in California was often killer on my skin and it had been especially dry lately. So I grabbed the bottle of lotion and began to apply the cool creamy mixture to my elbows, arms and knees. Working it into my skin, I enjoyed the faint scent of coconut and jasmine that tickled my nose.
Apparently didn’t pay close enough attention to how long I was taking, nor did I hear the shower turn off. Because I was stark naked when the door to the washroom opened. The little devil had won out after all. I could hear her cheering from somewhere in the far corner of my mind.
Lucas halted in the doorway. I froze where I stood, full frontal pointed right at him.
His eyes swept me from head to toe and I didn’t even have the decency to blush. I mean… I hadn’t planned this but I sure as hell wasn’t going to frantically try to cover up, scream and demand he close his eyes. Instead, I let them get their fill.
They were like flames, licking and burning me. Everywhere his eyes swept over my body, it singed me like a raging wildfire. His gaze was thirsty. Parched like the Mojave. And it turned me on like nothing else.
My nipples tightened, and he slowly averted his gaze—almost as if it physically hurt him to do so—but still said nothing.
I reached for my nightie and slipped it over my head, mumbling an apology.
He kept his eyes on the ground and stepped out of the doorway. “All yours,” he said in a slightly strangled voice.
Was he angry? Did he think I’d planned it on purpose because I wasn’t shrieking with faux modesty? I quickly washed my face, brushed my teeth and my hair and called it done.
The lights were out and Lucas was already in bed with his back turned to me. I gingerly slipped between those smooth sheets, taking care not to accidently brush against him. Though that devil, she sure was pushing for it, the mischievous minx.
Then I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t plan for you to see me like that.”
He said nothing for a moment, then rolled over and faced me. “Why would you think I’d suspect that?”
“I dunno. Maybe because I didn’t act all scandalized and upset that you saw me?”
He paused. “And why didn’t you?”
I shrugged. “It didn’t feel weird for you to see me naked. It just felt natural. We are married, after all.”
“But it isn’t real.”
“Mmm.” My heart sped up. It was feeling more and more real every day, but I didn’t dare tell him that. He’d freeze me out like he had the morning after the party. Lucas was a textbook case of emotionally unavailable male. Except when he wasn’t. And when he wasn’t, he was remarkably intriguing to me. Like a mystery I’d sacrifice sleep to solve.
“I could do with a little of the real stuff right now,” I finally said in a low voice. In the dim light, our eyes met and held. Did I imagine his gaze intensifying, his tongue darting out to wet his lips?
I sure as hell didn’t imagine it when he reached out to run his thumb lightly along my lower lip. It may have been an innocent gesture, but it strummed through my body like the most erotic touch I’d ever known. My lip trembled, and the thumb stopped moving. Then it pushed forward, into my mouth. My lips closed around his thumb and he let out a gruff growl, a low groan.
“We can’t,” he whispered.
My tongue caressed the pad of this thumb, snaking around it. Perhaps showing off a bit of the hidden skills I’d bragged about so easily days ago. I knew how to blow a guy’s dick and his mind at the same time. And I was damn good at it.
And I owed him one, anyway. Perhaps tonight I’d get to call it square for that oral bliss he’d delivered on his piano.
His breathing sounded a bit more ragged now, more obviously turned on.
“We should,” I said when he slowly retracted his thumb. Then, feeling bold and fully thirsty, I took his hand and brought it to my breast, pressing it hard against my tight, aching nipple.
The ragged breathing increased—some of it mine, to be fair—as his thumb rubbed against my nipple through the thin worn cotton of my nightie. I let out a light moan of my own and slowly, his head drew near mine.
Two milliseconds before our mouths would have connected,