Luke pulled the truck to a stop behind a line of parked cars and Julie could see the tent across the terrain. Guilt twisted in her gut. Why hadn’t she called the police? Because you had nothing to offer them, she reminded herself.
“You aren’t responsible,” he said, accurately reading her thoughts. “There was no way you could have foreseen such a thing.”
“I appreciate you saying that more than you know,” she said, running her suddenly clammy hands down the fabric of her dress.
“We can–”
“I’m staying,” she finished before he could.
He sighed. “I’ll come around and help you out.”
She waited on him gladly, feeling out of sorts. Uneasy and wobbly. Luke being here helped, and while on a personal level that might scare her, it also made her stronger.
Luke opened the door, and she turned to let him help her down, and blurted, before she could lose her nerve. “Thank you. I’m glad you came.”
He stared at her for a long, moment, his face unreadable, before he gave her one of those sexy smiles that made even the dread in her stomach fade for a moment. With the ease of lifting a grocery bag, he lifted her and set her on her feet, running his hand down her hair. He did that a lot and she liked it way too much.
“Let’s go get this over with so we can happily marry off Royce and Lauren.”
“Yes,” she said. “Please. I want to go back to Lauren’s fairytale land. It’s nicer there.”
He slid his hand down her arm and surprised her by twining his fingers with hers. Silently, they fell into step and for the second time in her life, she had a sense of being part of something good, something right, something that was at odds with what she believed was in her future and even the grim, bitter cold of a day at the cemetery.
Droplets began to fall and Luke quickly pulled them into the back of the surprisingly large tent, a good fifty-plus people in seats. Sobs filled the air, and the rain picked up, the wind splattering it against the tent fabric. The judge sat in the front row, but she didn’t recognize those close to him. What got to Julie the most was the absence of a casket. There was a much smaller finely etched wooden box that she assumed held what was left of the beautiful, too young to die, Elizabeth Moore.
It wasn’t long before a man in a robe stepped forward to a podium and began to speak. Wind seemed to howl at the same moment, as if Elizabeth herself was protesting her demise. The darkness of the event, the sadness surrounding her, tightened Julie’s throat, and she felt the prickle of tears.
Luke pulled her under his arm, and she happily took the shelter he offered. The next fifteen minutes was a blur that felt endless.
When the final prayer ended, the crowd scattered. People went to the flowers in a center display for Elizabeth, while Julie clung to Luke’s arm, just staring at them.
“You okay?” he whispered in her ear.
She swallowed and nodded, turning to him, tears burning in the back of her eyes. “I’m fine. I’ve never gone to a funeral before.”
He covered her hand where it had landed on his chest. “It’s not a good experience. Ready to go?”
“More than ready.” They started to turn and Julie paused. “Should I say something to Judge Moore?”
Luke stared down at her, his eyes heavy with concern. “If you want to, we will.”
We. She liked that ‘we’ right now. She shouldn’t. It was dangerous but she just couldn’t get herself to care. Her gaze lifted to where the judge still sat in his seat, unmoving like stone. Giving her condolences seemed appropriate, but she suddenly realized she wasn’t here for Judge Moore. She was here for his dead wife and she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t go off the deep end and confront him. That would be bad. Very bad.
Decision made, Julie shook her head. “I want to go.”
Approval lit his eyes and he took her hand to lead her out of the tent. Julie collided with someone. She pulled back, started by the impact, only to find herself sucking in a breath at the sight of Elizabeth Moore.
Chapter Seven
The woman who was Elizabeth Moore, but wasn’t Elizabeth Moore, slid her hand into Julie’s. “Thank you for coming to pay respect to my sister,” she said, and then she was gone. Stunned, Julie realized the woman had pressed a piece of paper in her hand.
Discreetly, Julie turned to face Luke. She reached down and put her hand in her coat pocket. “Let’s go now, please.”
“It’s raining hard,” he warned.
