A/N: Hi everyone! So sorry if I'd been absent the past couple weeks. I had a real trying time, stressed out with work and also sick. I really couldn't muster any energy to write. It took me a lot longer to get through the newest chapter. I'm hoping I can have another one uploaded soon after this to make up for the gap—fingers crossed. 

So it's game on for Max and Luke and I think after the last twenty or so chapters of some slow burn I put you through, you guys deserve to enjoy this one. Hope you have fun!

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It was almost déjà vu except that when I opened my eyes this morning, a pair of bright, crystal blue ones were already gazing at me—wide awake and smiling.

No shin-kicking this time. 

If anything kicked, it was my heart, right into overdrive, when I realized that I was pressed close to Luke's warm and very naked chest.

"Where did your shirt go?” I croaked.

I shifted slightly in a secret attempt to discern if he was just as unclothed from the waist down.

I discovered very male and very bare legs entwined with mine around the ankles. It was skin to skin.

My heart nearly jumped out of me.

"Please tell me we didn't have sex last night and I was too doped up to have stayed conscious for it," I groaned, briefly squeezing my eyes shut.

Luke didn't say anything. The idiot just kept grinning.

Then I glanced down at myself, quickly realizing I still had my old college shirt and cotton shorts on. "Oh. But I'm fully dressed so I'm guessing we didn't?"

I totally sounded inane but I wasn't fully recovered yet. 

No, not from Lola's drama yesterday, but the fact that Luke was here with me because he chose to be.

“Are you very disappointed?” he asked, his grinning only broadening even more. 

“Yes,” I blurted out before shaking my head. “I mean, no, I’m not. I’d like to be conscious and fully participating for my first time. So I’m glad that it wasn’t last night when I was doozy with painkillers.”

Luke’s smile shrank by tiny increments as his brows drew in together in confusion.

“You’re telling me that you’re a virgin,” he said, shaking his head slowly as if it somehow helped him make sense of his own statement. He suddenly shoved the covers aside, revealing me in my super-sexy old and baggy sleepwear while he was looking like an underwear model in nothing but a black pair of boxers that did not conceal his very masculine interest.

“You’re telling me that some red-blooded male passed this all up,” he continued, his voice dropping an octave, as he snaked a hand around my left butt cheek and gave it a quick, possessive squeeze. He skated it up and under my loose shirt, following the dip of my lower back until it rested on the curve of my waist, his thumb rubbing heated strokes against the skin on my stomach. 

He lifted his eyes back up to me and they now blazed like sharp blue flames.

He leaned in, lowering his face just along the line of my shoulder where my shirt neckline gaped, his lips imprinting themselves on my skin with their heat before they could even make contact. 

I swallowed hard, my heart rapping against my chest so fast I swear I could feel the room vibrate with it. “With the implication of that statement that, uh… males aren’t that d-discerning as long as they’re r-red-blooded…” My eyes shut close, my breaths hitching on their way down my lungs as Luke continued to place very strategic kisses along his way to the side of my neck where it felt like an entire universe of nerve endings was centered. “Then, um… men will approximately h-have half the world’s population for variety. Some girl’s bound to b-be passed… up.”

Luke raised his head, looked at me, and laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Max, at a time like this, when I’m trying to seduce you out of your pajamas, you’re analyzing my comment.”

I pouted. “If I’m supposed to find a compliment in there somewhere, I ought to.”

He just laughed harder before suddenly rolling me over on my back, trapping me beneath him with his arms braced on each side of me and his legs looped around mine. 

If I closed my eyes, I could probably accurately describe Luke’s flawless anatomy based on every point of contact I had with it with my own body, his most prominent feature right smack in the center of us. 

And no, it’s not his heart. Try again.

He dipped his head down until a lock of his dark hair fell over his forehead and brushed mine. He was still smiling but his eyes were back to that same vivid, hot blue. “I don’t have to tell you, or myself, that it’s different being with you. But right now, thinking that nothing could be better than laughing like this with you, in the kind of moment that used to only make me happy once I’d fucked my brains out—it makes it very clear just how different it is because it’s with you.”

Luke wasn’t your run-of-the-mill Romeo (even though he did have his moments) but that was alright with me because I was determined for us to have a happy ending.

