Page 54 of Memories with Fire

We’re both breathing hard. Both of us silent as we collect ourselves from the experience. And what a fucking experience it was.

“Luke?” I murmur when I’ve almost caught my breath.

He sounds completely spent when he answers, “Yeah, baby?”

“You’re wearing a condom, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” he says, lifting his head from where it was resting on my shoulder.

I bite my lip, feeling a little shy, on the verge of feeling embarrassed. “Why is… why is the chair really wet?”

A deep, rumbling chuckle sounds from behind me, and he stands upright, slowly withdrawing himself from me. “Because you squirted all over the chair, me, my sweats, the floor.”

“I did what?” I screech, horrified, scrambling off the chair so quickly I nearly tip it and send myself to the ground.

Luke catches both me and the chair, though I’m not sure where he finds the strength. I’m horrified when I look down and find not only the floor wet, but his light gray sweatpants darker with a lot of wet spots all over.

He lets go of the chair and gathers me in his arms, pulling me into his body. “Hey, hey, hey. Relax. It was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Without seeing myself in a mirror, I know my face is a brilliant shade of red, along with the rest of me, as embarrassment takes over. “Sexy? That was… sexy?”

“You have no idea how much of a frickin’ champ I feel like right now,” Luke tells me, his chest puffing even as he holds me. “I can’t wait to do that again. Over and over. I dang near came the first time you did it, but seeing it the second time, I was a goner. It’s going to be my sole purpose in life from now on.”

“Luke!”

He chuckles and kisses my forehead, then more seriously asks, “You okay?”

“More than,” I say, even if I’m bordering on mortified. He really does seem proud that I squirted all over the place, and I’ve never felt anything so incredible, so who am I to argue with him. Even if the thought of drenching everything around us is slightly embarrassing. “I’ll go get something to clean up.”

“You will not. You’ll stay right here,” he releases me from his arms, giving my ass a light swat before stepping back. His pants are still around his ankles, and he kicks out of them, bending over to wipe up most of the wetness on the floor. “I’ll be right back to clean you and the rest of this up. Just relax for a minute.”

When he lets go of me, I wobble a little, my legs feeling like mush, and he grabs me, turning me towards the island. “Hold onto the counter for a sec.”

I lean over it, letting it hold me up because I don’t feel very stable, and I don’t want to sit down in the drying wet spot on the stool. It would be easy to just walk to the bathroom down here and clean myself up, which I need to do, but besides feeling a bit dazed, part of me also likes the idea of Luke coming back to clean me up before I do a more thorough job.

Luke taking care of me is what my dreams are made of. Even if I refused them until now.

His phone lights up a couple feet away from me on the counter, and instinctively I reach out for it, dragging it towards me, wondering if my mother is checking in with another text.

Luis: Hey brother, how’s California? Has the change of scenery done you good? Have you heard from…

That’s all I can see in the preview, but with it not being my mother, I don’t care. Then I realize it couldn’t be my mother because I blocked her. And even if it had been, I shouldn’t be reaching to look at anything she has to say. Luke helped me forget, and that’s where I want to stay. At least for now.

“Someone named Luis texted you,” I say as Luke comes down the stairs in a new, dry pair of sweats, carrying a towel and something else. “I wasn’t trying to snoop. I thought it was my mom again and then I remembered I blocked her.”

“One of the guys from my old crew,” he explains, setting what I now recognize as a fresh t-shirt down on the counter when he reaches me. I turn to face him and find an affectionate smile staring back at me as he adds, “Probably the best guy I know back home. He and I were like Nate and Liam.”

The thought of Luke having a bond like that with someone makes me smile. “Which one were you? Liam or Nate?”

Luke laughs, straight from his belly. “Don’t walk out my front door, but definitely Liam.”

My eyebrows raise. I know he loved the ladies before we met, but I thought it had just been a high school jock attitude and that he’d grow out of it. “Liam? Really?”

“You were it for me, Hailey,” he says, leaning in to press a kiss to the tip of my nose. “Choosing anyone else would have been settling, and that’s boring. When have you ever known me to be boring?”

“God forbid.”

He chuckles again, dropping down in front of me. Luke on his knees before me. Goodness, I am definitely dreaming.

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