His Southern Temptation

chapter Nineteen


“I like your idea of the afterlife.”

Taylor opened her eyes, taking in the broad expanse of star-spangled night sky from her position lying in the blankets on the bed of Lucky’s truck. She turned her gaze to him and he shrugged, giving her a crooked half smile so sexy it caused her breath to catch in her chest.

“You come here a lot?” She glanced around the smooth glass of the lake, the grassy lawn leading down to the pier and the beautiful old shade trees tinted deep purple in the night

“Not as much as I want to. It’s a great place to relax, get away, think about things.” His voice was gravelly against her shoulder where he rested his head while his fingers idly traced figure eights on her belly. The touch, innocent enough, had kept her on the knife-edge of arousal for a while now. “This is my favorite place in the world.”

They’d sneaked into the barn, grabbing a cooler, a few extra beers out of the fridge kept in the tack room, and a couple blankets. Jumping into his truck, Lucky had driven onto the main road and reentered the edge of the Landon property via an old hunting trail. In the moonlight, it was gorgeous. Magical.

“It is amazing. I bet all the girls you bring here love it.”

“I’ve never brought a woman here before.”

Taylor’s stomach did a flip-flop at his answer.

“Thank you for keeping an open mind about us. I know it isn’t easy,” he murmured.

“Lucky—”

“Taylor, we have a chance to be together, and we both know how good it could be.”

She tried to laugh it off, not ready to talk about this with the moonlight and his delectable body wreaking havoc with her best-laid plans, plans that weren’t looking so hot the more time she spent with him. The idea of lonely nights and no one to share her life with was losing its appeal. She’d been alone for so long.

“Stay with me. Or make me understand why you can’t.”

She considered his question, trying to form her thoughts in a way that made sense of her jumbled emotions and fears. “If I stay, I feel like I’m just one of those girls who give up their free ride to follow a boy to college and then gets dumped when he finds a girl who puts out.”

“I already know you put out.”

“Funny guy. You should take it on the road.” She gripped his hand, gazing at the stars and making a wish to find the right answer. “I’ve done the research. Opening a spa business in this area is a very good idea. Your mother is hitting it at the right time. The money I would get from the sale of the house would be more than enough to cover my costs.”

“Good to know. What’s the catch?”

“I can’t wrap my head around staying here for a person. Disrupting all my plans for a person—for you.” She lifted his hand, pressing a kiss against his palm to ease the sting of her words. “You can’t base decisions like this on people. They let you down.”

“I never did. I never let you down.”

“That’s because we never expected much of each other.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s true. We’ve been about good times, hedonistic escapes from our lives. We were never about trust or depending on each other for our happiness.”

“We can be that way.” He shifted over, leaning up on one elbow to look down at her, the vehemence of his belief clear even in the gloom. “I want that from you. I want you to expect that from me. We deserve that kind of happiness.”

This was her moment to be honest with herself and with him. This was her time to dig deep and give him an answer, but she couldn’t form the words. Her research was solid—opening a business was always a calculated risk. The risk was in putting herself out there and becoming vulnerable to the hurt that only a lover could cause.

“I’ve been burned before. Bobby, other men I trusted and they let me down.” She touched his cheek, loving the tickle of his five o’clock shadow on her skin. “The number of people who happily stay together for the long term gets smaller and smaller every day.”

But her heart was whispering that it could be different with Lucky.

Determined to buy a little more time, she sat up and leaped off the tailgate of the truck. Walking over to the pier, Taylor dipped her toe into the water and shivered at the coolness of it in contrast to the heat of the summer night. She looked over to where Lucky was sitting on the tailgate, even from this distance his gaze devouring her with a desire that made her insides turn to goo.

Reaching up, she untied the halter top of her sundress and dropped it onto the pier. “Is it deep enough to swim?”

Lucky nodded, his eyes languidly traveling over her naked body. She loved how he looked at her. Turning, she jumped in and let the water wash away all the decisions and deadlines. When she broke the surface, she looked toward the truck.

Wait, where was Lucky?

The spot where he’d sat was now empty, a pile of clothes on the ground. Whipping her head around, she scanned the dark surface of the lake, looking for ripples, movement, any indication of where…

“Oh!”

His hand wrapped around her waist just as he surfaced behind her. Turning around, she shoved at him, splashing water in his face in laughing protest. He shook his head, flinging water over her, and tossed her a grin that lit up his whole face. And took her breath away.

