Take Me 01 - Love Me Read Free Page B

of his head.
    Watching him watch her, Janica's eyes flashed a mixture of confusion and desire. And then, in a flash, the uncertainty disappeared, replaced with her usual feisty attitude.
    He held her challenging gaze, silently acknowledging that they hadn’t had an easy relationship since their siblings got married. They’d been forced together for countless lunches, dinners, and holidays, and the truth was he'd never gone out of his way to be particularly nice to her. Not when he'd made up his mind about Janica years ago in defense of his best friend, Lily, deciding that Janica was a selfish little girl who took everything she could from her older sister and rarely gave anything back.
    A voice in the back of his head said, Are you sure that's why you stayed away from her? Or were you afraid that if you ever let yourself have a taste of heaven, you wouldn't be able to pull yourself away from her? Because you just might find out that you like her more than you want to.
    What the hell was wrong with him tonight? Why was his brain playing tricks on him?
    He needed to shut off the voice of reason that said to get out while he still had his pants on and stick with the plan. What had happened in the trauma center tonight had made him a different man. One he wasn’t sure he’d like in the morning, but one who knew exactly what he wanted.
    Janica.
    He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anyone, or anything, his whole life.
    For the first time in thirty-five years he was completely lacking in moral fiber. But what did it really matter in the end? His twin, Travis, had been the biggest dog Luke knew. And even though he'd simply used women for their bodies, disrespecting their feelings all the while, he’d found true love with Lily anyway. Now he had a wife. Kids. A family.
    Travis had real happiness.
    What had being the good guy ever gotten Luke?
    A couple of “perfect” girlfriends that he hadn't been able to fall in love with, no matter how hard he tried. And a job that was slowly killing him.
    The dark side reeled him in and he no longer bothered trying to resist.
    “Everything’s different tonight,” he told Janica and when she simply said, “Yes,” then kissed him, her mouth on his was all it took to seal his deal with the devil.
    Luke Carson's saint days were through.

Chapter Four

    Janica couldn't get enough of Luke.
    She could feel the warmth of his skin beneath his clothes as her hands roamed down his back, then back up and across his broad, muscular shoulders, but it wasn't good enough. She wanted to know the feel of him beneath her fingertips.
    Skin on skin.
    Let the love begin.
    Oh yeah.
    She couldn't remember ever feeling like this, so utterly consumed by a man, so frantic to get him naked, to feast her eyes and hands and mouth on every inch of his body. Sex had always been at the top of her favorite-things list, but this desire—this total, all-encompassing need—was something else entirely.
    So different, in fact, that as she yanked his T-shirt out of his pants and broke their kiss long enough to pull it up over his head, she started freaking out a little bit.
    Because with his torso bared before her, with all of that hard heat at her disposal to caress and run her tongue across, she wanted so many things so powerfully all at once that instead of being able to do any of them she found herself paralyzed.
    Pressing her hands flat against his chest, she could feel the beating of his heart against her palms. A hard, fast pounding that mirrored her own heartbeat.
    So many years she'd dreamed of this moment, so many years she'd thought it would never come, and now that it had, she felt almost frightened.
    She lifted her eyes to his at the exact moment that her heart said, I love you .
    No.
    She stumbled back from Luke, or tried to, but his arms were faster than she was.
    She hadn't read love in his eyes at any point so far tonight, only lust. Pure lust. And now he was saying, “Yes or no?” in a low voice