Luke: Armed and Dangerous (17 page)

Trinity pressed her palms against his chest and almost groaned out loud. She could
feel the play of his powerful muscles beneath his shirt.

“I—I barely know you,” she finally said.

“Sugar, we already know each other better than some folks who’ve been together for
years.”

She shook her head. “We only met a few days ago.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He brought his face closer and filled all her senses with his presence.
She felt as though she was drowning, losing herself in this virile man, and wanting
to lose herself in him. “Somehow, I’ll give you another day—or two, if that’s what
you need to be sure.”

“I want you now, Luke. I want you tonight.”

His lips touched hers, then pulled back, sending shivers of pleasure across every
inch of her skin.

“Not yet.” His blue eyes pinned her where she stood. “Because I already know this
much—when I take you, I won’t be letting you go.”

The sound of Skylar’s and Zack’s voices snapped Trinity out of her Luke-induced trance.
Pulling free of his grip, she grabbed the bowl of mutilated tomatoes and dodged to
the other side of the kitchen just as her sister and brother-in-law entered the room.

Luke’s soft laugh punctuated the pounding of her heart and she didn’t know whether
to fling the whole bowl of diced tomatoes at him, or throw herself into his arms.

On Tuesday night, exactly eight days from when she first met the man, Luke moved beside
Trinity as she dug out the playing cards from the china cabinet drawer. She shivered
from his nearness. The light cotton dress she was wearing suddenly felt too thin,
made her feel too vulnerable, like she was wearing nothing around him.

All evening during last Friday night’s dinner, and then again tonight, Luke had taken
every opportunity to brush against her, to touch her when no one was looking.

When I take you, I won’t be letting you go...

Cripes, the cowboy didn’t play fair. Not at all.

“What are we playing?” Rylie asked from behind Trinity as she finally located the
cards, and Trinity almost dropped the whole damned deck.

“How about five card stud?” Luke said, the warmth of his breath caressing her ear.

Levi slipped past Trinity and Luke as Rylie tossed the deck onto the dinner table.
“Sounds as good as any,” Levi said.

Zack had removed the two middle table leaves a few minutes earlier, so that the table
was much smaller and cozier for playing poker. Now instead of a long oblong table,
it was almost circular.

Rylie’s blond hair bounced against her shoulders as she punched her brother in the
shoulder and she laughed when he grabbed his arm. The man’s hair was as blond as his
sister’s, and almost as curly. “You ready for me to kick your ass, Deputy Levi Thorn?”

“Now this I gotta see.” Zack pulled a chair up to the table, his gray eyes glinting
with humor as he grabbed the deck of cards. “I always said local law enforcement was
nothing but a bunch of—ah—” He cleared his throat and grinned at Skylar. “A bunch
of bad card players.”

“Watch it, Hunter.” Rylie gave Zack a mock glare then kissed her brother on the cheek
before slipping into the chair next to Levi.

Skylar carried in a tray from the kitchen, filled with bowls of pretzels, bottles
of beer and wine, along with wineglasses. Blue followed at Skylar’s heels, and then
settled himself under her chair, his head on his paws.

Trinity helped her sister, and after everything was distributed, Trinity took her
seat next to Luke, who was dealing out stacks of red, white, and blue poker chips.
When she eased into her chair, he paused and gave her that dark, sexy look that made
her ache. She had no idea how she was going to make it through this night without
having him.

I won’t be letting you go...

Damn, damn. Damn. Damn.

She wanted sex.

The handsome, sexy guy was the one who wanted something more serious.

In what world was that friggin’ fair?

Trinity had already decided to stick around long enough to help Skylar—and DropCaps
wasn’t even expecting her to get going at full speed until after the holidays. They
were shipping her gear to her, along with a brand-spanking-new high bandwidth satellite
dish to stick in Skylar’s back flower bed. With that puppy, she’d be able to send
DropCaps files the size of Montana in about three seconds—so, really, she could work
at the ranch as long as she needed to.

That meant she could enjoy a few rolls in the hay with Luke.

But it’s not fair. I won’t be staying forever... Besides, I’m afraid that I could
lose my heart to this cowboy.

