Clara found a note in the kitchen, saying they decided to go over to Nic’s to have dinner with him and his girlfriend Sadie.
“Do you want to head over there?” I asked her. “I’m sure Nic wouldn’t mind us dropping by.”
She shook her head. “Actually, there’s something I’d like to show you.”
Clara grabbed my hand and dragged me downstairs to the basement. Stacks of her boxes were lined up against one entire wall, the remnants of her former apartment across town.
“This is what you saved me from,” she said, smiling up at me. “This was going to be my apartment, probably until the end of my days.”
I chuckled. “You theater people are so dramatic.”
“I won’t miss trying to live here, but I will miss my bed.” She fell back onto the mattress, set up in one corner of the basement. It was on a big wooden bedframe and the sheets were a clean pink.
“So, about the hundred thousand?” she asked, laughing. I slipped my wallet out and her eyes widened. “There’s no way you have that much on you.”
I smiled, pulled out a debit card, and held it up for her to see it. “It’s right here, actually. Well, it’s in an account using this card, and it’s all set up in your name. Here.”
She sat up, looking thunderstruck. “Luke, I was just kidding. You don’t need to pay me. I’d feel weird taking your money.”
“I won’t hear it,” I said firmly. “You held up you end of the bargain, and you’ve earned it. Use some of it to have your stuff moved up to the city. Then you won’t have to miss your bed.”
She pouted. “But then I’ll be missing yours.”
“Oh, don’t you worry. There will be plenty of that.”
Clara smiled at me. “When did you set up that account for me, Mr. Sneaky?”
“The first week you were in New York with me,” I said. “When I knew that I loved you.”
I kissed her and she yanked me onto the bed with her.
CHAPTER 38
CLARA
Being in bed with Luke was exactly where I needed to be. His blue eyes locked on mine, like shining sapphires blazing with the passion I lit inside him. His hands slid over my body as if he were trying to feel all of me at once but didn’t have enough hands. But most of all, his lips tasted like heaven when we kissed.
Luke pulled back a little and smirked.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, this is going to sound like we’re back in high school, but do you think your parents will be coming home anytime soon?”
I smiled back at him mischievously. “They better not because I’m not stopping.”
Before he could reply, I pushed him on his back and straddled his hips, already feeling him hot and ready through his jeans. He gazed up at me, eyes aflame. I ground my hips over him and a groan came out of him that sent heat spiraling to my core.
I leaned over him to kiss him again and his hands slipped beneath my sweater. Luke made quick work of unhooking my bra, and his rough, callused palms cupped my breasts. It was myturn to moan like I was in pain, the exquisite feelings too much to bear.
My nipples hardened into sensitive points and he teased them until they ached like a raw nerve. Every touch had me squirming over his steel cock, and that awoke a whole different symphony of sensations in my body.
I undid the buttons on his shirt and pulled it open so I could lick his chest. I didn’t even care if he liked it. Tracing my tongue over the hard lines of his muscles electrified me.
Luke let me have my fun, busying himself with hiking up my sweater. I disconnected from him just long enough to get it off me, followed by my bra. Luke drank in the sight of me in the dim light of the basement.
I felt self-conscious, bare in front of him, exposed. But the look of hunger in his eyes gave me courage. I sat up straighter, thrusting my breasts out and raising my chin.
“Holy hell, Clara,” he said breathlessly. “I’m a lucky man. I missed you so much.”