Her gaze swept the terrain outside the tent and indeed, it was pouring rain. “I don’t care.”
He gave her a keen look and took her hand. “I’m in for cold and wet if you are.”
They darted into the rain and he helped her into the truck. When he finally climbed in, her teeth were chattering.
“My heater is a furnace,” he said, cranking the engine. “It’ll be warm in a minute.” He glanced at her. “I didn’t know Elizabeth had a twin.”
Julie shoved her wet hair from her face. “Me either. It was a shock. They’re identical.”
Suddenly, he pulled her close and kissed her and all that ice and dread inside her thawed. She needed that warmth, his warmth, more than she needed to breathe right now. And while she was melting from the wicked heat of his tongue, he reached into her pocket and pulled out the note.
He leaned back and held it up.
Feeling defensive, she quirked, “I would have told you if you’d have given me the chance.”
His lips thinned in obvious doubt as he read the note. “We have to talk.” He glanced up at her. “That’s it and a phone number.” He shoved it in his pocket. “I’ll take care of this. After the wedding.”
“You’re being obnoxiously domineering,” she said. “I don’t like it.”
“And I like you better alive,” he said. “So if you want to be mad at me, I’ll take the anger.”
“What if someone else is in danger, Luke? What if–”
He kissed her again, and damn it, she managed to resist a whole two seconds before she all but moaned from the feel of his mouth on hers. The man was making her crazy, taking control of her life. “Don’t do this to yourself,” he ordered softly. “I’ll have someone find out more about her sister right away. I promise. You just focus on the wedding.”
“You promise?” she confirmed. “Because if anyone else ends up dead, I’ll never live with myself.”
“I promise and I never break a promise.”
She swallowed against the sudden dryness in her throat, because not only did she trust him, she realized she trusted Luke as she never had any other man. “We should go.”
Julie scooted out of his arms to face forward, confusion filling her. He acted like a big brother with kissing privileges, and avoided every chance he’d had to get her naked and in bed. She didn’t understand. Did he want her or not? And why did it matter to the point that it hurt thinking that he might not? What else explained his quick hotel departure, or leaving her apartment where they’d been alone with barely a kiss? Or suggesting he sleep on her couch not in her bed with her?
***
Several hours later Julie had donned a pale blue dress the color of the wedding theme. She’d headed to the church, where she’d spent the entire rehearsal avoiding eye contact with Luke, feeling every touch of Luke’s hand as they practiced walking down the aisle. She didn’t know what she was feeling or how to deal with it. She just didn’t know.
Avoiding eye contact at the dinner afterward proved more difficult. The group of twenty sat in a private back room of Eden, a favorite Walker restaurant. It lived up to its name with vines, flowers, and spectacular plants covering the ceilings and the walls.
Julie sat on one side of the long triangular table, to the left of the bride, while the groom was to her right. Luke had chosen a seat directly across from Julie, and beside him was Blake. Every time Julie looked at Luke she was struck by how delectable he looked in a royal blue button-down. Which was why, among other reasons, she kept her att
ention on Lauren. But she could feel Luke watching her, feel the tingle of awareness that touched every place his gaze landed.
Julie leaned in close to Lauren and discreetly indicated to her recently divorced father, a retired senator, chatting away with her soon to be husband’s mom. “Someone should warn him she’s seeing someone.”
“Oh good grief,” Lauren said. “Royce and my father are only just now starting to get along.” She slid out of her seat and headed over to her father, squatting down beside him.
Luke’s sexy rumble of laughter caught her attention and Julie’s eyes darted on their own accord toward him. A young brunette waitress with deep cleavage was blatantly flirting with him, and he seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Instantly, Julie felt the unfamiliar and very unwelcome flare of jealousy, the same feeling she’d felt in the hotel.
“Julie?”