He wasn’t done being his version of romantic though. “I suspect it won’t be the last time it hits me. I suspect that it will never stop. I’m pretty damn sure that I will never forget just how different, and how much better and happier everything is, just because it’s with you.”

I smiled and cupped the side of his face. “Is that why you decided to give in? If you can’t cure the madness, embrace it?”

He wiggled his brows at me. “As you said, what’s the difference? I’ll be mad either way—with or without you.”

He looked so happy that for a moment, a small prickle of doubt niggled under my skin at the passing thought of how something so incredibly magical could last in reality—like a beautiful bubble with all the colors of the rainbow that could burst anytime. 

“I hope you won’t regret it,” I said because I couldn’t help myself.

Just because I leapt off the cliff first didn’t mean I wasn’t scared anymore. 

It’s a long dive into the deep unknown after all.

I always imagined I would find someone someday. 

I just didn’t imagine it would be Luke Hedenby.

But somehow, as I looked into his eyes which were soft with affection and warm with a smile, I perfectly understood the mystery of us.

There was no reason to ask ‘Why me?’ or ‘Why not the others?’ when the only answer was because you were you—that his choice wasn’t born out of what you had in abundance or what others had lacked. 

He’s with you because you’re the one he wants. There’s no need to break it down into an equation and find your value in the plus and minus of other people.

“I can’t possibly regret the best thing in my life,” he said before brushing a kiss on the tip of my nose. “Now, I just have to make my life worthy of having it.”

My chin trembled and I placed a finger against his lips. “Please, don’t. You’re not going to make me cry.”

Luke smiled. “Only with the good kind of reason.” Then he cocked a brow, his mouth curving up into a flirty tilt on one corner as he pressed down more of his weight on me, searing my skin with the sensual heat of it. “And maybe the first time we make love. But I’ll take care of you, Max. I’ll love you slow and sweet and set you on fire until we both go up in flames.”

I couldn’t help but giggle even though my cheeks went scorching hot. “That sounds very much like what the roguish hero says to the blushing virgin in an archaic romance novel.”

Luke actually flushed himself this time. “Baby, are you making fun of me?”

I pressed my lips tight to suppress my smile and energetically shook my head. 

He just rolled his eyes and sighed. “And this is what I get for being a gentleman.”

My grin finally broke out and I pulled my arms free from under him and threw them in a hug around his naked torso, squeezing him tight, not caring that my face was all squashed up against his muscled chest. “I don’t mind it when you’re not too much of a gentleman sometimes, Luke. Like when you’re lying on top of me and describing our first time and making me hot in places I didn’t even know could get hot.”

I couldn’t see his face but he groaned softly, his body shuddering with fraying restraint. “Max, if you don’t let go of me right now, you will be well and truly divirginized before noon.”

My arm slinked down and smacked him lightly on the butt. “Don’t tell me that now when I have to be on my way to work in half an hour.”

He leaned to the side on one elbow and smirked. “Why don’t you call your boss and tell him you can’t come in today? Tell him you still need a little bit of rest after your ordeal yesterday. Better yet, tell him you’re taking a week off and coming away with me to some romantic getaway.”

“Sure,” I said, poking him on the chest with a finger a few times as if dialing. Then I made a phone sign with my hand and brought it to the side of my face. “Mr. Hedenby, I’m afraid I can’t come in today to help you with the proposal. I’ve been confined to the bed by a nearly naked man with very dishonorable intentions on my person. I plan to enjoy every second of it. Thanks for understanding. Have a good day!”

He made a face before completely rolling off of me. “You’re no fun, Max.”

I pulled myself up to a sitting position. “Well, I am still your employee. We’re probably breaking HR rules.”

He shrugged. “You don’t directly report to me.”

I raised a brow. “Luke, everyone in the company except your father virtually reports to you.”

He frowned a little. “Do you want me to step down?” 

“No!”

“Do you want to resign?”

“Not really.”

“Do you think people will care if my wife works in the family company?”

I really did bite my tongue at that—hard.

It probably hurt like a bitch but I didn’t notice because I was busy picking my jaw off the bed.

“Um… Uh…” I was the height of eloquence, I know.

