Remembrance: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series Book 4) (37 page)

“When you dropped off my present,” he began, “was she there?”  He stood there waiting for her confirmation.

She nodded, avoiding his eyes.  He didn’t allow it and cupped her face to direct her gaze back up to him.

“What happened?  Did she say something to you?”

She shrugged.

“Tell me, Janie,” he demanded.  “What did she say to you?”

She took a deep breath and spoke, trying to tamp down her irritation.  “That you had called her because you wanted to see her.  She took great pleasure in telling me that it was probably a booty call.”

He let out a string of curses.  “I didn’t call Vanessa, Janie, and I didn’t have plans last night.  I really did have meetings.  What else did she say?”

Janie let go of a breath of displeasure.  If he wanted to know what a bitch Vanessa was, she’d be happy to oblige him.  “That you’re great in the sack.  That she’s happy to take care of your needs, that she was sure you were missing a good fuck, basically.  That she’d make sure you got the gift I’d left you in the
morning
.”  She took another deep breath.  “That you’d just texted her from the road and were about to arrive to pick her up,” she rattled off, waving her hand.

Luke’s pale blue eyes softened and he rubbed his thumb over Janie’s cheek.  “And you believed her?”

“At first I didn’t.  And I’d been willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but when I saw your picture with her this morning,” she said then stopped, shaking her head.

“You have my word that I’ve honored our agreement ever since we made it.  How did you even find out about this picture?” he said, wiggling his phone.  “I didn’t even know about it until it hit me just now that she was either there when you dropped off the cookies, or you’d found out somehow that she was there when I got home.  A picture is the only way for you to have known that, so I took a lucky guess to search for it.  I asked Javier to make me aware whenever you and I were photographed together ever since we had lunch a couple of weeks ago, but he doesn’t tell me about all the pictures out there.  I don’t like people taking pictures of you and putting comments up.  I know it’s par for the course if you’re around me, but I still don’t like it.”

She wasn’t about to tell him she got alerts on her phone anytime a picture or something was said about him in the entertainment rags.  “Who was the woman I heard in the background when you left me my message last night?” she asked quietly.

“It was Carolyn.  I offered to give her a ride home because of the snow.  We decided to have my last conference call from my home office because the snow was coming in and she lives nearby.  She was g
oing to sit in on my conference call, then Kenneth was going to get her home afterwards.  He did that after he’d returned from taking Vanessa home.”  He touched her face.  “It wasn’t Vanessa you heard.  It was Carolyn.”

She watched him and nodded, feeling the butterflies let loose, the constricted feeling around her lungs beginning to loosen and a sense of euphoria taking its place. 

“Tell me you believe me,” he demanded.

She gave him a disgruntled nod.  He still looked pissed.

With a bit of exasperation, he said, “You can always trust me.  I want you to trust me.  In every way.  I’ll never ever hurt you, Janie, certainly not intentionally.  And I will never lie to you.” 

She looked down, feeling chastised, but better than she’d felt in 24 hours.  “Okay,” she whispered.

He angled her head back again so she’d look up at him.

“Are we good then?”

She gave him a look that theoretically said she wanted to stamp her foot.  “Just for the record, Vanessa is
not
a nice woman.  And if it’s alright for you to tell me you don’t like Fernandez or Weston, then I can tell you I don’t like Vanessa.”

He murmured, “Not a contender for my queen of hearts?”

“No,” she grumbled.  “Definitely not a contender for your queen of hearts.”

“I agree.  Definitely not a contender.”  He tilted her head back more and his eyes took on a different look.  “I’ve got news.”  His blue eyes burned, his hand reached back into her curls to grip her hair, and his body shifted closer.

She could feel the adrenaline hit her, the arousal so evident, she clenched her thighs together.  Her body was vibrating.  She wanted him.  “What kind of news?” she whispered.

“Looks like your perfect man is ready to be revealed,” he said softly.

