Chapter Twenty-Seven: Fall Hard, Fight Forever-2

"I have to touch you," Luke whispered before taking my mouth for a quick, rough kiss and pressing me against the now-warmed surface of the tiled wall. I smiled against his kiss. "I'm pretty sure you're already doing that." "If I were, you'd know it," he said as he lifted my left leg and setting my foot on the narrow ledge of the tub at the corner closest to us. I could feel his hot, hard length brush against my belly, thrusting up and down between us. His hand dipped into the V between my legs, his long fingers easing into slick folds that clenched at his entrance. My breathing grew ragged when his thumb settled on that button at my core, draining the strength from my legs and replacing it with liquid lust. Mindless with the maddening rhythm Luke had set on me, my hands fumbled from his shoulders to his chest to the small gap between us until my fingers wrapped around corded, velvet-skin-covered steel. Luke's groan was shaky, his mouth finding my shoulder and his teeth biting softly into my skin as my hand exerted some pressure, the tip of my finger settling in the indentation on the head. "Dammit." His voice was soft but raspy as his free hand groped for the shower knob and turned the water off. "I can't last like this." He let me down on both my feet, leaving me slightly disoriented and empty as he grabbed us a big, fluffy towel and rubbed it on both of us with swift, minimal movements. Both of us still lightly dripping, he carried me out of the tub and toward the bed. He set me down on my feet again, cupping my face with both hands and kissing me deeply until the fire in our blood glowed even hotter than it did in the shower. He reached down into the nightstand drawer for a quick second before he flung the bed covers aside. He climbed up and leaned against the pile of pillows stacked against the wrought-iron headboard, his arm stretching out to curl around my waist and hoist me on top of him with one strong sweep. His mouth anchored on my breasts again, his tongue and lips and teeth inflicting a combined assault that had me gasping his name and arching for a deeper and sweeter contact. "Ride me," he rasped as he released my breasts, his eyes glinting a cerulean blue in the dim light of the room like flames being fed more heat. He ripped open the condom packet he'd crumpled in his hand and rolled it on himself in three seconds flat-expert level, for sure. Straddling his lips and bracing my hands against his strong, broad shoulders, I lifted myself up on my knees and eased slowly on the tip of him to find a comfortable angle. Our gazes never wavering from each other, I pushed myself down on his entire length in one stroke, drawing out long moans from each other. I felt every inch of him fill the ache inside of me and still, he grew harder and bigger. Luke's eyes fluttered close for a moment, a heavy, damp lock of hair falling across his forehead. His face was taut with sensual torture, his teeth catching his lower lip as he shifted his hips to plunge even deeper inside of me. "Maxine... Maxine..." The sound of my name rushed past his lips like a fervent prayer, his chest heaving with effort when I started to move, building a rhythm that was at first fast and shallow and then hard and deep. I still didn't know a lot about lovemaking but I did know one thing-the closer and deeper I could have Luke, the better and that instinct guided the wild, reckless ride I took both of us through. At first, his hands gripped the iron railings of the headboard, his knuckles white from the effort as if he couldn't trust himself to let go. I lowered my head and brushed a kiss against the tip of his nose, murmuring an 'I love you' before clamping my thighs more tightly around him. Finally, his fingers dug into the softness of my hips, his own movements losing control as I met him thrust for thrust. He groaned out his release first-hoarse and violent and trailing off with broken gasps-a surrender so raw and explosive it catapulted me into my own soul-shattering climax right behind him. Perhaps, despite the strong front we put on today, we were just a little desperate, a little afraid of what we might lose. But we were stubborn about loving each other and wanting to prove that the risks we took were worth everything we gained in taking them. This close, this deep together-absolutely nothing could come between us. It was maybe an hour later, when we were wrapped in each other under the covers, warm and comfortable and sleepy, that the power of speech came back to us. "What was your first reaction when you heard you were going to be a father?" I asked Luke as my fingers absently made small circles on his forearm. "Considering it was coming from Lola and instantly registering as an outrageous lie, I was furious." I laughed. "Okay, maybe let me rephrase my question. What was your first reaction to just the possibility of being a father? Of creating this new little human being with someone?" Luke tilted his face down at me, his eyes searching my face for a scant moment before his hand made its way to my bare stomach where it rested. "In a few years, I hope to create that new little human being with you. And thinking about it, of the possibility, does something funny to my heart where it constricts and also expands at the same time." A smile softened the serious expression on his face. "We'll love our children, Max, and we'll do our damnedest to be good parents to them. Maybe that way, they'll be less afraid of love than either of us were. And maybe that's the most we can do to ensure they'll be happy." My cheeks hurt to smile, probably because I was holding them in with the effort not to cry, so instead of looking like a crazy person, I buried my face in Luke's chest. As swept away as we were with the romance and passion of a new love, I had no doubt that after the trials of today and our quiet dreams of the future tonight, Luke and I realized that what we had would eventually become more than just the two of us-and that it would be for forever. *** The next week and a half went on as smoothly as we could hope for considering the circumstances. Despite the ever-growing public interest that the media only happily fueled by churning out one tabloid cover after another, us and our immediate friends and family kept their mouths shut. Luke had formally filed a lawsuit against Lola and the rest was in the legal team's hands. Of course, Lola countersued and stupidly did more interviews just to toss more gas into the fire. It promised to be nasty and it would be a while before we were fully dragged out of the mud.