Luke just studied me with a bemused expression on his face before sighing. “Max, did you seriously think I put myself through all this suffering for a quick fling? Because if that’s what you think this is, you better tell me now so I can set you straight.”

Okay. So I might have jumped first but Luke was already way down there—and apparently, it wasn’t unknown at all. In fact, Luke was already very certain of what awaited us—wedding bells, a white gown and hopefully a groom who knew what he was doing with something he’d happily evaded in the last half of his life.

He was right. 

He was definitely mad. 

And serious about it.

And my heart was breakdancing inside my chest, doing moves that were inconceivable in this lifetime.

I didn’t realize I was smiling until my cheeks started to ache.

“You’re so cute sometimes, it hurts rights right here,” Luke said with a big, exaggerated sigh, placing a hand on his chest. Then he put his arms around me and drew me up to him until I was practically straddling his hips. I fought a shiver at the feel of my breasts pressed up against him with nothing but a thin shirt between our skin, and the feel of him hard and wanting between my legs.

Focus, Max. Focus.

He touched his forehead to mine and tightened his hold. “I stopped playing games the day I literally ran into you—long before I knew how much my life was going to change. I’m now playing for keeps, Max.”

He tilted his head to the side, searching my eyes. “How about you?”

I gave a little shrug. “I don’t know. I’m known to be a bit risk-averse.”

His jaw hardened. “You have to get over it real fast, Max, because I’m not asking for a little here. I’m asking for everything.”

The fierce, intense look in his eyes would’ve crushed the most fragile spine but I could only find myself grinning before I startled him with a kiss on the tip of his nose. “I’m all in, baby.”

We would’ve stayed in bed for hours and hours if Terrence didn’t call Luke on his cell to ask where he should be picking him up. Which was a good thing because the last thing I wanted on my first day of being, well, whatever Luke and I were now, was to be late for work. I didn’t want to give anyone any reason to say that I got lazy the moment I rolled into bed with the boss. 

I planned to play it cool and keep things as professional as possible at work but I wasn’t deluded for one second that no one would ask questions or offer brutally blunt opinions or make all kinds of assumptions.

It wouldn’t be easy. It might even get nasty. 

But I’d deal because it was a small price to pay for a real shot at being happy.

Hopefully, everyone’s reaction would match Terrence’s. 

He was grinning from ear to ear, a tad bit smugly, when he saw Luke and I emerge from my apartment holding hands. He didn’t say anything—his face really said it all—but I did hear him sigh in relief just before he closed the passenger door after we climbed into the car.

Luke dropped me off by the front entrance since he had to shower and change into clean clothes at his condo first.

Maybe I was being extra paranoid but there were definitely more people glancing my direction as I made my way to my desk. Those who were better acquainted with me briefly stopped to ask how I was. The entire building had probably all heard about what went down yesterday and I was wearing a small strip of bandage on my cheek. Office decorum would dictate that it wouldn’t be appropriate to pry but let’s face it, if there was a more complex but perversely effective grape vine, it would be the work place.

I just simply smiled and reassured anyone who asked that I was fine before politely excusing myself.

Thank God it was a Friday because I probably wouldn’t endure past an eight-hour shift. It helped that my team didn’t have any meetings with Luke for the day because I needed practice keeping my composure together first. With everything so fresh and new and overwhelmingly powerful, I might space out and reach for him in front of everyone.

When lunch hour came around, Luke showed up at my desk and joined me at a far corner table in the cafeteria with Jillian and Ryan. The two of them, sitting next to each other, watched us silently as we settled in across from them, their eyes nearly matching in their back and forth pattern between me and Luke.

“Please tell me this is the real thing,” Jillian blurted out before noisily slurping down her smoothie. “That tomorrow, the two of you aren’t going to resemble star-crossed lovers pining after each other again.”

Ryan sighed and nudged Jillian on the arm. “Just leave them alone.”

“I already did that,” Jillian muttered, narrowing her eyes slightly at Luke. “I’m still regretting it.”

I grimaced because I didn’t disagree with Jillian—Luke and I did not get here easily—but I also didn’t want to hold our mistakes over our heads. “Jill, I think—”

“It’s okay, baby,” Luke reached for my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. He smiled at Jillian, his expression relaxed. “You’re more than justified in feeling that way, Jill. I’ve got plenty to prove.”

