Lucan (Steele Protectors 6) Read online

  His gaze roamed searchingly over Becca’s blushing face. “You haven’t…pleasured yourself at all during those years?”

  She grimaced her discomfort with the subject. “When I first moved to England, I didn’t feel any inclination to do anything but grieve, and then once I came out of that fog, it didn’t feel right to…to do something like that with my foster parents in the bedroom next door.” The blush deepened in her cheeks. “I shared a room and then a flat with two other girls at university. The last two years, I’ve— God, this is so embarrassing,” she groaned.

  Lucan lay back on the pillows beside her before gently placing her head against his shoulder so that he couldn’t see her face. He rested his head on top of hers as he pulled her close to him with one arm about her shoulders and the other lying across her waist. “Better?”

  “Much,” Becca confirmed, feeling much easier now she was no longer the focus of those intense brown eyes. “I really haven’t had any interest the past couple of years.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not a virgin, but there’s only been the one boyfriend I’ve had previous sexual experience with. Twice. It was while I was at university. Both times, we went to his bedsit and— Can we just say neither time was particularly enjoyable? Probably because neither of us were any good at it,” she added self-derisively.

  “On the contrary,” Lucan drawled. “You’re very good at it.”

  She raised her head to look at him. “I am?”

  He smiled. “If you’d been any better, the top of my head might have blown off.”

  Becca gave a husky laugh as she rested her head back on his shoulder, her hand lying on the warmth of his chest. “I read a lot of romance novels.” And she had wanted to give Lucan pleasure. To bring this proud and arrogant man, if not literally to his knees, then metaphorically to them on at least a sexual level.

  “And they explained how to do what you just did to me?”

  “I read a lot of erotic romance novels,” she corrected wryly. “And yes, a lot of them explain sexual positions and pleasures.”

  “Wow.” His chest softly rose and fell. “Maybe I should read some of them too.”

  Becca lightly batted his chest. “You don’t need to.”

  “Did you just pay me a compliment?” he teased.

  “Maybe.”

  Lucan chuckled. “Either it was or it wasn’t.”

  “It was,” she allowed grudgingly. “But you’re a lot older than me and obviously have waaayyyy more experience.”

  “How to make me feel as old as Methuselah!”

  Becca giggled. “But I did also say you’re a sexually experienced older man.”

  “Thirteen years is older?”

  “No?”

  “Okay, it’s older, but not old,” he insisted. “As for being more experienced…” The arm about her shoulders bent at the elbow to allow his fingers to lightly caress her hair. “I’ve taken physical release over the years when it was offered, but I’ve never had a relationship that lasted longer than the time needed for us both to get off.” His voice was low and husky.

  “Like we just did.”

  “No,” he state firmly. “This is different. I’m not sure how or why yet, but whatever this is between the two of us isn’t normal for me either.”

  Becca knew she shouldn’t read too much into Lucan’s statement, but she couldn’t help herself. In just a few short hours, this man had become more real to her, meant more to her, than anyone had since she lost her family so suddenly. Despite the circumstances of the two of them being alone here together, she felt safe in Lucan’s arms. Safe and somehow cherished.

  She snuggled closer against his side. “Can I stay here with you in your bed tonight?”

  It broke every one of Lucan’s don’t-get-involved-or-too-close rules. But the thought of letting Becca go and spending the night alone in this bed was even less acceptable. “Yes,” he agreed softly.

  “That’s a relief.” She squirmed around until she was completely comfortable, her naked body pressing against his, her head still resting on his shoulder. She had an arm across his chest and one of her legs draped across both of his. “Because you’re really, really warm, and I’m pretty sure my own bed has to have gone cold by now.”

  Lucan gave another of those not-so-rare-since-meeting-Becca laughs. “Nice to know I’m useful for something.”

  Her breath was warm against his throat. “You’ll also still be conveniently naked when I wake up in the morning.”

