Nicole Edwards - Temptation

“Everything that was on my mind.” Sierra smiled, and Luke’s heart turned over. God he loved this woman.

“Which was?”

“I told her that I wasn’t going to quit. That I wasn’t going to end my relationships because this is my life, damn it, and I can do whatever I choose to do. She doesn’t have any say in the matter.” Taking a deep breath, Sierra closed her eyes, then opened them once more. “Then I told her to remember that I wasn’t the one keeping secrets.”

Good girl.

Standing there, staring down at her, Luke was beaming with pride. This woman had stood up for him. For Cole. So their relationship wasn’t normal. It would never be normal in the eyes of most people, but he didn’t care. What he felt for both Sierra and Cole couldn’t be changed by the harsh stares of others, or their ignorant comments. And to know that Sierra stood up for them had his heart swelling in his chest.

“I love you.” He blurted the words out.

Sierra stumbled back a step, still staring up at him. “What?”

“You heard me.” He said, stalking her as he moved forward and she took another step back.

“Say it again.”

“I. Love. You.” He told her before he pulled her up against him and crushed his mouth to hers. He filled his hands with her luscious body, while letting his tongue tease hers. When she tried to pull away, he kept her close, a little worried about what she would say. And yes, maybe he was a little insecure. But, Luke knew one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. He loved this woman fiercely and with everything that he was made of.

Sure, it took him longer than it should have to say it, almost as long for him to accept it, but now that the words were out there, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

To think that his own actions could have very well pushed away this woman because he was too insecure to have something of his own, scared that she would be taken away from him and he would be left with another empty space inside of him had been too much to bare. It had happened with his parents. They had been torn from his life so easily and Luke had vowed, even as a young kid, that he would never have something stolen from him again. Yet he had almost done that to himself.

“Luke.” Sierra managed to push back from him, breaking the kiss, but not letting go of him. He stared down at her, holding his breath as he waited to hear what she had to say. God, please don’t let her reject him. He didn’t think she would, but with the way his luck seemed to run lately, there were no guarantees.

“I love you.” She whispered the words and they went straight through him, piercing his heart.

When she kissed him, he poured every ounce of what he was feeling into the kiss, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bedroom.

“Where are we going?” She asked, grinning.

“To get you naked.” Plain and simple.

Luke didn’t waste any time getting them both out of their clothes and then climbing on top of her. “Wait, I forgot something.” He said and rushed off the bed, nearly face planting off the side.

“We don’t need a condom.” She told him, laughing as she watched from where she lay, naked and beautiful, sprawled out like a goddess before him.

No. They didn’t need a condom. But that wasn’t what he was looking for. As he searched through his pockets, finally finding it, he crawled back over her once more.

Staring down at her, seeing the light in her eyes, the soft smile on her lips had his heart rate increasing. The fact that she was naked already spiked his blood pressure, but the way she looked at him so sweetly, had him grinning like an idiot.

“What are you waiting for?” She asked, looping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer.

What was he waiting for? He didn’t know.

“Marry me.” For the second time that day, his mouth got ahead of his brain. Since he wasn’t the romantic, gushy type, he knew it was the best he could do, even if he had spent the better part of the day trying to come up with poems and sonnets to express how much he loved this woman. “Marry me, Sierra.”

She didn’t immediately say no, and she didn’t try to pull away, so he took that as a good sign, but he was frozen in place, staring down at her as he aligned their bodies, wanting to lose himself in her warmth, needing to make love to her. Holding on to his sanity by a very fine thread, he held back, sliding his cock through her slit, but not penetrating her.

“Please.” Hoping that was the magic word, definitely not one of the most used from his vocabulary, Luke continued to look at her.

“Yes.” Sierra whispered the word, but that didn’t matter because she had said it. She said yes!

Luke drove himself inside of her, overwhelmed by the emotions that lit him up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. When Sierra pulled him down, crushing her soft, sweet lips to his, he could barely move. Her pussy clamped down on his cock, sending shockwaves through him and making his balls draw up tight.

He pulled back, slid his hands into hers, their fingers twining together as he pulled her arms above her head. Holding himself above her, their bodies touching from chest to ankle, Luke lurched forward, then pulled back. Over and over he slid into the wet, warm depths of her body and let her consume him. Mind, body, and soul.

A few minutes later when their bodies were coated in perspiration, the velvet walls of her pussy tightened around him, milking him until he couldn’t hold back. “Come with me, baby.”

Her fingers tightened around his as her body tensed, those blue, quicksilver eyes lit up like a flame as she came, sending his body skyrocketing into paradise.

* * *

Sierra couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. And it had nothing to do with the two hundred plus pounds on top of her. Her orgasm had registered a 10+ on the Richter scale.

When Luke moved, falling to his side and pulling her against him, she didn’t let go of him. Wanting to keep him close, praying this wasn’t a dream, Sierra kept her eyes open although exhaustion was closing in on her.

