“Charm, huh?”
“Careful.” Luke’s gaze came back to her. “I can be charming when I put my mind to it.”
“I know. Why do you think I’m here?”
Approaching their cabin at last, dark forms suddenly materialized in front of them. Luke had half-expected them, but Sally drew in a sharp breath. He was pretty sure his arm around her stopped her from giving one of them a black eye before they stepped from the shadows into enough light to be recognized.
Sally dropped her hands to her hips. “Didn’t you ever learn not to sneak up on a person?” Her accusing words brought low laughter.
“Not really, ma’am,” MacGyver said. “Just the opposite.”
“No sign of anyone.” Travis was taking care of business. “We checked around the cabins. Yours too. Nothing. We’ll take another run through in a couple of hours, just in case. Not like you to see things.”
“Thanks, fellas.” Luke clapped Travis’s shoulder, wondering how to break the news about all the things he’d seen that weren’t really there since he’d returned from Afghanistan. Maybe it was a conversation for another day.
“Anything for you, Luke.” Coop tipped his ball cap to Sally as he strode by. “’Night, Sally.”
“Good night, Coop.”
MacGyver headed out too, nodding to Sally and slapping Luke’s back. Travis was the last to go, and he seemed to disappear into the shadows the same way he’d come. Luke opened the door and ushered her inside.
“Too tired for a shower?” Luke strode toward the bedroom, hoping it wasn’t too late to get her mind off the scare he’d given her needlessly.
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I can’t go to bed like this. Besides, didn’t you promise to wash me?”
Luke stopped in his tracks and turned slowly to face her. A grin was trying to slip free, but he wouldn’t let it…not yet. He took a lazy step back toward her. “Ididsay that.” Another step. “Are you up for that?”
She shrugged. “I think so. Are you?”
He covered the distance between them until they were a foot apart. “Oh, I’m definitely on board. You know we’ll both be naked, right?”
“I assumed. Anything else I should know?” A sexy little grin rode her lips.
He leaned toward her and kissed both eyes and her nose before his mouth came down on hers, and he put all his longing for her into the kiss. When he came up for air, her eyelids remained closed for a few seconds before she opened them and pinned him with the darkest blue eyes he’d ever seen.
Luke linked his hand with hers and led her toward the bedroom. “I’ll get the water warmed up. Join me whenever you’re ready.” He dropped a kiss on the column of her throat before he kicked off his boots and strode toward the bathroom. A minute later, his clothes lay in a pile near the wall and the hot, steamy water cascaded over his shoulders. Soaping a washrag, he removed the sweat and grime from the day’s work, then shampooed his hair. Sally still hadn’t appeared.
Just when he gave in to the conclusion she’d bowed out of their little rendezvous, a shadow slid in front of the lights. Luke glanced over as she pulled the shower door open a few inches.
She froze there. Luke stood still while her gaze slid over his body, starting with the scar, front and center on his chest, from a bullet he’d stopped on the day he was rescued. She paled but eventually moved on to his scarred back and shoulders, where his captors had sliced open his flesh time and time again. There was hardly a spot on his torso that didn’t bare some reminder of his imprisonment.
He didn’t need to be reminded—he remembered only too well.
Would she be able to cope with the stark evidence of his torture? Apprehensive that she might not be able to handle it, he waited for her to say something, turn away or join him in the shower.
Pushing the door open farther, Luke held his hand out to her. “Come on in. The water’s just right.”
Her gaze darted to his and held for the longest few seconds of his life before the corners of her mouth curved upward ever so slightly. This time, her bold gaze traveled over him like a slow caress, and his body reacted instantly, his manhood hardening to an incessant ache.
A sultry smile settled on her lips and made his heart do a little flip as she placed her hand in his and stepped over the edge of the shower.
Sweet Jesus! If he thought she was sexy standing outside the shower naked, it was nothing compared to her naked and wet. When she reached for him, curling her hand around his rigid shaft, he nearly lost his footing.
Sally gazed at him, a sly smile taking up residence on her beautiful face. “Tell me if I’m doing it wrong.” Without waiting for a reply, she dropped to her knees.
A groan worked free from Luke’s throat as her tongue spiraled up one side of his member and down the other. His eyes rolled back in his head when the tip disappeared between her full lips. As she took him deep, Luke ground his teeth against the release that was building, while fighting the urge to place his hand on the back of her head and direct her movements. With seemingly expert technique, she brought him to the edge of reason, and it was with supreme effort he kept from tipping over the edge.
So aroused it hurt, he pushed her away. Then, releasing a feral growl, he quickly lifted her to her feet, thinking only of his need to be inside her. Unexpectedly, Sally jerked free of his hands and shrank from him. As he met her gaze, uncertainty, bordering on fear, hardened her expression for a heartbeat…and then it was gone. Shit. He’d been too damn rough and he’d frightened her. Instant self-recrimination sucker-punched him.