  “Conveniently?”

  She nodded. “So we can continue where we left off. There’s still so much for me to learn and enjoy, and we’ve just agreed you’re the perfect person to teach me.”

  “So now I’ve become your sexual plaything?” Lucan mused. “And my mother said I’d never amount to anything.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Becca reproved. “I don’t even need to know or meet your mother to know she’s very proud of all her sons.”

  Lucan glanced down at her. “How can you possibly know that?”

  “Because of who and what you all are.”

  “Which is?” he prompted warily.

  “You personally can be a bit bossy, and you’re obviously a man who likes to keep secrets,” she dismissed. “But you and your brothers are also honorable men. Military heroes. Any mother would be proud to call you her sons.”

  Lucan sincerely hoped he could live up to that description.

  And not for his mother’s sake…

  Chapter Nine

  Becca awoke the following morning to the weak November sun shining in through the cottage window and the blissful sensation of strong hands holding her hips while a hot, wet tongue licked along and tasted the moist folds between her thighs.

  Lucan!

  She’d fallen sleep in Lucan’s bed and arms the night before, and they were obviously both still here.

  She glanced quickly down the bed, easily able to see the rise beneath the duvet where Lucan lay between her thighs. Orally pleasuring her as she had never been pleasured before.

  No wonder that past sexual encounter had been so unsatisfactory when she hadn’t experienced any of these things before Lucan!

  Unless it was just him, specifically—

  She groaned in protest as that tongue stopped creating magic and Lucan moved up the bed until his head appeared from beneath the duvet. Until he once again lay between her parted thighs. His arousal lay hard and heavy against her pussy.

  His hair was tousled, eyes almost black, his lips slick with her juices. “You started thinking too much the moment you woke up,” he teased, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t be capable of thinking at all when I’m pleasuring you.”

  Becca laughed in relief that Lucan hadn’t re-erected that emotional barrier between the two of them this morning, as she had feared he might. Lucan had opened up to her yesterday, told her things she was sure he didn’t share with many people, as she had with him. But she’d been afraid their lovemaking last night might have been an intimacy too far for him. His actions and the teasing laughter in his eyes now assured her it wasn’t.

  Lucan leaned on his elbows so that the warmth of his hands could cradle the warmth of Becca’s cheeks. “Good morning, Becca Snow.”

  “Good morning, Lucan Steele,” she answered him huskily.

  It was a good morning, Lucan acknowledged. He’d been convinced he wouldn’t be able to sleep with Becca in his bed. That at the very least, he might have another nightmare. No one had been more surprised than him when he woke a short time ago and a glance at his wristwatch told him it was a little after nine o’clock. Usually he didn’t sleep past six o’clock in the morning, and even then, it was after a fitful night’s rest. He hadn’t had another nightmare either, just six hours or so of deep and dreamless sleep.

  Not only had his hard and aroused cock been awake before him but it was doing a little happy dance at the feel of Becca’s soft and warm curves curled back and spooned against hi
s much harder ones.

  Lucan had never woken up with a woman in his arms and had morning sex. Again, how could he when he never spent the whole night with any woman?

  Until Becca.

  She had still been deeply asleep when he carefully turned her onto her back to study the pale beauty of her face in the morning sunlight. Her hair was a tousled gold, brow smooth, her lips a full and tempting red.

  Which had led to Lucan wondering if the plump lips between her thighs were that same lush and enticing red. The need to find out became increasingly difficult to resist, especially when his cock became a persistent throb.

  Becca hadn’t stirred when Lucan moved beneath the duvet and slid down the bed. Her legs parted instinctively to accommodate him when he placed his hands on her thighs.

  Breathing in her musk made him lightheaded, the taste of her hitting his tongue and the back of his throat a combination of sweetness and that musk that was nectar to his taste buds. An addictive nectar, he quickly discovered as time and again, his tongue licked and lapped up the increasing flow of her juices as Becca became more and more aroused.