“Just to Max, man,” Ryan said, a small smile playing on his lips. “You’ve got nothing to prove to us. Just her.”

Jillian glared at Ryan. “You’re too loyal a friend to Mr. H.”

Ryan raised a brow at her. “You don’t think you are to Max?”

“You’re both great friends to us,” I said before this conversation could escalate to a full-blown argument between them. “And we’re grateful for that.”

Ryan flushed slightly, as if the praise made him uncomfortable. “We just want you both to be happy. And if I thought for a second here that Luke’s just messing around, I would physically pry you two apart for two reasons. First, being that Max is a good friend to me and I would never want to see her get hurt. Second, being that Luke could get into a lot of trouble dabbling with an employee and as head of the company’s legal team, I have to counsel him against it.”

A hint of smile broke through Jillian’s face and she patted Ryan’s muscular arm—like a bunny patting a wolf. “Okay, you’re forgiven.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and mumbled. “Didn’t realize I was asking for forgiveness.”

Jillian then turned to Luke, her smile significantly more amped up. “And because I trust my friend to be smart enough to know her own mind, you get a second chance, Mr. H. Which means you’re invited to Max’s birthday party tomorrow night.”

And just like that, I remembered what time of the year it was and the haphazard conversations Jillian and I had about it. My birthdays were always very low-key at home—my grandfather would take me out to the local chinese restaurant and give me twenty dollars, which hadn’t changed over the years and the increasing inflation rate. The last few years, when I couldn’t spend my birthdays at home, I barely celebrated except maybe for some chinese take-out and a bag of fortune cookies I would finish all by myself.

Luke whipped his head around to face me. He did not look pleased. “It’s your birthday? Tomorrow? And you didn’t say anything?”

“It’s actually on Sunday and since I had a lot of things on my mind lately, I haven’t really thought about it,” I said before scowling at Jillian. “And I don’t recall any plans for a party. I thought we were just going out for drinks.”

My friend—and current tormentor—pursed her lips and attempted an angelic look of innocence. “I might have mentioned it to Zoe and Alex while we were at his housewarming party. And Zoe might have gotten carried away with turning it into a full-blown party. And Alex might have indulged her. And I might have just spoiled the whole secrecy part of it.”

Ryan laughed. “And I might have been surprised if this weren’t so predictable of you, Jill.”

If Jillian was the least sorry, it was hard to tell because she was smiling in satisfaction. 

“Who’s Zoe?” Luke asked, taking his cellphone out. “I need her contact information. I’m going to have to look into the preparations and take over if necessary. I’ll make sure everything’s in order. We’ll start from scratch if we have to.”

“Um, no,” I told Luke with a slightly hysterical laugh because he was seriously too much with that statement. “Zoe Abrams will, in high heels, walk over the dead body of whoever gets in the way of her party-planning.”

Luke scratched his head. “Zoe Abrams—as in the Pirates’ newest team president?”

“Yup,” Jillian said. “Max has friends in other high places, you know? I think she was rooting for Max and Alex before.”

“Jill.”

“Don’t.”

Ryan and I looked at each other after speaking at the same time and just sighed. Jillian didn’t look the least remorseful.

Luke’s already thunderous expression darkened even more, his hand gripping my own tightly. 

“I think I need some coffee for the afternoon,” Ryan said, getting up from his seat and grabbing his tray with one hand and Jillian’s elbow with the other. “And Jill could definitely use one too, right Jill?”

“But I’m not done eating yet.” Jillian tried to take another bite of her sandwich even as Ryan was practically hauling her out of her seat. The rest of her protest got lost in a mouthful of turkey.

“I’ll buy you another sandwich,” Ryan said before turning to us with an apologetic smile. “See you guys later.”

The table was quiet after the two left. 

“Is Alex going to be at this party?” Luke said through gritted teeth.

I inwardly sighed because as much as I didn’t want to have this conversation, we had to have it.

“Yes,” I said firmly. “He was already coming with us when it was just drinks but since Zoe is organizing the whole thing, it’s very likely that he’ll show up for the party too,” I said firmly. 