Lucky gloated. “Gotcha! You should’ve seen your face.”

Taylor splashed him again and he ducked to avoid the spray. “You jerk! I could have drowned!”

He grabbed her close and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Liar. You swim like a fish.” His eyes lit up with mischief. “Besides, I’m a Marine. I can always give you mouth-to-mouth if I have to.”

Taylor lifted her hands up onto his shoulders, caressing the water-slick skin covering his broad muscles. Her fingers tangled in the wet hair at his nape, and he arched toward her touch while she inched her legs up his body to clasp his hips. “Mouth-to-mouth, huh?”

She leaned in until the warm puff of his breath touched her lips. His eyes flashed in triumph as his hands traveled up her back, which is when Taylor levered herself up and dunked him under the water.

Sputtering, Lucky surfaced and came after her, splashing water and frightening every fish within a two-mile radius. Taylor tried to swim away from him, but he was fast and grabbed her ankle, dragging her back.

Screaming bloody murder.

Having the time of her life.

Like little children, they played in the water for a while. Lucky was bigger, but Taylor was faster, and many times she squirmed out of his grip and laughed in triumph at his look of surprise. She wasn’t laughing when he caught her and held her close, their bodies moving together just enough to keep them both on the edge. They floated around in the water, kissing, touching, enjoying the night and each other.

Wrapping his arms around her body, Lucky drew her in for a warm, wet kiss that curled her toes. Coming up for air, Taylor buried her face against his chest, pressing hot kisses along his smooth skin. He was beautiful, delicious.

Lucky pushed aside her hair and nuzzled the spot just behind her ear. “You make me so happy.” He pressed a kiss against her skin. “I will never need anyone like I need you.”

“Lucky,” she whispered.

He cupped her face, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. “You’re so beautiful.”

Tears prickled at Taylor’s eyes and she blinked to hold them back. She knew that with every laugh, every kiss, every crazy surprise, Lucky had wormed his way into her heart and she’d let it happen. She’d wanted it to happen.

In spite of all of her bravado about having a “no strings attached” affair, she’d wanted to have more, to feel more, with Lucky.

Looking into his eyes, filled with desire, warmth, and affection, her heart leaped again at the knowledge that he felt the same way.

Lucky reached up, grabbed her hand, and pressed a kiss onto her palm. “For the first time in a long time, I’m right where I need to be. I don’t just want you here for tonight. I want you here with me all the time. I need you, Taylor.” His gaze caught her own in a stare of unapologetic need and desire. “I love you.”

It was the best and worst thing she’d ever heard. It was terrifying and thrilling to know that another person’s happiness relied on you. He leaned in and kissed her, his tongue thrusting inside her mouth with a brutal, possessive hunger she’d never felt from him before. For a split second, Taylor considered resisting, making one last attempt to save her heart. But when Lucky released her mouth and groaned, “Please, Taylor, let me in,” she knew she was powerless to deny his request.

He was already in. Lucky owned her heart, and she could deny him nothing.

Taylor wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips back to hers. This time when he invaded her mouth, she opened for him and met him thrust for thrust. Her nails scraped his shoulders as she pressed her sex against his straining cock until he groaned into her mouth. His hands were everywhere—her back, her ass, her breasts—the slick water preventing the delicious friction they both craved.

With a frustrated growl, Lucky propelled them to the side of the lake and she gasped as he rose out of the water, exposing their nakedness to the open air. The world tilted, heaved, but her focus was on Lucky. Gently, he lowered her to the nest of blankets in the truck bed and climbed in after her.

“Lucky, what you said.” She couldn’t say the words; too many thoughts and emotions jangled around in her head to think straight. But right now she needed to believe it was possible for them. “The words. Make me feel them. Show me.”

“You want me to show you how much I love you?” Lucky leaned forward, water droplets cascading off his body and caressing her skin like his own touch. Taylor opened her legs in invitation, her body already slick with want and need. “I can do that.”

“I love to worship your body with my mouth. Taste your sweetness here”—he ran a hand along her thigh downward until he reached the apex—“and here most of all.”

His fingers stroked her, spreading her desire and drifting up to circle her *. Taylor gasped, closing her eyes against the onslaught of pleasure, wave after wave that swelled until she thought she’d come apart.

Lucky shifted, his big body scooting back until his warm breath coasted across the sensitized skin.

