The Lucky in Love Collection Read online

  But this second goes further. It feels emotional. It feels possible, like we could be more than two housemates who are hot for each other.

  Trouble is, I don’t know how we stay on this level. I don’t know if she wants to.

  With my gaze locked on hers, I swallow then ask an open-ended question. “So where do we go from here?”

  She throws it right back at me. “Where do you want to go?”

  And maybe this is the snuggling question all over again. Maybe it’s best if we focus tonight on the horizontal.

  “I feel like you’re not out of my system.” The words don’t quite come out like seduction. They come out like the truth. They have a double meaning, although I suspect the bedroom definition is easier for both of us.

  “I feel like you’re not out of my system either.” She punctuates her words with a soft, barely-there kiss. A kiss that seems to reveal that maybe we’re on the same page.

  But pages like this are hard to stay on when you’re not entirely sure.

  They’re hard to stay on, too, when you’re hard.

  She wraps a leg over my hip.

  I yank her body against mine, bringing her closer. “So, should we try to get out of each other’s systems a few more times?”

  Her eyes are flirty, giving me the answer I need for now. “I think that’s a really great idea. You do make me feel pretty damn good.”

  “I can make you feel good again, kitten.”

  “Is that so?”

  “I can definitely give you more of the feel-good factor.”

  Her eyes sparkle. “I’ll take it. Why don’t we work on feeling good till the kissing contest?”

  I smile. “It’s a deadline.”

  “It’s a deadline,” she repeats.

  A deadline and a deal.

  I roll her to her back, put on a condom, and do everything I can to get us out of our systems.

  26

  Perri

  Jansen points at me, shaking a finger in admiration. “You’re brilliant.”

  I beam as we talk in his office the next day. “That sounds possible, doesn’t it? An inside job?” Excitement blasts through me as I review the details I didn’t share with Derek last night.

  From his spot behind the desk, Jansen lifts his coffee cup, nodding as he drinks. “Sounds not only possible, but likely.”

  I tap the desk. “And insurance money has to be the motive.”

  “I agree with you there. I’ll review it later, but good work on this, Keating.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  I leave his office, walking on sunshine and hope.

  For the rest of the day, I have to force myself to stop smiling. To wear my serious cop face as I finish my patrol work. But inside, I swear I can taste the promotion. I’m reaching for it. I feel it in my grasp.

  When I leave the station that evening, I’m the one bopping down the steps, and it’s not because of a viral video or a dance move. It’s because I might have proven I’m the best man and the best woman for the job.

  I don’t feel an ounce of guilt for going after the promotion and trying my hardest to nab it. I flash back to Derek’s advice from the other night. He was right. He kept me focused. He kept me from spiraling into a worry that’s far too common for women. And I’m damn grateful because I love my job and I love this town.

  I head straight to Helen’s Diner, where I’m meeting the girls. Vanessa and Arden have already snagged a booth, with menus spread out in front of them, even though we all know every item by heart.

  I’m glowing when I reach the table and stand before them with arms spread like I’m about to make a pronouncement.

  Arden studies me. “My, my. Don’t you look like the cat who ate a couple of tasty canaries?”

  I thrust my arms in the air in victory. “They were delicious canaries, because I’m pretty sure I just cracked a case.”

  Vanessa cheers then offers a hand to high-five. I smack her palm and slide in next to her. “It’s CSI Lucky Falls–style,” Vanessa adds.

  “You know it.” I take a deep breath. “Also, I’m going to tell you something that’s going to literally not shock either of you one bit.”

  “Your brother is driving you crazy?” Arden offers.

  “You bought more olives?” Vanessa suggests.

  Arden goes again. “You finished knitting the pink sweater in one evening on account of sexual frustration?”

  Vanessa takes her turn. “You’re hungry?”

  I laugh at how they’ve nailed me on every single point. But still, that’s not what I want to tell them, so I roll my eyes. “It’s like you don’t even know me. I’m seriously disappointed in both of you. Try harder,” I say, emphasizing the last word.