Luke didn’t say anything but his jaw line was tense, his blue eyes dark with displeasure. 

“Alex is a good friend of mine—better than you’ll ever give him credit for—and I would want him there,” I said a little more softly this time. “Will that really be a problem, Luke?”

“I don’t trust him to remember that you’re not his,” he muttered under his breath.

I rolled my eyes and pushed the lettuce around in my salad. “Temporarily setting aside the fact that I don’t like being referred to as someone’s property, Alex doesn’t need to remember what he already knows fully well. He’s had plenty of chances to forget you’re in the picture, Luke, but he didn’t. Because I couldn’t. And he knows that. And he was very much a gentleman about it.”

He gave me a droll look. “I don’t know that any man can be a real gentleman about losing the woman he wants more than his next breath. It could appear that way but trust me, deep down he’s breaking something.”

I smiled a little. “Hmm. Funny you say that. I distinctly remember you trying to be so noble about letting me go. I didn’t see you breaking anything.”

I saw him smile through his eyes first—bright but a little pained. “I was breaking my heart and everything else that kept me grounded.”

My heart twisted and if I hadn’t remembered in time that we were in public—probably being observed by the entire cafeteria—I would’ve leaned in and kissed him, softly at first, tender and tentative until the tide swept us under.

“Alex told me something like this before and I think it would help to remember this,” I said. “How he feels about me doesn’t matter. Not until I feel the same way about him. And I can’t feel that way about him when I already feel it about you.”

Luke gazed at me for a while before nodding and giving my hand a squeeze. “I never once stopped to wonder what would happen next in my relationships because it didn’t matter when they ended—they always did and I felt the same way about all of them. But I don’t want this to ever end with you, Max.”

Warmth pooled in my belly at that last statement and I couldn’t help but grin stupidly. “You sound a little scared, Luke Hedenby.”

He raised an arrogant brow. “Are you kidding me? I’m not a little scared. I’m fucking terrified.” 

I burst out laughing, loud enough to draw some glances our way. Dropping my voice even though the couple tables around us were empty, I leaned in slightly and murmured, “Right now, I want to kiss you until you forget what it was you were terrified about.”

His eyes flared with instant interest. “It’ll take more than just a kiss.”

I chewed on my bottom lip, as if deliberating it, before giving a little shrug. “I’m sure I can do more than just kiss.”

“I’ll want to touch you—everywhere.”

“That can be arranged.”

“I want my mouth on all your sweetest places. I want your taste on my tongue.”

I felt my flush all the way down to my toes but I didn’t waver. “I’ll want yours on mine.”

Luke released a low groan, his eyes squeezing shut briefly.

“We better get out of here, Max, before I grab you and maul you in front of my entire company,” he said before rising to his feet and picking up our trays. “We’re going to have to start eating out for lunch or have them in my office where we don’t have an audience and I can reach for you whenever I want.”

We made it as far as his office without breaking down. The moment the door closed and Luke’s hand slapped on some switch on the wall next to it, I was pushed roughly against the cool, hard surface, Luke’s mouth anchoring on mine for a dizzying kiss while his hands dug into my waist, gripping tightly as he hauled me up into his strong, powerful arms.

My light gray A-line skirt was a bit prohibiting as I tried to wrap my legs around Luke’s hips but as soon as he shoved it up past my knees and all the way up to my thighs, I was able to move a lot more freely. 

His mouth moved down my neck, his breath hot and moist against my skin, his lips trapping one side of my collar where it parted just above my cleavage. He tugged at it, growling low like a hungry animal.

“Don’t rip my shirt,” I whispered urgently, grabbing him by the hair and pulling his head back slightly. I kissed him squarely on the mouth, stroking his tongue with mine in teasing twirls before yanking his head away again. “Desk. Fast.”

Without any obvious effort on his part, he carried me away from the door to the opposite side of the room. His desk was sleek and modern but thankfully made of steel and solid wood. I dimly remembered other more comfortable furniture in the office but the desk was the only one in my line of sight while I was being thoroughly kissed against the office door.

