Put Me Back Together(61)

“I’m coming,” I called, the same words I’d spoken years before, but I put it out of my mind, because looking back was doing me no good. I wanted to look forward. So I cleared a path through the memories and ran after Lucas, hoping maybe, just maybe, we could look forward together.



This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened on my couch.

The moment we walked in the door of my apartment Lucas pulled me down onto it, seating me on his lap. I only had a second to think about the fact that I was literally sitting on top of him, every cake and ice cream-loving pound of me, when his mouth found mine. His hand ran up my thigh as though he wanted to start exactly where we’d left off in the car, and all thinking went right out the window.

“Finally alone,” Lucas said, the hand he’d placed on my thigh making a soft circular motion on my skin, making me feel very much as though I were a wind-up toy. With each turn of the circle, he was turning me on. “It was very forward thinking of you not to have any roommates,” he went on as he kissed across my jaw and over my chin, then downward, toward the low V-neck of my dress. “Thank you for orchestrating this moment.”

“Well, I aim to please,” I breathed as his mouth found the base of my cleavage, that place where my breasts intersected, and I felt his warm tongue lick me in that perfect spot, his hands griping my hips. The heat that had been rising between us sparked into a fire and I parted my lips and began to pant, afraid that if I didn’t I might burn right up.

This time he’d taken off his suit jacket along with his coat, and as my hands pressed into his shirt I could feel the muscles of his chest pressing back. What did a chest that felt like that look like, I wondered dizzily, and before I could stop myself I’d reached forward and unbuttoned the two top buttons of his shirt. My hands stilled and so did Lucas’s as we both realized what I’d just done.

“Are you undressing me, Miss Archer?” Lucas said, and though he was trying to tease his voice had suddenly gone hoarse.

“No,” I said quickly and perhaps not too convincingly, since I couldn’t pry my eyes away from the expanse of smooth, muscled chest I’d revealed. In a sudden fit of daring I leaned forward and placed a kiss in the exact spot he’d just kissed me, eliciting a tortured noise from deep in Lucas’s throat that I dearly wanted to hear again. And again. And again.

Leaning forward, I let my lips slide against Lucas’s cheek until I reached his ear. “When you make that noise, it makes me lose my mind,” I said. Then I leaned back again, letting my eyes meet his only to find they weren’t gold at all anymore. They were so dilated they were black as night.

Placing his hands under my arms, I felt Lucas lifting me slightly off of his lap and then back down again, this time with one leg on either side of his so I was straddling him. My breath caught in my throat at this sudden, more intimate position and I gripped his biceps hard as he slipped his hands up both my thighs this time, not stopping where he had before, but reaching farther, until his hands were cupping my ass under my dress.

It was at this moment that it occurred to me that maybe I should tell Lucas I was a virgin.

It wasn’t like I’d been keeping it from him. I just hadn’t thought the night would go like this. All our wrestling on the bed the night before had seemed like a distant dream after a night of no sleep, and by the time morning came I’d chalked it up to male hormones. My own hormones were a whole other matter. But never in a million years had I imaged that tonight I’d be straddling him on my couch, telling him he was making me lose my mind. Things like this just didn’t happen in my life. For good reason.

As his lips made their journey down my cleavage again, his mouth so incredibly close to my breasts that I thought I might go mad if he didn’t kiss them, my nervousness made me pant even harder.

Where did Lucas think this was going? I was pretty sure I knew where he wanted it to go, if the way his hands were gripping my ass was any indication. But every make-out session didn’t have to end in sex, did it? Or did it? What did I know? All I had to go on were Emily’s stories, and I could hear her voice in my head right now telling me this was Lucas Matthews. If Lucas knew one thing, it was how to screw, and girls all over campus wiggled right out of their panties at his very first kiss. Well, I hadn’t taken my panties off—although I realized I had mentioned that he might get to see them earlier—but I had started undressing him.

Oh God, I thought, is that some kind of a signal?

Was I leading him on? Was I a tease?

Did I want to have sex with Lucas tonight? Was I going to have sex with Lucas tonight?

I heard him sigh and bring his face up to meet mine, kissing me lightly on the mouth. “I’m getting the feeling I don’t have your full attention,” he said, pushing a lock of my hair behind my ear before returning his hand to my butt. He really seemed to like it down there.

“No, you do,” I lied. I wondered what I should do to make him stop looking at me with that questioning expression. Maybe kiss his chest again?

“Katie,” Lucas said softly. “I don’t know if you realize this, but your body is very responsive.”

I don’t think I’d ever turned beet red before. With my skin colour I didn’t even think it was possible. After that moment I didn’t have to wonder anymore. It was possible. My cheeks had never burned so hot in my life. I had to cover my face with my hands to block out my mortification. “Oh my God, shut up!” I cried.