To Love Again

muscular hand caressed their silky tummies, and Christi quivered with jealousy as she

longed to know the caress of those hands against her skin.

At last he straightened, but Christi’s fascinated gaze still followed the strength of his

hands as he thrust them into his denims’ pockets, pulling the material even tighter across his

thighs.

‘I was waiting for you to come over.’ Lucas’s quizzical gaze met hers as she at last raised

her eyes. He was smiling at her encouragingly. ‘When you didn’t come, even after you had

made yourself a cup of coffee, I decided maybe you thought it was a little late to be making

social calls.’

Their kitchens were the only two walls that met in this expensive apartment building and,

while they couldn’t hear every movement in each other’s kitchens, it was possible to tell

when an electrical plug had been pushed in. It had disconcerted Christi a little at first, but now

she sometimes just sat inher kitchen, listening to the comforting sounds of Lucas moving about

next door.

‘It is after twelve,’ she nodded ruefully.

‘And we both know you’re a nightbird.’ Lucas sat down on the sofa, stretching his long

legs out in front of him, his hands once again visible as he rested them on the cushions beside

him. He relaxed back against the cushions. ‘The times we’ve sat here drinking coffee together when

you’ve returned from the theatre in the evening,’ he murmured fondly.

‘We went to the theatre tonight,’ she rushed into speech, feeling uncomfortable at him

having seen her in her nightshirt twice today. It was a dark blue one this time, that made her

hair midnight-black and deepened her eyes to almost the same colour. ‘To see Phantom of the

Opera.’

He raised dark brows, stretching up to put his hands behind his head, the power of his

chest and shoulders thrown into prominence. ‘Good?’

‘Very,’ she nodded. ‘I sometimes wish I could sing; there are so many good musicals

about nowadays,’ she said wistfully.

‘I’ve heard you in the shower,’ Lucas teased. ‘I don’t think you should inflict your

voice on the general public!’

It was incredible how intimately their lives were intertwined; she had heard him singing

in the shower once, too, while she’d waited for him to drive her to the theatre one night when

her car had broken down. He had a fine baritone which was very pleasing to the ear, whereas

she sounded more like Gladys or Josephine in one of their not-so pleasant moods!

‘Probably not,’ she agreed lightly.

‘Definitely not,’ Lucas grinned.

She swallowed hard, somehow feeling at a disadvantage as she stood across the room from

him—which was absurd; the person sitting down was usually the one to feel intimidated!

‘Did you do anything interesting this evening?’ Her lightness of tone didn’t reveal her intense

interest.

‘Oh, no, you don’t!’ Lucas dismissed laughingly. ‘It’s your evening we’re interested in.

The fact that I’ve been doing paperwork all evening isn’t even worth mentioning.’

She shrugged, relieved that his relationship with Michelle seemed to be coming to an end;

he had only seen the other woman once this week that she knew of. But once this affair ended

there would just be another one, she reminded herself, and one of these times the woman

was going to be the right one for Lucas.

‘Then we won’t mention it.’ Christi smiled to hide the nagging pain that thinking of Lucas,

finally falling in love, always caused in her heart. ‘And I’ve already told you that my evening

went well.’

‘No,’ he corrected with a shake of his head. ‘You said the musical was good. The next

relevant question is, was Barry Robbins as good? ’ he drawled.

‘Lucas!’ She stared at him with wide eyes.

His mouth twisted. ‘As in well behaved,’ he explained drily.

‘Oh,’ she blushed. ‘Yes, he was very—wel , most of the time—until he brought me home ‘

She broke off, feeling uncomfortable at the speculative gleam in silver eyes.

‘Well, you didn’t invite him in, so My God, the man didn’t try something on the

doorstep?’ he said disgustedly.

‘No, he didn’t,’ she glared at him indignantly, finding his curiosity about her dates

deeply embarrassing. ‘He kissed me, that’s all,’ she told him defensively.

‘And?’ Lucas looked at her interestedly.

Christi gave a pained frown. ‘Lucas, I don’t think

‘Tuesday night, you claimed the kiss was the way you knew Dick Crosby wasn’t the right

man for you. I merely wondered if you had discovered the same thing about Barry Robbins

when he kissed you,’ Lucas shrugged.