Luke stopped in front of his desk, dropping me slowly on top of it. With his arms free, he worked on the front buttons of my baby blue shirt, nearly ripping it open in his haste. With a deft stroke of his hand, my plain white t-shirt bra unhooked behind me and he shoved it down, freeing the generous globes of my D-cups. 

“Goddammit, Max,” Luke muttered under his breath as he took a step back to gaze at my breasts with fiery eyes. He ran a trembling hand down his face before rubbing his jaw with it. “I told myself we’re going to go slow but if this is what you have in store for me, we’re going to have to move up that timeline.”

If I’d been feeling self-conscious just then, being visually devoured by a beautiful man, it disappeared as a giggle bubbled out of me. “Hey, I don’t remember climbing on board that going-slow train.” I met his gaze. “I want you, Luke. And I trust that you’re going to put your vast bedroom experience to good use and make it worth my while.”

He grinned, a little devilishly if I might add, and took a step closer to me, sketching a formal bow. “I live to please—and pleasure—my queen.”

I laughed and grabbed the front of his shirt, hauling him up against me until his weight brought us both down on top of his desk. 

Screw being professional. 

When Luke Hedenby was starving for you, the good girl games flew out the window.

Our mouths swallowed each other’s moans in a fevered kiss, my hands tugging his shirt out from behind his waistband and slipping under the fabric to touch his heated skin. His own wrapped around each of my breast, kneading in sensuous strokes as his thumbs strummed the hardened tips.

The moment his mouth touched my breasts, I nearly lifted myself off the desk.

I craned my neck up to watch but I could only see his dark head as he dipped lower, trapping a nipple between his lips, the tip of his tongue teasing the tortured nub with slow, studied patterns before he sucked hard at it.

Luke’s name wrangled in my throat as I gasped in some air, trembling all over at the ministrations of his tongue and fingers as they continued their torment. He moved one of his hands down my thigh, sure in its path, as it glided across my skin and followed the slope down the valley between my legs. His  large hand cupped the center of me, the warmth from it seeping right through the thin cotton of my bikini-style panties, the heel of his palm pressing hard on the part of me where the pressure was building. 

Skimming the edges of my underwear, his fingers carefully slipped behind the fabric, tracing the outline of where they wanted to enter. My legs eased further apart of their own volition, my ankles hooking around Luke’s waist. His fingers nudged at my entrance, one slipping into the moist heat easily.

His teeth lightly grazed around a nipple just before that first finger plunged in fully—the dual sensations snapping the thin hold I had on the world and shaking me to my core. I cried out at the contact, my back arched and my hands fisting plenty of Luke’s shirt by the shoulders. 

“Hush, baby. It’s alright,” he murmured against my mouth, kissing the corners as I moaned his name over and over again, almost matching the rhythm of his finger slipping in and out of me. “I’ve got you, Max. I’ve got you once. I want you to do it again for me, okay?”

My voice came out choked as I shook my head, the aftermath of that first intense physical release competing with the cluster of emotions blooming from every part of me. “I can’t… Luke, I…”

He kissed me slowly this time, his other hand descending to join the other between my legs. I couldn’t remember when one finger became two, my brain shutting down further when he pressed his thumb right on that pressure point above where his fingers penetrated me.

The tempo of his movements picked up, easily gliding in and out of me as my pleasure built again. I groaned and reached for him. “Kiss me… please.”

His mouth was just as aggressive as his fingers now, his tongue stroking in and out in a dual assault to my senses.

“This will be me inside of you very soon,” he murmured as we pulled apart for a quick intake of air, his hips pressing against my leg, the hard, rigid shape of his erection nearly burning its outline on my skin. “I will take you slow. I will take you fast. I will take you tenderly. I will take you hard… and each time, you’ll come apart, Max.”

And I shattered—like innumerable specks of the sun exploding into the air in a burst of light and heat, suspended in the briefest measure of time before dissolving into my skin.

His fingers left me hastily and I lifted my head just as Luke grappled with his belt, freeing himself in seconds. 

“Max, help me.” His voice was strained with pained pleasure, his brows pulled in tight as his hand wrapped around the hard, heavy length of him. “I need you to touch me.”

