“Oh, you will. Later.” She dropped her hands to his buttocks and squeezed. “Right now I just want to see you lose control.”
A small grin lifted the corners of his sexy mouth but it didn’t stay there for long. In an instant his features grew taut and he was plunging into her.
“More,” she whispered, bucking her hips. “Faster.”
He quickened his pace, and thrust his tongue inside her mouth with the same fervor his erection thrust in her warmth. She felt his climax building, knew her own wasn’t far behind, and she wrapped her legs around him, wanting to feel his heart thudding against her breasts when they toppled over the edge.
They came together, hard and fast. She cried out his name, and he buried his face in the damp curve of her neck with a ragged groan.
White-hot shards of pleasure shattered before her eyes, sucking all the breath from her body. She held on to Luke’s sweat-soaked back as if he were a life preserver and opened her mouth eagerly to let his tongue enter it again.
As the waves of release finally subsided, Luke slowly rolled over and pulled her into his arms. “I can’t move my legs,” he mumbled.
She pressed her cheek on his chest and enjoyed the erratic beating of his heart against her ear. Raising her head, she looked at him with dazed, sated eyes, opened her mouth, closed it, and then smiled.
Vivian sat motionless in the front seat of her Jeep staring at the darkened house in front of her. She wondered if Josh was asleep. God, she hoped so. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to him right now. She was still feeling shell-shocked from Ellie’s abrupt dismissal of her, from that hurt and angry look in her friend’s eyes when she’d admitted Josh was in town.
Glancing back at the dark windows of her living room, she wondered when she’d become so chicken she couldn’t even walk into her own home. She let out a long sigh and glanced at the digital clock on the car stereo. Three-fifteen a.m. Usually she left the club once the girls finished their second performance around midnight, letting the staff close up for the night, but tonight she’d found reasons to stay. All so she wouldn’t have to go home and face Josh.
He had to be sleeping by now, which suited her just fine.
Tonight she’d realized what a fool she’d been. No matter how sweet Josh was, no matter how wonderful he made her feel, she was simply too old for him. Three days with him around and she’d become the child she’d accused him of being. Sneaking around with her friend’s brother, stashing him in her house, lying about it. She was carrying on like a teenager, for God’s sake, and enough was enough.
In a few months she’d turn forty-five and that meant she needed to start acting her age again. Making love to Josh would be so easy, but giving him the relationship he wanted wouldn’t. Sooner or later they’d reach a crossroads. He’d want more than she could give and they’d end up going their separate ways. So why prolong the inevitable?
It was time to send him home. With Ellie out of a job, Josh got what he came for. Not all he’d come for but the most important part, anyway.
Turning off the engine, she got out of the Jeep and gently closed the door. The entire neighborhood was silent and the deserted street made her feel oddly wistful. Sometimes she really missed the city, the clutter of cars on the Golden Gate, the chattering of people as they walked past the open windows of her downtown apartment. Had she done the same thing as Ellie? Moved to a place where she didn’t belong?
Vivian shrugged away the thought and stepped up the front lawn toward the door. The house was dark and quiet when she entered it. She squinted in the darkness, relieved by the absence of light seeping under Josh’s closed door. Looked like there wouldn’t be any heavy, emotionally draining talks tonight.
Eager not to wake him, she slid out of her heels and walked barefoot toward the kitchen, where she found the unopened bottle of whiskey in the cabinet under the sink. It had been a gift from one of her dancers but since she normally didn’t drink she’d tucked it away for a rainy day.
Or a very late night when only alcohol could drain away the tension in her body.
After pouring herself a glass she soundlessly moved toward the glass patio doors and stepped onto the deck. The moon overhead was full. Didn’t that just figure. Full moons always left her feeling restless. She very rarely got a good night’s sleep when one of those perfect pale yellow circles filled the sky.
A splashing noise from below made her jump. Riveting her gaze to the kidney-shaped pool, she bit back a groan as she saw Josh emerge from the dark water. He climbed the steps in the corner of the shallow end, six feet of dripping wet, toned muscle. When he reached the stairs of the deck he stopped in his tracks.
She couldn’t unglue her gaze from him, just watched him standing there in the shadows as her throat grew so dry she could barely swallow. He really was magnificent-looking.