  He knew the moment Becca woke up, her body tensing as she became aware of him lying between her thighs and the wet sweep of his pleasuring tongue against her folds. But that tension only lasted for a few seconds, seeming to ease once she’d taken in her surroundings and who was making love to her.

  Talking of which…

  “I believe we have some unfinished business?” he encouraged huskily.

  Becca’s eyes glowed a deep green. “Then get to it!”

  Lucan shook his head at her forwardness. “How have you remained innocent for so long?”

  “I’m inexperienced, not innocent,” she corrected. “And I’m pretty sure you said you were going to rectify that situation for me. After all”—she quirked a brow at him—“what’s the use of having a sexual plaything if he doesn’t give you pleasure when you ask for it?”

  Lucan was silent for a couple of seconds, desperately trying not to laugh. A battle he lost as that laughter burst out of him. “You’re incorrigible!” His sobering smile was rueful. “I had no idea what I was missing out on by never having had before-morning-sex banter.”

  She eyed him curiously. “Never?”

  He shrugged. “You have to have morning sex to have enjoyed the banter first. I’ve never spent the whole night with a woman before, so it’s never applied.”

  Her expression softened. “Because of the nightmares?”

  His eyes darkened. “That, and because I didn’t want anyone else in my space.”

  Becca couldn’t help wondering if this was another of the ways in which Lucan said she was different to the women he’d known in the past. Because she had most definitely spent the night in his bed, his arms, and his space.

  Whatever the reason, she was determined to be Lucan Steele’s first morning sex. A man who deliberately chose to hold himself aloof and distant from others, but for now was allowing her to be the exception to that rule.

  Well, she was going to be if they ever got back on track. “We’ve finished the banter.” She gave an encouraging arching of her thighs against the hardness of his erection.

  Lucan was still chuckling and shaking his head as his lips claimed hers in a kiss that started out slow and exploratory and quickly burst into a flame of passion that consumed them both for several long and hungry minutes.

  Lucan’s eyes were dark and glittering when he finally lifted his head. “There’s a packet of condoms in the bag with my clothes. I bought them at the supermarket at the same time I bought the other things,” he added when she looked startled. “Contrary to belief, most men don’t walk around with a handy condom in their wallet.”

  “They always do in my romance novels,” she teased.

  Lucan moved to lie beside her. “Well, this man needs to go to the other room and get one.”

  She placed her hands on his forearms “Did you buy them because you intended for this to happen?”

  Lucan had wanted Becca from the first moment he set eyes on her, and he would be lying if he denied caution was his reason for buying the condoms. Just in case.

  Just in case was here. “I knew I was attracted to you,” he admitted. “I had no idea if you would feel the same way about me.”

  “Obviously I do.” Color brightened her cheeks. “Do we actually need a condom? I take contraception to regulate my periods, and I haven’t been with anyone for years. I’m thinking you’re probably one of those responsible men who gets himself tested regularly.”

  “I had a complete physical last month as part of my employment at Steele Protectors,” he confirmed. “We all have them regularly.”

  “Have you been with anyone since?”

  His mouth thinned. “No.”

  “So there’s really nothing to stop us from not using a condom if we don’t want to.”

  Lucan felt a momentary panic at the suggestion. He had never— It was an intimacy, a trust, he had never considered in the past.

  “Lucan?” Becca prompted.

  He closed his eyes as he imagined his cock breaching the entrance of Becca’s channel. Of holding her gaze captive with his as he slid his unprotected cock slowly inside her, one velvety inch at a time. And watching her eyes dilate as he stretched and claimed her, until his thickness was seated deep inside her and there was no longer a Lucan and Becca, but a single joined entity of us.

  He wanted that.

  To claim Becca.

  To possess her.

  To know that his was the only bare cock to ever be inside her.

  To be, however briefly, an us.

  He opened his eyes. “It would be irresponsible.”

