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She sucked in a breath as his hand slipped under the fabric and touched her skin. Wrapping her hands behind his head, she pulled his mouth to hers. She was beyond being okay. She needed to shut down her brain and feel. Brand him the way he branded her.
He slid off her underwear. Her dress remained bunched up around her waist. His bare skin brushed against hers. Rough against soft. She heard him open a condom packet.
After a moment, his hands returned to her hips and his mouth returned to hers. He lifted her against the door and she wrapped her legs around his waist. In the darkness all she could do was feel. The real world was far away. The fact that they were in a closet at a wedding didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was with her now.
“Say my name,” he whispered against her ear. The darkness engulfed them. They could only feel and hear. But she knew it meant more to him. It was his way of claiming her, of making sure she knew it was him and not any number of guys.
She wanted to please him, needed him to know that it was only him. That it had always been only him.
“Luke.” Her world came unhinged as he entered her slowly. His hands held her hips. The tears she’d been holding back pressed forward. She repeated his name and muttered words she couldn’t be held accountable for as he moved within her, the only thing she could allow herself from him.
The tears edged over her eyes and trailed down her cheeks as her body rejoiced. It felt like coming home and like nothing she’d ever felt before. Dangerous and tempting. Something she never should have messed with. He lifted her higher and higher until she fell over the edge into bliss. He joined her with her name on his lips.
She choked back a sob and held him tighter, never wanting to let go.
Chapter Four (#ulink_256073c7-41d5-58b7-87b5-08aad244abc2)
Luke fought to steady his breathing in the dark room. Penny fit against his body perfectly. He wanted to continue to hold her, but the noise of the party beyond the door told him that they needed to get back. Her breath shuddered in and out. Lowering her gently to the floor, he stepped back. In the dark he couldn’t see her, but it sounded as if she was crying. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.”
Suddenly the dark that had wrapped them in an intimate fog pissed him off. He could tell she was lying but couldn’t prove it.
“Something’s wrong.” Luke felt the wall next to the door for a light switch.
“Nothing’s wrong.” She reached past him and the light blinked on. For a moment he was blind as his eyes adjusted to the brightness.
Penny had bent down and retrieved her underwear. “We need to get back out there.”
“Nothing’s wrong, my ass.” Luke pulled up his boxers and pants.
“What do you want me to say?” She turned her back to him as she fixed her clothing. “It was fantastic, wonderful, the best thing ever.”
“What’s gotten into you?” The lightness in his chest grew heavy. Trying to recapture the mood, he dropped a kiss on the nape of her neck.
Her shoulders tensed but then relaxed. When she turned around, the plastic smile was in place. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Whatever had made her upset, she wasn’t going to tell him.
“I’m fine. Really. We just need to get back.” Her flirtatious smile returned. “I had a really good time.”
She moved to open the door, but he grabbed the knob to hold it closed.
“Fine? You are far from fine. You can act all you want for the revolving door of men you have, but I know you.” The anger raging within was tempered by the orgasm he’d just had. After he’d left all those years ago, he’d heard about her escapades from classmates and folks around town. They had acted as if he should step in and do something. He didn’t tell them that he’d heard the rumors of her with other guys the entire time they’d dated.
She didn’t even bristle. She reached up to fix his collar as if they were discussing the weather. “Is that what you are worried about? That I’m comparing you to other lovers?”
“What I’m worried about is the fact that you don’t seem to feel anything anymore.” Luke brushed her hair away from her face. “Does anything matter to you?”
Her smile didn’t show even a hint of anger, which just made him more determined to break through that wall. To what end? He didn’t know.
“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Her brown eyes lifted to his.
He nodded, not really wanting to be reminded of that at this moment.
“Let’s go out to the party and afterward...” She held on to his shoulders as she slipped her feet into her shoes.
His imagination could do a lot of things with afterward.
She kissed his jaw. “Afterward.”
The background noise changed. It had been so subtle he hadn’t even noticed the music and laughing beyond the door, but the sudden lack of it gained his attention. He thought he heard someone call his name.
“Something’s happening.” Luke opened the door and found his way out from behind the curtain. The overhead lights were on and everyone was hovering near the dance floor.
Luke’s heart pounded against his chest as he saw someone lying on the floor beyond the crowd. His training kicked in as he rushed forward.
Breaking through the crowd, he froze when he saw Sam unconscious on the ground, his face ashen. Luke’s world lurched. “What happened?”
