“No shit,” I practically spit. I’m angry at him, except I can’t stop looking at his mouth, the way his lips are so close to mine. My breath catches in my throat, and my heart pounds in my chest, and I feel the way I did the first time I saw him. Like my entire body aches for his touch.
“Listen to me,” he says, his voice practically a growl. He keeps one hand above my head, pinning my wrists, as he slides the other along my cheek, his fingers under my chin, tilting my head up to look at him. “Fuck, Autumn, do you think I haven’t been thinking about you – wanting you, dreaming about the things I've been wanting to do to you – every damn day for the past three weeks? It’s been tearing me up, ripping me in two, knowing that you hate me.”
His mouth is so close to mine I can barely think about anything else. What he’s saying is a blur, blotted out by lust that I can’t seem to control. I swallow hard, force myself to answer, ignore the craving for him, the desperate need to press my lips against his. I choke out the words: “Screw you, Luke.”
“Damn it, Autumn,” he says, his voice low, guttural, his lips close to my ear. “That is what you want to do, isn’t it? Say that’s what you fucking want. Say you’ve missed me inside you, that you ache for me with every breath the way I do for you.”
I’m practically writhing under his grip, and he can feel it. He can tell and he brings his mouth down on mine, kissing me with an intensity that takes my breath away. There’s nothing sweet or soft about this kiss, two lovers being reunited. This kiss is fucking primal, our tongues warring with each other, and his hand is on me, sliding underneath my shirt, covering my breast before I can object.
He covers my breast with his palm, my nipple rock hard against him, and I’m washed away by lust, heat pooling between my legs, removing any sense of reason I thought I might have. When he flicks open the button on my jeans, rips them over my hips, and slides his hand between my legs, I practically melt. I moan, far too loud for being outside here, where anyone could walk around this building and catch us.
“You are so fucking wet,” he says. “Do you know how much I've been wanting to touch you?”
This is not a good idea, the rational part of me chimes in. “Fuck you, Luke.”
He pauses, his hand unmoving as he looks into my eyes. “I was trying to protect you, Autumn,” he says. “Both of you.”
I clench my jaw tightly, looking up at him, the throbbing between my legs so hard it’s a painful distraction. “From who? You?”
“I was trying to keep you out of everything,” he says. “I was trying to keep you safe. I swear. That’s why I sent Mike to keep an eye on things.”
“That’s bullshit,” I say, remembering him standing on the sidewalk with that girl. Suddenly, his phone rings, and whatever spell he had over me, the moment between us, is broken, and I’m able to think rationally again. He sees it too, lets go of me, pulling his hands from me and stepping back. “You should have been honest with me. You should get that phone call, you know.”
Luke exhales heavily, taking his phone out of his pocket and looking at me. “I don’t care about it,” he says.
But it buzzes again, and this time he answers it. I straighten my clothing, smooth my hair, and it’s like whatever just happened between us never happened at all. His voice is terse, one word answers, and when he looks up at me, I know it’s about whatever he’s keeping from me and I shake my head.
“I have to go,” he says, crossing the space between us, his hands on my arms. Then, when he sees the look of disbelief on my face, “I promise. If it weren’t important, if I didn’t have to go, I wouldn’t. I’m sending Mike back over here.”
“No,” I protest. “No more. I’m not having anyone else here. I don’t need you spying on me, trying to control my life.”
“Listen to me,” he says, his hands tight on my arms. “That guy, the mining company guy, he’s bad news. All of those guys are."
“I’ve dealt with a lot of assholes in my life, Luke,” I say, shaking him off. “I can handle myself. I know how to use a shotgun, and if I see any of them on my property again, I’m perfectly capable of running him off.”
“Good,” Luke says. “But I’m sending Mike over, too.”
“Until you tell me what’s going on, in a calm, rational, adult manner, no one else sets foot on my property, Luke Saint, and that includes any of your friends.”
“Damn it, Autumn,” he says. But his phone buzzes again, and I take that as a sign.
“Goodbye, Luke,” I tell him.
And I walk away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Luke
"Your girl is asking a lot of questions," Elias says.
My girl. Since when did she become my girl to my brothers? The irony is that I've been thinking of her that way for weeks now, even after I dumped her, even after I tried to put space between us to keep her safe. "What do you mean, asking questions?"
"Emir keeps tabs on everything," Silas says. "Anything that has to do with the mining company."