His eyes were the blue of a perfect summer sky. He shrugged out of his jacket and flung it on the couch before sitting down. He stared up at her. “Strip for me, cherie.”

She wanted more foreplay, to feel this man’s sexy hands on her body. “And if I don’t?”

He stood up, stepping forward in a fluid motion, his stance predatory, his eyes glinting with intent. “Then I will have to do it for you.”

Before Gina knew what he was going to do, he had wrapped one arm around her waist while using his free hand to rip off her panties. She gasped as his hand sunk between her legs.

“Already wet,” he said making a disapproving sound. “You make my job so easy, cherie. I thought you would be more of a challenge.”

She laughed in disbelief. “Say that after you make me come.”

 A slow smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Have no doubt. Come, and come again, you will, and then you will beg for more.” He tangled his hand into her hair and dragged her mouth to his. “I will make you feel so good you might think you have died and gone to heaven, cherie.”

Chapter Fifteen

Luke discovered Julie sitting in the dim glow of a lamp in front of the gas fireplace in his living room, wearing one of his t-shirts, with a big blanket he kept in a closet under her, and another over her legs. He found himself unable to move for the impact the sight had on him. A sense of rightness filled him. She belonged here with him, and he could easily get used to seeing her here and having her in his life.

She seemed to sense him watching her and twisted around. “Hey,” she said softly, and he could hear the concern in her voice, the uncertainty.

“Hey,” he replied, holding up her briefcase. “Got your things from the truck.” He set it on the hall table and walked toward her, forcing himself to go slow when he’d never wanted to rush so much in his life. He had to get a grip, to pull back, to give her a chance to let down those damnable walls he wanted to tear down.

“That’s great,” she said. “So the truck hadn’t been tampered with?”

“No. It was fine.” Luke sat down next to her. “How are you?”

She wet her pale lips, her face scrubbed free of make up, her hair soft and shiny and freshly washed. She’d never looked so beautiful. “It wasn’t a random mugging or car jacking attempt back there, was it?” she asked, bypassing his question.

“No,” he said simply, tucking hair behind her ear. “It wasn’t.”

“You said there was a body, when you called Blake from the truck.”

“I grabbed our intended attacker and his partner shot him.”

Distress furrowed her brow. “Who was he?”

“The body disappeared.”

She stiffened. “Disappeared. Oh my God, Luke. This is...terrifying. Who did this? Who sent them? Judge Moore? This cartel leader?”

“I don’t think it was Moore,” he said. “The man has too much to lose by the attention his wife and his divorce attorney dying would lend. And frankly, I can’t see the cartel doing it either. It brings attention to the judge.”

“Maybe they think he’s a problem and want him out of the picture.”

“Then they kill him,” he said. “That shuts him up. Getting him arrested makes him talk.”

“So then who?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Someone who thinks we know something we shouldn’t or thinks we’re close to finding it out. Maybe the person Elizabeth called Dragonfly. Maybe someone we don’t even know about.” He pulled the cover away from her and eased her to her back, trapping one of her legs with his. “I’ve never been as scared as when I realized I’d left you exposed in the truck with a shooter on the loose. I could hardly breathe for fear I’d just made the worst mistake of my life.”

She laughed but without humor. ”You Walker men do the protect and serve thing well. I’m fine.”

“Protect and serve?” he asked, pulling back to look at her. “Like you’re my duty?”

“Everyone is your duty. That’s what you brothers do. You protect everyone. It’s what comes natural.”

“You’re not my duty, Julie,” he said, amazed at how easily she dismissed what was between them. “Or I wouldn’t have felt like I was dying inside just thinking I might have lost you.”

Her lashes lowered, dark half circles on the pale perfection of her skin. “Luke.”

He caressed her cheek. “Look at me.”

“I can’t,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.

“Look at me,” he ordered, his voice still soft, but with a demand this time, and slowly she obeyed, letting him see the uncertainty only he seemed to create in her. “You think this is nothing, this thing going on between us, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes,” he insisted, teasing her lips with his, “you do. You know exactly what I mean. It’s not nothing and if that’s what want it to be, I should warn you right now. You matter to me, Julie, like I’ve never let any woman matter to me.” He claimed her mouth with his, unable and unwilling to hear her reply. No woman had ever had this power over him, this ability to hurt him, and he’d just given her more. He didn’t want her objections or her rejection. He wanted her acceptance, her passion, and some part of him knew she wasn’t ready to give it to him, not with words.

Luke parted her lips, pressing his tongue past her teeth, tasting her with a slow caress.

She moaned into his mouth, and the deliciously erotic sound had his cock expanding against his zipper, making him wish he’d done away with their clothes. Her fingers laced into his hair, giving him a tiny piece of her submission, so tiny, so far from all he wanted. She didn’t submit during sex, not even with him. Not in the past, but she had several nights before, and he wanted it again. He wanted that invisible sign of trust, of feeling something for him that she might not put into words, but showed him instead. With her body, her response to his touch, his kiss, his body buried deep inside hers.

His hand slid down her back, under the shirt and around her ass before he caressed the slender dip of her waist, and cupped her naked breasts.

She whimpered as he teased her nipple, her hips arching into his hand. He trailed his mouth down her jaw, over her neck, to her ear.

”I love those little sounds you make.” He shoved her shirt upward and she helped him pull it over her head, but Luke didn’t let her. He wrapped it around her hands and held them there, running his hand over her breasts, tweaking her nipple.

“I can do a lot more with my hands free, you know?”

“You can have them back after you come for me,” he said, his palm traveling down her stomach, his leg pulling hers open.

“That’s a–”

She gasped as he caressed and teased the silky heat between her legs. “There we go,” he said. “That’s exactly what I was looking for.”

He licked her nipple and she arched her back, thrusting her voluptuous breasts higher. Luke sucked one stiff peak into his mouth, and sunk two fingers inside her.

“Ah,” she panted. “I...Oh. I want to touch you.”

“Not until you give me what I asked for,” he said, his lips moving to hers, his tongue tracing the seam of her mouth, his fingers stroking her inner walls in a slow back and forth motion, even as his thumb played with her swollen nub. “Not until you give me what I want.”

“Just so you know,” she whispered. “I’m going to pay you back for this.”

He smiled. “I hope you do.”

“Oh I will,” she said, “and...”

He let go of her hands and slid between her legs to suckle her clit. She tensed instantly and began spasming around his fingers. He suckled and licked and brought her to a complete release. The instant he felt her relax, she tugged at his shirt, and he fully intended to let her pull it off of him. Only she didn’t. She knotted it at his hands.

He laughed and sat up on his knees, arching a brow. She was on her knees too, making sure the shirt was tightly nodded. “Sit back against the couch.”