She nearly stopped breathing. “Yeah?”
Ohshitohshitohshitohshit.
  “He can’t wait ’til Christmas, huh?”

Luke shook his head slowly.  “I’m changing up our little agreement, Janie.” 

She waited for him to continue, his hand pulling her head back so she could look up at him.  His other hand snaked around her waist and slowly pulled her until she was flush against him.

“Number one, the time for sowing your wild oats is over,” he stated emphatically.

Her heart felt like it would burst.  “Are you going to tell me who this man is?” she practically whimpered.

“Number two, we’re both now most
definitely
allowed,” he whispered, “to have that hotter than hell sex we’ve been waiting for.”

Her heart could barely take the rate at which it was pounding.  “Fantastic.  Maybe you can give my man a call and have him come on over.  Because I’m ready.”

His lips tilted up sexily.  “How about my queen of hearts?  Is she ready to be revealed?”

“Luke, not only is she ready to be revealed, she is ripe for some hot, screaming, toe curling, sex.”  Janie took her time with each word, looking into his eyes the whole time. 

“Perfect,” he murmured, then he stood back from her, and ripped off his sweater.  “Take off your shirt, Janie,” he demanded.

She nearly climaxed right there at his words.  Then she gulped at the fact that he was stripping in front of her.

Luke had just taken off his shirt that had been under his sweater, and his naked chest was truly a sight to behold.  She swallowed again while looking at him.  He was beautiful.  The classic man’s body; broad in the shoulders, lean waist, defined muscles, and a sprinkling of black hair.  Luke had always been a soccer player, but David Beckham had nothing on him.  The last time she’d seen Luke’s naked chest was at Jones Beach several years earlier, when a few of them had spent the day there.  Her eyes skated over the tattoo on his pec; a melding of the American and Spanish flags.  Knowing she was going to be able to touch him soon caused her fingers to itch.

Apparently she didn’t respond fast enough to his demand.

“Unless you’d like me to tear it from your body?”  He didn’t wait, just walked toward her, put his hands on the bottom of her shirt and whipped it up over her head.  She gasped at his movement, now revealing her in a pale green bra, typical in its construction for a woman of her size with wide straps and no lace to be seen anywhere.  He moved fast, looking at her breasts and before she could even react, his hands were in her hair and his mouth was devouring hers, biting at her lips and licking

Holy. Shit.

Her mouth eagerly accepted his while his chest smashed to hers and the friction caused her to moan into his mouth.  If she thought the other kisses they shared were amazing, this one blew them all out of the water.  This kiss said he wasn’t holding back anymore.

He pulled at her hair, moving her head and completely dominated all of her senses.  Without allowing her time to breathe, he bit down lightly on her lip, then plundered some more, his tongue tasting her mouth, biting and sucking.  His actions became more aggressive, his pace quickened while his hands continued stroking through her hair, along her cheek, cupping her jaw.  She couldn’t seem to follow what he’d do next because of how overwhelmed she felt at the touch and taste of him. 

And it felt like electricity mixed with a potent elixir that slowed her blood.  She felt drugged.

He pulled his mouth away slightly, his eyes on fire.  “Which surface would you like to be fucked against,
dulzura
?”

She ran her hands up his arms and wound them around his neck.  “I don’t know.  Isn’t my new man go
ing to take issue with me being fucked against the nearest surface by you?”

His mouth quirked up.  “The only issue he has is how long he’s go
ing to have to wait.”

Her heart was soaring and she smiled brightly, tears swimming in h
er eyes.  “I hope he’s not going to wait too long.  His queen of hearts is past the point of ready.  In fact, she’s been ready for a really long time.”

She watched him, her eyes now showing her heart, her soul, her vulnerability.  He looked tenderly at her, letting the fingers of one of his hands skim reverently down her side, stroking the side of her breast. 

She closed her eyes at the sensation of his hand’s movement.

