moment of normality, maybe even a moment of comradeship. Luke wanted to bed her, yes. More than any woman he could remember. But he also liked her, a lot. He’d seen her beaten down and he didn’t want to see that ever again. She was so smart and so vital. He liked seeing her the way she was right now, enjoying a fabulous meal. Happy and relaxed.
“Here,” he said, picking up a rondel of fried polenta. “Open up.”
She opened her mouth obediently, closing her eyes in delight while she chewed. He had a pang when his treacherous mind envisioned that lovely soft pink mouth closing over his — no. He wasn’t twelve. He could wait. Just seeing the happiness on her face, when her life had been anything but happy, was repayment for ignoring the boner under the table. “Good?”
She caught her breath and moaned. He smothered his own moan because he was picturing that very expression on her face, under him.
“Oh, man. I’ve eaten more good meals with you in the past couple of days than I have in the past year.”
Luke speared a slice of tagliata steak, delighted at her words. Oh yeah, he wanted to be the source of a lot of happiness for her. Right up there with food was sex and he wanted to put that look of bliss on her face, only not with food. He stared down at his plate, not meeting her eyes. Because though she declared herself a nerd, she was good at reading people and he didn’t want her to know what he was thinking right this instant.
Because what he was thinking was a little dangerous. He wasn’t happily aroused, a guy looking forward to a good time in bed. He was on a hair trigger. Ready to blow.
And wouldn’t that be embarrassing? He hadn’t done that since high school.
So the only way he knew to deal with this was to have as few stimuli as possible. Eating. He could do eating. But he couldn’t talk and he couldn’t touch her. Talking to her would only mess with his head. He found her fascinating and every word she spoke made her even more desirable. And touching her — no way. He wouldn’t be able to stop.
So he stuffed his mouth as quickly as manners would permit so he couldn’t talk and he couldn’t touch her.
She ate more slowly but much less, so she finished before he did. When he saw that she was done, his fork clattered on his plate. There was still some food on it but he ignored it.
He wasn’t alone in this. Nope. She was studiously avoiding looking at him, but still she was stealing little glances when she thought he wasn’t looking. Luckily, Luke had excellent peripheral vision.
Her hands had started trembling. She put her own fork down, not clattering like his own, but neatly.
They stared at each other, both knowing what was coming next. But Luke had to have it out there, in words.
“So,” he said and stopped. Nothing else came out. Whoa. He didn’t have too many words in him.
“So,” she answered.
Silence.
“Do you want —” Luke cleared his throat. There had to be better words for this than do you want to have sex with me? But at the moment he couldn’t think of any. It was like a strong wind whistled in his head, scouring everything but desire from him.
Luckily, he didn’t need words.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He carried her to the bedroom. Hers. Probably because it was the closest.
She’d never been carried as an adult. Actually, she couldn’t remember ever being carried as a child, either. Man, it was … it was great. Like flying. She wanted to get somewhere but didn’t have to exert any effort, all because Luke was carrying her. And not huffing and puffing, either. Perfectly naturally, like you’d carry a book somewhere.
The entire right side of her body was against him, warm and hard. For balance, she twined her arms around his neck, her forearms resting on his strong shoulder muscles, her face against his.
Whoa, forget self-driving cars. This was the way to travel.
When they crossed the threshold together it felt like … like some other kind of threshold had been crossed. From the dining room, where they’d been eating, to this shadowy world of the bedroom where other things were going to happen.
Hope felt a deep tremor of anticipation while at the same time feeling an utter calm. She’d never felt anything in her life was predestined. Everything