Her eyes darted to Lauren, and she didn’t even realize Lauren had returned. “Sweetie,” Lauren said, “what’s going on with you and Luke? I know you don’t like me to bring up your past with him, but it is obvious something’s going on with you two.”
“We’re friends,” she said quickly, not wanting to talk about herself. Tonight was about Lauren. “Nothing more, and all is well.”
Lauren took a sip of her wine and studied Julie closely. “Maybe later tonight, when we’re alone, you might want to talk.”
Julie forced a smile. “About you and your soon-to-be hot new husband. You’re marrying the man you love tomorrow. I know you went to the spa today, but you never get your feet done, so I bought pedicure stuff, lotion, and candles.”
Lauren smiled brightly and gave Julie a big hug. “I love you, you know?”
Julie smiled into her hair, fighting emotion. “I love you, too.”
Feeling ever weepy, Julie let a busboy take her salad plate and reached for her wine, only to realize that her hand was shaking. She set the drink back down and somehow her gaze collided with Luke’s right when the waitress settled her hand on his shoulder.
Breaking eye contact, she diverted her gaze to the plate that had just been set in front of her. Suddenly the crowd was suffocating her. She needed space. Tossing down her napkin, she scooted her chair away from the table and excused herself. Making a beeline to the bathroom, her steps were hurried, her heart racing ridiculously fast for no explainable reason.
Thankful for a bathroom that held only one, Julie yanked the door open to step inside. The last thing she needed was an audience of women. Suddenly, she felt hands on her waist as she was lifted forward and sat back down in the bathroom. The door slammed, and she whirled around to see Luke locking the door.
***
Luke turned to find Julie gaping at him. “Are you crazy, Luke?” she demanded.
“Depends who you ask and on what day of the week, but not now, no. Now, I’m real darn clear on what I’m doing and why. I’ve known that waitress for years. She’s a friend, and nothing more.”
She hugged herself, turning away from him. “I have no clue what you're talking about, Luke.”
He took a step forward, slid a finger under her chin and forced her gaze to his. “You were upset when you left the table.”
“No, I...it’s been a confusing scary few days. I’m not myself.”
Her hand went to his wrist and heat darted up his arm, but it was the vulnerable, insecure look on her face that undid him. She didn’t think he wanted her. Despite his attention, despite the kisses that would, and should have, set off a five-alarm blaze, she didn’t know.
He slid his hand to her neck. “I only want one woman and that’s you.”
“Then act like it, Luke,” she said, ”because you’re confusing me and I don’t know what you want. I–”
He covered her mouth with his and for the first time since his return, he let her taste his desire, let her feel the hunger inside him that no one had sated since her. His hand slid over the sexy curve of her hip to the dip of her tiny waist.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she molded herself to his body. She was no longer vulnerable or timid. She was the seductress she could be, the seductress he knew had just lured him to the very place he’d sworn he wouldn’t go. To the land of lust and forgetfulness where she ruled, where sex was a weapon, and a wall of separation grew despite the absence of clothing.
She covered his hand with hers, and led it to her breast, molding it to her body. His cock thickened, his zipper stretched. He’d wanted this woman for ages, and the days of turning away from her, from wanting her and not having her, had left him on edge and hungry.
He tore his mouth from hers, his chest rising and falling, his breathing heavy. Her eyes were dark, heavy-lidded, her gorgeous perfect mouth swollen from his kisses. “I swore I wouldn’t let you do this to me.”
“What is it I’m doing?” she asked, her hand sliding down his zipper to stroke his erection. “This?”
“Yes,” he said, giving her the same treatment she had him, pressing her hand down on his crotch. “This. What am I doing to you, I wonder?” He shoved her skirt up, his finger trailing thigh highs that told him her stellar ass would be all but naked. “Are you wet, Julie?”
She leaned in, her lips a breath from his. “Only one way to find out.”
