***
Luke let the water wash away six months of desert, worry, and exhaustion.
He was home and it was time to start living life again. At the diner, he couldn’t touch Harper the way he needed to. Not with Joni there.
The guilt tugged at him. How could he be with Harper after Karen? He pushed it aside. No one could take Karen’s place. He wouldn’t let that happen. But he was still here, still living. Didn’t that count for something?
He shut off the faucet and reached for a towel. It was new, too. The giant fluffy kind that could dry a car, not just the human body.
He wrapped it around his waist and headed into the bedroom.
He was rock hard in the half second it took to register that Harper was waiting for him on the bed. She had discarded her running clothes and was wearing a dark, sheer corset with satin and lace panels that barely covered her full breasts.
“Come here,” she said, rising to her knees. His body obeyed as if under a spell. He stripped off the towel and crawled across the mattress to her.
“You are so fucking beautiful, Harper,” he whispered as his mouth met hers. “This is new.” He trailed fingers over the lacey edge.
“I bought a few things for when you came home.”
He couldn’t give her the words she wanted to hear the most, but he could give her all the others she deserved to hear. “I thought of you every second, baby. I couldn’t get home fast enough.” His mouth moved over her lips, her jaw, down to her neck.
“I missed you so much.”
Harper trembled. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. “I love you, Luke.”
“Baby, don’t cry.” His thumbs brushed away the tears that trailed down her smooth cheeks.
She blinked them back.
“Do you still want me?”
His hands stilled on her skin. “Harper,” he breathed her name. “There is nothing I want more.”
She pushed him backwards until he landed against the pillows at the head of the bed.
Harper slid her body over his, the silky barrier teasing his skin. She started at his jaw, running her soft lips down to his throat. She kissed, nibbled, and licked her way down his chest, across his abdomen. And then lower.
The first brush of her lips across the head of his cock nearly brought him off the bed. His hips flexed into her as her sweet mouth closed over him.
She pulled him into the back of her throat and he groaned. “God, baby.”
Harper gripped the base of his thick shaft and worked his length with her hand as her mouth slicked over him again and again.
She moaned and the vibration nearly sent him over the edge.
Luke fisted his hand in her hair. “Baby, I need this to last. I need to be inside you.”
Harper let him drag her up his body until she found his mouth. He made a move to roll with her, but she braced her hands on his shoulders. “Stay,” she whispered, straddling him.
She reached between their bodies and positioned the broad head of his erection against her wet center. His hands found her hips and guided her down his length. Inch by glorious inch she took him into her core until he was fully sheathed in her.
Luke fought the urge to take over the rhythm and hammer himself home.
“Make it last, baby,” he whispered. She cupped a hand to his face. Harper rose up, her golden waves framing her face. Her eyes closed tight as she set a slow, sensual pace. Her body was leaner, stronger than before. She looked like a goddess riding into battle.
“Open your eyes, Harper.”
Those lust-glazed gray eyes opened almost lazily. She smiled as he flexed into her. He let her ride him, losing herself in the rhythm. Time stood still as the magic of what she made him feel bled through him.
