AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And why not? They were two consenting adults. They knew each other well—well enough to press each other’s buttons, especially now that Matt was no longer there to be the steadying influence between them.
If Lukas could stand there, leaning against the doorjamb of her office looking sexy as sin in a light tan suit, a dark brown shirt and a green, jungle-patterned tie that brought out the gold in his hair and the jade in his eyes, why shouldn’t she flirt a little in return?
“If you keep looking at me like that, it’s a promise.” Lukas shoved away from the doorjamb, pushed the door shut and locked it behind him.
Holly felt a kick of desire go straight through her as he advanced purposefully across the room. She stood and came around the desk, meeting him head-on. “How nice you had a meeting with the mayor,” she said, purring as she reached for him—and his tie. She loosened it and slipped it off his neck. “I think I can find a use for this.”
She found a use for it. Several. Both on the sofa in his office and later that night in his bed.
It was heady and exhilarating, making love with Lukas. He brought out a side of her she’d never known she had. With Matt things had been steady, calm and responsible—even their lovemaking. With Lukas, it went from fiery to tender, from passionate to gentle. With Lukas, anything went.
An affair with Lukas was everything she’d ever imagined it would be. And more.
Sated from their loving, she curled against his side, feeling her heart rate begin to slow. But her desire didn’t slow. She raised her head and looked at him, traced his features, memorized them.
She wanted... No, she didn’t.
She wouldn’t let herself want. But sometimes she caught herself wishing... And she knew she couldn’t even let herself wish.
Because he was Lukas. He was the man with his gaze on the horizon. He made no long-term commitments. He traveled light.
And even if he stayed in New York, he would move on from her. So she needed to move first.
“Remember that,” Holly murmured, and she settled once more into the curve of Lukas’s shoulder and laid a hand against his chest.
Lukas lifted his head and turned it to look at her. “Remember what?” His voice sounded soft and smoky across her cheek.
Holly hesitated, then tamped down the desire for more and shifted to press a kiss to his whisker-roughened jaw. Then she let her hand slide slowly down his chest, across his taut belly, then lower. She would take her joy where she found it. Here. Now.
She wouldn’t ask for more.
CHAPTER NINE
THE GALLERY OPENING was a resounding success. All because of Holly.
Lukas was delighted and justified. He’d hired her, after all.
Holly, of course, credited everyone else. Lukas knew better. She might have got the names of useful people and lists of things that needed to be done from other more knowledgeable people, but Holly had done them. She had made it happen.
And she was the one who moved effortlessly among the guests now, smiling and talking with them, extolling the virtues of this artist and the vision of that one.
She had taken the time to get to know each one of them, both as artists and as people. As he watched her introduce Charlotte to the mayor, Lukas grinned. Normally painfully shy, Charlotte had blossomed under Holly’s nurturing support.
“She’s fantastic,” his sister-in-law, Tallie, murmured into Lukas’s ear as she followed his gaze. “A good choice, Lukas,” she added with a smile.
“Yep.” Lukas leaned against the wall, knowing he should be out there, too, glad-handing the visitors, schmoozing with journalists and hobnobbing with the bigwigs. But for just a moment he took a step back, let himself watch, let himself dream.
It wasn’t too far-fetched to imagine doing this with Holly again. Doing this with Holly forever.
Forever? As in...what? Ask her to marry him?
He waited for the notion to feel like a punch in the gut. The idea of getting married had always felt like that before.
When Tallie had mentioned marrying Grace, the very thought had him envisioning a life sentence, a noose around his neck. Grace was a great person. Terrific girl. Smart. Capable. Beautiful. Not one he could ever imagine spending a lifetime with. Nor was any girl he’d ever dated. Marriage in the abstract he believed in. Antonides men married.
Except sometime in the past couple of years he’d begun wondering if he wasn’t the exception who proved the rule. He’d reached the age of thirty-two and he hadn’t had the least inclination to propose to spend his life with anyone.
