Tempting the Artist (11 page)

“
Jada,” Zack called from
upstairs. “Can you come here a minute?”

“
I’ll be right back.” Her
cousin stood and hurried from the room.

Minutes later the doorbell rang. When
Christina didn’t hear anyone going to the door, she wondered if
Jada or Zack heard the bell.

“
CJ, get the door,” Jada
called out.

On the way down the hall, Christina
spotted herself in a mirror and shivered at how puffy and red her
eyes were. “Oh great, I look a mess.” She rubbed the smeared
mascara from under her eyes with the back of her index finger and
blinked several times. Despite her efforts, she still looked as if
she had spent the last hour crying.

Christina swung the front door open
and immediately regretted not looking to see who’d be standing on
the other side of it. If only there were a large boulder somewhere
that she could hide behind. Seeing Luke, looking good enough to
eat, she felt like she was going to start crying all over
again.

“
What’s going on? What
happened?” He said in a rush when he walked into the house, not
taking his concerned gaze from her face. His hand went to the back
of her neck and pulled her into his chest, holding her tightly.
Christina didn’t know what the heck was going on, but at the
moment, she didn’t care.

“
You’re what happened you
idiot!” They both jerked apart to find a scowling Zack standing in
the middle of the foyer with Jada close by his side. Christina took
a step away from Luke and quickly swiped at a wayward tear crawling
down her cheek. “Do you see the tears in her eyes? She looks like
that because of your ass.” Zack pointed his finger at Luke. “So you
need to fix whatever the hell is going on! Now!” Her cousin-in-law
snatched his keys from the counter and reached for Jada’s hand,
pulling her toward the kitchen. Christina didn’t miss the Cheshire
grin planted on her cousin’s lips. “And set the alarm if you leave
before we get back.”

We’ve been set up.
Her cousin had always been sneaky, but this stunt
outshined any of her previous ones.

*

Luke cursed under his breath and wiped
his hand slowly over his mouth, letting it rest on his chin. His
gaze met Christina’s teary eyes and his heart lurched in his chest.
Never had she cried in his presence and the thought of him being
the cause of her tears tore him up inside. She looked about as bad
as he felt. The last two days had been hell. Now he understood why
Zack had called him in a fit of rage, telling him that he needed to
get over there ASAP because something had happened to her. Luke had
never been so scared in his life, thinking the worse.

“
Baby, I’m sorry.” There
was no way he was letting another day go without apologizing for
his jacked up attitude the other night and for any other grief he
might have caused her. “I could have … no, I should have handled
the other night better than I did.”

“
I’m sorry too. I’m sorry
for everything. I don’t want to fight anymore and I swear I’ll
never lie to you again.”

“
Me either.” Not giving her
a chance to say anything else, he lowered his mouth over hers and
kissed her with everything he had. Repairing their relationship was
going to take more than ‘I’m sorry’ but an apology was a good
start. He didn’t know what it would take, but he wanted them to
find their way back to each other. He wanted what they once had. He
needed what they once had.

Luke lifted his head from hers, still
cradling her face between his hands. “We need to talk.” He used the
four words she had spoken that last night in New York and again
when he ran into her a week earlier. The words he hated.

“
On one
condition.”

Fear crept through Luke’s body. He
didn’t like deals or conditions, especially when his heart was
involved. “And what’s that?”

“
We agree never to use
those four words again.”

Luke shook his head and grinned.
“Deal.” He was glad to see she still had her sense of humor though
her smile seemed a bit sad. Zack was right about him. He was an
idiot. He could have ended this nonsense between them the other
night, yet he chose to walk away from the only woman he had ever
cared about. The only woman he had ever loved.

Staring down into her eyes, Luke
caressed her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. “I love you,” he
whispered. He had never spoken those words to any other woman. “I
love you so frickin’ much I feel as if I’m going to lose my damn
mind whenever we’re apart. I need you in my life, baby. I’m willing
to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

She molded against his body, her arms
wrapped tightly around him and her head buried in the crook of his
neck. He didn’t know what else to do but hold her.

She finally looked up at him, tears
hanging on her long eyelashes. “I love you too. These last few
months have been awful. I didn’t think … I never thought I’d hear
those words from you.”

He wrapped his arms around
her again, enjoying the feel of her curves against his body. He
placed a lingering kiss against her temple. “I should have told you
a long time ago.” Then maybe they wouldn’t be in this mess.
No more secrets
. Luke
didn’t know how long they stood in Zack’s foyer, but it was time to
settle things with Christina once and for all. “Come on, let’s get
out of here.”

An hour later, Luke walked into his
condominium carrying Christina, who was asleep in his arms. He had
intended for them to talk on the way to his place, which was why he
suggested they leave her car at Zack and Jada’s house. But she had
fallen asleep within minutes of their long drive.

He placed her in the center of his
four-poster king-size bed, not bothering to pull the covers back.
She was out cold. She didn’t even stir when he took her shoes off
her feet.

Luke stood back, his hands shoved into
the front pockets of his pants and his heart swelled seeing her
lying in his bed. He had once admitted to her that he didn’t sleep
well without her lying next to him. After all this time, that fact
still remained true. The thought of sleeping in a bed without her
made him physically ill.

Luke pulled his T-shirt over his head,
feeling a nap was a good idea. Last night he probably only had a
solid two hours of sleep. In the past, much of his insomnia had to
do with the high profile cases he took on. There was a time when he
could separate himself from that part of his life once he left the
office or left the courthouse, but somehow over time, his work
became his life. And the last few years the cases became more
challenging, and he slept fewer and fewer hours.

