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“Why didn’t you tell me,” I say softly, “about your brother’s death?” Tears begin to well up in my eyes, already taking on his pain, but I choke them back.
“Because these two weeks were supposed to be for you,” he says in a quiet voice, still with his back to me. Thunder rumbles amid the gray, cloud-covered sky outside. “I wanted it to be special.”
With my heart steadily breaking and filling up with guilt, I step into the room and approach him, trying to hold down my tears.
“But, Luke … it was special. Everything about being here with you has been … It’s been more than I ever imagined it could be.”
“It wouldn’t have been if I’d laid my problems in your lap, Sienna. I didn’t want that. I just wanted you to have a good time. And because—”
He stops.
He still hasn’t turned around, and as I draw closer I hear tears in his voice—faint, but I hear them as clearly as I hear my own—and they cut off what he had wanted to say.
I lay my hands on his shoulders from behind, carefully at first, not sure if he’s in the frame of mind for such comforts, and when he doesn’t reject me, I lay my palms flat against his skin, moving them down the length of his arms, before wrapping them around his waist from behind and resting the side of my face against his warm back.
Then suddenly, as if human touch has triggered a side of him he’s been keeping down for such a long time, Luke falls to the floor, sitting on his bottom with his knees bent, and he lets the tears roll right out of him. His strong hands grip mine around his waist as I go down with him. One fierce sob rattles uncontrollably through his body, and that’s all it takes to make my own tears rush from my eyes, causing my vision to blur. I hold him as tight as I can from behind, wanting to wrap him up within my arms and hold him here forever, but his strength is more palpable than mine, his hands gripping the tops of my fingers, pressing my arms against his hard body with so much force.
He turns around to see me, his hands touching the sides of my face, and I don’t care that I might become a canvas too. I never want him to move them away. He looks deeply into my eyes, his filled with moisture and emotion, my cheeks warm beneath his hands. “I didn’t want you to go, Sienna,” he says and another repressed sob fights its way through his chest. His hands tighten on my cheeks as he holds my fixed gaze. “I wanted to tell you the truth, to make you understand, but—”
I lean toward him, my knees pressed into the hardwood floor beneath me, and I kiss his sweet, trembling lips softly. “I’m here now, Luke.” I kiss him again, and his eyes search my lips when I pull away. “I came back because I want to be here. With you. I don’t care about what happened last night, or about what you didn’t get to explain. I’m here and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
His warm, forceful lips fall on mine and he kisses me passionately with worship and elation, his hands, wet with paint, gripping the sides of my face with fierce protectiveness. I feel the wetness of his tears on my cheeks, mingling with my own, the intensity of his hands and his mouth and his heart encompassing me.
He breaks the kiss, and we’re both breathless when he says, “I wanted to tell you about Landon. I wanted to tell you a lot of things, but I knew you had to go home and none of it would’ve mattered.”
I touch his lips with two of my fingers. “You can tell me whenever you’re ready. I’m here to listen, and I’m not going anywhere. There’s nothing you can say to scare me away. I still have four days left of my vacation and I want to spend them with you.”
“I want you to stay.”
“Then I’m staying.”
“What about after that?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
He gazes into my eyes, searching for something, longing for it, and I look back up at him, wordlessly giving him whatever he wants. His lips press against mine and he kisses me hungrily. I feel my body being lifted into the air, my legs wrapped around his waist and the air in the room hitting me as he carries me quickly through it, never breaking the kiss. In seconds I feel the comfort of his bed beneath my back and the lumpy pillows I missed so much under my head. His natural scent envelops me, his heat, his warm flesh, the exploration of his mouth, his ravenous kiss, his everything. I’m done for and I know it. I’ve never wanted to touch or to taste or to feel anything more in my life than this moment, this inevitable crushing, blissful moment when I give myself to Luke knowing that no matter what happens between us, I’ll never be able to forget him. And I’ll never want to.
We strip each other clumsily—paint from his hands stains my clothes and my skin—and Luke is on top of me before I can even catch my breath. But I don’t need my breath when I have his, and his kiss is deep and forceful and it alone makes my body dizzy with need. My insides tremble and shiver, and my rapidly beating heart threatens to burst, or to stop, and I don’t care—as long as Luke’s eyes are the last eyes I see, as long as his arms are the last arms to ever hold me.
Luke shoves the pillows out of the way and lowers himself on me. I’m breathless and willing, giving myself completely to him. Arcing my head against the mattress, I open my lips partway, seeking air to fill my lungs with as the sensation of his lips moves over my breasts. His tongue snakes a path between them before he finds my lips again.
I gasp when I feel his hardness press against me with intent.
“I imagined this every night you were here,” he whispers hotly into my ear, sending shivers down my spine.
He presses harder below me, and all I can think about is him being inside me, sharing his soul with me, becoming one with me.
“So did I,” I whisper and push my hips toward his urgently. He pushes back even harder, and I feel like I’m going to die if he doesn’t give me what I want.
And as if he’d heard my thoughts, my eyelids become heavy when I feel him inside of me. I gasp, my body trembling beneath his. My legs shake and my fingers dig into the hard flesh and muscle of his back, holding on to him as though I’m afraid to let him go.
“I’ve never wanted anything more in my life,” I whisper onto his lips just before he takes me into another hungry kiss.
Luke begins to move in and out of me with deep, forceful thrusts, and my thighs quiver around his warm body.
I can’t steady my breath.
My heart is beating its way out of my chest.
