Luke felt his lips curve up into a smile in spite of every unanswerable question. He lifted her and carried her with him so that she sprawled across his chest. “Better?”
She sighed deeply and rested her cheek on his shoulder. “Much better.” After a moment she propped her chin in one hand and grinned at him. “No complaints at all.”
He couldn’t quite reach her lips, so he satisfied himself with the gentlest of kisses on her forehead. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“You see? It wasn’t so bad after all.” She reached up to tug at the hair that had fallen into his eyes. “Unless I’m very much mistaken, it wasn’t entirely horrible for you either—was it?”
Luke almost chuckled at the hint of insecurity in her tone. “No. Far from horrible. Incomparable.”
She dropped her eyes and peered up at him coyly from under her lashes. “I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”
The smile eased from his face. He felt his fingers tighten where they rested on her upper arms. “There are no others. Never again.” He willed her to understand what he dared not say. “Only you, Joelle.Always.”
She searched his face, her own grin fading. “You have a way of getting so blasted grim sometimes. You’re going to keep playing mystery man, even now that you’ve had your way with me?”
Sighing deeply, Luke closed his eyes. Even now, he could not tell her. “There are some things—things that I can’t explain, Joelle.” He opened his eyes and traced her cheekbone with one finger, as delicately as he would caress a snowflake. “Just be with me. Stay with me.”
Her brows drew together in a puzzled frown, but she could not maintain the expression long, she dropped her chin to his chest and stretched her arms to either side of his head, tangling her fingers in his hair.
“Someday I’m going to figure you out, Luke Gévaudan. I’ve never met a puzzle I couldn’t solve.”
“Take all the time you need, Joelle,” he murmured, pulling her up so that her cheek brushed his. So incredibly soft. “Take a lifetime.”
For an instant her body grew rigid in his arms and then just as quickly relaxed. Her breathing took on the slow, deep cadence that comes just before sleep; he stroked her back from the base of her spine to the nape of her neck, gentling her beyond the need for questions.
“Luke?” Her voice was lazy music. “Say my name again. I like the way you say it.”
He trembled with the intensity of his need for her. “Joelle.” He breathed her name as he breathed in the unique fragrance of her hair. “Joelle.” Her muscles grew loose against him, her body languid with sleep. “Never leave me, Joelle. Never leave me.”
His words echoed in darkness and silence.
Chapter Thirteen
Joey’s fingers brushed across the raw-silk texture of his skin as she woke. For a moment, her eyes still heavy-lidded with sleep, she took in the feel of it, inhaling the warm masculine scent under her cheek. Her senses were so finely tuned, even now, that a thousand subtle messages came to her at once: the deep, gentle pulse of his heartbeat, the bite of cold air kept at bay by the heat of their intertwined bodies, the scents that were uniquely hers and Luke’s mingled with those of the dry needles and leaves that lay scattered under them. Luke’s breath tickled her hairline, his big hand resting with infinite tenderness on her shoulder. She could feel each place where his body touched hers with such delightful intensity that it made the various aches and scrapes and bruises fade to insignificance.
Luke stirred. The very pleasant pillow of his chest hardened as he arched and stretched, she shifted to accommodate his movements and matched them with a long, luxurious stretch of her own. When he was still again, she snuggled against him and sighed deeply, her breath teasing the wiry hair under her cheek as she drew her fingers down over his ribs and the hard-ridged planes of his belly.
This time Luke’s motion was far from casual. His hand came down to stop the exploration just shy of its mark, flattening to trap hers. He dwarfed her everywhere, and that was no exception, she let her hand rest where he held it under his and arched her fingers just enough to register a protest.