Put Me Back Together(70)

Mariella smiled broadly at my irritation. “I guess what I’m really trying to say is when are you guys going to start screwing like bunnies, ‘cause I know you’re dying to.”

Before the words were even out of her mouth, I heard the bathroom door swing open and Lucas’s footsteps on the floor. My eyes flew wide open and Mariella pressed a hand to her mouth as Lucas stepped into the kitchen wearing nothing but a towel—one of mine. It had yellow daisies all over it. “Did I hear something about bunnies?” Lucas asked with mock curiosity, his dimples showing.

Openly staring at Lucas’s smooth and muscular bare chest, Mariella dropped her hand to display her mouth hanging wide open.


“Mariella was just leaving,” I said to my friend, shooting daggers at her with my eyes.

“Right, right,” she said, finally pulling her gaze away as Lucas retreated down the hall, chuckling. “Gotta get the offspring to school, a mother’s time is never her own and all that…”

As soon as she heard my bedroom door close, she leaned in toward me and whispered, “Oh my God. Have sex with that as soon and as often as you can, girl. I mean, do it right here on the kitchen counter if you have to!”

As I rolled my eyes, unable to stop myself from smiling, Lucas piped up from my room, almost as though he’d heard every word, “Goodbye, Mariella!”

“Bye!” she called with the widest grin imaginable, and scampered out the door.

Still shaking my head, I turned back to the eggs, which were burned into a solid yellow and brown mass. I could hardly focus enough to turn down the burner. Just imagining Lucas changing in the next room was making me dizzy. The image of his bare chest, which I’d never seen before—at least not all of it—kept floating into my mind as I tried cracking a new egg into the pan. It ended up on the floor.

“I’m pretty sure the five second rule doesn’t apply here,” Lucas said into my ear as he put his arms around me from behind. “But I promise to eat the egg off the floor if we can keep on discussing that bunny thing Mariella was talking about.”

“I have no idea what you’re referring to,” I said smoothly, turning around so I was facing him. He’d put on a t-shirt, which was slightly disappointing, but he was still wearing the towel. “And for your information, the egg on the floor was always going to be yours. I don’t believe in waste.”

“Really? Because it seems like we’re wasting tons of space right here,” Lucas said, grabbing me by the waist and pressing my body to his, our hips aligning almost automatically now. Immediately I felt him pressing against my leg, through his towel and my apron. He reached up and plucked my glasses from my face, putting them down on the counter. I closed my eyes and let a long breath escape from my mouth as he nuzzled my neck with his lips. Then our mouths connected and I felt his hands behind my back undoing the knot of my apron. The burner clicked off.

“I see your multitasking skills are improving,” I said breathlessly between kisses.

“I’ve been practicing,” he replied with a proud smile.

Picking me up by the waist, Lucas slid me onto the kitchen counter and then moved forward, pushing his hands into my hair as he continued to kiss me. Mariella’s earlier comment about the kitchen counter came to mind as I dropped the spatula and cupped his face with my hands. His groin was now pressing between my legs and my thin pajama bottoms offered almost no barrier. I gasped as I felt his fingers running up my back, under my tank top, though I wished he would move them around to the front. He’d still never touched my bare breasts and I was dying for him to. The feelings building up in the burning hot center of me were beginning to drive me wild and I made a noise, a combination of a groan and a growl, as I wrapped my legs around his hips.

“Katie…” Lucas said. I could feel him stilling his hands, pulling back. He was putting on the brakes again. “I don’t want to do anything that reminds you of… I don’t know why you’re so afraid of him, but you said he was violent. Did he ever try to—”

“He didn’t force himself on me,” I answered quickly.

“Oh, good,” he said, heaving a sigh of relief. “I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to do anything that would make you think of him or make you feel—”

“You don’t remind me of Brandon,” I said, interrupting him. And as I said the words I knew they were true. Maybe I had thought of Brandon the first time we kissed, but that was far behind me now. This was undiscovered territory, and being here with Lucas was the best thing I could imagine. “Besides, he never hurt me, not in the way you’re thinking. What he did…it has nothing to do with what’s happening right now. So can we stop talking about him, please? I’d much rather get back to this.” I tightened my legs around him.

“Forget breakfast,” Lucas mumbled, pulling me to the ground. Our lips hardly losing contact, we stumbled down the hall toward my bedroom. I walked through the door first and in that moment made the sudden decision to let Lucas know exactly how much I meant what I’d said. I pulled off my tank top and dropped it on the floor, then turned to face him.

His eyes dropped from my face to my chest and then he walked into the bed and fell onto it face first.

I let out an open-mouthed laugh and climbed onto the bed as he turned onto his side, looking foolish. “Is it my imagination, or is Lucas Matthews blushing?” I said teasingly as he pulled me toward him. Just the feeling of his hands against my bare skin, the most skin I’d ever shown him, was enough to shut me up.