“Don’t worry he’ll take care of me,” Dani muttered under her breath.
“What was that?” he asked turning her around and staring at her still glistening skin.
“Not a thing Luke…not a thing,” she replied devoid of any emotion.
This was what he didn’t want, for her to be so distant where they couldn’t even fight like they used to. Before her bath had been the closest to their old spars as they’d come in nearly five months and he needed Dani back, even if it were just the old her that hated him. He’d admitted to himself a long time ago that he loved her, and he’d be damned if he let her stop being her.
“Don’t turn your back on me Danielle,” he demanded purposely being harsh.
“Why not? At least this way I don’t have to watch you while you use my body.” Dani sighed dropping the towel as she headed for the bed.
“Maybe I don’t want to have sex with a board anymore Dani…”
“Maybe I don’t give a damned what you want. If you want to use me, I can’t exactly stop you, but I don’t have to pretend anymore, do I?” Dani said pulling back the covers and sliding in between the sheets. She turned on her side looking away from the room, staring out the window showcasing the London skyline but not even that could bring her any happiness. Her soul officially felt like it had broken into tiny pieces and had been scattered with the wind.
“Screw you, Dani.”
“Don’t you always?” she countered.
The slam of the door as he left the room caused her to wince. She didn’t want another story getting into the tabloids about their latest ‘lovers quarrel’. People were far too interested in them, and she hated it. If she went out to lunch with someone who happened to be male, it was in the papers with a headline asking if this was the end for her and Luke.
The one time Luke had been a bit—overzealous in bed, not that she had complained because they both had enjoyed it, she had been left with bruises on her arms and the tabloids had called Luke out, bringing up the past incidents with her car accident and then Chance’s murder. She hated seeing sympathy in people’s eyes whenever something like that happened. Even the suspicious, disapproving looks Luke’s way aggravated her. They might fight but he’d never put his hands on her in anger like that.
It was the same way they’d looked at her a little over a year ago when Mona’s father had sent someone to try and jog her memory. She’d lied and said she’d slipped on the stairs but neither Luke nor the tabloids bought it.
Lord, she just wanted out. She wanted to run and not look back, but she couldn’t do that. If she did the tabloids would have a field day, questioning if Luke had killed her and hid the body, or else Mona’s father or his rivals would start asking questions that would lead to her truth being discovered. She wouldn’t risk her brother or his family, not even for her soul.
Dani closed her eyes, trying to shut out the arguments bouncing around inside her head and finally drifted off to sleep. In her dreams, she found happiness, allowing Luke to know the truth and his acceptance and admission of love brought tears to her eyes.
When his hands began to roam over her naked body, she let go of the tension inside her and gave herself over to the feelings. His hands cupped her breasts; she felt the hardness press into her back and sighed.
His hands moved lower until they found the spot hidden within the nestle of dark auburn curls that matched her long glossy hair. She couldn’t stop the rush of warmth that flew through her, and she let a low moan slide from her lips.
Sometime during the dream, she became aware that the feelings were too intense…too real and her eyes fluttered open. Dani stiffened slightly but Luke’s arms tightened around her, refusing to let go.
“Don’t pull away, Dani,” he whispered against her ear. He’d known the instant she had become aware of what she was doing, and he didn’t want it to end. She’d been responding to him, fully, openly for the first time since the pregnancy and he didn’t want to lose it. “Just let me please you…”
Luke hadn’t made her an offer like that in months and it brought fresh tears to her eyes. She hated that she could love him and hate him all at the same time when he was being a jerk but when he was being like this—showing her that he was capable of feeling, sweet, beautiful caring feeling—it was too much for her to handle.
Dani let herself relax into him as she went back to the dream where he loved her, wanted to cherish her, and stayed there while he brought her body to a sweet peak. When he slipped inside her, she shattered, her mind blanking as her body soared into the darkness. She almost wished she could stay there…not come back down to earth but she couldn’t.
She felt his body stiffen against hers as he found his release and waited for him to return to his cool exterior as he always did once he was finished but he continued to hold her. It was strange and different but for once she fell asleep in his arms.
***
Luke watched Dani sleep, wondering what was going on inside her head as her eyes moved rapidly. Waking up with his arms around her, her head resting on his chest was brand new. He wished it meant something more than it did, but he knew it was simply that she’d been exhausted by the time they got to the hotel.
He met her at the office, took her directly to the airport, then to the bedroom of the private jet, and had kept her awake the entire trip over here. They’d landed in the early morning and from there he had taken her to all of her favorite haunts before finally allowing them to come to the hotel.
He’d woken up in the middle of the night and heard her sigh, a sigh that he loved hearing when he was holding her, and he wanted to know who was making her sigh in her dreams. It was clear that he’d gotten his answer it seemed when she’d tensed as she woke but he was too far gone to stop. He had no self-control when it came to her, never had.
More than anything, he wanted to drive her ex-lover from her dreams and replace it with himself. He wanted the only man she wanted to be him just as she was the only one that he wanted.
In all honesty, he hadn’t planned on being faithful when they began their marriage from hell but after one taste of her, no one else came close to enticing a reaction from him. Another reason he was furious with her, she had intoxicated him to the point where only she could arouse him.
His ex from right here in London had been the one to prove it to him. After a long fight with Dani, he’d made his way to her place. All he wanted was to lose himself in someone who didn’t deny they wanted him, but no amount of enticement could get him interested.
“Don’t tell me the wife’s exhausted you that much, she may be young but really Luke,” she’d purred reaching into his pants. When that didn’t bring around the correct response, she’d tried a dozen other things and then she’d flung a magazine at him. It had two full pages of Dani and her fashions displayed in it and he was immediately hard.