  Arden’s brown eyes bulge. Vanessa’s jaw drops, and she shoves my shoulder. “You didn’t?”

  I wiggle my shoulders. “I did. I slept with Derek last night.”

  “How was it? Scale of one to multiple orgasms?” Vanessa asks.

  Arden snaps her gaze to Vanessa, giving her a you can’t be serious stare. “Look at Perri’s face. It screams so satisfied. I’m betting she had a lot more than one.”

  I grin wildly as I hold up three fingers. “Twice the first round. One in the second. It was literally the best sex ever in the entire universe.”

  Vanessa squeals. “Tell us everything.”

  I give them more details, but I don’t share everything. I don’t tell them how Derek’s dark eyes lingered possessively on me the whole time. Nor do I tell them how intensely he talks to me, how he looks at me like I’m the only woman he’s ever wanted this much, this deeply. I don’t share how he cuddled me like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. And I definitely don’t say how much that snugglefest made my heart squeeze with a strange new happiness. With wonder. With a sprinkle of possibility.

  After we order and the server brings waters, Arden adopts a more serious look. “How on earth do you plan on balancing all of this? Doing the roomie, and having him as the roomie? Are you guys actually going to be together?”

  I scoff. “No. He doesn’t want a relationship. Nor do I.” I shrug, keeping it light. “We’ve agreed we’ll get this sex out of our systems until the kissing contest next weekend, and then we’ll move on.”

  Vanessa chokes on her water, nearly spitting it on the table. “Are you kidding me? You think that’s possible?”

  “Of course. It’s absolutely possible. We’re adults. We can do this like adults. We said we would.”

  “But how do you do that?” Vanessa presses. “How do you turn it off?”

  I imitate turning a knob. “You just do. There’s no other choice.”

  “Keep telling yourself that, sister.”

  “You don’t think I can?”

  Arden chimes in, “I don’t think anyone can. But I also think you actually like him.”

  Vanessa adjusts the way her turquoise-and-red twin sweater set falls on her shoulders. “I think you passed Like Street twenty miles ago, sweetie. You’re cruising down Falling Hard for Him Highway. Now you’ve added great sex to the route? You’re pretty much on a one-way road to a relationship. Not that I’d know. It’s been a long time since I traveled down that lane.”

  Arden pats her hand. “There, there. You’ll get to Hot Sex Town soon enough. You’re just taking the back roads.” My blonde friend turns to me. “But I second everything Vanessa says.”

  “I’m not on a road to anything but winning the contest.” I fold my hands together. “Speaking of, how are you girls doing with your charity projects? All our birthdays are coming up soon, and Vanessa is doing a wine and bowling competition for fire relief. What about you, Arden?”

  She sears me with her dark eyes. “I’m doing great. I’m starting a ‘round up your purchase to the nearest dollar’ campaign for children’s literacy at my store. But don’t think you can change the subject.”

  “But I thought our projects were the subject,” I say coyly.

  “Your
project has moved well beyond charity,” Vanessa adds.

  “Just be careful,” says Arden. “You started this because you were attracted to him. Then he moved in and you felt you had to shut off the faucet of lust. But now, all of a sudden, the faucet is running full blast.”

  “Faucets, roads, kissing contests. It’s all good,” I say, waving a hand airily. “We have a deadline and a deal, so it’ll be fine.”

  “Just be careful. You’re so tough on the outside, and I get it—you have to be for your job.” She reaches across the table and lightly pokes my belly. “But you’re really a softie.”

  I wiggle away. “We’ll be fine. Neither one of us wants anything more.”

  Vanessa lifts a doubtful brow. “You say that, but do you still mean it?”

  I lift my chin, choosing to mean it. Needing to believe it. “Of course.”

  But there’s an ounce of a doubt weighing on the back of my mind, and it’s becoming heavier.

  Because last night was more than just pent-up desire. It was more than three orgasms.