  Her lashes lowered. “Oh.”

  Lucan tilted his head down at the same time as he placed a finger beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. “I didn’t say no, Becca.”

  “Oh.” Her expression brightened. “Only, from what I understand, the sensations always seem to be more intense without a condom.”

  Lucan felt sure they would be. “Did you and the ex-boyfriend use condoms?” His voice was a harsh rasp. Even the thought of her previous lover was enough to enrage him. He didn’t want to be or do anything like the other man.

  Becca shuddered, no doubt at being reminded of those two unsatisfactory encounters. “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  Lucan nodded. “Okay.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Thank you.”

  Lucan held her gaze as he used one of his hands to guide his pulsing cock to the entrance of her channel, rubbing it slowly along that hot length, liberally coating the bulbous top of his cock in Becca’s juices before be began to push forward.

  Becca’s breath lodged in her throat the moment Lucan’s cock breached the entrance to her channel. Her hands moved up, her fingers digging into his forearms as she waited for a repeat of the pain she’d experienced previously, not just when she lost her virginity, but both times. Instead, she felt the slightest pinch of discomfort and then the velvet glide of Lucan’s cock as it slid inside her channel, one perfect inch at a time.

  She gasped at the fullness as the walls of her pussy widened to accommodate the intrusion, her breathing becoming shallow before easing out as Lucan held himself still above her, giving her time to adjust.

  Again, that was different. Her previous boyfriend had been in such a hurry once he was inside her that he had just kept thrusting into her until he came.

  Lucan waited, and then a minute or so later, Becca eased her grip on his arms. “I’m okay now.”

  “Sure? I’m not exactly small—”

  “You’re anything but!” she acknowledged huskily. “And it’s wonderful. Delicious.” She wrapped her legs about his waist in encouragement as Lucan slowly began to pull back, holding steady for a heartbeat before thrusting slowly back inside her.

  Lucan had never experienced anything like the pleasure of having his bare cock inside Becca. He could f
eel everything more intensely. The pleasure. The tight grip about his cock. The combination of his pre-cum and Becca’s juices allowing the easy glide of flesh against flesh as that madness to claim and own her took control.

  The pleasure intensified as he pushed his cock deeper and harder with every thrust forward, knowing a deep satisfaction inside him when Becca began to writhe beneath him.

  “Oh God. Oh God,” she chanted, until seconds later she climaxed.

  Her channel contracted, again and again, bathing his cock in the release of her juices. “Again,” he demanded fiercely as he pistoned his hips forward, even faster and harder than before.

  “Lucan— Oh dear God…” Becca groaned as her body was consumed by another climax.

  “I’m not going to last, Becca,” he gasped. He felt the familiar tightening at the base of his spine as warning he was rapidly approaching his own release. “I want you to come with me this time. Come with me now, Becca!” he urged heatedly, his breathing ragged.

  Her arms looped about his neck, her legs tightening about his waist, pulling him into her as they both convulsed and then shattered at the intensity of their simultaneous climaxes.

  Becca enjoyed several more aftershocks to her release as her insides became bathed in the hot flow of Lucan’s essence. There was so much of it, she felt it oozing out as Lucan continued to rock inside her, prolonging and deepening their pleasure.

  Chapter Ten

  “Did they believe you?” Lucan prompted briskly after Becca had used the burner phone he gave her so she could call the museum and explain she had a stomach upset and probably wouldn’t be in for the rest of the week.

  She shrugged. “Yes, but then I expect Sheila had already told them I had to leave early on Wednesday afternoon because I was unwell.”

  He nodded tersely. “That’s good.”

  Becca groaned inwardly as how stilted everything had become. She had totally forgotten the awkwardness of after-the-sex. Of pulling apart, followed by the awkward avoidance of meeting each other’s gazes. Becca had grabbed up her discarded nightgown before hurrying from the bedroom to go and take a shower.