6
LUKE CARRIED TWO plates to where Vanessa was stretched out on a sofa in the living room on the main deck. He’d told her to go rest, worried about the injury she’d sustained and how tired she looked.
Sure enough, when he returned, she was softly snoozing. Her lips were parted, and he hardened, thinking about what those lips had done to him only an hour or so earlier. He wanted to know them again.
Her face was relaxed in sleep, her hair still a mess from his hands.
Damn, she was sweet. He paused, wondering if he should wake her.
“Luke?” she asked sleepily, her eyes focusing on her surroundings as if she wasn’t sure where she was for a second.
“I’m here. Do you want something to eat?”
“Oh, yes, thank you. I could smell that in my sleep. What is it?”
“Frittata.”
“It smells heavenly.” She took the plate from him as she dug in. He did, too, taking the spot next to her.
They didn’t talk at all, finishing their meal in quiet. He slanted a look in her direction as she let her head fall back, inhaling the aromas.
Vanessa was a sensualist. She might not realize it, or maybe she did, but it was a quality Luke very much appreciated. For her, life was sensual on every level, not only during sex.
When they were done, he took their plates and returned to the sofa. She curled up into him as if they did this every night. And yet, her hand on his chest, her touch, as her finger moved lightly over him, was new. New, and wonderful.
Every other woman he’d known, Nicky included, wanted to talk incessantly after sex. Luke liked talk during sex—he found it deepened the connection and expanded the possibilities when you could freely communicate with your partner about what you wanted—but afterward, he liked quiet. He wanted to soak up the experience rather than dissect it.
This was perfect.
Vanessa was perfect.
He couldn’t believe the level of intimacy that they’d been able to achieve so quickly, and how open she’d been to him. Luke liked to experiment, and he liked to push the limits in his sex life. Some women were okay with that, some not. He let them set the boundaries, and sometimes he had to hold back on his own desires. With Vanessa, he hadn’t held back at all. She was a kindred spirit for him—at least in bed.
He didn’t want to think past that point.
As she’d said, they didn’t know how much time they had, what would happen once they got off this boat, or what the future held. So why not enjoy this before it all changed? In China, Luke had been celibate. Since he’d been home, no one had sexually inspired him until now.
Vanessa was bright, sexy and gorgeous. She was clearly more emotional and more open than Nicky, less manipulative, and yes, less experienced. He liked that, particularly. That she hadn’t already done all that was out there to be done. That he could share something with her that would be only theirs, and that he could experience something new, too, perhaps.
But she was still Nicky’s sister. That part of her was an unknown. People changed when it came to family, and if she was like Nicky at all—well, he had to be careful. He’d been completely taken in by Nicky, and he wasn’t going to let that happen again. He liked Vanessa—and he wanted her—but Luke couldn’t trust anyone this quickly. He’d been burned too badly for that.
“But this...between us. It’s only for right now, isn’t it?”
Luke nodded. “Yes.”
She was silent for a second, and he expected her to pull away, to decide that she couldn’t deal with that. Then, she surprised him yet again.
Pulling the sash on her robe so that it fell open in front, she lifted up and levered over him, the blue terry draped around her naked form. He was naked, too, under his, and was hard within seconds as she pressed down against him.
“Then we shouldn’t waste any time,” she said, going from blushing innocent to sultry siren.
Her kiss was deep, hot, and Luke let her set the pace, let her tell him what she wanted.
It was clear as she pinned his hands down at his sides. Explored his mouth with her tongue, nipped his lip.
“Control,” she whispered, as he thought it.
He settled back into the sofa, didn’t move to touch or hold.
“You have it. As much as you want. Would you like me to be tied up? We can do that,” he offered, his blood pulsing at the idea of Vanessa doing whatever she wanted with him.
He knew he would like it all. And he’d give her as much control as she wanted; it was something she needed, he could tell. Maybe because she’d never had much before, sexually. Or maybe because of what was happening in her life at the moment. Either way, he understood.
She swallowed, her lips parting, cheeks flushed as she slipped the tie from the loops in the robe and looked at it, considering.
Luke held his breath.
“We should be discreet, shouldn’t we?” She nodded toward the large windows that surrounded the room. “What if someone looked in?” she asked.
At first he thought she was worried about that, and then realized it was another fantasy.
“Would you like that? If someone was out there? Maybe looking at us, from a distance, from another boat? Or one of the deck hands, perhaps? What would they see?”
“They’d see me, sitting here over your lap,” she whispered as she returned to him, running her fingers through his hair. Luke tilted his head back into her touch. Let her nibble at his neck.
This woman was going to drive him mad and he loved it.
“They might notice that my robe is undone, but they can’t really see me, like you can. They’d see us kissing.”
That went on for several, long, amazing minutes. Luke did love the way Vanessa kissed.
“They’d be so curious, wondering if it’s going to go further,” she said into his ear. “They’d want to see more.”
“What else?” he asked on a held breath.
“You tell me, and then I’ll decide if I will grant your request or not,” she said with a sparkle of sexy mischief.
Luke’s heart raced. How could she know so well what he liked, too?