  Derek and I didn’t simply snuggle postcoitally, all casual and we-can-handle-this cool. We snuggled until the sun rose, when he stretched those ropy arms over his head and dropped a morning kiss to my forehead. I whispered a hoarse good morning before I hopped out of bed to go to work.

  It was the feel-good factor and more, because he makes me feel good physically and emotionally.

  But I know that temporary hot sex is all it can be. And really, I remind myself, that’s all I want.

  When I arrive home later, after a workout and a shower, at least there’s no doubt what I want when I find this note on the chalkboard:

  Your room. 10 p.m. Get out your cuffs or a scarf.

  27

  Derek

  She chooses the scarf.

  “Tell me why you picked this,” I tell her as I tie the silky green fabric around her wrists and to the bedposts.

  “Because when you use cuffs on me, I want the fur-lined kind.”

  When. I love that she says when. I tighten the knot. “Then I better get you some furry cuffs, kitten. For tonight, this’ll do.”

  “It’ll definitely do.” Her voice is breathless. Her body is breathtaking. She’s lithe, long, and willing.

  Eager too.

  Still fully dressed, I crawl over her and lower my mouth to her neck, pressing a soft, tender kiss to the hollow of her throat.

  Gasping, she arches beneath me. I brush my lips down her body, over her throat, through the valley of her breasts, detouring to her tits, with their rosy nipples tipped up and begging for attention. “Last night,” I rasp against her skin, “you made me fuck you hard and fast to put you out of your misery.”

  She moans as I suck on a nipple. “You wanted it too.”

  I let go and leave a trail of kisses down her belly, lavishing attention all over her skin. My God, she tastes intoxicating. “I did. But tonight I want to take my time, like I promised the day I met you.”

  She whimpers, lifting her hips, asking for more. “You’re cruel.”

  “I’m terrible,” I whisper as I reach one delicious hipbone then lick.

  “Oh God,” she moans, and I grab her hips, keeping her in place.

  “I’m going to spend my sweet time pleasing you. I’m going to take as long as I need to devour your body. I’m going to get drunk on your taste, kitten.”

  “Tease.” She strains against the scarf, and I smile wickedly, pleased as sin. I plan to pleasure her till she cries out again and again.

  “It’s only a tease if I don’t deliver, and I’ll deliver.” I kiss the top of her curls, and she bows her back, moaning my name. My cock throbs against my zipper, begging to be set free. All in due time. This is about her. This is about giving her the pleasure she deserves. Because she does. She’s sexy and sarcastic and sassy, and underneath all that, she has a soft heart and a sweetness that I fucking . . .

  I stop myself from even thinking about what I feel for her. I part her legs and focus on the physical as I inhale deeply her addictive scent. “You smell delicious.”

  “Why don’t you get closer?”

  I look up, grinning, loving how much she wants this. She’s gazing down at me, desperation in her eyes. “I’m pretty close,” I say, though I’m inches away.

  “Please,” she whispers.

  “Aww, you want me to lick your sweet pussy right fucking now, don’t you?”

  She lifts her hips, seeking my mouth. “Yes.”

  I kiss her right thigh, groaning as I make my way down to her knee.

  “Derek,” she moans.

  “Ask again.”

  “Please go down on me.”

  I move to her other leg. “One more time. Tell me one more time.”

  She cries out in frustration. “Go down on me. Please, go down on me now. Go down on me this goddamn second.”

  I lick my way up her thigh, reaching the apex, and then I gaze at her face. “Spread your legs. Spread them nice and wide for me. Show me how wet you are. Show me how much you want my mouth on you.”

  She takes no time parting her legs wider, her knees falling open, giving me unfettered access to the paradise between her thighs.

  My hard-on hammers against my jeans. This woman. Fuck, she glistens for me. “God, you’re so sexy it should be a crime.”

  “But it’s not, so just please, please, please go down on me.”