As if pulled by the visual with a string, I sat up, pushing myself to the edge of the desk and carefully curling my fingers around him, fascinated by the heat and velvety softness of his skin that covered what felt like long hard steel underneath. 

“Move…” he whispered as his head rolled back, his eyes squeezing close. “Move your hand…” I followed his instructions, gliding along the length tentatively at first before his telltale moans told me he liked it faster. “Oh, God.”

I watched as his Adam’s apple moved up and down his throat as he held himself together through my quickening strokes. I leaned close and pressed an open kiss on the base of his throat, my free hand tugging at the buttons of his shirt until it fell open in the center. 

My lips trailed down the hard planes of his chest, stopping at a flat dark nipple. My tongue flicked out and tasted the salt of his skin, the hand I had wrapped around his erection tightening its grip.

Luke opened his eyes, his eyes a searing blue flame, and caught my hair in his fingers as he yanked me close for a hard kiss.

My hand shifted around him, my thumb brushing the moist tip and circling the dampness around the smooth skin.

Luke ripped his mouth from me, his forehead pressing down my left shoulder as he shuddered, a long, ragged groan escaping him. I didn’t move my hand away from the wet, sticky mess as I continued to hold him, murmuring his name softly as I angled my face to brush a kiss on his ear while he fought to regain his breathing.

Slowly, he lifted his head, his eyes barely visible from the messy locks that had fallen across his forehead. Using my free hand, I brushed his hair away, my fingertips smoothing over the light sheen of sweat above his dark brows. His eyes were bright like blue sapphires in what I just realized now to be a dim room with all the blinds drawn in, their sharp glow a seductive contrast to the languid smile that curved one corner of his mouth.

“Hi,” I said, kissing the tip of his nose.

“Hi,” he greeted back, smacking a quick kiss on my lips before glancing down between us. When he looked back up, he had a smirk on even though his cheeks were slightly pink.

“I’m usually a lot smoother than this,” he said as he reached for the box of tissue behind me. 

I shrugged. “I don’t need you smooth, Luke. I just need you to be the way you are with me.”

And the sweet kiss he gave me in response promised just that. 

Where Luke and I were concerned, there were no real plans, or a strict script. We ended up here without knowing where we were going in the first place and despite the rough ride, we were clear on what happened next.

You get there first. And then you stay for good.

===

It was at the end of the day and I was just putting my coat on while Luke waited when my phone blared with a call.

“Zoe?”

“Put Luke on the phone,” she said without any preliminaries.

I glanced at Luke who was watching me from where he perched on the edge of my desk.

Desks. For when there’s no bed.

I was going to say that out loud but even if the office was already mostly empty, we were way too public for the kind of things I had in mind in relation to desks.

“Why would I do that?” I asked, my brow arching.

Call me psychic but I was pretty sure Zoe just rolled her eyes at me even though I couldn’t see it. 

“Chill, Max. He’s all yours,” she said with a laugh. Another female voice that sounded very much like Jillian laughed along in the background. “I just need to convince him of why he needs to give you up for the night.”

“Don’t I need to be convinced first?” I asked. “Maybe I don’t want to be given up.”

Zoe snorted. “I know you’re all over Luke right now like hot fudge on a sundae but Jill and I have an entire girls’ night planned out in preparation for your birthday, okay? The only babes invited to this gig is you, me and Jill. No hunky hockey players, or hot CEOs or yummy lawyers allowed, okay?”

“Lawyers?” I echoed, confused for one bit. “Oh, Ryan. You’re talking about Alex, Luke and Ryan.”

“Yeah, they’re banned,” Zoe confirmed. “So put Luke on the phone so I can tell him how he can ace his first test as a not-too-domineering, not-too-possessive boyfriend. We girls got your granola tonight, if you know what I mean.”

I laughed and clapped a hand over my phone.

“It’s Zoe,” I told Luke. “She might have already had a drink or two but she wants to talk to you.”

Luke’s brows drew in. “Why?”

I handed my phone to him. “She and Jill are taking me hostage for a girls’ night.”

His jaw visibly hardened even as he took the phone from me. “You’re saying that I don’t get to stay with you tonight?”

So Luke may not totally ace the not-too-possessive part of this test. 

