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“Mmh—move,” he growled.
She shifted her hands to cling tightly to his shoulders and began to rock up to meet him, and Luke let out a rough moan, moving faster in in response.
Rose groaned, her hips grinding hard into his as she fought to keep his pace. Luke held tight to her hip, rocking steadily, the nips he left along her neck and his thrusting enough to drive her crazy. She lost track of how long they moved together, her body humming with pleasure at the feeling of the man she had never stopped loving within her. Her nails dug into his shoulders, and he drew in a sharp breath. She muttered an apology, but he shook his head, kissing the hollow of her throat.
At last, the heat within her burst, and she cried out, her body embracing him tightly as waves of pleasure rolled through her. She felt him catch his breath and felt how hard he struggled to continue moving to prolong her ecstasy, and after a few more thrusts, he groaned roughly as he came. He rested his head against her shoulder, each of them breathing heavily.
After a moment, she lifted a hand to trail her fingers through his hair, trembling through she was. “I missed you,” she breathed.
“I missed you, too.” He kissed her softly and slid out of her before dropping down beside her and pulling her into his arms. She scooted close and rested her head on his chest.
Everything is going to be fine, she told herself as she felt sleep pulling her in.
Chapter Three
When Luke’s tired mind processed the warmth of another body against his, his eyes snapped open. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of Rose lying beside him, her face peaceful. So it hadn’t been a dream, then. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad one, but even though he hated to admit it to himself, he wasn’t ready for this to end. This had always been his favorite way to wake up—beside her, nothing separating their skin except when the sheets got caught between them. He’d been convinced he’d never experience this again. Not with her. That was the real trouble, after all: she was the only one he really wanted this with, and he’d been convinced once that this was how every morning would begin for the rest of their lives.
And then he’d lost her.
***
Four Years Ago
He heard her scream from the bar.
He let the glass slip from his fingers and shatter on the floor, not giving it another thought. He started at a dead run for the table he had vacated only long enough to stop by the restroom and buy another drink. Surely, he’d thought before leaving, nothing could possibly go wrong in the time he would be gone. His fiancée and his two high school teammates could be alone together for no more than five minutes.
The scene he found himself hurtling toward as he reached the dark back corner told him otherwise. Lorenzo had Rose pinned to the wall, his body trapping her against it. He kept a tight hold on one of her arms while Calvin held her other wrist.
Luke didn’t hesitate for an instant. He hurtled toward them and lunged for Lorenzo, grabbing his neck just below his dark hair and pulling him back roughly to send him to the floor. Still, Lorenzo was on his feet again before Luke could reach Calvin. He drove his fist hard into Luke’s stomach, and Luke let out a sharp breath and fought hard to keep himself from doubling over. He ignored the pain long enough to swing his elbow at Lorenzo’s face. The sound of the impact with the other man’s jaw was sickening, and Lorenzo stumbled backward.
Luke ignored Calvin for the moment and started toward Rose. He reached for her shoulder gently. She was shaking and using the wall for support, and the convulsing of her shoulders told him she was weeping, her face buried in her hands.
“Are you all r—?”
In the corner of his vision, Luke saw the chair coming toward them. He shifted to take the entirety of the blow with his back and keep it from hitting Rose, and he had only a fraction of a second to realize that Calvin had been the one to use the chair as a weapon before his body registered exactly how much pain it was in. He stumbled into the wall, throwing up his arms to catch himself and gritting his teeth against the agony. His shoulder blade throbbed, and he didn’t want to pause to consider whether it was broken or whether the ribs that ached with every breath were, either.
He whipped around, pain shooting white-hot through his body with the sudden movement, and drove his fist as hard as he could into Calvin’s nose. When the other man fell to the floor, Luke followed, punching him in the stomach, the chest, the face, wherever he could reach. He had never been more furious in his life, and these men he’d once called “friends” were not about to lay another hand on his fiancée. When at last he pulled back, Luke hovered over Calvin, processing for the first time that his knuckles were bloody. Calvin was curled into a ball on the floor, his nose spurting blood through his fingers, and Lorenzo still hadn’t moved from where he’d fallen after the blow to his jaw.
Luke turned slowly to face Rose, and he found that she had gone.
“Wait, where…?”
The sound of the front door closing reached his ears, and he looked up see the rest of the patrons staring at him, mouths hanging open and phones out. With a sickening roll of his stomach, Luke realized they were probably recording him. He could see the headlines now—“Senator’s Son Beats Man Senseless in Bar Brawl.”
He pushed himself to his feet and moved for the door without bothering to collect his jacket. He flung himself out into the downpour, scanning the street for Rose. When he saw her retreating form, her strawberry-blond hair drenched and sticking to her red coat, he ran as quickly as he could to catch up with her.
“Rose! Wait a minute, listen to me! Come back!”
His feet displaced another large burst of water with every step he took toward her. As he watched, a semi-truck flew past, sending a wave crashing onto her from a puddle in the road. She drew her scarlet coat tighter around her as she walked swiftly away from him, and he silently cursed himself for everything he had done to let this happen.
Five minutes. He’d been gone no more than five minutes, and now his world was tumbling down around him. He hadn’t imagined in his darkest nightmares that leaving his fiancée alone with two men he’d thought he could trust would end this badly. Calvin and Lorenzo knew how much he loved Rose. Had they really expected him not to fight as hard as he physically could to protect her? How drunk had they been to try anything in the first place?
“Please, listen to me.”
Reaching her at last, Luke caught her arm. She spun to face him, her blue eyes furious.
“What you saw back there, that was… It wasn’t me.”