He spoke to her, quietly, in her ear as he told her everything he wanted. She stopped him suddenly, her lips on his, their mouths mating deeply.
Luke broke the kiss, breathing hard. “I don’t have—”
“We’re okay...we talked about it all earlier, remember? And I’m protected, safe...you, too?”
He was, but he could only nod.
“And Luke,” she said as her eyes met his, the hottest part of her poised over the tip of his erection. “Don’t touch me or kiss me unless I tell you to.”
Luke shuddered with desire and nodded in acquiescence.
She sighed happily as she encompassed him. A smile played at her lips as she danced over him, moving as she pleased, teasing him with her heat.
Luke griped the cushion, unsure how long he could keep his control. He wanted badly to kiss her, to take hold of her hips and set the pace, but he held back. He’d give her what she wanted if it killed him. The restraint made him as hot as it made Vanessa. They were both burning up.
She rotated her hips in delicious circles, one hand on her breasts as her lips parted. Her eyes closed as her head fell back, a low moan and his name dropped from her lips as she teased him.
“Oh, Luke, that’s so good,” she moaned as she came apart, her voice sounding like she might weep from the pleasure.
Luke clenched his jaw, on the edge but needing more than her gentle pressure to find his own release. When she finished, looking at him with her eyes blurry, her cheeks and lips smudged with roses, she lifted from him.
As if she knew exactly what he needed, she lowered and took him deep in her mouth. His hips bucked, his arms still at his sides, his body arched like a bow as his climax consumed him.
He’d thought that he was letting her have control, playacting, but she had completely taken the reins. Vanessa had been awesome, her instincts dead-on in her mastery. He’d loved every second of it.
He was still shaking when she took his hand from where it was still curled into the couch and wrapped her fingers around his. They stayed like that for several long moments.
They finally got up as if from some silent agreement, no words exchanged between them, hands still linked and walked back to her berth. All the way there, Luke told himself that this didn’t mean anything more and shut down the mocking voice in his head that called him a liar.
* * *
VANESSA WOKE UP SLOWLY, stretching sore muscles and then smiling at the memory of why she was so achy—in the best of possible ways. Except for her side, of course, but that wasn’t bothering her all that much.
She rolled over in the huge bed and found she was alone. The shower was running.
Luke.
Her hand went to her face in a combined gesture of humor, embarrassment and amazement as she thought about the night before.
Had that really been her?
Yesterday this time, she’d been despondent and lost. Right now, she felt more alive than she ever had. She’d had the most—and the best—sex she had ever had. And all in one night.
Thank goodness there was one more day before they got to the island, she thought with a wry smile. Then she sobered, remembering why they were there and what their purpose was.
This wasn’t a vacation. This was a mission.
Vanessa wanted to find Julie, and Luke wanted to put her in jail. It was, as they said, the elephant in the room, and Vanessa was going to ignore it for a while longer. She hoped it didn’t end up stomping all over her.
She wasn’t terribly experienced in having temporary affairs, but she knew she’d probably never see Luke after this and accepted that. Although she understood his pain and anger with Julie. Vanessa couldn’t help but want to save her sister from the trouble she was in, while Luke had no such mercy. She refused to think Julie was evil—certainly circumstances played a part, and Luke might not know the whole story, but he was convinced of her guilt.
Her happy fog faded as she threw her legs over the side of the bed and planted her face in her hands. She’d meant what she told him the night before. If the worst happened, if one of them was hurt or killed, if Julie went to prison and she and Luke never saw each other again, this would still mean something. It would always be one of the best times in her life, being here with him.
Luke might hate Julie now, but he’d loved her at some point. How could he look at Vanessa and not think about Julie? How could Vanessa ever look at him and not see the man who took her sister away from her, when she had only just found her again? Or even harder, she might have to actually see them together again someday, reconciled.
Perhaps, if she were stronger, she would have resisted him last night. If she were a better woman, Vanessa wouldn’t be thinking, right now, about joining him in the shower. Letting him wash her back, press her up against the tile and get between her thighs, letting him deep inside....
“Oh, dear,” Vanessa said under her breath, fanning her face, her body all of a sudden aching in a different way.
This was bad. Leaving him when the time came would be difficult. She needed him so much already.
But it was only physical. That’s what she told herself.
Seconds later, Luke appeared in the doorway, wrapped only in a towel.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice calm but her heart beating so hard she thought she might pass out.
Everything about him was so male and perfect that she stared, committing him to memory.
“Good morning. How are you?” he asked, searching her face, his eyes dropping to her side.
“I’m fine,” she said, waving off his concern.
He stepped in closer.
“I meant otherwise, too. Did you sleep? Are you okay?”
His eyes told her that maybe he was having the same thoughts and the same doubts that she was. Maybe he worried she was going to mistake their intimacy for something more, or worried she was going to suddenly freak out about their incredible night together, but she wouldn’t. And if she did, he would never know.
To prove it, she lifted up, put a hand to his freshly shaven face and kissed him.
“I’m fine. Really. Except that apparently, I woke up about twenty minutes too late to join you,” she said.
