopard knock? Taking another deep breath, she set her lips together, brought down her hand, grabbed the doorknob and turned it. Luke lay on his bed, half-reclining on two pillows planted against the headboard, one leg bent, one arm behind his head, talking on a cell phone.

“I’ve got to go,” he said into the phone, looking at her, his face expressionless. “Okay, I’ll do that.”

Not taking his eyes from her, he tossed the phone onto the table next to the bed. “What can I do for you?”

She lifted the hem of her shirt. “Fuck me.”

***

Luke froze, not breathing for a full ten seconds, but something was building up inside him—and not just below his waist. Something in his chest, expanding it. Expanding his emotions, his mind. All this happening as he watched her strip off her top, her bra—
 

Christ, her breasts were beautiful.
 

Then she was pulling down her loose fitting pants. His own jeans were becoming too tight with his dick growing like Jack’s beanstalk. His hand went to the button and stopped, an alarm blaring in his mind.

This morning she said she didn’t want to do this.

What the hell had changed?

“No,” he said.

She stopped with her pants dropped around her ankles, her forehead crinkling, her head tilted as if she wondered whether she’d heard correctly.

He pushed up from his reclining position. “I want to know why.”

“Because life is short.” She kicked off her pants like a chorus line dancer, and his erection grew another inch. “Because my best friend will be going away and I might not see him for awhile. Because I’m alone, so I should take some comfort when I can. Because Hunk is low on batteries.”

“Huh?”

She hooked her thumbs into the top of her bikini panties. “Just making sure you were paying attention.”

He pushed off the bed, landing on his feet. Christ, her hips were great. When he grabbed them, he wouldn’t have bones digging into his palms.
 

“I’m paying attention.” He needed to pay attention to his jeans cutting off his circulation. He unbuttoned and unzipped. Denim wasn’t made for expansion.

“I know it’s a fling.” She wiggled her panties down to her ankles. “I want you to know it’s okay with me.”

He pulled off his jeans and his briefs at the same time. Later he’d take off his shirt. First the most important part, and then—

“I know you disapprove of me,” she continued, kicking off her panties with another chorus girl move, standing naked with her soft belly and thighs, a triangle of brown curls at the apex of her thighs. “I know you—”

“Shut up.” He crossed over to her, his dick bobbing toward her, his socks and his button-down shirt still on. “Shut the hell up. You’re talking too much.”

Her head tilted. “I just wanted to make sure you know I’m not expecting anything—”

He kissed her.
 

She made an “erp” sound. He opened his lips, his erection nestled against her belly, like it had come home and never wanted to leave. Except to go into that warmer, tighter home a few inches lower.
 

He kissed her slow and easy at first, but that lasted only a minute. The kiss got harder, and so did he. She grasped his arms, her fingers digging into his biceps, her body moving. Small kitten squeaks came from her mouth.

“Erin,” he whispered. “We can’t let her hear.”

“I am being quiet, you idiot.”
 

When a woman he was naked with called him an idiot, there was only one thing to do. He kissed her again. Long and hard and thirsty.
 

This time when she squeaked, he held himself back from squeaking with her.

He pulled his mouth away from hers. “I have condoms this time.”

“Get them.” Her voice sounded breathless.

“Not yet.” He moved his hips back far enough to slip his hand between them, sliding downward and touching her until she moaned.

She clung to him, whimpering, rocking against his hand and fingers, clinging tightly.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God. Never, ever let me go.” She raised herself on her tiptoes and bit his shoulder.

He clasped her to him until her shudders slowed. Her head drooped against his shoulder, her body sagged against him, and he remembered she’d just returned from the hospital yesterday.

Shit. He was wearing her out. This was not good. It would have to stop here.

He willed his dick back to its former size. Mr. Maxi wasn’t getting lucky tonight after all, and it was his own damned—

Her palms slapped into his chest and she shoved him away from her. “Where are your condoms?”

“The drawer.” He pointed at the table by his bed, his dick rearing up, raring to go.

“Get on the bed.” She nodded her chin at the bed and hurried to the dresser, her breasts jiggling. She glanced over her shoulder as she leaned forward and opened the drawer, her round ass facing him.

Turning, she pointed at the bed. “You’re not listening to me.”

“My shirt—”

“Take it off. The faster the better.”
 

He whipped the shirt off and flung it on the floor, still standing as she came around the foot of the bed, the package in her hand.

“You’re too slow.” She splayed her hands on his chest and shoved. The back of his knees hit the mattress and he sank down onto it, his legs hanging down the front of the bed.

