Surrendering Series Box Set

“You’re watching me.” He opened his eyes.

“Do you not want me to watch you? It’s kind of hard not to watch you. You’re sexy when you play. You’re sexy all the time, but especially sexy doing that.” He strummed once and held the strings so they would stop vibrating.

“My dad taught me how to play. On this old beaten-up guitar that he’d won in a poker game. He’d take my fingers and try to put them on the strings, but they’d always slip, so he’d put his fingers on them, and then mine on top of his so I could learn. He taught Tate and Ryder, but they didn’t like it as much as I did. It was like this special thing we shared. Just the two of us.” He plucked random notes as he talked.

“That’s sweet.” I’d seen pictures of them playing together, Lucah on his father’s lap with the guitar resting on both of them as he tried to play with fingers that weren’t quite big enough.

“I miss them. Sometimes it hits me harder than other times. But it’s always there. Missing them. That hole they left when they passed away. But it started feeling not so empty when I met you.” He looked up from the guitar and his eyes burned like the flames on the candles.

It almost took my breath away, what he said and the way he said it.

“That’s a lot of pressure.” And intimidating. I knew he loved me, but that was something different.

“I didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted to tell you how much you mean to me, and that you make me happy, for the first time in a long time. If anyone should be under pressure, it’s me.”

“You say I’m ridiculous, now you’re being that way. Do you know why I’m excited to get up in the morning, despite the fact that I hate getting up in the morning? It’s you. Before I met you, I used to get up for my job, and I still love going there every day, but my job never gave me goofy happy butterflies. You do.” I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn’t being very eloquent this evening.

Lucah put his guitar down and leaned his arms on his knees.

“You ready for your massage?” The water in the bath was starting to cool, so I nodded. He got a towel and I stood as he wrapped it around me and then carried me to the bedroom, where he had more towels laid out on the bed. He set me down on my stomach and then removed my towel, but buffed my skin dry.

I turned my head to the side, but I couldn’t see what he was doing. He turned on more music, this time soft piano music. The bed dipped as he climbed on and straddled my legs. Judging by the fact that I felt his skin and not his pants against my legs, he was naked.

Something warm drizzled on my back and then his hands started smoothing it out. I moaned involuntarily as he started working on my neck and shoulders using those guitar-playing fingers to play my body. And He knew just which strings to pluck. Once he was done with my shoulders he moved down my back, and went even lower, massaging my ass and thighs. I’d thought it would be weird, having him pay such close attention to areas that I used to think were my problem areas, but he put so much love and desire into his touch that I didn’t mind. Minding was the last thing I was thinking of.

He avoided my ladyparts and then moved down my legs to my calves and feet and even my toes. With one last caress of the bottoms of my feet, he set them down.

“I’m going to move you,” he said before he got off the bed and used my legs to pull me down so my lower half was hanging off the edge of the bed. He spread my legs and then his mouth was the one massaging the sweetest of places. He started slow, with long licks and slow kisses and sucks. The build was tender and aching, and when I came, it consumed me. My entire body trembled with the aftermath, and I knew I couldn’t do it again.

But, of course, he didn’t stop until I’d come again. Then he closed my legs, picked me up and turned me over.

“Stick a fork in me. I am DONE.” I said. I barely had enough energy to speak. Lucah climbed onto the bed next to me. Yup. He was naked.

“I’d rather not stick a fork in you. I kind of like you and that would be mean,” he said, brushing his fingers along my shoulder.

“You used to be mean.”

“I could be mean again. All you have to do is ask.” I moved some of his hair out of his eyes.

“Do you think it’s going to be okay? With the company?” Even with the massage and the serenade and the fabulous mouth action, I couldn’t forget about it.

“I think your father has it under control, and that you need to go to sleep.” He got up and put the towels in the hamper, blew out the candles in the bathroom and then pulled down the covers and got back into bed.

It was a fight to keep my eyes open, as if I’d had a sedative. I curled into Lucah’s body and let his heartbeat sing me to sleep.

~*~*~

Dad called me the next morning, and I wasn’t surprised. “Can you come to my office?” I walked slowly down the hall, keeping my head down. His face was blank as shut the door behind me.

“So it looks like you’re not going to be the only young one in here, you have to be happy about that. Violet starts tomorrow if I’m not mistaken,” he said as he sat down at his desk. He looked less gray today, but it was also more clear that he’d lost some weight, and not in a good way. I hoped things were going to start getting better very soon. I also knew that he didn’t call me down here to talk about Violet.

“Yeah, it’s going to be nice.” Dad and I were almost always on the same page, but I felt like he was reading an entirely different book and he wouldn’t let me see a single word of it. “Are you sure you’ve got it under control?” His eyes narrowed for a split second and he sat back in his chair. We’d left things on a strange note, and his assertion that he had things in hand didn’t lower my stress level by much.

“Yes, and you have to stop asking me that. I appreciate your concern, but this is my job and I’m going to take care of it. I’ve been doing this for a few years, you know.” He smiled, but I didn’t like it. He was being cold and distant, and he was almost never like that.

“Okay,” I said, swallowing anything else I might have to say about it. I’d tried. Mom had tried. There was nothing we could do but support him and be there for him and hope that nothing happened to him.

“So the reason I wanted to see you was that your mother has been begging me, since you left yesterday, to ask you if Lucah will be a regular part of our Sunday dining experience. If he wants to. I understand the position that puts him in, having dinner at his boss’ house, but your mother is almost as in love with him as you are, I think.” He chuckled and I saw a little of the dad I hadn’t seen in a while. It was also such an abrupt change in topic, it took a second for me to catch up.