  “If you insist.” I dip my face between her legs, and I draw one lingering line up her wetness. My eyes float closed, and I groan in tandem with her. “Fuck, you’re delicious.”

  She tastes like salt and sin, like honey and lust. She’s so fucking wet I want to bury my face in her juices.

  So I do. I lick and I kiss and I suck. I can feel her all over my chin and my jaw, and it’s intense.

  “Oh God,” she cries out, bucking and thrashing.

  Holy fuck, she’s thrashing already.

  I reward her passion, fucking her with my tongue. She moans. “So good, so good.”

  And I make it even better when I add a finger, crooking it deep inside her.

  She practically shoots up off the bed, then she grinds down on my fingers, fucking them as I fuck her pussy with my tongue and lips and fingers.

  Soon we’re both growling like animals, losing our minds with pleasure till Perri shouts my name, spreading her legs even wider and rocking against my face.

  She comes gloriously, flooding my tongue with her sweetness, her screams of pleasure bathing my ears. Her climax is the stuff dirty dreams are made of. I kiss her softly till she comes down.

  She’s smiling, grinning like a dopey fool, when she opens her eyes and issues a husky demand. “Give me your cock.”

  And I’m all too happy to oblige. I stand, shuck off my clothes, and bring my hard length to her lips. I let her lick the tip, and I grunt because the sensation of her tongue on my dick is out of this world.

  “Are you going to fuck my mouth while I’m tied up?”

  I stare darkly at her. “Don’t tempt me.”

  “Is that what you want? To fuck my mouth while I’m like this?”

  I shake my head. “No, kitten. I want you down on your knees, because I want to wrap my hands in your hair while I fuck your mouth.”

  She shivers, and I know she wants it too. I untie her, and she scrambles to the floor. In seconds, she’s taken me deep.

  Pleasure shoots through me instantly, running wildly through my cells, spreading to every inch of my body. Perri sweeps her tongue up and down, then swirls it around the head. Bringing her closer, I fill her mouth, thrusting into her as she sucks me so hard, I can’t see straight.

  I don’t want to see.

  I want to feel, and feel I do when the most intense orgasm blasts through me as she tugs on my balls, making it so fucking good, and I come in her throat.

  After, I tug her into my arms and kiss her. She kisses me back with a brand-new ferocity. In seconds, we’re wrapped around each other, arms,
legs, hands. We’re a tangle of limbs and heat. She kisses me deeply as I tug that lush body against mine, my hands exploring her, hers exploring me as we kiss madly. We kiss for minutes, for hours, forever, it seems. I can’t stop kissing her. I don’t want to leave her room. Don’t want to stop what we’re doing. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not in the near future.

  But at some point, I do break the kiss, because the need for words becomes more powerful. “I couldn’t stop thinking of you today.”

  Her lips part. Her eyes lock on mine. “It was the same for me.”

  I kiss her again. “You’re in my head, kitten. I thought about getting you naked again all day long.” But that’s not even the half of it. I thought of her—all of her.

  “All day, Derek. I wanted to touch you so badly. Wanted to kiss you.”

  And it’s not lust that radiates in my bones right now. It’s something much more powerful. Something deeper. “I fucking love kissing you,” I whisper, because that’s all I’ll let myself say.

  “Kiss me all night.”

  I tuck my finger under her chin. “Sleep with me again.”

  She meets my gaze with her naughty one. “I was planning on that.”

  I shake my head. “No. I mean spend the night with me. In my arms. After.”

  “Yes. I want that. I want you.”

  Soon I’m inside her again, and it’s spectacular, even better than last night. I have to wonder if we’re having the kind of sex that will only get better. If it’s the kind that shoots through the roof as your feelings escalate, because I’m pretty sure the roof is the direction my feelings are headed.

  The next morning, I get out of bed first and make her breakfast, and the look on her face when I serve her eggs and toast makes me feel like I hung the moon.

  This pride makes me want to do it again for her.

  And again and again.

  Every damn day.

  28

  Perri