Something vibrated low in Luke’s chest when his finger slid lower, feeling my invitation on his fingers. “You can use me, have me, take me however you need to. Whenever you need to.”
His hands moved to my hips, then I was spinning around, my bare chest spreading against the hard tile wall as he ripped my pants and underwear down my body.
When his hands returned to my hips, he pitched them back so my butt was arched up toward him. His finger moved to my opening, another rumble coming from his chest when he felt how ready I was for his body. “I want to ride you hard, Allie. I need it rough.” His mouth moved outside of my ear as I felt him starting to stretch me open. “Is that okay?”
I answered him by rolling my hips, trying to take him all, but for the moment, he was restraining himself. He wouldn’t let me have him until I’d answered.
“Yes,” I breathed, almost panting from the sensation of his thick girth opening me.
As the shower rained down on my back and legs, Luke Archer about to bury himself inside me, I realized how much power this man already had over me. Never had I been anywhere close to letting a flame fuck me in some semi-public shower, exchanging filthy pleasantries like it came naturally. Never had I felt such a pull toward a man, making me not care about the consequences—at least, not when we were like this. All of those years of school and all of the hard work to get here and stay here . . . all of that was overshadowed by Luke Archer and the way he made my head and body feel.
“I want to take you bare. I’ll pull out, but I need to feel your body against my body right now.” When he pushed inside me a little more, my moan echoed off the tile walls.
“You forgot to get condoms again, didn’t you?” I said, once I was able to form words again.
His fingers dug into my hips. “I didn’t forget. I just don’t want to use one right now.” He sank a little deeper, his moan tangling with mine. “I’ll pull out, I promise.”
I cried in agony when he stopped moving deeper. I’d already told him I was on the shot, and we were both free and clear to have unprotected sex without fear of passing on anything unwanted. What was his big hang-up with wanting to be so careful?
“Archer,” I breathed, my legs trembling, “enough talk already.”
For one more moment, he was still, then he ground into me until I felt my ass sitting on his lap. My cry of pleasure filled the room, eclipsing the new sounds of our bodies moving against each other.
“How’s that for enough talking?” Luke grunted behind me as he took me exactly as promised. “You like that?”
My head bobbed against the tile wall, my tits slapping the wet wall every time he hammered into me.
“As damn good as this feels, I cannot wait to pull out of you and coat your body with my release.” Archer leaned over me, his arms pinning mine to the wall above my head as he continued to rut into me with quick, deep strokes. “I want to mark you as mine. Everywhere. Anywhere. Every day. Every night. I want part of me on or in some part of you every fucking minute of every fucking day.” He nipped at my neck, making me jolt.
My fingers curled into my palms as my release unfurled from deep within. I could feel Luke was on the cusp of his own from the way the breath hissed from his mouth, his strokes slowing in speed but becoming more urgent.
“You drive me mad, Allie. In every single way a woman can drive a man mad.” Releasing my hands, he pulled out of me right when I was on top of my orgasm. My cries of frustration didn’t go unnoticed. His fingers slipped inside me, fucking me hard the way his dick just had been, as I heard him working himself over with his other hand. “Where do you want me?”
His fingers were bringing me close again, sending me down that never-ending spiral of pleasure. “Back there. I want to feel you all over my ass.”
As he let out a drawn-out groan, I felt the warmth of his release spray across my backside, sending me over the edge of my own orgasm.
Crying his name, I rode his fingers like I’d rode his dick, desperate for the feeling of oneness and wholeness I felt when he was buried inside me. The sensation of his orgasm, warm and sticky on my backside, made my own that much more powerful.
“Damn, Allie. Feeling that tight little body of yours strangle the shit out of my fingers is hot as hell.” He kept pumping his fingers in me, not stopping, only slowing, once my body collapsed in a spent heap between the support of his body and the shower wall.
I felt the result of our love making rolling down my thighs and ass, the warmth of the shower soothing my tired muscles.
“Allie?” Luke’s voice was soft and sweet as he slid a sheet of my wet hair from my neck so he could kiss it.
“Hmm?” was all I could respond with.
His large arm wound around my body, cradling me to him. “You can get mad at me whenever you want.”
THE SUN DIDN’T beat me up the next morning. Actually, it was rare when that happened, especially during the season, when there weren’t enough hours in the day to get the job done.
When I opened my hotel door to see about scrounging up some breakfast, I found a surprise waiting for me. Leaning into the wall directly across from my room, Luke stood with his hands stuffed in his pockets, the look on his face making it seem like he’d been expecting me right at that moment.
“Morning.” His mouth pulled into a smile when he saw me.
“Early riser too?” I said, trying to hide my surprise that Luke Archer was standing outside my hotel door at five in the morning.
“Yep. Sleep and I don’t really get along.”
“How long have you been waiting here?” I glanced up and down the hall, just to make sure no one was watching. Luke’s room was on a different floor, and he had no reason to be waiting for me outside my bedroom door . . . except for the reason we were both trying to keep secret.
“Only ten, fifteen minutes, I think.” Luke lifted his wrist to check his watch. “Or a half hour. I don’t know.”
