An hour later, Luke pulled into the driveway of his Hamptons cottage. Dark, fall skies didn’t detract from the beauty of the beach and waves crashing on the shore. As pretty as it was, Evelyn couldn’t stop staring at the perfect little blue house. “This isn’t what I expected,” she said as she headed up the steps to the wooden, wraparound porch.
“Expecting a mansion?” Luke took the steps two at a time to beat her to the door and unlock it.
“Well, I hate to sound spoiled, but it’s rather shocking that your apartment in one of the most crowded places in the country is bigger than this.”
“My father bought this place right when he started making money. Not even he knew back then how big things were going to get. We’ve fixed the place up a few times over the years, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to make it any bigger. This was my father’s gift to himself and he loved it as is. I have some good memories of coming out here back in my college days.”
“Still bigger than my place,” she said as he held the door open for her.
The inside was the same upscale nautical theme as the outside. The front door opened to a living room that took up the entire right side of the house and was filled with natural light from the picture window that faced the beach. The walls were adorned with decorative anchors and a few other pieces of boat memorabilia, mostly blues and whites but with a touch of red here and there.
“It’s very charming.” She set her bag on the floor next to the couch and turned back to face Luke.
“Beautiful.” But Luke wasn’t looking at the cottage. He was looking straight at Evelyn.
“Flattery?”
“Truth.” And then he closed the distance between them, cupped her face between his palms and kissed her.
Evelyn didn’t think about fighting him. She’d known from the second she’d gone back to his apartment last night that this would happen. And, Lord help her, she didn’t want to fight him.
She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pressing her body into his, trying to feel every inch of him. He angled his head to kiss her deeper, his tongue teasing hers, and she was suddenly overcome. She’d waited too long for this. No more waiting.
Her fingers twisted in his shirt and pulled it up, breaking the kiss so she could pull it over his head, revealing his toned chest and abs. Abs that she could touch now. No pretenses. No one about to walk in and interrupt.
She skimmed the planes and ridges with the tips of her fingers, and her breath caught in her throat. Luke tilted her chin up and gave her another devastating kiss as he pulled at her shirt, reaching beneath it to spread his hands on the bare skin of her back. She gasped into his mouth at the sudden contact.
And he caught her gasp with his mouth before he moved to kiss along her jaw and down the sensitive cords of her neck, nipping her softly at the base before soothing the sting with his tongue.
Her moan seemed to set him off as he pulled her shirt off in one quick motion. He moved forward, pushing her back until her thighs hit the back of the couch, and he lifted her to sit at the edge. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he cupped her breasts, clad only in her black lace bra.
He pushed her breasts together, kissing the top of one, and then the other, before moving the cups down so the taut peaks were exposed. As though she had no control over herself, Evelyn arched her back, wordlessly telling him exactly what she wanted him to do.
And he obliged, taking one nipple in his mouth as his fingers caressed the other one with just the tips of his fingers.
Abruptly, he pulled away. He gripped her ass tightly as he pulled her up against his hard erection and carried her out of the living room. He kicked a door open with his foot and the rest of the room was a blur as he crossed to the bed and set her down.
Without waiting for him, Evelyn undid the button on her jeans and pushed them along with her panties over her hips. Luke was there to meet her, but he took his time pulling off the hard denim. He slowly pulled the material lower, kissing along the exposed thigh as he moved down, pausing to lick the delicate skin right along the side of her knee.
He pulled off her shoes and then the jeans, and she was completely bared to his gaze. But it was impossible to feel self-conscious when a man like Luke looked at her the way he was. As if she were the first woman he’d ever seen. As if she were made of gold or some other priceless artifact.
Then his hands were on her knees and spread her for his view. Her breath caught in her throat as he sat up on his knees, kissing the inside of her legs again, except this time, he was going up. As he trailed the kisses higher, sometimes nipping, sometimes kissing, he hooked her leg over his shoulder as he spread her wet folds.