Luke took her left hand and lifted it, placing a kiss to the tips of each finger before something cool slid down her finger. It was real. He had really asked her to marry him, and now he had…

“Oh my goodness! Luke!” Sierra pushed up, staring at the ring on her finger, wondering how she was going to carry it around on her hand every day. The one single diamond sparkled radiantly, a very simple, yet elegant – although enormous – setting that made her head spin.

“Do you like it?” He asked. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

“I love it.” She answered, then looked at him. “I love you.”

He kissed her once more, warming her body from the inside out, a tender, heart wrenching press of his lips against hers. She needed to get out of that bed, or they would end up there for the rest of the day. Not that she minded at all, but she had people she wanted to tell. Her mother. Samantha. Cole

Oh God. Cole.

Sierra shot up off the bed, unsure of what to do or where to go – feeling the same way she imagined Luke had when they hadn’t used a condom that first time. She grabbed her robe from the back of the door, slipping it on while Luke merely sat up, watching her intently.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, apparently picking up on her panic attack.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Broken record that she was, Sierra couldn’t think of anything else to say. How could they have not thought about Cole in all of this? This wasn’t a relationship of just two people, no matter how strange that sounded. The three of them were in this together. At least Sierra thought they were. She loved Luke. She also loved Cole. Equally. She wasn’t complete without either one of them, yet she had just agreed to marry Luke without even thinking about Cole. How could she?

Sierra stormed from the room, trying to get her brain to settle down, and her heart rate to follow along. When Luke appeared moments later, he was wearing his jeans but not his shirt, and his feet were bare and holy cow, he looked amazing.

“We didn’t even think about Cole.” She blurted out, turning to face him. The look on his face was not one she recognized, but when he didn’t say anything, she knew there was trouble brewing. “What’s wrong?”

Luke shook his head but didn’t move. Sierra wanted to scream at him, but she didn’t. She’d already lost her head once today, and that might have ruined her career.

“We need to talk to him.” Sierra said, dropping into a chair, resting her head in her hands. Luke might not be talking, but they needed to.

This was big.

Huge.

* * *

Cole rapped his knuckles against the door, waiting patiently for Lucie to answer. His patience was running thin, so he wasn’t sure how he managed. He’d received a call from Sierra earlier, asking him to stop by. Her message had been cryptic and she sounded worried which made Cole worry. Two attempts to call her back had failed, so he opted to go over to Lucie’s before he went to Sierra’s.

“Thanks for coming.” Lucie said when she opened the door. She had changed out of her work uniform into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She looked tired. Her eyes were puffy like she had been crying.

“Sure.” He replied, walking in and shutting the door behind him. “Is Haley here?”

“No. She’s at my mom’s. I didn’t want to take a chance that she would overhear our conversation, so I asked my mom to keep her for the night.”

Cole knew where this conversation was going to go, especially if Lucie made a point to keep Haley away.

“Can I get you something to drink?” She asked politely, but without heart.

“I’m good.” He took a seat on the sofa, waiting for her to join him. When she didn’t, he waited. He didn’t have to wait long though.

“I have to tell him.”

That was a good start. At least Cole thought it was. “What made you decide that?”

“Haley deserves to know who her father is.”

Cole didn’t know if she was telling him the reason, or trying to convince herself that this was the right thing to do.

“You know how I feel about this.” They’d talked about it numerous times and Lucie never agreed with him, but he hadn’t held back how he felt. Having grown up without a father, not knowing who the man was, Cole had firsthand knowledge of what that felt like. Although his situation was different. Cole’s father knew about him, he just chose not to be a part of his life. Haley’s father didn’t even know.

“When are you going to tell him?” Cole asked, hoping to get her to open up a little.

“I don’t know.”

“Lucie. Sit down.” Cole told her, letting her hear the insistence in his words. She had asked him to come over, and he would never turn his back on a friend, but he needed to check on Sierra, which meant Lucie had to get on with it. “Talk to me.”

Her feet moved albeit reluctantly, and she made her way to the couch, sitting down beside him and putting her head in her hands as she spoke. “Haley deserves to know him. And he deserves to know her. It’s not her fault that he doesn’t remember what happened.”

“It’s not your fault either, honey.” Cole assured her.

“I know it’s not. But I could have brought it up to him. I could have told him what happened. I mean we had sex. And it was amazing.” She sighed. “How can he not remember?”

Cole didn’t have an answer for that. He’d never had an answer for that.

“This is going to turn his world upside down.” Lucie continued. “He seems happy. Truly happy right now. How can I just unleash this on him? He’s going to hate me. And probably fire me.”

“He’s not going to fire you.” That he was sure of. “Look, honey.” Cole took her hand and turned her to face him. “This isn’t going to be easy, but it’s the right thing to do. Haley needs to know her father. He needs to know about her. Hell, we don’t even know how he’ll react until you tell him.”

Lucie nodded her head.

“I think you should call him. Tonight.”

That had Lucie’s head jerking back in surprise. “Tonight?”

“Yes. Call him. Ask him to come over so you can talk to him. He’s a reasonable man.” Granted, he might not be reasonable once he realizes he slept with one of his bartenders, getting her pregnant and having absolutely no recollection of the night in question. But, that didn’t change the fact that the man was a father.