I pause what I’m doing and meet his stare.
“Fine.”
He moves to kneel, but I stop him.
“No,” I say and step closer to him, undoing my pants. Just the button and zipper, nothing else. It’s a slippery slope, and currently, I’m dangling on the precipice, holding on to a rootless weed halfway out of the soil. I’m going to fall so hard, yet still, part of me wants to just let go.
Let go. Let go.
No, not yet.
Luke inhales sharply as I remove my shirt entirely and turn to press my bare back against his chest.
Luke glances in the mirror, watching me, and our eyes lock.
We look so hot together, shirtless and disheveled, and yet my heart rate increases from the vulnerability I’m showing.
But that’s all forgotten when he slips his hand below my waistband until he’s right where I want him, and damn, he has a good memory. A groan escapes my parted lips.
“Look at you,” Luke says hoarsely, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror and then sliding across my abdomen. “Listen to you. Those sounds.”
I’m panting, small moans slipping from my mouth. I can’t help it. Can’t control myself.
His hand moves up my torso and his thumb traces a faded scar before moving to my nipple.
“The things I want to do to you, Eli,” he mutters. “If you’d let me.”
Oh god, in this moment I feel like I could. I could let him inside of me, his fingers and his cock. The thought of it, just that small vision is enough for me. I come on a low groan, grasping onto him.
And when I’m slumped against him, his strong arms holding me up, he presses a soft kiss to the top of my head.
“You’re so damn hot,” he mutters.
“So are you.”
It’s an admission that shows too much, but I don’t care at the moment. He’s wrecked me in the best possible way.
Luke runs the tip of his nose across my temple, and his hands flex against my chest.
“As much as I want to just chill here and do all that again, we gotta get going, so we don’t miss the train,” he says.
Hell, I could care less about trains or reservations right now. I’m exhausted from the trip, from feeling so out of control, but mostly from letting myself be so vulnerable with a man that I barely know. I’d gone into a relationship with Andrew quickly and look where I’d ended up.
The truth is I’m just afraid.
I glance over at Luke and that look of excitement on his face has me pushing forward and running a hand through my mussed hair. Enough of this worrying. I have to move forward.
I always have, always will.
“Give me five minutes to change. Then we can go.”
* * *
Luke and I sit side by side in a train car as we make our way up Pike’s Peak. It’s the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains at fourteen thousand feet. The cog railway system we are currently on was created years ago to bring people up the mountain. It’s about a three-hour round trip, stopping at the summit to see the Visitor Center and then heading back down. I didn’t even know this existed until Luke led me onto the train car and we took our seats.
I don’t think I would have enjoyed Colorado Springs half as much without him here with me. He’s making me do things I would have never done myself. If I had come alone, I would have spent my evenings in my hotel room, reading a book or perusing the internet.Food would have been delivered to my door.
I’d never be sitting in a train car chugging up a mountainside.