She’d never done casual sex or one-night stands. No. She couldn’t have sex with Luke
knowing that the relationship definitely wouldn’t go any further.

Right?

Shee-yeah.

She was ready for all out heavy, wild, screaming sex with the man.

Trinity sighed and took a long sip of her Zinfandel, letting the liquid slide down
her throat until it warmed her belly. She could feel Luke’s eyes on her, but she refused
to look at him. Every time those blue eyes met hers, she forgot all the reasons why
it wouldn’t work out in the long run.

Zack finished shuffling the deck. “Deuces are wild,” he said as he dealt each player
five cards, the first two face down and the other three face up.

Rylie and Skylar chatted about the new shooting range that had been opened up several
miles west of Douglas, while Trinity, Levi, and Luke watched Zack deal the cards.
It still seemed so odd that Zack was her brother-in-law now.

It was even stranger to realize how comfortable she felt with the six of them having
dinner together, and playing cards.

Friends.

And family.

She could get used to this.

No surprises.

No mysteries.

But with Luke... well, yeah, there was lots of mystery in the man, but she knew exactly
where she stood with him. He wanted her. And damn but she wanted him.

It’s time, Trinity.

She could barely look at her own hand, for looking at him instead.

It’s time to tell him you’re pretty sure you’re ready.

It’s time to be ready.

But was she?

“You heading home for Christmas, Luke?” Skylar asked as she looked over her cards.
“Hey, no peeking,” she added to Zack with a frown as he leaned back in his chair as
though he might glance at her cards.

Luke gave a noncommittal shrug as he discarded one card and drew another. He was deep
enough undercover that if a search was done on him, it would come up that he was born
and raised in an obscure town in Texas, and had studied agribusiness at Auburn University.

Truth of the matter was he’d lived on a ranch outside Houston his entire life before
heading off to the University of Texas to earn his bachelor’s in Criminal Justice
and then going into the academy.

He wondered what Trinity would think once she learned that he wasn’t who she thought
he was. Well, he’d just have to cross that cattle guard when he came to it.

“You don’t have any place to go for Christmas?” Trinity asked after she tossed a card
onto the discard pile. Her green eyes were wide, as though she felt concerned that
he’d be alone over the holidays.

He smiled as his gaze met hers. Wouldn’t hurt to tell a bit of the truth. “If I don’t
show up Christmas Day for some of my mama’s roasted turkey, cornbread stuffing, and
her special pecan pie, she’ll never forgive me.”

“And I’ll bet you’d never disappoint her,” Trinity said softly, looked to the cards
in her hand. “You have a big family—I remember you telling me that. How many brothers
and sisters?”

“Two of each.” He grinned at the thought of them. “And between all of them, damn near
a dozen nieces and nephews. Miss them like hell.”

Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “I can’t imagine what that’s like.” She gestured
toward her sister with one of her cards. “For so long it’s just been the two of us,
except for Zack horning in now and again.”

“Hey,” Zack grumbled. “I don’t horn.”

Rylie snickered, and Zack acted like he was about throw his cards at her.

“Not talking about horns. TMI.” Skylar nodded to Luke. “It’s your turn, Rider.”

He studied his cards. Two pair, not too bad. “I’ll hold.”

“Come on, Texas.” Trinity’s eyes played off his face. “I already know you’re bluffing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

“Your drawl.” Her eyes focused on Luke. “It gets worse when you’re holding back on
something.”

Well, shit.

“Is something going on between you two that we ought to know about?” Rylie interrupted
in her usual direct manner. “It’s your play, Trinity.”

Luke smiled as Trinity’s cheeks flushed again and she studied her cards.

“I’ll hold. I think.” She frowned and looked at them again. “Yes, I’ll hold.”

Before Trinity had the chance to bug Luke about bluffing again, Luke asked Zack something
about Satan, that spoiled-rotten bull of Skylar’s.

As the night progressed, and more beer and wine had been consumed, the whole evening
took on a surreal feel to Trinity. No one seemed to notice the times that Luke would
deliberately brush her breast with his hand, or lean close to whisper in her ear.

