I hurried toward the guest bathroom before he could say anything. Ten minutes later, my stomach dropped out as I read the results of the first test: positive.
The knock on the door startled me.
“Are you okay in there?”
His voice had softened. I unlocked the door and the weight of the situation was too much. I sat on the floor with the pregnancy test resting in my palm. He got on his knees, took the stick out of my hand, and placed it on the counter as he looked me in the eye.
He took my hand in his and kissed it. “I meant what I said…. I’ll love it no matter who or what it is.”
He set my hand down in my lap then reached into his back pocket. My heart stopped when I saw the small gray box in his hand.
“I was going to do this tomorrow, right before I made love to you, but I figured there’s no better time than now, on the bathroom floor with a pee-stick behind me.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, unable to hide my uncontrollable grin.
“I’m dead fucking serious. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Brina. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to raise your mutant baby. Will you marry me?”
“Of course, I will.” I laughed as I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, a kiss I had been waiting for for twenty-nine days and it was finally here, on the bathroom floor with a pee-stick inches away.
His tongue slid over mine and I whimpered involuntarily.
“Thank fuck you got knocked up,” he whispered into my mouth. “I don’t think I could have waited another day.”
I sucked on his bottom lip and bit down softly as I pulled away. “You would have waited.”
He kissed my neck and a surge of desire pulsed between my legs. “You’re right,” he whispered, as he licked my earlobe. “I would have waited forever.”
He stood suddenly, keeping his arms wrapped firmly around my waist so we didn’t lose our connection. I held tightly to his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist as he walked into the hallway and pinned me against the wall.
“I love you,” he said, balancing me against the wall so he could undo his jeans.
His erection sprung free and I gasped as he pushed my soaked panties aside and entered me.
“Oh, Luke!” I gasped, as he thrust himself inside and a shock of delicious pain coursed through me.
He moved slowly at first, but he quickly grew more urgent as his need grew. The heat of our friction sent waves of pleasure cascading through me.
“Fuck, baby, you’re so tight,” he growled, as he bit down softly on my shoulder. “I’m gonna come.”
I leaned my head back and smiled. He groaned as he kissed my throat and with each thrust I could feel his warmth filling me. His arms shook, straining with my weight as he finished. I slid my legs down until my feet hit the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his breath hot against my forehead. “That was way too fast. It’s been so long.”
“No need to apologize,” I said, running my fingers through his hair as I kissed his scratchy jaw. “That was only round one.”
“And we have the rest of our lives.”
He scooped me up in his arms and I nuzzled my face in his neck as he carried me to his bedroom. He set me down on the floor next to the bed and turned me around so he could unzip my dress.
“That was definitely just a warm-up,” he said, as his fingers slid the zipper down and a chill traveled up my spine.
He slipped my dress off and kissed my shoulder. His lips lightly traced a trail up my neck as he slid his hands between my panties and my hips. His nose brushed my spine as he knelt down, taking my panties with him. He kissed the dimple above my ass and I flinched from the unexpected tickling sensation. His fingers brushed the sides of my thighs as he stood. I could feel myself getting wetter by the second as I listened to him climb out of his jeans.
I stepped out of my panties as he turned me around. I wasn’t wearing a bra. It was unnecessary with the dress I had been wearing. That would probably change after I had a baby. As if he could read my mind, he cupped my breast in his hand as he wrapped his other arm around me. I arched my back as he took my nipple into his mouth.
He teased me as his tongue lightly circled my nipple before he took it in his mouth and sucked. I gasped and he took that as his signal to slide his hand between my legs. My legs trembled as he kissed the valley between my breasts and lightly feathered my clit.
“Oh, yes,” I breathed, as I got closer to exploding then he stopped.
“Lay down.”
I got on the bed and let my head fall on the pillow as he lay next to me. His hand slid down my belly, between my legs, and kept going down until he reached my knee. He lifted my leg and draped it over his hip and I couldn’t help but stare at his beautiful erection.
He tilted my face up. “Look into my eyes.”
I nodded as he slid his hand between my legs. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back.
“Look at me.”
I opened my eyes as he continued to massage my clit so lightly I couldn’t help but squirm as I gazed into his eyes. He held my gaze as he moved his hand and guided his cock between my folds without entering me.
“Oh, Luke,” I whispered hungrily, my whole body trembling as he stroked himself back and forth against me. “You’re going to torture me until I beg for it, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to do everything in my power to torture you with pleasure tonight.” He finally slid inside me and I moaned. “I’ve been waiting too long.”