“Your new man is sorry it’s taken him so fuckin
g long to get his act together,” he whispered and she opened her eyes again to meet his.  “But he’s past the point of ready now too.  And he doesn’t want to wait.  Not one more second.” 

“Then don’t.”  She sifted her fingers through his hair.  “But you’re awfully far away up there,” she teased quietly about his height.  She was getting a crick in her neck.  “I may need you to change our positions,” she murmured up at him, licking her lips while staring at his mouth.  Her mind was going a mile a minute. 

“We can fix that.”  He moved his hand from her hair, encircled her waist then picked her up to plop her onto the counter, as if she weighed nothing.  Janie squealed in protest, but he got her up there so quickly, there was no time to react.  Now only an inch or two above her eye level, he stepped forward and nestled himself right between her legs.  His hands ran along her outer thighs, pulling her even more tightly against him.

“It looks like you’ve chosen your surface.  The kitchen island it is, then.”  He smiled, then plucked at her lips, first softly while their bodies pressed into each other.  The feel of his chest hair on her made her sigh into his mouth.  His hands moved up her thighs, then around her ass, then encircled her back.

He groaned just as she pulled at his hair, their mouths attacking each other.

In between kisses, she said, “So, just so I’m clear, maybe you should tell me the name of this man.”  She moaned as his lips skittered to her jaw, down to her neck. 

His fingers moved up into her curls to hold her head still.  He nipped at her collar bone, then soothed the place by sucking lightly there. 

“Lucas,” he whispered.  “Matthew.”  He nibbled again.  “Daniels.”  He leaned back and skimmed his hands over the tops of her breasts.  His eyes finally met hers, now shining with emotion.  “And the name of my queen?”

She rubbed her nose into his.  “Jane Heidi Callahan,” she whispered. 

Their eyes met one last time, acknowledging the admission they’d just made to each other.  He cupped her face, rubbing his nose into hers as well and kissed her softly. 

She didn’t even have to try for the sultry look.  She was so turned on at that moment that she was sure her eyes were shooting sparks at him.  While maintaining eye contact, he nipped at her lip, his eyes hotly staring into hers.  She jumped and laughed nervously…and felt the zing right between her legs.

He began to smile, but before it could turn into a full blown laugh, she went at him.  Slowly.  Taking her sweet time, she sucked his smiling lips into her mouth, first his top one, then the bottom. 

She began to turn up the heat when she pulled his hair.  He grunted a response and began tangling his tongue with hers, the kiss becoming more like an attack on the senses.  She never wanted this to end.  She quite simply could kiss Luke Daniels forever, and it showed in her exuberance.  She lifted her legs slightly to clasp them around his hips, rubbing her inner thighs along his legs.  The friction made them both groan and he wound her legs around his waist even tighter.

They enjoyed the next minute by sliding their lips over each other’s, taking nips in between, plucking, and biting.  By this point, she was inhaling the man just as much as he was her.  He made an ‘mmm’ sound just as she rubbed her bra clad nipples into his chest muscles.  One hand moved from her thigh and gripped her hair while the other encircled her waist, pulling her even closer to him.  A second later, he tugged her head back, in essence ending the kiss.

Their chests expanded and contracted with the air they pulled into their lungs from their excited breaths.  He looked down into her eyes, their faces a mere whisper from each other.

“My queen is one helluva kisser,” he said somewhat dryly.  “And I don’t wa
nt to know how you became so good at it.”

Her face glowed at the compliment.  “Yeah?  You think I’m a good kisser?  Little ole me?”

He cleared his throat and ran his tongue over his teeth, then nodded.

“And I promise I’m only thinking of you while we’re doing it,” she smiled saucily.  His reaction was to grip her hair tighter.

“You better be.”

“You’re a pretty good kisser, too,” she breathed out on a sexy breath.

He raised an eyebrow.  “Pretty good?  That’s it?”

She nodded slowly as much as she could with his hand holding her head still with it gripped in her hair.  He did like to pull her hair.