Forbidden Fire (12 page)

They were at the taco shack by the pier.

Sian grinned. “We haven’t been here in years.”

They used to come after school and share sloppy tuna tacos, eating them while they dangled tanned legs over the side of the pier, watching a few men fishing and boats drone lazily by. Now the pier was lit by big globes and the stars were touching the water as the moon rose, made pale in the sky by the falling sun.

“I love living here,” she said as Luke handed her a yellow pepper and an avocado pepper. He’d stuck to the classic, beef and cheese, brimming with spicy chillies. It was messy eating but damn, it tasted good to a hungry man after a long day.

Luke shrugged. “I know it’s not exactly fancy…”

“Stop. It’s more real than any of my other dates.” She wiped her lips with a napkin, looking perfectly content.

But he couldn’t help but compare the top-of-the-line restaurants she’d gone out to, and wasn’t reassured even though he sure as fuck couldn’t have eaten with her under the eye of a woman looking for another kinky hook-up.

“Next time I’ll plan it better.”

But she was watching the falling sun float like a shrinking yellow island. One tendril of hair had fallen from the way she’d swept it back from her face and he was abruptly back in the hallway of their house, remembering their first time together, remembering how her hair had been falling down when he’d tried to help her with her zipper.

“Let’s get out of here,” he rasped.

As if she knew what he was thinking, she went into his arms. He brought his mouth down hungrily on hers, groaning as the soft, lean silkiness of her body brushed him from her breasts to her thighs.

“Sian?”

Sian jerked at the voice and pulled away from Luke.

Luke frowned, then recognised one of their neighbours, Mrs Hutchingson. She had lived beside them for as long as Luke could remember, a busybody who was always telling Sian how to tend her flowerbeds. Luke had never liked her much, especially when he’d first moved in and she’d eyed his cheap clothing like she thought he’d try to jack her car.

“And Luke?” Mrs Hutchingson’s eyes were avid on them. “Were you…kissing?”

Sian swallowed. “We’re dating,” she said calmly. Only Luke could feel her tension.

“Dating? But you’re brother and sister.”

“No, we’re not,” Sian said, before Luke could tell Mrs Hutchingson where to stick her comment.

“You were raised together. I always thought—”

Sian turned to Luke. “Should we walk back to the car now?”

Luke pulled her close, feeling Mrs Hutchingson watching them as they headed back up the hill. “We aren’t doing anything wrong!” he burst out when they were out of earshot.

Sian looked at him gravely. “No.”

His chest was tight. He was scared—scared she’d turn away from him again. Jesus, this first date was like a walk through a fun house.

“I feel like we’re on an obstacle course.”

“You feel it too?”

“It’s like getting pelted by stones. Maybe we should have just kept to ourselves.”

“Would have been easier,” he agreed.

“But that’s not what you needed.” She bent her head and he couldn’t resist reaching out and touching the wisps of hair. “Not after I called what happened between us…wrong.”

It still ached. “What’s wrong is me not being allowed to touch you,” he said. “What’s wrong is being alone in my bed while you tried man after man.”

They reached the top of the hill and she squeezed her eyes shut. “I was afraid I couldn’t ever have what I wanted. It had to be wrong.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because Mr Henry was my father. He wasn’t exactly a great relationship model.” She reached out and touched Luke’s cheek. “And you’re my deepest dream.”

“I don’t have the shine for you,” he said. “I don’t have the class.”

She shook her head and her eyes welled. “How can you say that? When you moved in, I had someone to bake chocolate chip cookies for. It really helped.”

“I’ll suck it up and eat your cookies anytime,” he said, teasing her. “Look, I’m not going to say that people won’t look at us different now we’re seeing each other. We have to break out of the brother-sister mould.”

She nodded. “I know.”

“I hate that you’ll face disapproval. I know you’re…things like that get to you.”

“You too.”

“I don’t care.” He opened the car door for her. When they were both inside, he yanked off the tie. “If we were related by blood… I’d still feel this way. I mean…if we’d grown up and never known or somethin’.”

Now he’d done it. She’d see how sick and wrong he really was.

What she did was reach out and touch him. “Me too. Oh, God. I’ve always wanted you. I used to watch you swimming in the mornings and want to touch your shoulders. I saw you naked in the beach shower once and I just stood there and stood there. I had to make myself walk away, make myself forget how beautiful you are.”

He was feeling moody and pissed off and possessive as fuck. He lifted her so she was facing him. “Take your panties off,” he ordered.

Her pupils expanded, huge in the semi-darkness. Colour flushed her cheeks. “Luke…”

After a moment she obeyed, silk sliding down long legs before tangling awkwardly on one high heel.

“Leave it.” He stared at her, watching her breasts rise and fall hard with the force of her breath. “You’re already wet, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Chapter Twelve

“Don’t worry, baby. The windows are tinted,” Luke said.

Sian could only laugh, because she hadn’t given a thought to that while caught in the molten spell he cast. She was all about his fingers inside her, stroking her like she was his pet.

Then Luke laughed, the harsh lines of his face softening as they only did for her.

“I hadn’t thought of it,” she confessed. It felt as intimate in the car as if they were alone in the house on a windswept, rainy winter night, alone with candles and low voices and the smell of something simmering on her stove.

Why hadn’t she seen they’d been lovers for years? “We lived together,” she said. “The only thing missing was the sex. That’s what Dharma meant when she pointed out you never moved out.”

“Don’t I know it,” he said ruefully. “Thank the penis genie you had a faulty zipper that night.”

“The penis genie? You are so making that up.” She grinned, even as he teased her with long smooth strokes of his callused fingers, lighting her up so that if her aura were visible, she’d see hot rainbow colour emanating from her body.