Then Luke slipped one hand under the table and caressed her thigh.

She froze, her gaze locked on her cards. Afraid to move and afraid to make a sound,
like someone at the table might notice that Luke’s hand was creeping up the inside
of her thigh under her dress. Even though everyone seemed wrapped up in the poker
game, or tipsy from the alcohol, how could they not notice that Luke only had one
hand on the tabletop?

Yet she couldn’t get herself to make him stop.

While play continued, the chatter around the table was nothing more than a loud buzzing
noise to Trinity’s ears. She stared at her cards, not seeing them at all as Luke’s
finger reached the center of her panties. If anyone had asked her at that moment what
she had in her hand, she wouldn’t have been able to name the cards. No matter that
she was staring right at them.

Luke slid his fingers inside the elastic, and touched the soft curls underneath.

She almost closed her eyes. Oh, jeez. She had to make him stop.

Mindlessly she tried to play the poker game as his finger entered her wetness and
stroked. If it wasn’t for Luke whispering suggestions throughout each hand, she would
have lost everything within moments.

She could smell his flesh, could smell her own arousal. Could everyone else smell
it, too?

The sensations in her abdomen grew stronger and tighter, and she knew she was close
to climax. “You can’t scream,” Luke whispered in her ear. “You’re gonna have to hold
it in, sugar.”

Trinity bit down hard on her lower lip as the orgasm took hold of her body and shook
it like a mesquite tree in a summer storm. She braced her hand on her forehead and
looked down, shielding her face from everyone at the table as her body trembled, and
Luke’s finger drew the climax out even longer.

“You all right, Trinity?” Skylar asked through Trinity’s alcohol and orgasm haze.

Luke slipped his hand out of Trinity’s panties and she fought to control her breathing,
to let her heart rate slow to a normal pace.

“Too much wine,” Trinity mumbled and rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger.
“I think I’m done for.”

Luke chuckled and murmured so that only she could hear, “Like I’ve already told you,
sugar, we haven’t even started yet. You just let me know when you’re ready.”

Trinity tossed and turned in her bed, slipping in and out of a misty dream world.

The poker game went on and on, like it was never going to end.

And then she was on her back on the table, her dress hiked up around her waist and
Luke sliding deep inside her.

Everyone continued playing around them, tossing their now rainbow- colored poker chips
onto Trinity’s bare belly. Even as Luke took her, she realized the poker chips on
her belly were actually condoms. Lots and lots of condoms across her stomach and scattered
across the table, but Luke hadn’t put one on.

He kept driving into her, the game around them never stopping. Skylar and Rylie repeated
something that sounded like poison, poison, while Zack and Levi responded with fire,
fire.

All Trinity knew was that she needed to come so bad she couldn’t stand it. But the
tension in her abdomen only intensified until she thought she’d lose her mind...

And then she was alone.

Utterly and completely alone. Standing somewhere dark and cold, like a cave, and she
was entirely naked.

Where was Luke? Without him she felt incomplete, lonely even.

Trinity didn’t know what had happened, or where she was, but something in her gut
suddenly told her that Skylar was in danger.

She had to find her sister. Had to help her.

And then Trinity was out in the open. She ran across the dream desert... she dodged
through tumbleweeds and mesquite bushes, hurrying toward the barn. Yes, that was it.
She had to get to the barn. She had to hurry—

Trinity’s eyes flew open and she stared up at the white canopy above her bed. Her
heart raced like she’d really been running and she couldn’t catch her breath.

Her limbs trembled as she sat up in bed and braced her back against the headboard
with her arms on her knees. That horrible feeling that something was wrong wouldn’t
go away. She’d never been superstitious. Never been one to believe in dreams or intuition,
but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should get up and go check on things.
Why, she didn’t know, but she just had to do it.

A sense of urgency took over. She hurried out of bed, pulled her nightgown over her
head and tossed it onto a chair. After she yanked on her sweatpants and an oversized
T-shirt, she stuffed her feet into her Nikes. She grabbed her jacket as she headed
down the hall and toward the front door.