Southern Player (Charleston Heat 2)

Luke is an A-plus kisser. Has been since the beginning. But this kiss—it’s different. Deeper. A little desperate, even. Like he needs to convince me of something.

I wait for the questions, the qualms to arrive.

Qualms are still there. Maybe they always will be.

But I surrender to the kiss anyway. Because I’m learning there is no perfect—time, person, place. Just the truth—my gut.

Truth is, I want to be kissed like this.

I want to be kissed like this by Luke more than I’ve wanted anything in a long time.

His mouth moves to my neck. Sending a spike of electricity through my center. I moan. He sinks his teeth into my skin, and now my head is falling all the way back.

I am lost.

And I feel him. The way he’s completely present. Completely focused on plundering every corner of my being.

I moan again, clutching at his chest now. Grabbing at him.

“I’m gonna,” he pants, breath hot on my throat, “make a mess of you yet.”

Luke’s been to my condo before. But I’m still surprised when he manages to guide me into my bedroom a few steps from the door—it’s at the front of my condo, kitchen and living area in the back.

The backs of my legs meet with my mattress. I slide off my glasses and set them on the nightstand.

He’s kissing my mouth again. Stroke after stroke, deep and gutting. His hands move up my sides. Searching for my zipper. I’m about to tell him where it is when his fingers catch on it in the middle of my back. They follow it up to my neck, hand trailing a line of fire up my spine.

And then he’s pulling my zipper down. Slow, just like always. The sound of the teeth working free of the zipper making my pussy tingle. Almost like he’s unzipping me there. Opening me so he can take what he wants.

Zipper meets its end just above my ass. Luke pulls back. Our noses still touching, he meets my eyes and works the straps of my dress off my shoulders.

Him looking down at me like this—so sure in his control, in his desire for me, so cocky in his right to claim—I am helpless.

Luke guides the dress over my hips. It falls to the floor. He makes a sound—a pained growl—when he sees I’m not wearing underwear.

“I’mma lay you down.” He digs my breast out of my strapless bra. Holds it in his hand. The gentleness of his touch a stark contrast to the hard-edged need in his eyes. “I’m gonna play with your pussy. I’ll tease your ass. And then—” His lips flutter against mine. “Then you’re gonna give me what I want.”

It’s yours, I think wildly.

His eyes dart between mine. “Lay down.”

My legs still shake as I step out of my dress. I sit on the edge of the bed and unstrap my sandals. Unhook my bra and put it on the nightstand.

My nipples pebble when they meet the air conditioning. Sucking a breath through my teeth, I pull back the covers and lie down.

Light from a streetlamp streams through the slats of the shutters. Painting the room in alternating stripes of blue and darker blue.

I watch as Luke undresses. He reaches his arms behind him to take off his blazer, one sleeve at a time. Folding it in half and draping it over the back of the armchair beside my closet.

My condo is small. Bedroom the smallest room. Luke looks enormous in it. He turns, his shoulders and torso blocking the light from the window as he unbuttons his shirt. My God he is huge.

He could really hurt me if he wanted.

Luke turns back to me when he’s stripped down to his boxers. His eyes glint.

He shucks off the boxers. I let out a breath when I see his dick is hard and standing straight up. His pubic hair a dark mass in the low light.

My pussy pulses. Once, twice.

“Where’s the lube you bought?” he asks.

My pulse skips.

I swallow. Blindly reach for the nightstand beside me. “He—here. I have it.”

I dig it out of the drawer.

Luke crosses the room in half a stride to come stand beside my side of the bed. He takes the box from me and opens it, putting the box on the nightstand while keeping the bottle that was inside it in his hand.

His thighs legitimately are the size of—of—I don’t know what. But they’re big. And hairy. Pale compared to the rest of him.

I reach out and touch the one closest to me. Run my hand up toward his groin.

The muscle in his ass—the one to the side, just underneath his hip—flexes, creating this marvelous little hollow.

I want to stick my face in it.

But before I can do that, Luke takes my hand and guides it up to his cock. Wraps my fingers around him.