“He just fell over,” an old man who looked familiar said.
“Everyone back up and give him some space,” Luke ordered. “Has anyone called 911?”
“Yes. The ambulance is on the way.”
Luke checked Sam’s pulse. He was still breathing, but his pulse was faint. “Bring over a chair.”
Luke pulled Sam’s bow tie off and unbuttoned his collar. When Amber dragged over a chair, Luke lifted Sam’s feet up onto the seat.
“Where are Brady and Maggie?” Luke asked the nearest woman.
“They just left.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Tears ran freely down Amber’s cheeks. Penny kneeled next to Amber and held out her arms. Amber collapsed against her but kept her big blue eyes on Luke and Sam.
“We need to get him checked at the hospital.” Luke met Penny’s eyes and saw the worry there.
He tried not to think about it as he worked on evaluating Sam’s condition.
“The ambulance is here,” someone said.
The paramedics came in and Luke gave them a rundown of what he knew, which wasn’t much. Sam had fainted and hadn’t regained consciousness.
“Should I call Brady and Maggie?” Penny asked as Luke stepped out of the way to let the paramedics work.
“Not yet.” Luke ran a hand over his face. “They just left for their wedding night, and we have nothing to tell them. They’d just worry or, worse, spend their wedding night in the hospital waiting room.”
She nodded, still holding on to Amber. “Maybe I should take Amber home.”
“No.” Amber shook her head. “I’m going with Uncle Sam.”
“It’s late. We can go wait at my house with Flicker, and your uncle Luke will call with any news.” Penny’s gaze met Luke’s, looking for his support.
He nodded, but that wasn’t enough for Amber.
“I’m supposed to stay with Uncle Sam tonight,” Amber said. If Luke knew anything about his family, it was that stubbornness definitely ran in it. But he had only just met his niece.
“What if—” Penny looked up at Luke “—we go to the hospital and see that Uncle Sam is taken care of, then you and I will go get Flicker and drive out to check on the farm?”
Luke nodded in agreement. What else could he do until he knew what was going on with Sam?
“I wanna ride in the ambulance.” Amber turned her stubborn little chin up at Luke.
“No,” Penny said, her voice more firm than he’d ever heard it before. “You ride with me or the deal is off, kiddo.”
“Okay.” Amber pouted but went to grab her flowers and sweater from their table.
“Did you want to ride with us or with the ambulance?” Penny’s presence actually calmed his racing heart for a moment.
“I’ll drive Sam’s truck and meet you there.” Luke watched as the paramedics wheeled Sam out the door. He felt lost, as if he could have prevented whatever was happening.
Penny wrapped her arms around him in a hug that had nothing to do with sex. “He’ll be all right.”
He returned her hug and breathed in her floral scent. The knot in his stomach loosened slightly.
She released him before he wanted to let go, but things had to get done. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. I’m going to talk to the wedding coordinator and make sure everything is taken care of before we head to the hospital.”
Amber came back over with tears in her big blue eyes. “Can I ride with Uncle Luke? Please?”
Penny gave him a questioning look, leaving it up to him. He looked around at the people waiting and the chaos beyond. It might take Penny a half hour or more to finish up here and Amber would be left sitting alone. He remembered how that felt when his father had been rushed to the hospital. No one had taken the time to tell him what was happening. He was just left waiting.
Luke held out his hand to Amber. “Sure. Let’s go.”
* * *
An hour later, Luke sat in the waiting room of the hospital in Owen with his niece fast asleep against his side. Sam had woken during the ambulance ride and had been cranky as ever. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctor ordered several tests to make sure he hadn’t had a heart attack or wasn’t on the verge of having one. The doctor had insisted Luke go to the waiting area since Sam didn’t look to be in any eminent danger.
A flicker of gold caught Luke’s attention. He lifted his head in the direction of the hallway. Penny sauntered toward him with her heels in one hand and a soft smile on her lips. It had been only an hour or so since he’d held her in his arms, but it felt as if an eternity had passed.
Careful not to wake Amber, she sat gently on his other side and whispered, “How’s Sam?”
Luke took a deep breath and released it. “No word yet. Apparently a few months ago, he had an X-ray that showed an enlarged heart, but he skipped his follow-up with the cardiologist. The fainting could mean a number of things, from cardiomyopathy to hypothyroidism to hemo—”
Penny took his hand between hers. “Lots of doctor mumbo jumbo. Is he going to be okay?”
