Erin

"What are we doing for Valentine's Day?" I asked. Luke had only conveyed a cagey request that I reserve that weekend for him. It was still a month away, but he seemed to have a clear plan.

He grinned and shot me a quick glance before returning his eyes to the road ahead. "It's a surprise."

I stretched my legs and dropped my cheek to the headrest. Mischief lit up his smiling profile.

"Come on. A hint?"

"Nope."

"How am I supposed to know what to bring?"

"I have it handled."

"My clothes?"

"Bring whatever you'd want to wear on a weekend out of town."

"Will I need fancy clothes for dinner?"

He laughed. "I wouldn't make you dress up. I know you hate it."

I smoothed the flowing jersey of my black dress and toed off my pumps. My feet were killing me. "And yet here I am. Fancy again."

"You wanted a steak house."

"I did, and it was fabulous." I slid my right hand down his bicep. The heat of him seeping through his starched oxford shirt.

He licked his lips and cleared his throat. "I aim to please."

"Do you now?" I curled my fingers around his arm. He patted my hand and pried them off.

"You're too distracting."

"I'm trying to use my seduction skills to pry information out of you." I giggled and withdrew my hand.

A flush crept up Luke's neck, spilling across his cheeks. "I want it to be special. You know, I figured...by then..."

"By then?" By the time the repeated words were out of my mind, I understood. "Oh."

Silence filled the vehicle, broken only by the hiss of the heater.

We hadn't closed the deal... the sex deal yet. I'd said I wanted to wait. The transition of our relationship from friends to something more between Christmas and New Year's left me emotionally dizzy.

In the last two weeks, Luke had been sweet, patient, and romantic, but waiting another month? I didn't want to make him wait. I didn't want to wait. Nope. That wouldn't do.

He pulled down my street and into my driveway, hopping out and opening my door. I gathered my shoes and purse, and he helped me down from the SUV.

"You're not going to put your shoes back on?"

"No. They're done for the night," I replied, leaning into him. "Help me to the door and I'm set."

I stepped carefully with the cold cement smooth under my feet. Luke kept his hand on my hip as I climbed the steps and unlocked my front door. His body heat tingled my back.

"Thanks." I reached into the house to flip on the porch light and turned into his chest.

Luke's fingers probed my nape, tipping my head back. His mouth sought mine quickly and softly in a now-familiar goodnight ritual. My tongue toyed with his. His hands tangled in my hair. I pushed up to my toes, hoping in vain that I could be mouth to mouth, chest to chest, hip to hip with him. Instead, our bodies pressed and rubbed and strained to touch. The friction of being off--Luke's being taller and stronger--still prompting a desire getting harder to resist.

Sometimes I pulled him in as far as my foyer, but he would stop and mumble into my hair that I drove him crazy. He'd groan and tell me that when I was ready, he'd stay. I want him to but hesitate.

Then, he'd go.

I'd let him.

It was our dance of sexual frustration to a song that had played for years.

Not tonight.

I eased back from his insurgent lips. He sighed, squeezed me to him, and started to step back. I held him by the hips.

"Come in," I whispered.

"I want to Erin, but if I start..." His growling moan vibrated from his chest and into my body pressed against his.

"You won't stop."

"Yeah." His eyes were closed and brows knit. His nostrils flared, getting slower as he controlled his breathing.

I nipped his stubbled chin with my teeth and kissed along his jaw. "Good."

Luke's eyes popped open. "Erin--"

"I'll die if I have to wait for Valentine's Day."

Everything in his body went as rigid as the taut length prodding my belly. "You're sure?"

I clutched him by the collar and tugged him forward. "Stay."

He didn't answer my request with words. Instead, he ducked down and wrapped his arms around my midsection and lifted me over his shoulder.

"Luke!"

"I'm staying. This is what that looks like."

I drummed my palms on his ass. My laughter coming in gasps. "Put me down."

"Not until we get the bedroom."

The blood rushed to my head and everywhere. My pulse thundered.

He staggered down the hall, gripping my hip on his shoulder and dipping down to hold me while opening my bedroom door and carry us both inside.

With a heave and a flip, I was on my back on the bed with an "oof."

"That was very caveman of you."

He unbuckled his belt and ripped it from his waistband. "Sorry. Forgive me." He lifted one brow. "Or punish me."

"Both maybe? But for now, forgiveness."

***

Luke

Everywhere she touched flamed. She was like flint.

"You forgive me?" I asked, wanting more absolution than I probably deserved for all the things I should have told her. How I felt. The thing with...I shook my head. I wasn't going to think about the past with her now on her knees on the bed. She gathered up the hem of her dress and moved closer to the edge. Her bare feet curled in the comforter.

"We lost your shoes. I liked you in them." I leaned down and inhaled the scent of her shampoo.

"I know. It's the only reason I wore them."

"Confession? I like you in anything."

I would love her in nothing.

My fingers closed on the zipper of her dress and drew it down until the soft material fell away. Instead of exposed skin, I felt another layer of silken material underneath.

Erin stilled and scrambled to her feet in front of me. "Hold on," she said in a rush. "Just a sec. I'm going to run the bathroom."

Tension rolled off of her. "What's the matter?" I asked.

She shifted from foot to foot, avoiding my eyes. "I have to take off my Spanx."

"Spanx? Like underwear?"

"Yes."

I took her hands in mine. The top of the dress fell to her waist. She had what looked like a high-waisted bike short clipped someway around her bra. Her boobs sat in plush mounds in black satin. My mouth watered.

She cursed and twisted the fasteners around the bra line. "If I were a genie right now, I would blink us to the part where I'm already naked, and I don't have to wear this stupid thing." She dropped a hand and snapped the hem of the sheath clinging to her creamy thighs.