He lifted my leg off his hip and sank deep into me. It had been so long that I already felt over stimulated and sensitive every time his pelvis hit my clit. I closed my eyes and he stopped moving. I opened my eyes and he slid out of me.
“Why?”
“Because you’re not looking at me.”
I grasped his face and kissed him long and hard until he had no choice. He thrust himself inside me and I kept kissing him, sucking on his tongue and lips. Never losing contact as he dipped in and out of me, both of us panting and grasping desperately in a tangle of desire.
“Don’t stop,” I begged, as I got close. “Please don’t stop.”
He pounded me harder and I screamed as I was overcome by a hard, blissful orgasm. I clutched his neck and leaned my forehead against his as the force of it shook me. He groaned as he thrust himself deep inside me and came.
“Man…. That never gets old,” he breathed
He kissed me as I tried to catch my breath and it felt amazing, like we were breathing each other in and thanking each other at the same time. I pulled back when I began to feel dizzy and he frowned.
“Please don’t stop,” he whispered, mimicking me and I smiled as I clutched fistfuls of his hair and kissed him again.
He was still inside me and quickly stiffening again.
I pulled away and whispered in his ear. “Shouldn’t we save a little something for the rest of our lives?”
“Brina, look into my eyes.” I looked him in the eye and his expression was serious as he slid further into me. “I could do this all day,” he slid out then in again and I fought to keep my eyes on him, “every day… and it would never be enough.”
“I guess you’re just going to have to prove it.”
He grinned as he shook his head. “You’re going to regret saying that.”
EPILOGUE
Ten months later
As soon as Captain Craig spoke the words I had been waiting to hear, I kissed Lucas James Maxwell on the lips then turned around and kissed Lucas James Maxwell, Jr. on his incredibly soft, chubby cheek.
“Enough of that. You’re gonna make me jealous of my own son,” Luke said, as he pulled me back to the altar we’d created on the bow of his boat.
My mother grinned and cooed as she stepped away from the altar with Lucas cuddled safely in her arms. She was always happy for any excuse to dote on her new grandson. My father smiled at me before he followed my mother across
the deck of Luke’s sailboat where Luke and I had just promised to love each other for all eternity.
The sun was just high enough in the sky to soak us all in a warm peach glow and the occasional cool May breeze delivered the briny scent of the ocean to us; a promise of adventures to come. To say that this was the happiest day of my life would be a cliché and an enormous understatement.
“Then you’re going to be awfully jealous for the next eighteen years,” I said, as I wrapped my arms around Luke’s neck and kissed him.
He grabbed my waist and pulled me against him as cheers and camera flashes erupted on deck.
“Get a room!” Jill and Milo shouted in unison.
I hurled my flowers in their direction and Milo caught them. “Congratulations!” I shouted back at him.
He took one look at the bouquet and quickly tossed it overboard.
Jill punched his arm. “You’re such a jerk. That’s her wedding bouquet! Go get it.”
“You get it. You’re the one who wants to get married.”
I shook my head as I watched them argue and thought about how Milo would never know I had once feared he might be Lucas’s father. He’d never know about the painful days we’d spent waiting for the results of the microarray paternity test that confirmed Luke and I had created a life together. And he would never know I lost our bet and still owed him a thousand dollars.
I turned to Luke and he was smiling at me the way he smiled when he was about to reveal he’d just bought me something extravagantly expensive.
“What?”
He grabbed my hand and planted a soft kiss on my knuckles. “Come with me, Mrs. Maxwell. I want to show you your wedding gift.”
“It better not be a new Honda with a gold-plated grille.”
I had insisted on keeping my perfectly good Honda after Luke took it to the shop to get it spiffed up. He kept threatening to put a gold-plated grille and spinner wheels on it.
“No, I’m saving that one for a very special occasion,” he replied, as he pulled me past a bunch of guests who were now in full mingle-mode.
We hadn’t set up any chairs on deck. It was too small. We figured everyone could stand as long as we kept the ceremony short and sweet. Some guests congratulated and kissed us as we passed. Some tried to discuss their wedding gifts with us. We finally made it to the gangway and I gathered the skirt of my dress in my arms as Luke helped me down to the dock.
“Stay right there,” he said, as he climbed back up the gangway and onto the deck.
He moved toward the stern, got down on his knees, and reached under the railing. His hand slid over the port side of the boat and I realized there was a piece of white tape or plastic covering the name Charlotte. He peeled it off and my eyes instantly welled up.