Stripping out of his jeans, he tossed
them in the clothes hamper in the back of his closet. Normally he
wasn’t one to sleep in pajamas, but in light of his visitor and the
rockiness of their relationship, sleeping in the nude wasn’t an
option. He grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms from his dresser and
slipped into them.

Pulling the extra blanket from the
closet, he spread it over Christina before climbing into the bed
next to her. As much as he wanted to wake her, if for nothing more
than to stare into her eyes, he resisted. Instead, he let his gaze
study her face. She appeared so peaceful. Her long eyelashes fanned
over her cheeks and that sweet mouth of hers held a slight smile,
making him smile too. A nose ring. He reached out and touched the
diamond stud, surprised that she’d been daring enough to go through
with getting her nose pierced.

Unable to resist, he gently gathered
her into his arms, her head resting on his chest. He breathed in
and the smell of wildflowers, her usual scent tickled his nose.
Peace he hadn’t felt in a long time fell over him, lulling him into
a deep sleep.

*

Christina slipped into one of Luke’s
dress shirts and quietly tiptoed out of his bedroom, closing the
door behind her. She couldn’t believe she had slept over five
hours. Luke must have been just as tired because he was normally a
light sleeper. She had climbed out of his bed, showered and he
hadn’t moved. The whole routine brought back memories of happier
times.

Quietness except for the soft hum of
the air conditioner surrounded her as she eased down the semi-dark
hallway. She glanced into a guest room, Luke’s office, and a
bathroom on route to the main part of the condominium. She now
stood in the great room and noticed the sun starting to set through
the opened blinds.

Christina didn’t see a light switch on
any nearby walls, so she headed to a table lamp, bumping the edge
of an overstuffed chair along the way. The light emitted a soft
glow around the room. From where she stood, she could see the
kitchen, a dining room, and a closed door to her left.

She took a slow stroll
around the luxury space.
Luke’s new place
was just as neat and extravagant as the one in New York. He loved
the finer things in life, and it showed in his taste in furniture,
fixtures and now that she was in the kitchen,
appliances.

After a quick glance in the kitchen,
Christina went back into the great room. She had never met a man
who kept everything so tidy. He had purchased another white pit set
that only took up a portion of the square footage, leaving plenty
of space to move about easily. The taupe color walls with white
trim complimented the décor of browns, sage, and burnt orange
sprinkled around the space.

She had two words for the decor –
interior designer. Luke might have been a neat freak, but he didn’t
have the first clue about decorating a home.

Christina froze when a painting on the
wall across the room caught her attention. Easing up to the
artwork, joy fluttered in her gut and a smile played on her lips.
It was one of hers. One of her abstracts. It was one of her earlier
pieces. The cool colors blended perfectly with the room design as
if specifically made for the space.

It was one thing to see her work
hanging on gallery walls or in her own home, but to see one of her
paintings displayed in someone else’s home excited her in a way she
hadn’t expected.

She stood staring at the picture
trying not to zone in on any flaws, but couldn’t stop herself from
thinking she should have used a darker blue. Like most artistic
people, she had yet to look at one of her pieces and not think
about what she could have done differently.

Feeling rested and excited, she turned
on her heels and almost did a happy dance back to Luke’s bedroom.
He had some explaining to do. She wanted to know when, where, and
how he’d found one of the first paintings she had ever
done.

*

Luke wasn’t sure what had awakened
him, but when he opened his eyes, Christina was standing near the
foot of the bed, leaning against one of the bedpost.

“
I hope you don’t mind, but
I used your shower. And I gave myself a tour of your
place.”

He lifted his head slightly. His
sleepy gaze raked lazily over her from the thick hair tumbled
around her shoulders to his dress shirt draping her body. He didn’t
have to wonder if she had anything on underneath. He knew her. She
hated clothes. It was a wonder she had bothered to put on anything.
Besides that, he could see her nipples hardened behind the light
material.

He groaned at that realization and
dropped his head back on the pillow, throwing his forearm over his
eyes. Damn his body for reacting. This woman and her enticing body
were going to be the death of him.

“
Make yourself at home.” He
wasn’t ready to get up. Actually, he wasn’t ready for her to get up
either. “C’mere. Come back to bed.” He held out his other arm and
heard her soft steps moving closer to the bed. When his hand met a
smooth thigh, he lifted the arm that was covering his eyes and met
her gaze.

Not needing any encouragement, she
climbed on top of him. When he had asked her to come back to bed,
his intentions were good, but now…

She squealed when he flipped her onto
her back, her beautiful smile a lot brighter than it had been
earlier.

“
I hope you’re not in a
hurry to leave. I have big plans for you.” Luke pushed a strand of
hair behind her ear.

Pulling his face to hers, Christina
kissed him with an intensity that left no doubt to what she wanted
and he was just the person to give it to her. Their tongues tangled
to a familiar rhythm, reminding him of how much he had missed her
taste, missed the feel of her nakedness beneath him. She was right
where she was supposed to be. Right there with him. For months,
Luke had wondered if he would ever have her in his arms again.
Wondered if he would ever get the chance to hold her, touch her,
love on her.

“
I’ve missed you,” he said
when he lifted his head, caressing her cheek. Her freshly showered
scent swirled around him, awakening the ardor he had only for her.
“You have no idea how I’ve missed you.”

She placed her hand on his jaw and
stared into his eyes. “Actually, I do. I love you so much. I
promise I never meant to hurt you. Never meant to ruin what we
had.”

Instead of responding, he covered her
mouth with his, nipping at her lower lip, then the top one. “Sweet.
So sweet,” he mumbled. He slid his hand down the side of her body,
appreciating every curve and dip. No bra. No panties. Easy access.
Just the way he liked it.