She wasn’t going to play games, either. She wanted him, and why not let him know it, at least for now.
“We could go back in. I might have missed a spot,” he offered, returning her kiss.
The heat built quickly, and she forgot her earlier misgivings when he slid his hands up under the robe and touched her in a way that made her tremble under his hands.
How frightening it was to be so susceptible to a man’s touch. And how wonderful, she thought, as she dropped her head back, letting him have his way with her neck.
A rude sound interrupted her bliss, and Luke straightened, keeping an arm around her, looking around the room.
His phone.
Kissing her quickly, he crossed to the table where it lay, and answered.
Saved by the ringtone, Vanessa thought, though she really didn’t feel saved.
He studied the phone, frowning. “I have to go to my computer. A friend sent me some files I need to review right away.”
Vanessa wrapped the robe back around her, disappointed, but also curious. “Sure, no problem. Can I help?”
“I’ve got it. Relax, get some breakfast. We should hit the island by tomorrow morning, and then we can finally move forward with all of this,” he said absently, still glancing at his phone.
“Yes, definitely,” she agreed.
He sounded all too eager to leave and be off the boat. Vanessa knew it was foolish to take it so personally, but he went from hot to cold so quickly, it was hard to adjust. He left, forgetting his clothes, or that he was wearing only a towel. He went right past her and out the door without so much as one more word or a kiss goodbye.
Vanessa stood in the middle of the room for a few seconds, gathering her wits about her, and then she pulled her spine up straight. What did she expect? It was one night of convenient sex that they both wanted. It wasn’t as if they were lovers in any emotional sense of the term. She was acting like a lovesick teenager when she had no reason to. She was a grown woman who had had a night of fantastic sex. She wasn’t going to ruin that by moping or expecting things she had no right to expect.
Mind made up, she took a quick shower—banning any thoughts about what might have happened if Luke’s phone hadn’t rung—and put on a bikini she found in a drawer. It fit, mostly, though it was skimpier than the bathing suits she would normally wear. Pulling a loose, white blouse out of the shopping bag that Luke had given her, she put that over it with some sandals and went to find the kitchen.
Tomorrow, they would be on the island, and her search for her sister would commence. Today, she was going to do exactly as Luke said, and relax, sit in the sun and ease her aching muscles. She intended to enjoy this luxury.
All she really wanted was for life to return to normal. She needed to find a place to live, to get back to work and to remember who she was. The woman who had been with Luke last night was an imposter—a fantasy—and it had been wonderful. But it wasn’t who she was. Not really.
In the galley, she found a buffet of food set out. Helping herself to a plate and a big glass of juice, she stepped onto the sunny deck and found a chair to lounge in.
The ocean surrounded her, nothing visible in the distance. The water was calm, the boat moving with only a gentle rocking over the waves. It was hard for her to believe that some people lived like this every day. That someone owned this boat for their private pleasure. That Luke had owned this boat, and he had simply given it away.
She shook her head in amazement at the thought as she ate. When she was done, she pulled her phone from her pocket, giving in to temptation. Typing his name into the search field, she waited for information to load about the man she’d known more intimately than any other man, and yet, whom she didn’t know at all.
The number of links that came up was staggering. Luke with numerous corporate and technology titans. Luke with any number of politicians, women and of course, with Julie. Luke being given awards for his innovations. Luke with the head of Homeland Security.
She couldn’t help but be impressed, and then clicked on later articles, the ones on the scandal and the suicide.
Her heart squeezed at a picture of him looking wrecked as he left the funeral for his colleague. He was so different. Hollowed out, haggard. Vanessa put a finger to the screen, touching his face. He didn’t seem at all like the man she knew now.
That was what Julie had done to him. Irrational anger filled her.
No wonder he’d left it all behind and hated her sister so much. But did he really hate her as much as he said? Maybe that would all change when he saw Julie again. If he cared for her, did that really just go away?
Clicking out of the article, she looked through the Berringer Bodyguards website—not much there, not even pictures. Just a list of services, names and a phone number. She supposed it made sense that a private security service would want to maintain a low profile.
From tech-boom millionaire to bodyguard. Luke Berringer had lived quite a life and one very different from her own. Vanessa wanted to live a simple life. To teach and hopefully find someone she might marry someday and have her own family. Especially if she never found her lost siblings.
She clicked back to a picture of Julie with Luke. Her sister was gorgeous, but Julie looked cold and somewhat vacant. Her smile didn’t meet her eyes, and there was something forced or sad about her. As if she were a mere shell of a person. Vanessa had seen that before, in foster homes and orphanages. It was what people did to protect themselves from the outside. Her heart broke for her sister as it had a million times before. Julie had not been as fortunate as she had.
She could only assume that Julie had led a much more difficult life than she had after they were forced apart. Vanessa had been the lucky one, and who knew what had happened to their brother? But when she found Julie—when, not if—she would do everything she could to help her.
Not even Luke could come between them, Vanessa resolved as she glanced out over the ocean. Settled in that, she rested her head back on the chaise and let the sun soak into her body, falling asleep again with the promise in her mind that her sister came first. Soon they would be together again, and that was all that mattered.