Her Heart's Desire (Sunflower Series Book 1) (16 page)

When the silence grew, she folded and
unfolded her hands, forcing herself not to touch. Her fingers
itched to caress him. Another few seconds ticked by. She hummed and
gently rocked. She folded her arms and held her elbows. Dread
dropped like a brick in her gut. Maybe he didn’t feel the same
sizzle when he kissed her. Maybe he wanted a second chance to know
his attraction to her didn’t run deep. Or maybe he couldn’t get
past her being the
little sister
. If he regretted kissing
her for one single second, it would leave a hole in her heart, one
the size of the state of Kansas.

“Lucas?”

Lucas punched his fist into his open hand.
The smack of skin against skin startled Lia. “This isn’t what I had
planned,” he told her.

“You came with a plan?” There was nothing
about any plan she wanted to hear. “Let’s talk plans later.”

“Amelia, let’s take a moment here.”

“How many moments?”

Lucas sighed and raised an eyebrow.

“Fine. We’ll do this your way for now. How
did you find me?” She rushed her words. She refused to hear regret
come from his lips. He could have another thirty seconds. Only that
long. Her lips refused to wait any longer. This could be her final
chance to convince him of her feelings, and she intended to take
it.

Whatever the aftermath, she’d deal with it
later.

“Craig called.” Lucas seemed to regain his
composure. “Evidently, the police called him since the truck’s
insurance is technically in both your names. He’s worried. Called
me. Asked me to check on you.”

“Craig. Craig. Craig.” Lia pulled away. Anger
welled in her chest, but need fought a good battle. A minute more
and she’d use everything in her seduction arsenal to bend Lucas’s
will.

“So you’re going play the big-brother card
here?” Rejection pumped in her heart.
It couldn’t be true. It
couldn’t be true.
“As you can see, I’m fine. I keep telling you
and Craig. I’m a big girl now. In fact, I’m a grown woman. I can
take care of myself. A few tears do not mean I can’t handle things.
You can report to him that all is A-OK.”

Lucas flinched as if she’d slapped him. Maybe
he had really come because of her. Not because she was Craig’s
sister? No matter how comforting his kisses and hugs were, she
wouldn’t accept pity. Especially from him. History would not repeat
itself. She wasn’t a rejected high-school girl or his best friend’s
grieving sister. She was a woman—who wanted a man, who wanted
her—just for who she was.

“I’m sorry you had to come all the way here,
only to turn around and leave. I’ll be fine. As I said, I’m staying
with a friend. Karen will be back with Jack in a minute.” But she’d
be darned if she would let him leave without truly looking at her
like a man looks at a woman.

She rose and began to remove the ugly
sweatpants.

“Are you staying here or at her house?” Lucas
choked out his words.

“Why?” She wiggled out of the pants and
kicked them to the side. She prayed she had his full attention.
Raising the old t-shirt over her head, she revealed her bra and
panties.

“Because”—Lucas swallowed hard—“I brought a
sleeping bag. I can stretch out here on the floor or on her
couch.”

“But—”

“You can’t seem to get it through your head.
I’m not leaving you alone tonight,” Lucas growled, jumping up and
reaching for her.

Lia grabbed his shirt and hung on. Planting
her lips against his, she kissed him hard. His hands roamed her
body. He rained kisses on her face and neck. Her heart danced
pirouettes and high leaps in a ballet where she was a ballerina and
Lucas, her cavalier.

“You need to get this through your head. I’m
not leaving you alone tonight,” she said huskily.

With a short hop, she jumped into Lucas’s
arms, wrapping her legs around his hips. His hands cradled her
butt, and he backed toward the old chaise in the corner. When he
sat, she straddled his lap and kissed his face, his neck, ignoring
the slight scruffiness of his beard. Her heart pounded like a
hundred drummers playing in a marching band. The first taste of joy
lifted her spirits so high she could float all the way to the
moon.

“Slow down, Amelia.” Lucas’s voice was low
and full of strained emotion. It reminded her of warm honey, the
way it soothed. Her heart beat faster. Sensations tickled her
insides in new and delicious ways.

“This isn’t exactly what I envisioned,” he
said, nibbling on her earlobe.