Christi stared at him as if she had never seen him before. He did remember the other night!

It wasn’t that he didn’t remember what had happened, it wasn’t that he was saving her

blushes by not mentioning it, he just hadn’t mentioned it earlier because what they had

shared hadn’t been important to him! Her family and friends, Lucas among them, all knew

that she was usually slow to anger, that it took a great deal to make her angry, but, for

possibly the first time in her life, red-hot anger coursed through her like a tidal wave.

How dared Lucas feel nothing after those impassioned kisses they had shared! How

dared he!

‘No,’ she replied tautly. ‘Barry’s kisses were very sensual, very enjoyable,’ she told him

challengingly.

Lucas’s arms slowly lowered to his sides. ‘Then, he is the man for you?’ he said softly.

Her head was back in proud defiance. ‘I didn’t say that,’ she bit out waspishly. How dared

he! Lucas looked puzzled. ‘But you said

‘His kisses were very sensual.’ She nodded acknowledgment. ‘It was when he began to

touch me that I froze,’ she shrugged dismissively, her expression deliberately bland.

Lucas sat forward. ‘When he—touched, you?’ His eyes were narrowed. ‘Are you telling

me that he tried to make love to you while the two of you were standing in the hallway?’ he

rasped.

Christi was glad he no longer found this amusing; she had ceased finding it funny a long

time ago! ‘Hardly,’ she derided mockingly. ‘He just touched me, that’s all. Ran his hands over

my body,’ she enlarged as Lucas still looked puzzled.

His mouth thinned into a taut line. ‘And?’ She shrugged again. ‘I didn’t like it.’

Lucas frowned darkly. ‘What exactly did he do to you?’

Christi looked thoughtful. ‘Well, he put his hand here,’ she placed her own hand just under

her left breast, ‘and here,’ she placed her other hand on her hip, ‘and here,’ she moved her

right hand slightly higher against her breast. ‘And then he—it’s a bit awkward for me to show you

like this.’ She shook her head.

Lucas stood up and came to stand just in front of her, holding out his own hands.

‘Show me now,’ he invited gruffly.

She didn’t hesitate, she was so angry with him for putting her through the torment of

the last two days that, at that moment, she didn’t care if he never spoke to her again after

tonight! She took his left hand and placed it on the curve of her bottom, placing his right hand

exactly where hers had been seconds earlier. And the sensation was nothing like the

aversion she had felt when Barry had attempted to touch her so intimately. Her whole body

started to tingle, Lucas’s hands burning her through the silky material of her nightshirt.

‘Now what?’ Lucas prompted harshly.

Christi looked up at him; she was tall herself, but Lucas easily towered over her. ‘It’s difficult

to remember, really,’ she said breathlessly, her nipples already taut against silk. ‘He was kissing

me, you see,’ she shrugged. ‘And his hands just sort of—roamed at will.’

‘At will,’ Lucas echoed tightly, pulling her hard against him, bending his head to claim her

mouth in a searing kiss.

At first, she was so lost in the power of that kiss that she wasn’t aware of his hands

against her body, but as his fingertips caressed the length of her spine she became very aware of

that touch, gasping out loud as one of his hands moved to fully cup her breast. Being tall as

she was, it would have been nice to be blessed with big breasts, but she hadn’t been, and as

her breast perfectly fitted into the palm of Lucas’s hand she knew why she hadn’t: her body had

been perfectly fashioned to match and fit his.

All the time he caressed her, that punishing kiss went on, and on, and on ...

Christi felt weak, clinging to the width of his shoulders, trembling anew as Lucas

pulled her thighs tightly against his, at the same time as his lightly caressing tongue stopped

playing with her lips and plunged into the waiting warmth beneath.

She felt claimed, possessed, giving a little whimper from too much pleasure all at

once, as expert fingers parted her nightshirt all the way down the front, a thumb-tip moving

erotically against the hardened tip of her breast.

His denims and shirt were another erotic abrasion against her naked flesh, and she felt