The new name written along the side of the boat was PFC Ryan Kingston.
Luke met me on the dock again and I couldn’t take my eyes off the letters.
“What do you think?” he asked, and I could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
The lump in my throat was too painful to speak so I didn’t. I turned to him and rested my forehead against his chin as I wept.
He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “I know his birthday’s next month. I figured the three of us could go sailing and celebrate.”
I sucked in a deep, stuttered breath and looked into his eyes. “I’d love that.”
He kissed the tip of my nose and I clasped my hand around the back of his neck to pull him in for a real kiss. Our lips moved slowly and tenderly in unison, our mouths sealing the promise we had just made to each other. I whimpered as a gush of happiness rose inside me and more tears streamed down my cheeks and over our lips.
He pulled back a little and smiled as he kissed each of my eyelids. “Your tears are mine now.”
I knew then that not only had I found a man who loved me at my worst, I had found a man who had saved me from my worst. I might never know if Ryan had found peace on the way down, but I had finally made peace with his death. Because it was Ryan who brought Luke and I together.
PLAYLIST FOR LUKE & BRINA
1. Daydreamer by Adele
2. Twice by Little Dragon
3. Lightning Bolts by Iko
4. Avenue by Agnes Obel
5. Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event
6. Never Let Me Go by Florence + The Machine
7. Hallelujah (Acoustic Version) by Paramore
8. Everything and Nothing by The Boom Circuits
9. This Love Will Be Your Downfall by Ellie Goulding
10. Eyes by Kaskade (featuring Mindy Gledhill)
Listen to the playlist on YouTube.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
When I was fifteen, a boy in my science class walked out the front gates of our high school while class was in session, strolled to the hotel across the street, climbed to the roof of the fourteen-story hotel, and jumped. A woman found him and he survived long enough to tell the woman his name. I’ve thought about that woman many, many times since then and often wondered how she coped with something so horrific in the weeks, months, and years that followed.
Four years later, a friend of mine put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The circumstances surrounding his death filled me with immense feelings of guilt. Many years have passed and I still find myself wondering if things would have turned out differently if I had been a better friend.
These two events shaped Brina’s and Luke’s characters and I hope that if you have ever had to deal with something similar that you can find it in you to forgive yourself, talk about your feelings, and, if necessary, seek help.
For more resources on suicide and coping with the suicide of a loved one, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at:
1 (800) 273-8255
Or visit their website at: http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
BOOKS BY CASSIA LEO
CHASE Series (Erotic Romance)
· CHASE (#1)
· CHASE (#2) Disclosure
· CHASE (#3) Exposure
· CHASE (#4) Closure
· CHASE Series Bundle
Relentless (New Adult Romance) Coming soon!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I grew up in Florida and moved to California four years ago after graduating with a degree in journalism. I worked at two small newspapers before discovering my passion for writing romance. My favorite color is lavender and my dream is to one day score a record deal based on my awesome shower singing skills.
Follow my blog to stay up to date on sequels. Please feel free to get in touch with me on Facebook and Twitter to chat about books or anything that strikes your fancy. I love meeting readers.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving your feedback at Goodreads or wherever you purchased this ebook. Thanks for reading!
COPYRIGHT
The LUKE Series: BOXED SET
Includes: Mirror, Memory, Linked, Password, and Timeout
by Cassia Leo
http://cassialeo.com
Copyright © 2012 by Cassia Leo
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without expressed written permission from the author; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.
All characters and events appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1301654277
Cassia Leo
Chase
Luke
Relentless
Mimi Strong
Borrowed Billionaire
Her Teddy Bear
The Ice Cream Shop Boy
Why Not Tonight?
Two Hot People Had Sex
Billionaire Novelist
Losing It - After a Day at the Beach
The Kissing Coach
Catou Martine
London Lace
Ka
ndi Kayne
Red Hot Rose
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
PART ONE: MIRROR
1
2
3
4
PART TWO: MEMORY
1
2
3
4
PART THREE: LINKED
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
PART FOUR: PASSWORD
1: Brina
2: Luke
3: Brina
4: Luke
5: Brina
PART FIVE: TIMEOUT
1: Brina
2: Luke
3: Brina
4: Brina
5: Luke
6: Brina
7: Luke
8: Brina
9: Luke
10: Brina
Epilogue
Playlist for Luke & Brina
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Copyright
Cassia Leo, Luke Complete Boxed Set 1-5
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