His cock thickened, his zipper strained even further. He slanted his mouth over hers, devouring her, tasting her, when he really wanted to gobble her up. His hands slid around her backside, pulling her close to him, molding her against him, her soft curves against his burning hot and hard body. He lifted her and set her on the counter, her skirt hiked to her waist. Luke pulled back to study her glazed, sexy stare, watching her as his palms caressed a path up her thighs, until his thumbs brushed the tiny piece of silk some might call panties. He called them a tease.
She worried her bottom lip and he felt that scrape of her teeth in every inch of his body. He soothed it with his tongue, his fingers pressing beneath the silk to find the slick heat of her arousal. “Hot and wet,” he murmured next to her ear, the scent of her perfume mixed with aroused female working a number on his already revved up hormones.
A knock sounded on the door, and Luke ignored it, kissing her, sliding a finger inside her. Whoever it was would go away.
“Julie, sweetie, are you in there?”
Luke froze at the sound of Lauren’s voice permeating the wooden divide between them and her. Julie stiffened and pressed her hands to his shoulders. They drew apart slightly, their eyes colliding, hers filled with panic. Luke reluctantly slid his hand from her body.
A knock came again. “Julie?”
Luke lifted her and set her on the ground, watching her fret over pulling her skirt down. “Yes, I’m here.”
His gaze slid over her, and he had to say he was thankful her dress seemed to be wrinkle-resistant or they’d have a much harder time leaving this bathroom.
A long moment of silence. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she said quickly. “I’m fine. I’ll be right out.”
Silence.
Julie’s brows dipped. Luke started to say something, but she stopped him, placing two fingers to his lips and holding up a finger from her other hand.
Then came Lauren’s voice again. “Um, Julie?”
“Yeah?” she said, meeting Luke’s curious gaze.
“Luke wouldn’t happen to be in there with you, would he? Royce is, um, well, worried about him.”
That was when the full implication of what he’d done, how he’d lost control, hit him like a concrete block. Luke squeezed his eyes shut, angry at himself. He was in a public bathroom about to get naked with the very woman he swore he wouldn’t touch until she admitted he meant more than sex to her. And he was doing it during his brother’s rehearsal dinner.
Julie tugged on his hand and made a silent plea for help. He shook his head, not knowing the best response.
Lauren seemed to make her own assumptions. “Okay then. As long as we know you’re both okay.”
Luke dropped his head onto his hand. Fuck!
“Oh, God,” Julie whispered, “I can’t believe I let this happen.”
The torment in her voice drew his sharp probe, and he watched her turn to the mirror to fix her face and hair. He stopped behind her, framed her body with his. Their eyes met in the mirror. “It happened,” he said. “We can’t change that. It’s been a rough day and we were both feeling it.”
Her gaze dropped to the sink and he read the instant withdrawal in her, the return of the vulnerability that had set him off in the first place. He turned her to face him. “I didn’t say I didn’t want that to happen, Julie, but now, and like this, no.” He kissed her and when he pulled back she ran her fingers over his mouth.
“You have all the lipstick I no longer have on me on you.”
“I’m not complaining.”
“I am,” she said, and pressed her mouth to his. ”I need it back.”
He smiled and motioned. “Let’s go back.”
“We’re going to be obvious if we go back together.”
“I have a plan.” He reached for the door and she grabbed his hand. “You still have my lipstick.” She reached up and wiped his face. “I doubt that fits your plan.”
“No,” he said softly. “But you do.” And before she had time to react, he opened the door and checked for a quick exit. The coast was clear, and he motioned her forward. She rushed into the hall and all but ran for the exit, as if she didn’t want to be found in damning territory.
As they cleared the hallway and made their way back to the table, Luke made an announcement. “Cake crisis averted.”
Lauren looked alarmed as Julie sat down next to her, and Luke quickly supplied the answer. “The bakery wasn’t going to get the cakes to the reception in time, so Julie was ordering me to pick them up tonight.”
“Oh no,” Lauren said. “Are you sure it’s okay now?”