“Shut up, Lucas,” she whispered back while
unbuttoning his shirt, dying to feel the warmth of his flesh. “No
need to talk. Just feel.” She placed his hands over her breasts. It
may have been an involuntary reaction on his part, but his slight
squeeze produced a blooming of desire in her. She wouldn’t let him
turn back now.

She was waiting on an art show.

She was waiting on a crop.

She wasn’t willing to wait a minute more to
make love to Lucas Dwyer.

Sliding his shirt over his shoulders, the
fabric fell, the cuffs still wrapped around his wrists. She traced
fingers down his smooth, hard chest until she reached the top of
his jeans. He leaned back against the wall, shoulders relaxed,
allowing her full access. A sexy grin spread across his face. He
didn’t make a move to prevent her fingers from unbuttoning the
single button. She playfully tugged at the zipper.

“I would’ve never taken you for a vixen.”
Lucas’s body tensed. His fingers kneaded her flesh gently.

“Shhh. This is the only kind of talking I
want to do.” She stroked the hardness of his manhood.

Lucas scooped her up and laid her on the
chaise. She glued her gaze to his body as he slowly, too
agonizingly slow for her, unbuttoned his cuffs, and let his shirt
drop to the floor. Like an experienced male stripper, he removed
his socks and jeans. Lia stared at the man she loved. Lucas in
briefs made her knees weak. Every inch of his body was lean and
muscled, a hard-working farmer’s body wearing a farmer’s tan like a
tattoo. Her insides clenched, craving to consummate and end the
physical longing enslaving her body.

“Amelia,” Lucas whispered, stretching long
beside her on the chaise. She rolled on her side to face him.
“There’s something I want you to know,” he continued. His fingers
reached for the hooks on her bra and released them. He tugged and
tossed the barely-there garment over his shoulder. Captivated by
his eyes, his face, his lips, she barely heard his words. Her body
hummed a symphony of desire.

“What?” she murmured, aching to feel the heat
of his hands on her. She bent her leg and, with her foot, traced a
line down his calf. As she reached to remove her panties, he
slapped at her hands.

“There is only you and me”—he slid her
panties down and they went the way of her bra, over his
shoulder—“right now.”

On her back, Lia stretched and arched her
hips as he moved on top of her, his elbows bracing his upper body,
the weight of the rest of him settled over her. His hardness
pressed into her apex in a series of short thrusts. Her body
contracted around him.

“Right now,” she said, moving under him for
the perfect fit. Leaning upward, she captured his lips. “You. Are.
Mine.”

Lucas groaned and crushed his lips against
hers.

Their bodies rocked together. With each
simple motion, her core craved more of him.

She’d waited so long for Lucas. The feel of
him. Hard. Soft. Strong. Gentle.

Need shoved away desire.

She rocked against him faster. His thrusts
matched hers.

Closing her eyes, she gave herself over to
the sensations tingling every last nerve. Heat raced through her
body. She arched her pelvis more, clawing at Lucas’s back. All
awareness dissolved. Only she and Lucas existed in a cocoon.

“Amelia!” Lucas cried. His body
tightened.

“Oh,” Lia groaned. “Heaven.”

Fireworks on the Fourth of July. Skyrockets
at midnight. Nothing compared with making love to Lucas.

He thrust harder.

She’d reached a peak, but then her climax
shot higher.

Time had no meaning. Desire surged, pulsing
steadily.

Lucas’s body relaxed.

She floated back to earth, back to the chaise
in her studio. She opened her eyes to find Lucas studying her.

“I love you,” Lucas said, planting a kiss on
her nose.

Her breath caught. Her chest tightened.

Had he really said it?

Her body vibrated from her head to her toes.
“I lo—”

“Shhh, Amelia. Don’t say anything. Let’s just
enjoy right now.”

“But—”

Lucas silenced her objections, peppering
kisses down her cheek, neck, and chest. He cuddled her into an
embrace, snuggling her closer to him.

Later she would hear all about his plan. The
future now shimmered with the light of a million stars. Hope surged
through her and knitted fragile links between her and Lucas.

She’d make him understand just how much she
loved him. She had a plan, too.

Chapter 12

Lucas grabbed for his jeans when he heard
sounds echoing in the hallway. He managed the zipper and buttoned
up as Karen slid the studio’s door slightly open.

