She hoped not. She didn’t know what she wanted from Luke, but she knew that she wanted more than one more great night.
She had to tell him that. She’d had enough of all of this uncertainty and pretending.
His slow, even breathing changed. She felt movement behind her. And then a gentle kiss on her shoulder blade. And then another. And then another.
She turned over and smiled at him.
“I thought I dreamed you,” she said.
He burst out laughing, and kissed her cheek.
“Good morning to you, too.” He put his hand on her waist and pulled her closer. He didn’t move his hand up, or down; all he did was hold her like that and kiss her shoulder. She leaned her head against his chest and relaxed into him. When was the last time someone had held her, just like this? Without asking for anything in return, but just because? She couldn’t remember. She hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted this. Needed it.
“I hate to ask this,” he said after a few minutes. “But what time is it?”
She reached for her phone, which she kept on her bedside table overnight. It wasn’t there.
“I think I left my phone in the living room.” She looked up at him. “I must have had my mind on other things last night.”
He grinned at her. His cheek was creased from the pillow, his eyes were still only half-open, and he was the best thing she’d seen in the morning for a very long time.
“You must have.”
He kissed her cheek and then pulled himself out of bed.
“Let me grab mine. I’m sorry, I wouldn’t even bother, but you see”—he shook his head—“I have this new job now, I have to get there a lot earlier than my old one.”
She laughed as he walked out of the room.
He was back in a few seconds, his phone in one hand and his clothes in the other.
“I have time to go home and change and get to the inn on time, but I have to leave”—he looked down at the phone in his hand—“in only a few minutes, which does not give me the time to do what I want to do right now, with you all warm and naked and luscious.”
Had anyone ever described her in such complimentary terms before? Certainly none that made her feel this good.
“That’s unfortunate,” she said as she watched him pull his clothes on.
“It really is,” he said, his eyes on her.
When he was almost dressed, she got out of bed and slid into the robe hanging on the back of her closet door. Not her silk one, that was in the living room still . . . or maybe the kitchen? She needed to remember to hang it up. Maybe get it dry-cleaned. It had done so much for her.
She smiled at the disorder in her house as they walked to the front door. Pasta bowls, forgotten in the kitchen. Her robe, on the kitchen floor. Her laptop and phone, on the corner of the coffee table. The couch cushions everywhere.
He turned to her when they got to the door. She had to do this now, before she lost her nerve. She opened her mouth, to tell him that she wanted to see him again, that she didn’t want this to be like last time, when he touched her bottom lip with his fingertip.
“When can I see you again?” he asked.
A spark of joy flamed in her chest. She must have looked surprised, because he laughed.
“I haven’t lusted after you for the past month to let you get away with this only being one night, you know. Not again.”
Lusted after her. She liked the sound of that.
“Plus,” he said, “don’t you want to find out if this is something?” He looked at her for a long moment. “I do.”
She reached for his hand and smiled at him in the way she’d wanted to, but couldn’t, for the past month.
“Yeah,” she said. “I do, too. Tonight?”
He smiled back at her.
“Tonight’s great.”
She pulled him against her body and kissed him, and it was so easy, so perfect, so good. After too short a time, he took a step back.
“I want to stay here all day, but . . .”
She dropped her hand.
“I know. You have to go.”
He opened the door and took a step outside, before he stopped and turned back around.
“Do you think that maybe now you’ll give me your number?”
She burst out laughing and held out her hand for his phone.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had to work this hard for one woman’s number,” he said as she typed her number in.
Then his eyes skimmed over her, from head to toe, and back up.
“It was all worth it, though.”