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The guy was genuine and hard-working, all right, and he’d gone out of his way to be as honourable as possible with Lizzie. But Luke knew honour and integrity took you only so far when twenty-something hormones were involved. So he intended to keep an eye on them both. He couldn’t exactly stop the two of them from getting together, he knew that, but that didn’t mean he was letting the boy get up to anything on his watch.
‘My God, Aldo,’ Halle said, tripping over the fairly major mess Aldo had yet to pick up as she went to hang up her coat. ‘What happened here? It looks like a Lego–Yu-Gi-Oh! apocalypse.’
Aldo got off his hands and knees and dumped some more of the Lego into the box. Luke stealed himself for what he might say to Halle about the almost-smacking incident. He would have some explaining to do, but he could handle it, now that Aldo and he had come to an understanding. And if everything went as he hoped later on tonight, once he and Halle were alone, Aldo wouldn’t just be his responsibility by virtue of that agreement.
‘The Harry Potter castle broke,’ Aldo said, being very economical with the truth. ‘But Dad said he would play football with me if I picked it all up.’
Love and pride blossomed in Luke’s chest as Halle’s head whipped round and she mouthed the word ‘Dad?’ to him, looking stunned but happy.
Lizzie and Trey had heard it, too, because Trey was smiling at him and Lizzie had her hand over her mouth, her eyes sheened with emotion.
Luke lifted his eyebrows at all three of them as Aldo began gathering up the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
Yeah, that’s right, get over it, folks.
‘Aldo’s correct. My son and I have an important match planned for later,’ he said, just as nonchalantly as Aldo. ‘But first things first. Lizzie, Trey, you guys set the table.’ He began directing the troops. ‘And, Hal, stop standing there and crack open some wine. I’ve had a really bloody exhausting day.’
Halle hummed her favourite Sam Smith ballad as the hot water pounded tired muscles, a secret smile flitting over her lips the way it had been all evening. Ever since she’d walked into the house two hours ago, after breaking Trey and Lizzie apart from a very hot-looking clinch on the basement stairs, to find Luke carving a delicious roast dinner in the kitchen, and her son … She paused to rinse her hair … Their son actually doing what he was told for once.
She sung the first few lines of the chorus in her offkey voice as the happiness engulfed her, steaming up the shower cubicle.
She couldn’t wait for Christmas morning tomorrow. Waking up with Luke wrapped around her, the presents all waiting under the tree in the living room. Including one very important one that she’d made specially this afternoon at the cake studio. A miniature Christmas cake in the shape of a football pitch with ‘Marry Me’ inscribed in flowing blue letters on the top.
The secret smile split into a grin. Maybe it was forward of her, but she really didn’t care. She’d waited for Luke to pop the question, but she suspected that there was still enough of the young rebel inside him to consider marriage unnecessary. Especially as they all had his name anyway. In her more paranoid moments she’d also wondered if he had avoided the issue because her net income was more than his. Male pride was one of those tricky things you had to tiptoe around occasionally. But she’d done enough tiptoeing. She wanted to start the next phase of their journey, to have him move in permanently, especially after Aldo’s little declaration tonight, and for her that meant making it official. So she was putting Luke on the spot tomorrow morning, whether he liked it or not.
She jolted as the shower door opened and cool hands settled on her stomach.
‘You’re freezing,’ she yelped as Luke’s long chilly body pressed against her back and cold lips nibbled her neck.
‘That’s because I’ve been playing football for the past half hour in below-freezing temperatures with our son,’ he murmured, the humour in his voice warming her even more than the press of his erection against her buttocks.
Our son.
She turned in his arms to wrap her arms round his neck. The hot water flowed down his back as steam rose off those magnificent shoulders and dewed his devastating face. ‘When did it happen? When did he start calling you “Dad”?’
Luke’s sensual lips quirked in a lopsided smile. ‘I’ll tell you all about it later, but first …’ His hands clasped her waist and dragged her against him, until his erection butted her belly. ‘I need to get my circulation flowing again before I lose a limb.’
Reaching down, she circled his penis, soapy fingers running up and down the huge shaft as her sex clenched with anticipation. ‘This limb feels fairly solid to me,’ she teased.
He chuckled then, dragging her hand away, whisked her round, until her hands were braced against the wall, and strong hands bracketed her hips, positioning her.
His fingers parted her folds to circle the aching bud of her clitoris while he pressed into her from behind.
‘How about we test that theory?’ he murmured against her neck.
And her delighted laugh turned into a soft sob of pleasure.
‘So what’s the story?’ she asked, half an hour later, as she sat at her dressing table in her robe and watched Luke, his naked body gilded by lamplight, as he dried himself with rough strokes of the towel. ‘With you and Aldo?’
Despite an earth-shattering orgasm in the shower, her sex got a little moist and she wriggled on the seat, already anticipating the long night ahead, as he rubbed the towel over his groin.
Good Lord, the man has turned me into a total sex junkie.
He looked up, his hair arranged in haphazard tufts as he hooked the towel around his waist, the easy smile so endearing her heart clenched, right alongside her sex.
And not just a sex junkie. My name is Halle Best and I am a Luke-aholic.
‘We made an agreement,’ he said as he walked across the room to pick his jeans up off the floor, then pulled something out of the pocket. ‘I get to be his dad if I agree to play football with him whenever he wants. Or maybe it was the other way around.’