“Oh God.” Taylor’s eyes shot open, looking down to find him between her thighs, his face a mask of feral hunger, his eyes locked on her own. She shifted, her body involuntarily arching upward, inviting him to lower his mouth and take his fill.

He ignored her silent plea, offering only the sweet stretch of her flesh as he entered her with his fingers. In and out he pulsed, paced at a rhythm to drive her insane inch by agonizing inch while his gaze dared her to look away.

“Lucky, please.” Her voice cracked on the second word, but she was unashamed of her weakness. Lucky was right there with her.

His voice, no more than a deep whisper drifted across to her on the breeze from the lake. “I know, baby. I’ve got to have a little taste. Just a taste and then I’ll take you there, I promise.”

She swore the stars in the sky flashed when he finally tasted her. His lips, tender and urgent, kissed her thigh, her hip, and then trailed down to close over her *. Taylor was a mass of feeling, her body crackling with the rush of electricity pinging off her nerve endings. The breeze from the lake, warm and moist with summer humidity, caressed her nakedness and heightened her pleasure.

Lucky groaned against her skin, the deep reverberation of his desire igniting the first spark of her orgasm low in her belly. Taylor tensed, her body clenching around him as the sensation overtook her. So fast, pleasure hit her, like a star shooting across the night sky in its last glorious ride. White hot. Intense. She had to cry out, had to scream her pleasure into the darkness or risk burning alive.

Lucky lifted up on his elbows, brushing her hair back from her face as his calloused fingers tenderly coasted the ridges of her nose, cheekbones, eyebrows.

“God, I love you.” Lucky whispered. Love turned his eyes to a hue that matched the vast sky serving as their cover tonight. “I dreamed of you…of this…just the thought of you kept me sane. If you only knew…”

Taylor’s breath caught in her throat at the naked emotion on Lucky’s face, the awe in his voice. Never had she thought that someone could look at her like that, like she was the only thing keeping him tethered to this earth.

“Did you hear me, Tay? I dreamed of you. I would lie in the desert and my body would ache to feel you next to me, to be inside you just like this. Safe and hungry, surrounded by your wet heat.” Lucky kissed her, a tender one and almost sweet in contrast to the fire in his words. “I would wake up and swear you were with me all night long. Sometimes the memory of you was the only thing that kept me alive. I swear to God…the only thing.”

Lucky moved then, lowering his head to brutally take her kiss. His hips rocking forward to thrust his cock deep inside her body. Taylor gasped at the exquisite pleasure radiating through her. Unrelenting, Lucky, drove into her, deeper with each stroke as his tongue plundered her mouth. She clung to him, giving him free rein to take what she offered.

For a split second panic rose in her throat. She couldn’t do this. Taylor closed her eyes tighter and steeled her heart to resist giving all of herself to this man. If she did, she wouldn’t survive it when the time came for it to end.

Lucky grasped her hands, pulling them back from where they’d been unconsciously pushing against his chest trying to create distance. He raised them over her head, stretching and opening her body further, making her more vulnerable to his rhythmic thrusts and rough caress.

His low, guttural voice broke through her concentration. “Taylor, open your eyes and look at me. I need you…so much.” Lucky threaded his fingers through hers, a sweet gesture that forced her to open her eyes. “I love you. Stay.”

All of the world faded away as Lucky’s gaze caught and held her own. With a sigh, the last part of her defenses crumbled into nothing.

She was done.

Her heart was his.

His honesty, his vulnerability, worked better than any slick seduction line. She’d spent years secretly yearning for him to look at her like he was right now. And although she thought she’d thrown out those girlish fantasies with her rumpled wedding dress, they were still here just waiting for Lucky to bring them back to life.

“I’ll stay.” She almost couldn’t believe what she was saying, but it felt right, true. “I’ll stay with you.”

She was still scared, still skeptical in the power to make anything last for a lifetime, but she’d follow his lead and step out in faith. Because Lucky believed in them.

That was enough. It would have to be.

Staring into his eyes, Taylor gave herself over to the pleasure created by the sweet friction of their bodies moving together. She chased the sensation until it crashed over her, pulling her under the waves of her orgasm. Her spasms, hard and intense, dragged Lucky with her as he shouted his release and collapsed on top of her. Taylor sucked in big gulps of air as she released her hands and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him in a tight, sweaty embrace.

Her eyes fluttered shut, the moon creating a silver sheen against her eyelids, matching the shimmering glow now settled deep in her chest.

Right where her heart used to be.