“You’ve been waiting here that long?”
His head tipped. “There wouldn’t be any wait that was too long for you.”
It was too early in the morning for my heart to be firing like this, but keeping it steady when Luke Archer was looking at me the way he was now was impossible.
“Next time you can just knock, okay? I’ve been up for a while.”
“I didn’t want to knock,” he said, shaking his head. “If you invited me into your room, I didn’t trust that my plan for this morning would go according to plan.”
“That’s implying I would have invited you into my room”—my brow lifted at him—“and what plan for this morning?”
“I want to take you on a date.”
“A date.” From my voice, one would think that was a foreign concept to me. “It’s five o’clock in the morning.”
“It’s a breakfast date.” Archer swept his arm down the hall toward the elevators, but I stayed where I was.
“Where is this breakfast date taking place?”
“The restaurant downstairs has your favorite breakfast, and not only that, they have hubcapped-sized pancakes. Sounds like your kind of place.”
When the door a couple down opened, I came close to jumping out of my sneakers. It was just a guy in a suit holding a briefcase though. Archer turned his hat around so the bill was riding low on his face and lowered his head a little as the guy passed.
The businessman didn’t seem to notice Luke—instead his eyes were fixed on me as he wandered by. “Good morning.”
I greeted him back as he passed, almost missing the backward look he gave me. Archer, however, did not miss it. His eyes narrowed at the man’s back until he’d disappeared into an elevator.
“What are you doing?” I asked as his narrowed eyes lingered on the elevator doors the man had disappeared behind.
“Holding back.”
“Holding back from what?”
His gaze slowly drifted back to me. As his eyes scanned me, it seemed the man was already forgotten. “From lots of t
hings.” Shoving off the wall, he cleared his throat. “Ready?”
I took a moment to catch up. A lot was coming at me at 5:03 in the morning. Luke Archer wanted to take me on a date. A breakfast one. I’d never been on a breakfast date. Certainly never as a first date. With a professional baseball player. That player being on the same team I’d just landed my dream job on. The same player who’d given me the best sex of my life by an infinite margin but brought feelings to the surface that scared me. Feelings that ran deeper than I was used to. Feelings that felt too intense for the brevity of our relationship.
“The rest of the team is staying at this hotel, Luke. Someone could see us on our ‘date.’” Even as I voiced my concern, I fell into step beside him as he moved for the elevators.
“And all it would look like is an athletic trainer and a player who have been working together a lot lately having breakfast together. The only people who will know we’re on a date are the two of us.” He punched the down button and turned to face me. He was in a good-fitting pair of jeans, a thermal that clung to him in all the right places, and had on his team hat. He wasn’t naked—he wasn’t touching me—but my heartbeat didn’t seem to know the difference.
“And you’ll keep your hands, and other parts, to yourself?”
“If I have to,” he answered as we stepped onto the elevator.
It was empty, and that wasn’t good. Not when the doors were going to seal us shut inside a small space. I backed into the corner to put some space between us. When Luke noticed, a smirk started moving into place. Then he put himself in the opposite corner like he was proving something.
“Why a date?” I asked, cursing the elevator as it seemed to crawl down floors. “After everything we’ve already done . . .” I had to clear my throat when it felt like Luke was doing it to me all over again with that look. “It isn’t like you have to woo me or anything. We kind of plowed through the normal steps of relationship progression.”
A goofy grin spread on his face when I said plow. “And what if I want to ‘woo’ you?”
“And what if I’m not the kind of girl who wants to be wooed?”
“You don’t have to be into jewelry and movie dates to be wooed. You’re special. I want to show you that. I want to prove that to you.”
My body started to creep away from its corner. “I’m not the jewelry and movie dates type of girl.”
“I know.” He nodded. “You’re the hubcapped-sized pancake type of girl. The one who’d rather have a tree planted than a dozen long-stemmed roses. The one who’d rather go boogie-boarding in Big Sur than have a spa day.” He shoved out of his corner, moving toward me. “Need me to keep going?”
I bit my lip, shaking my head.
“Plus, I want to prove to you that I’m capable of doing more than the physical part of a relationship. As damn insanely perfect as you and I are in that department, I want to prove to you I’m available for the other stuff. That I’m open and capable of it.”
The elevator doors couldn’t have opened at a better time. The last of the air had been sucked out of the small space, and I was one more word or look away from throwing myself at him. The rush of fresh air washed over me, clearing my head as I stepped into the lobby on the first floor.
Other than the hotel employees, no one else was around, and the restaurant he led me to was the one only a few steps away from the elevators. He had actually given this more thought than just taking me to breakfast—he’d made sure it would be quiet and we wouldn’t have to go far—and something about seeing that he’d put so much thought into this made me feel exactly what he’d promised to prove to me—that I was special to him.
The hostess clearly recognized Archer when we stepped inside the restaurant, but she must have been warned the Shock was in the building for the night and advised not to fangirl. She cleared her throat and diverted her gaze. “Two for breakfast?”
Luke’s shoulder bumped mine. “Two for breakfast. And would it be okay if we had a table that’s a little more private?”