“We’ll spend the day together tomorrow because I don’t plan on having a hangover and then you’re coming with me to wherever this birthday party is going to be,” I assured him. 

I would love to just sit at home and spend time with Luke but he and I were not going anywhere. 

We had time. 

In fact, we had the rest of our lives.

And maybe after the kind of day we already had, I needed a minute to catch my breath. 

With a long sigh, he held my phone up to his ear. “Yes, Ms. Abrams?” A brief pause. “Alright, Zoe.”

I stood there and watched the display of emotions play out on Luke’s face as Zoe worked her magic—or brand of torture depending on your perspective.

“… absolutely not… of course… it better be… Yes. Okay… I said yes already…” Luke sighed and shook his head, looking half-exasperated, half-tormented. “Yes, I’ll walk her down right now.”

He handed me back my phone and got up to his feet.

“Let’s go, babe,” he muttered, picking up my lunch bag and pressing a hand on my back as we headed out. “The devil queen is waiting for me to deliver you straight to her hands.”

I laughed and gave him a sympathetic pat on his arm. “Zoe’s actually pretty great. She just takes a little getting used to.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “You might have man-haters for friends.”

I gave him a harder smack this time. “They’re not man-haters. They don’t hate the general man. They just hate the shitty ones who eat broken hearts and drink tears for breakfast.”

Luke didn’t seem convinced. “She promised me that there’d be no male strippers.”

I gave him an incredulous look. “Why would you think there’d be male strippers present in the first place? It’s a girls’ night, not a bachelorette party.”

Luke stopped and turned to me, looking pretty earnest. “Which brings to mind, when the time comes for your bachelorette party, Peggy’s going to organize it. She’ll keep it clean. Either that or I’m abducting you to Vegas with me.”

Yeah. 

Whatever pill Luke popped, it dissolved commitment-phobia just like that.

We haven’t quite stepped out of the building yet but I didn’t stop myself from taking his hand and slipping mine into it.

He showed no surprise as he smiled and laced his fingers through mine.

Waiting out front were Zoe and Jillian, looking comfortable in Zoe's candy apple red convertible that had a bunch of colorful balloons tied to the back of it.

When they saw me, they waved, whistled and wailed my name.

Luke glanced at me, unable to suppress his amusement. "If there's a bigger party girl in the city other than Zoe Abrams, nobody knows. Even though I'm going to miss you terribly tonight, I'm pretty sure you're going to have a blast."

I smiled at Luke and stood on my tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the mouth. "I'll miss you, too."

Still holding my hand, he led me down the steps to the car.

"Keep my girl in one piece and bring her back to me, okay, ladies?" Luke said as he opened the door to the backseat for me. 

Zoe beamed up at him with her giant old Hollywood sunglasses. "Sure, boss."

"It's one night, Mr. H," Jill added gamely. "How much trouble could we possibly get into?"

Luke grinned. "Between the three of you, I'd say lots." 

Then he leaned down, cupped both sides of my face and kissed me thoroughly in front of everyone to see. I had to smack him on the shoulder, once I'd properly composed myself after a delirious, reckless moment of enjoying it, to get him to stop.

"We don't need to scar the entire world for life," I said lamely, my cheeks blazing even as the other two girls in the car just giggled.

"Sorry but not sorry," Luke murmured with a smiling mouth against mine. "Have fun, baby."

And the moment Luke stepped back to watch us go, Zoe, Jillian and I rode off into the sunset.

===

So, what do you think? This initial phase of their relationship is going to be interesting but just because it starts out smoothly doesn't  mean it's going to stay that way. =)

Vote and comment if you liked this chapter!

XOXO!

-Ninya

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: Kiss Me by Ed Sheeran ♪♪♪

Settle down with me
Cover me up
Cuddle me in

Lie down with me
And hold me in your arms

And your heart's against my chest, your lips pressed to my neck
I'm falling for your eyes, but they don't know me yet
And with a feeling I'll forget, I'm in love now

Kiss me like you wanna be loved
You wanna be loved
You wanna be loved
This feels like falling in love
Falling in love
We're falling in love

Settle down with me
And I'll be your safety
You'll be my lady

I was made to keep your body warm
But I'm cold as the wind blows so hold me in your arms