He wanted to laugh. He wanted to pull her to him and kiss her again. He wanted to fuck her like she’d demanded when she barged into the room.

She ripped open the package. Holding it, she brushed her fingertips up and down him. He closed his eyes for a moment, then shifted. This was torment. Sexual torment.

Torment felt damned good.

“Suit me up,” he muttered.

She obeyed, her mouth tight as she pulled the sucker down.

Before she could torture him further, he grabbed her arms and toppled her to the bed next to him. She squealed.

“What are you doing?”

He stood and spread her legs. “I’m taking over.”

“Did I say you could do that? Did I give you permission, boy?”

He looked at her. She wasn’t smiling with her mouth, but rays of light from the bedside lamp gleamed in her eyes.

“No permission. I’m the man, you the woman.”

She grinned. He grinned back, unable to remember the last time he felt so at ease with another person.

Maybe it was never.

“So, what are you waiting for, Mr. Man? Have you lost your way? If you promise to be real good, maybe I’ll give you directions.”

“Real men don’t ask for directions.” He bent his knees and slid his hand under her thighs, cupping them over her buttocks. The sweetly warm scent of her rose up to him. He slid her up the dark blue bedspread, climbing onto it, his knees between her thighs sliding her up further, until her head was on the pillow.

Without another word, he entered her, carefully, remembering how weak she’d been, how sick. She felt strong and warm and tight and all things wonderful, but he remained, giving her time to adjust to him.

She pulled up and bit his other shoulder, and he grunted.

“Sorry.” Her eyes wide, she drew back. “I’m sorry.”

He dipped his head down and nipped her shoulder.

“God!” Her legs wrapped around him and her fingernails dug into the muscles on his back.

A howl roared in his head. Any notions of taking his time wiped out of his mind. She fit him like skin. The lushness of her body contrasted to his leanness. Her softness to his hardness.

Yet he still fought the need to move, holding his body off her from the waist up, while glued to her from the waist down, joined together. Fitted. Melded. One. He looked down at her pretty face, her eyes glowing into his, her lips parted, her teeth showing whitely.

“Are you going to stare at me all night, boy, or are you going to fuck me?”

His entire body heated, throbbed, tightened. He lowered his head and slid his tongue across her lips, taking a taste of her into his mouth.

Then he moved. He rode her, trying to be gentle, trying to hold back. But the heat in him burned too hot, his body taking over. Beneath him, she bucked, and the kitten noises returned. Her head twisted from side to side until she contracted around him. Another form of ecstasy.

He tried to make this last longer, but he was going, going, gone. He convulsed, his clamped mouth and gritted teeth strangling his shout to a thin cry. Then he collapsed on top of her, sweat making his chest slippery on her breasts.

Her arms wrapped around his back, her legs slid down to his calves, holding him to her, skin to skin and heart to heart.

For the second time that night he thought this was like coming home. He closed his eyes and savored the sensations.

Chapter Forty-six

Luke snored softly, his arm heavy over Cassie’s breast. Her eyes closed, she imprinted the sensations in her memory—his weight, his scent, the satiny feel of the sheets beneath her. It was all part of the experience she might never have again. If she convinced Isabel to leave tomorrow, Cassie would pack up and drive away too.

The thought made her open her eyes and turn to look at Luke in the dim light, the three-quarter moon shining through his uncurtained windows. He spooned toward her, his maxi shrunk to a mini. She felt a hum inside her. If she were a cat she’d be purring.

Maybe some day she’d tell him that when they were in the clinic naming his penis she’d wanted to do the wild dance with him.

She took a deep breath. The dance was over, and it was time for her to go back to her room. She was cozy in the afterglow of sex, even though the covers were pooled around their thighs. Content. Both her body and her mind, she realized with surprise.

But what if Erin came into the bedroom and saw them together? The scenario was unlikely, but Erin had been hurt too many times to take the chance.

She pushed his arm off her. He protested, his voice thick with sleep, his eyes remaining shut. She made soothing noises and pulled up the cover over his shoulders.

A moment later she clutched her clothes to her chest and stuck her head out into the hall, peering down the hallway. All clear.

She stole to her room where she threw her clothes on the chair and her shoes on the floor. The T-shirt she wore at night hung over the back of the chair. She pulled it on, used the bathroom, and brushed her teeth. The necessities taken care of, she turned off the light and tumbled into bed.

Curled into a ball, she found she was wide awake. She’d slept more than usual today and yesterday, recovering from being poisoned. But she knew the real cause of her wakefulness was her mind replaying the last hour over and over, like scenes from a movie she especially enjoyed.