The hostess fumbled with the menus, her cheeks going redder and redder with every word from him. The poor thing couldn’t have been much out of high school. “Of course, Mr. Archer,” she replied before she winced. “I mean, of course, sir. I have no idea what your name is.”
By this point, I was starting to feel uncomfortable for her, especially when the menus slid out of her arms again as she led us to one of the tables tucked away from the open part of the dining room. There were only a couple diners in the restaurant and, thank god, none of them were from the Shock.
Once we’d slid into our booth—I’d had to eye the bench across from me when Luke started to slide in beside me—the hostess handed us our menus with shaky hands. “I’ll take your order whenever you’re ready.” Her voice was just as shaky.
“We’re ready now.” Luke set the menu down and leaned across the table a little. “Do you mind if I order for you?” he whispered. “Because some girls really hate that, and you seem like one of those who might not be so into it.”
I sighed to myself. I was sure this star-struck girl was harmless, but most people were not. If he really did mean to keep us a secret, he was going to have to figure out that he couldn’t ask me those types of questions with those types of looks when others were around.
“I don’t mind if you order for me this time. As long as you get my order right.” I set my menu down and motioned at him to proceed.
The hostess couldn’t make eye contact with Luke as he ordered. “We’d like two coffees with milk and sugar. She’d like the hubcap pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs and bacon.” Luke jacked his brows at me like he was waiting for me to congratulate him or something for getting my order right. “And I’ll have the southwest omelet with hash browns and wheat toast.”
As soon as she finished writing down our orders, she bolted away, forgetting to collect the menus.
“Creature of habit too?” I asked, noticing he’d had the same thing for breakfast two mornings ago.
“When you find something you love and that works, why switch it up?”
“See? You get it. Everyone else says it’s boring, but knowing what you love isn’t boring. It’s a sign of maturity and not being afraid to commit. All of those people who are always into trying new things are the ones I don’t get. It’s like holding a sign that says ‘I don’t know what I like or what I want because I don’t know who I am.’” When I finally came up for air, I realized I’d just given him an earful at the crack of dawn. “Sorry.”
He waved it off, looking amused. “Personal soapbox?”
“Something like that,” I muttered, relieved when our coffees showed up.
The hostess’s hands were still shaking, which was dangerous when she was holding two cups of coffee balanced on saucers, so I took each cup from her and set it down. She threw me a relieved look before dropping the sugar caddy and milk ramekin between us and dashing back to the kitchen.
“You’re a thoughtful person,” Archer said, taking the sugar packet I held out for him.
“I just didn’t want to have to worry about treating heat blisters on your body in addition to what I already have to treat.”
Archer chuckled as he stirred the sugar into his coffee. “So tell me about Allie Eden pre athletic trainer extraordinaire.” He must have noticed the flash of panic that hit my face. “Not the exhaustive biography, just the Cliff’s Notes. For now, at least.”
Fixing my coffee, I stalled. How did one sum up their life in a few sentences? “I don’t know, I grew up in a small town in Indiana, got my undergrad from Michigan State, and my graduate degree from UCLA. That’s about it.”
Luke tilted his head, mild amusement settling on his face. “Your family?”
“Oh,” I swallowed, taking a drink of coffee. “My dad and mom still live back in Indiana. They got divorced when I was little, so I was shuffled around from house to house. I go home every once in a while, maybe at Thanksgiving or Christmas to visit
.”
“Do they ever come visit you at your home?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Flying to California is like flying to Mongolia to them. And the apartment I have back in California is not what I’d call ‘my home.’ It’s more of a dwelling than anything.”
He clasped his hands together, watching me. “Siblings?”
Another head shake. “Only child.”
“That must have been lonely.”
“It wasn’t so much that. It was more feeling like I never had anywhere to call home, you know? I never felt like I had a place where I just knew it was home.” I shrugged, trying to play it off, but really, I’d never felt like I had a home my whole life. I went from being a child passed from house to house, to a student changing from dorm to dorm, to a woman moving from apartment to apartment.
He watched me for a minute. Just as it looked as though he were about to say something, his phone rang in his pocket.
“Sorry, I thought I’d turned it off,” he said, pulling it out to check the screen.
It wasn’t like I was trying to look, but I didn’t miss the name flashing on it—Alexis. I got back to making my coffee, feeling ridiculous for the tinge of jealousy settling into my stomach as I accepted that Luke Archer had had other women in his life before me.
“It’s my sister,” he said.
And just when I thought I couldn’t feel any more ridiculous . . .
“Go ahead and take it,” I said.
“You sure? This is a date—our first date—and what kind of date am I if I answer my phone on it?”
“The kind of guy who’s a good big brother.” I pointed my spoon at the phone buzzing in his hand. “Take it.”
“Thanks,” he said quickly before answering it. “Morning, sunshine . . . wait, it’s three a.m. there—what are you doing up?” His smile dimmed instantly. “Hey, Alex, it’s okay. Just take a breath. What is it?”
Maybe I should have pretended to look out the window or pull my own phone out to check emails, but since he hadn’t stood and walked away to have some privacy, I figured he didn’t mind if I overheard him.