Convinced at last, she dared to insist on an answer to her earlier question. “Do you love me?”
“I thought I’d just told you,” he said, a satisfied smile on his face.
“That was just a clue,” she said, deliberately dismissing the kiss to taunt him. “A very good clue, but not conclusive. I want proof, Lucas.”
His eyebrows rose fractionally. “Oh, really? How far can I actually go under the circumstances.”
“I’ll let you know when you’ve reached the limit.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, we’ll reach yours and test mine beyond endurance.”
She stripped him of his shirt with slow deliberation. When his torso was bare, she caressed the hard muscles of his arms in a deliberately provocative gesture, following the shape, learning the texture of his skin. “I’d say you’re strong enough to take it.”
His gaze narrowed. “Do you have a wanton streak I ought to know about?”
“I suppose that’s one of the things you’ll learn eventually,” she taunted him, delighting in the flare of heat in his eyes, the unmistakable catch of his breath that hinted of sudden urgency.
He reached for the buttons of her blouse then and easily freed them. Beneath the cotton, her breasts were fuller than ever and extraordinarily sensitive. He swallowed hard as his tanned, callused finger traced the pale, rounded flesh, arriving in time at the already throbbing nipple. He leaned down and flicked over the sensitive bud with his tongue. A gasp rose in Jessie’s throat as she clung to his shoulders.
With her eyes closed and her head thrown back, there was no knowing where his caresses would come next or how shattering they would be. With each exquisite, daring touch, her body responded in ways she’d never expected it to.
Far too soon, she realized the torment she was putting him—putting both of them—through. There would be no tumbling into bed, no tangling of bared arms and legs, no press of bodies on fire. She had underestimated how difficult it would be to call a halt. Her newly awakened body throbbed with need. Luke’s muscles were tensed with the effort of holding back. His eyes glittered with dangerous emotions.
She covered his hands with her own and stilled his touch.
“Enough?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“Not nearly enough,” she replied, still wondering at the discovery that there could be so much more than she had ever experienced with Erik. “But we’re dangerously close to the point when I’ll lose all reason.”
“How long will it be before I can hold you through the night?” he asked, his voice filled with hunger and perhaps just a touch of awe that such a day would, indeed, finally come. They’d reached a turning point and moved on. There would be no going back from this night. They both recognized that.
“There’s been no one in my life, Luke. Not since Erik. I saw no need to ask the doctor about this,” she confessed with regret. “A few weeks, I believe.”
Luke’s expression turned grim. “Just about long enough to put out the wildfire we’re about to touch off when everyone figures out what’s going on.”
Jessie’s confidence faltered for a moment. He still hadn’t said the words she’d demanded of him. Every action, every touch told her he loved her, but she wanted him to say the words, wanted to hold the sound of them in her heart. “Luke, exactly what is going on?”
He glanced from her bared breasts to her face and back again. “I’d say that’s plain enough.”
“Just sex?”
“Darlin’, there’s no such thing as just sex, where you and I are concerned. I knew the instant I laid eyes on you years ago that it would be like this between us.”
“You know what I mean,” she said impatiently.
He pulled her back against him, close enough she could feel his warmth, could feel the steady, reassuring beat of his heart.
“We’ll work all of that out,” he promised. “One step at a time, Jessie, we’ll find our way.”
He still couldn’t seem to bring himself to say the words. But for now, it was close enough. It was a vow that whatever lay ahead, they would face it together.
* * *
Harlan was still at the breakfast table when Luke arrived downstairs in the morning. He knew the instant he looked into his father’s eyes that he was upset about something. Luke had a sinking feeling deep in his gut that he knew what that something was. He had thought he heard his parents come in the night before just as he’d slipped from Jessie’s room well after midnight. He’d been all but certain he had gotten past them undetected, but perhaps he hadn’t been as stealthy as he’d imagined.
His father put the paper aside and waited while Luke poured himself a cup of coffee. Luke deliberately took his time.
When he was finally seated, he met his father’s gaze. “Everything okay?”
“I was about to ask you the same question.”
“Oh?”
“I saw you leaving Jessie’s room last night. I wondered if there was something wrong with her or the baby.”
The question might have been innocuous enough, but Luke knew his father better than that. Harlan never inquired casually about anything. And their earlier conversation had already demonstrated Harlan’s suspicions. Luke could have manufactured a discreet answer, but he had a hunch his father had already figured out the implications of catching him in that upstairs hallway.
“They’re fine,” he said, focusing his attention on buttering his toast.
“Then there must have been some other reason for you to be sneaking out with half your clothes in your hand.”
So, Luke thought dully, there it was, out in the open. Spelled out in his father’s words, it sounded sordid, and his love for Jessie was anything but.
“I love her,” he declared defiantly, meeting his father’s