“Hey, if Santa Claus can get play, why not the penis genie? I would have given him gifts if I’d known he’d bring you around.” He loomed over her, watching her face as avidly as if she were a gripping movie. “That’s it, darlin’, moan for me. You like my fingers inside you, almost as much as you like my cock.”

“I loved that first time.” She had to tell him. “I got knotted up in the forbidden, in thinking I shouldn’t be that happy, but it was perfect. I needed it.”

“You did go off like a rocket.” He sounded smug and she knew she’d given him something back for the hurt she’d made between them.

“I wasn’t the only…ah…one.” She closed her eyes, wanting to savour her rise to climax. Each touch was a push up the ladder. She could smell herself, damp and earthy, heard the succulent sounds of his fingers inside her.

“Jesus, you get so wet for me, so fast. How could you think I could stay away from you?”

She looked at him, aware of her skirt around her waist, of her body open and pink and gleaming like an oyster. He undid the knot at her shoulder and her dress fell, baring her breasts for him.

“You look like a goddess in this dress, but now you’re a woman,
my
woman,” Luke breathed. “I’m gonna make you sing for me.”

He reached into the glove compartment of the expensive car and pulled out a little black bag. Sian bit her lip, wishing he’d put his hands back on her. Her eyes widened when she saw the oblong black wand in his hand—a tiny, sleek vibrator.

“I want you to take note that this is as far from Hello Kitty! as you can possibly get,” he said as he switched it on.

A toy in the car. She’d never thought he’d use a toy here of all places.

He caressed her with it, running it over her slick, open folds and Sian cried out, digging her nails into his thigh.

“Oh, kitty likes that.”

“Stop.” How could he make her laugh even when he was killing her? That was her Luke.

“Open wider, baby,” he urged her.

She shuffled forward, one leg high against the car seat as she let herself fall back. She caught a look at her reflection in the mirror, utterly wanton, a woman she wouldn’t even have recognised before Luke had first touched her.

He slid the vibrator into her body, making her jerk as intense sensation filled her. She moaned, arching like a cat to take more, beyond caring now how she looked.

He played with her, merciless, thrusting the device in and out, circling the top of her sex. She heard the scratch of her nails against the leather, raw, wanting cries burning out of her throat.

“Beg me. Beg me to come, Sian,” Luke whispered, his voice as dark and seductive as a sorcerer’s.

“Luke, please.” If it would give her relief, she’d do anything. She braced her legs and moved up and down on the toy, taking her pleasure.

He watched her and she knew he got off on watching her body undulate, the sweat between her breasts, the heavy fall of her hair, her lips parting to take one of his fingers and suck on it as he plunged the vibrator inside her.

She bit down on his finger, screaming her release, her body tightening around a metal toy.

She collapsed, panting hard, her body trembling aftershocks.

She held Luke’s heavy eyes, her gaze running down his body to the thick bulge at his crotch. As she stared, he undid his leather belt and unzipped his pants, shoving them down and mounting her.

The idea of pedestrians walking right by where they were mating heated her.

“Soft and wet and spent,” Luke said as he lifted her on him, using her body for his own pleasure now.

She was sensitive, stuffed full of him. She put her hands on his straining shoulders to steady herself.

He kissed her, open, carnal, taking her as much with his mouth as with his cock. “I want you to want me,” he growled. “I want you to know it’s me, always.”

“How could I not know?” she gave a choked laugh. “It’s not like I’ve ever—”

“I know.” Satisfaction burned in his eyes. “Just me.”

She had never come so quickly, one climax on top of another. Wet and spent, he’d said, but the character of the experience changed—long, drawn-out contractions. She felt as if she’d died and then lived again. Spent, she lay against Luke, feeling his seed warm inside her.

If they had a child, it would be the most natural thing. That big, expensive house wouldn’t be so full of the past, full of her broken heart and Luke’s loneliness.

He rearranged her clothing, gave her a handkerchief and then they were sitting in the car, driving as sedately as if they hadn’t just had explosive and messy sex.

“I want to take you somewhere.”

For some reason, her heart started to drum again. His voice was too casual.

“Where?”

He looked at her and his face was tight.

“We got through two obstacles tonight. Taz’s trap and our neighbour,” she reminded him.

“You don’t really know me.” His face was shadowed as bars of light on the freeway moved through the windshield, throwing his profile into relief. “Not really.”

“Luke.” She did, she did know him. But then she remembered how she’d rejected him, how she’d called it wrong. He was still hurting…because she alone was allowed to be close to him, was his family.

Her throat burned with the need to try to make it up to him, but they drove in silence, Sian forcing herself not to ask him where they were going.

The houses grew closer together. They passed strip malls with stores that were out of business, with the sharp teeth of broken windows. Broken asphalt and crowded apartment buildings.

He grimaced when he parked the car next to cracked sidewalk. “I shouldn’t have brought the damn fancy car. Fred will kill me if anything happens to it. Hang on.” He got out and walked straight into an alley. When he returned his cuffs were rolled to his elbows and he looked rumpled and dangerous.

Sian got out of the car, raising her brows.

“I asked Creed to watch the car. This is his turf,” Luke said.

Sian glimpsed a tall thin man with a tattoo snaking up his neck and onto his right cheekbone. Fierce hazel eyes burned hers. “He’s…” She shivered.

“Yeah,” Luke said. “But he owes me a favour.”

Luke put his arm around her. In her dress, still flushed from their encounter, she felt vulnerable and very female.

Luke stayed close to her, his clothing brushing hers as he led her into the closest apartment building, through a door overlapped with multiple graffiti.