“I hope so.” He ran his other hand through his hair. Their family history of heart disease was the reason Luke had gone to med school and why he’d specialized in cardiology. If Luke had known at fourteen what he knew now, maybe he could have prevented the heart attack that killed his father. The warning signs had all been there. No one had pushed Dad to get checked out. Not that his father could have been pushed. A trait Sam inherited.
“I guess I should take Amber home and get her into bed.” Penny didn’t move and he felt her eyes on him. “Unless you want me to stay.”
Luke didn’t know what he wanted. Earlier it had been easy to just pull Penny into his arms and forget the past and future. He would definitely prefer to argue more with Penny instead of sitting in a waiting room with months-old magazines and a news channel on a muted TV. If his niece weren’t here, he might even flirt, if only for the distraction.
As if sensing his hesitation, Penny leaned forward to look around him at Amber. “If I wake Amber now, she’ll be a bear to get back to sleep. Why don’t I just keep you company while we wait to hear about Sam?”
“Why are you being like this?” Luke stared at the television in the corner. There was no reason for Penny to be here for him now. Not even after what happened in the closet. They weren’t anything more than exes thrown together at a wedding. She didn’t have to be nice to him.
She settled next to him, pulling her feet up under her and leaning her head against his shoulder. “Being like what?”
He looked down at the top of her auburn head. “It doesn’t matter.”
She shrugged. “When should we call Maggie and Brady?” A yawn followed as she squirmed herself into a more comfortable spot.
“It’s late. We’ll wait until morning and give them a call. No reason to disrupt their wedding night. As long as Sam remains stable, there’s nothing they could do but worry anyway.” Sam was only thirty and relatively healthy, but fainting was serious...especially with an unknown heart condition. Luke needed to get up and do something, but he couldn’t without disturbing Amber. His leg started to bounce.
Penny kept hold of his hand in her lap. He should ask to look over Sam’s chart and figure out if they were doing all the necessary testing. EKG, echocardiogram, CBC. Maybe he should talk to the doctor about a transfer to the nearest medical school hospital. He wondered if they could Life Flight him to his hospital in St. Louis.
“I hear you got into one of the better programs for med school,” Penny said.
“What?” He pulled his gaze from the doors the doctor had vanished behind recently.
“Med school. Good program?” Penny repeated and looked up at him.
“Yeah. It took a lot of cramming, but I got the grades to get in.” If he could figure out a way to slide out from under Amber without waking her, he would go through those doors that said “Authorized Personnel Only.” Surely they missed something on the chart. Most hospitals generally had rules against working on family. But they probably didn’t have a cardiologist on staff.
“I was glad to graduate high school with a C average,” Penny scoffed. “You always were the smarter of the two of us.”
“That’s not true. You were just a misguided youth.” He smiled at the memory.
“Remember when we were studying for my final in Geometry? If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t still have the useless phrase SOH CAH TOA in my head.”
Luke chuckled. “Do you even remember what it means?”
Penny screwed up her nose. “Of course not. If it had been useful, then I definitely would have remembered it. I bet I haven’t used half of what they forced us to learn in high school.”
“You probably use more than you think.” Luke sank farther into his chair. His legs relaxed out in front of him. “If we’d been together longer, I bet you would have received straight As.”
“You definitely made studying fun.” She rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand. “Do you remember that one night we walked all the way to Owen to The Morning Rooster to have breakfast at 2:00 a.m.?”
“I remember heading back and having to carry you piggyback half the way.”
“I didn’t know we were going to walk eight miles each way when I decided on my shoe choice for the evening. Most nights I didn’t even need my shoes.”
“I remember talking about everything that night. Philosophy, love, family, sex, shoes.” He squeezed her hand. “We were quite the rebels.”
“More like trendsetters. Apparently it’s a new dare among the kids in Tawnee Valley. How far are you willing to walk to breakfast?”
Luke laughed. “Not like there was much else to do on Saturday nights. Especially when Sam would take away my car privileges.”
“And my car was in the shop. You know, I kept that old beater until it finally coughed its final gas fumes into the air about five years ago.”
“I’m surprised it made it that long.” This was the part of Penny he’d missed the most. The quiet times when it was just the two of them talking. That piece of her that only he got to see.
