Page 5 of Lucas

Lucas presses the “up” button outside the steel-plated elevator doors. “Of course not. Just act like we’re supposed to be here and we’ll be okay.”

I glance up at him, eyes wide. “Seriously?”

“You’re too easy,” he says, with a sexy wink.

The elevator opens before I can come back with a witty response. Impossible anyway, since Lucas immediately, unexpectedly, slams his body up against mine and pins my wrists to the wall. My heart leaps into my throat.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the second you plopped that sexy ass down next to me at the bar.”

I tremble beneath his touch, voice catching. “What took you so long, then?”

“Stupidity.”

His mouth crashes against mine, hard and fast. When his lips move across my face, my jawline, and slide down to my neck, my body ignites. In the elevator mirror, I catch my flush-faced reflection, glossy-eyes wide with lust, and watch with almost surreal detachment as Lucas’s hand trails along the side of my hip and then around to my backside to grip my thigh. He squeezes hard enough to make me gasp, lifting one foot off the ground.

I arch my back, pushing my pelvis up against his groin. His cock is thick and hard beneath his jeans. Lucas releases my wrist and I use both hands to pull him impossibly closer, aching to feel his body against mine. My fingers thread through his dark hair, dig into his sculpted shoulder muscles, and trail down to his impressive biceps. Christ, he’s built.

Lucas slides his hand up under my skirt to cup my ass just as the elevator pings. He doesn’t move toward the door. His lips continue to roam across my jaw and up around to my left ear. He latches on to the sensitive lobe, alternating soft nibbles with steady suckling. Sweet Jesus, I’m melting.

“We should…”

He silences me with a hard kiss, and swoops me up into his arms. For a fleeting second I panic, Austin’s cruel words threading through my mind: …you’ve put on weight… But I shouldn’t have worried—Lucas carries me with ease.

I wrap my arms around his neck and hang on for dear life.

His lips touch my forehead, my cheeks, my mouth. And with each kiss, my reservations begin to deflate like a slow leaking tire. To my surprise, I respond with increasing passion, giving in to this moment, this lust, for the first time in my life.

Adrenaline pulses through me, fueling me with liquid courage. One night stands aren’t my thing—my sexual experience is so minimal I’m practically a virgin—but I couldn’t run from this, even if I wanted to. It’s as if I’m under his control, a willing puppet tethered to strings he deftly maneuvers.

He lifts me across the threshold of his suite and gently sets me on the floor. I hold on to the doorframe, catching my balance as my equilibrium resets and my eyes adjust to the dim lighting.

Moonlight drifts in through giant windows, basking the warehouse-style loft in a bluish tinge. With its open steel beams and tin-like floor, the space feels almost industrial, though it’s clear by the accents—modern furniture in unique shapes, the infusion of stainless steel and white-washed brick—that he’s spared no expense on décor.

“This is beautiful,” I whisper.

Lucas begins to unbutton my blouse. “You’re beautiful.”

The fluttering in my stomach grows more intense with each compliment. I’ve never considered myself pretty before, but Lucas makes me feel sexy, invincible. Beautiful. He slides my shirt over my shoulders and down my arms, until it puddles on the floor at my feet. I slip out of my heels and look up into his shimmering eyes. My breath hitches. Good Lord, he’s an Adonis.

Lucas drops his gaze to my breasts, and my chest heaves under his concentrated scrutiny.

“Incredible,” he says, half-whispering.

I lick my lips in anticipation.

Cool air sweeps over me, as though tiny fireflies are doing backflips across my skin. Lucas trails his hand along the curve of my waist, hooks his fingers under the waistband of my skirt, and tugs me toward him. His mouth twists. “I could take you right here, right now…”

My toes curl at the tone of his low, husky voice.

“…but I have a more comfortable option in mind. Intrigued?”

My lips part. “Take me there,” I say, as if in a trance. My mind is like cotton, heady with lust, and my feet scarcely touch the ground as he holds my hand and guides me up a spiral staircase, one palm on the small of my back. We step through a small door that leads to a private garden terrace, surrounded by greenery. Lush topiaries—some freshly blooming with bright colored flowers—surround a glass bottom Jacuzzi that overlooks the ground floor, twenty-two stories below.

My throat closes in. “You actually swim in that?”

His jeweled eyes crinkle with amusement. “Well, I haven’t quite perfected the butterfly yet, but the rest of my strokes are almost manageable.”

I lightly punch his arm, knuckles knocking against his ripped bicep. “You know what I meant. Aren’t you…frightened?” My eyes pinch shut, imagining us crashing through the bottom of the glass and free-falling—naked, intertwined—to our death, splayed out on the concrete like squashed bugs on a windshield.