"Getting naked is fun too." I brushed kisses across the tops of her breasts, pausing to tongue the tight press of cleavage created by her undergarments. The flesh closed around me, firing my imagination about what it might feel like to ease into her and feel her hot body close in on my cock. I needed her. I didn't care about Spanx.

I reached for her waist, and she eluded me.

"I want to touch you."

I had to settle for the soft sweep of her arm. I thumbed her biceps, possessive of her hard work at my instruction.

"Your body is a miracle."

Erin's shoulders straightened. The boiling heat between us settled the erratic wariness in her eyes down to desire. She unlatched a tiny strap between her breasts, then slid her fingers around to straps on each side. Once she pulled them free of her bra, she grabbed the edge of the Spandex contraption and peeled it down.

Inch by inch, she revealed herself. When she reached her hips, she shimmied side to side. Her tits jiggled in their satin cups as she bent over.

She stepped out of the garment and flung it into a dark corner of her room.

I splayed my hands on her back and followed the lines to her spine and stroked every inch up to her shoulders as she stood upright.

Erin's fiery hair floated around her heart-shaped face, which flushed pink topped with her cherry red lips, parted and waiting.

I hooked my fingers in the edge of her bra. The feel of her flesh on the backs of my fingertips elicited a groan that I swear started somewhere in my balls. "You forgot something."

She gave me a small smile and unhooked her bra. I pulled it away from her body. Her breasts fell free for a split second before I could cup them in my palms.

I sighed. "Fuck, you're gorgeous."

Her chin dropped, and she folded her arms in front of her. I grabbed her hands and pulled them behind her back, pushing her forehead with my own until we were nose to nose.

"No hiding."

She closed her eyes. "I can't. It's too much."

Doubt flickered through me along with excitement. I could barely breathe. "Do you want to stop?"

The immediate, violent shake of her head eased the tension gripping me, but her voice shook. Her eyes stayed squeezed shut. "Touch me."

I wanted Erin to look at me. I wanted her to see how much I fucking wanted her, but she couldn't accept that yet. Still, I could spend all night touching her. I could make her feel how much she meant to me even if I couldn't show her.

I took the soft weight of one breast in my hand, reveling in the tightening of her nipple against my palm, and claimed her mouth again. She opened to me easily. I kneaded the mound in my hand in rhythm with her thrusting tongue in a symphony of breath and tight coiling sensation building in my gut. I explored her with my other hand, stoking the fire between her legs until she was wet, ready, and panting. Finally, I came up for air.

"Do you like that, Erin?"

"Yes. Take your clothes off," she commanded, peering up at me through hooded eyes.

I unhooked my pants and eased the zipper down, giving my swollen dick a fraction relief. "Sit."

Erin poised her naked body on the edge of the bed, knees pressed together. Her bottom lip caught in her teeth as she looked at me--up and down.

"Are you ogling me?" I chuckled.

She blushed but lifted her chin. "Yes."

I left my gaping pants and undid each button of my shirt before shrugging out of it. Erin pulled me toward her by the corner of my sagging waistband. I stroked her hair back, so I could see her wide eyes and plush mouth hovering in front of my crotch. She yanked my pants and underwear down to my knees and took my cock in her hand with a sureness that shocked me.

"Whoa."

She smirked. "Do you want me to stop?"

Her thumb ran over the tip, and I thought my legs would buckle. A strained sound eked out of my chest.

"I'm not...going to make it...if you...oh, God."

"Don't move."

It took every ounce of discipline I possessed to obey.

She let go of my disappointed appendage and twisted toward the bedside table. Every inch of her body curved like a beckoning finger--inward at her waist, swinging out at her hips, down the sweep of her thighs, her calves, and down to her toes curled into the floor.

She retrieved a foil packet, ripped it open, and slid it onto my cock, slowly. When she positioned it to her liking, she cupped my tight, aching balls.

"I'm done not moving," I ground out and tackled her.

Her laughter tangled with the comforter as we rolled on the bed until she was on her back, thighs open, hips under mine. Her eyes fluttered shut. I gripped her hair.

"No. I need you to look at me."

She blinked. Her eyes wandering somewhere past my face. I pressed down with my hips on hers. My forehead to hers again. "Look at me. I want to see you when I fuck you, and I want you to see me. I dreamed of this."

Her body quaked. Her breath sputtered. Her eyes opened.

I found her soft, sweet, wet core and plunged, lost in the ocean of her eyes. She enveloped every cell of my body. I was lost, drowning, and finally home.

***

Erin

Hot and heavy, Luke's body pulsed into mine. The salty tang of his skin electrified me. The hard muscle under my fingers grew tighter, and the roll of his hips more urgent, until the compacting need inside me turned inside out. Pure, frenzied fire exploded through me.

"Luke!"

He thrust again taking in each convulsing squeeze of my body around him. He stilled and moaned. "God, Erin, I love you."

His words trickled over me. "Luke--"

He put a finger over my lips and stared into my eyes. "I do. I love you. You don't have to say it back."

My legs twitched with energy. Sparkles of pleasure radiated from where our bodies still joined. I couldn't move, but my mind coalesced around what he was saying to me. "Why would you think I wouldn't?"

Inexplicable tears started pooling at the backs of my eyeballs. If I blinked, they might spill, so I stared back at him. "I love you, too."

"You do?"

"Yes. I. Love You."

His heart pattered against my chest, and I wrapped my arms around him. Luke melted into me. "Good. Because that was about to get awkward."

Laughter bubbled out of me. "No shit."

And he kissed me again and again.