“I’ll take Jack,” Lucas said to her, leaning
in the doorway, trying to appear casual, as though Karen was used
to seeing a half-dressed man in the studio. He reached for Jack’s
leash. “I’m going to stay here with Amelia tonight,” he whispered.
“Anything you
must
have out of here before you can leave?”
He hoped she took the less than subtle hint. The last thing he
wanted was for Amelia to wake and awkwardness over his presence to
fill the room and mar the evening he had planned.

With eyes wide as saucers, Karen shook her
head and stared at his bare chest. He crossed his arms to cover
himself from the woman’s intense scrutiny.

“Nope. Not a thing.” She winked. “Glad you’re
here.” She turned and sauntered down the hallway toward the
elevator. A few steps away, she turned back. “Lucky Lia.” She
whistled low.

Lucas slowly slid the door closed, but only
halfway. He winced at the squeak and vowed to bring WD-40 from his
truck to silence the noise. Pulling a blanket from the antique
armoire in the far corner of the large space, Lucas covered Lia as
she dozed. Jack jumped on the chaise and settled next to her. “Good
boy.” Lucas praised the dog. “Stay with her. I’ll be right back.”
Jack rested his head on Lia’s side as though he understood every
word spoken to him.

Grabbing his cell and his boots, Lucas turned
sideways to exit the studio through the narrow opening, then slid
the door closed the rest of the way, hoping for a silent escape.
Every sound from the building—the elevator, doors closing, and
people chatting—echoed in the hallways ricocheted from every hard
surface. The noises reverberated in his ears, ratcheting up the
tension mounting in his chest. And the last thing he needed was for
Craig to call Amelia and wake her up.

Lucas tucked his cell phone in his front
pocket, backed to the hall’s brick for balance, then bent to pull
on his boots. Before he finished with the second one, his cell
phone vibrated. He shot to standing, scraping his heel as he
crammed his foot all the way into his boot. Pulling out the phone,
he said, “Give me a few minutes. Let me call you back.”

“Sure. But only five,” Craig said.

Lucas ended the call. He walked on the balls
of his feet to keep his boot heels from clunking against the
concrete floor. “How do women walk in high heels?” he muttered.

Thirty steps later, he reached the elevator,
feet cramping, but at least Amelia hadn’t woken.

Once outside, Lucas let go of a deep breath.
It was one thing to have a poker face, but quite another to have a
poker voice. With Craig worried about Amelia, rightly so after the
events of the day, Lucas considered the best way to express his
feelings for Amelia to her brother. To blurt out, “I love your
sister,” would be weird. True, he and Amelia had a brother-sister
relationship in the past, but his feelings ripened into much more
when he became a man, when he went away to war, and since he had
returned home.

Opening the tailgate on his truck, he parked
his butt on it, ignoring the few people passing on the sidewalk.
Pulling out his phone, he contemplated exactly what news to share
with his best friend. If Amelia were anyone else’s sister, he’d be
telling Craig how he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his
life with her. If not on a farm, at least in the country. Heaven
knew, he’d never survive the city.

“If I say, ‘I love your sister and want to
marry her,’ he’ll laugh his ass off, or worse yet, when he finds
out what just transpired, he’ll want a duel at dawn. How did a man
born and raised in the country come to equate vast open spaces,
glorious sunsets, and fresh everything with an inferior
lifestyle?”

“Are you speaking to me, young man?” An older
man approached on the sidewalk. His cane tapped against the
pavement as he walked.

“No, sir. Talking to myself.”

“Crazy are you?” the man asked as he
continued walking.

“Yep. Crazy about a woman.”

“Continue on, then,” the man said as he
passed. “Try telling her about it rather than talking to
strangers.”

Lucas saluted the older gentleman, then
pushed Craig’s number, deciding to only answer questions asked, and
not volunteer any additional information until he and Amelia had a
chance to talk about what the future might hold. Maybe they’d begin
their discussion over dinner tonight. Music, wine, and a meal at
Tavern City down the street. Tonight, they’d make love. The studio
had a romantic vibe, especially with all the candles. Lia clearly
liked that.

“About time. Twelve minutes isn’t five,”
Craig said, brusquely.