Page 35 of Scripted for Love and Poison (Sol and Luke Mystery #2)

H e looked at her with eyes that said Your rules and then he took his T-shirt off. His smirk never left his lips.

If asked about it before meeting Luke, Sol would have said that after so many months into a relationship, she’d see herself immune to many of the charms in a lover. That wasn’t the case with him.

Her heart still skipped a beat and raced ahead, her face blushed, and she felt the need to fan herself every time he stripped.

She was ashamed to admit that she’d probably only felt that deeply hot and enthralled by someone’s body walking among Greco-Roman marble sculptures depicting athletes, and the time in Florence when she just couldn’t take her eyes off Michelangelo’s David and didn’t leave the Uffizi Galleries for hours.

Luke was breathing, moving, human marble sculpted to perfection—or at least to some of Sol’s ideals of what a male body had to look like: athletic and slender, toned but not bulky, olive-skinned, and with a few dark hairs grazing his chest. And he was completely aware of the effect he had on her.

He took his pants off next, and she allowed her eyes to drink in all his beauty.

But he was still not completely naked. Her eyes searched for his, slowly traveling down his body until stopping on his boxers, arching her eyebrows in urgent demand.

His smirk grew even more pronounced, and he took the garment off.

She bit her lower lip, allowing herself one glimpse at his erection and proceeding to also undress.

“I can help you,” he told her, moving closer and leaning forward over her as her back was still against the wall. The saltiness in his smell hit her even harder.

He unclasped her bralette first, his forehead glued against hers, his chestnut eyes on Sol’s, his lips hovering a few millimeters from her mouth. His left arm firmly clasped around her waist.

“You’re gonna kill me with the fucking anticipation,” she told him in between breaths as the fingers of his right hand traced her collarbone, the lines of her shoulder, pulling down one of the straps of her bra, then the other.

Slowly uncovering her breasts completely and getting rid of the garment.

You need to start taking the need for fastness seriously, she almost complained, but she didn’t as he kneeled in front of her, pulling down her leggings and thong and tossing them aside.

When he took his mouth between her legs and indulged her clit with the urgency she required, she arched her back against the wall.

Her eyes closed. One of her hands went to his tousled hair, and the other one searched the wall for balance—her legs were starting to feel wobbly.

She loosened and got lost in the utterly sensual position.

“As much as I missed this,” Sol whimpered after what had felt like an instant of bliss but she was sure it had been actual minutes, “I need more.”

“So bloody impatient!” Luke grumbled and started standing up, his tongue tracing a hot, wet line along her body in his ascent.

He grazed her hip bone with his teeth, explored her belly button, tasted the whole contour of her breast, and licked the most sensitive area at her neck and behind her earlobe.

He kissed her lips then, his body pushing into her against the wall.

When she finally came up for air, her mouth disentangling from him momentarily, she decided to voice her complaint—even if there was no dissatisfaction but simply the urge to mess with him.

“Too much, ”she started as he bit her lower lip and pulled at it, “fucking foreplay,” she continued in a laborious exhale.

And she knew she was moaning, partly because those lips of his were lighting her skin on fire.

But mostly because two of his fingers were relentless, taking turns against her clitoris and inside her.

He smirked at her remark. “Liar.”

And, okay, perhaps she’d been a bit deceitful, but she loved provoking him when they were fucking.

“Turn around,” his smokey voice told her.

“Finally,” she sighed and could hear his protesting snicker as she turned and his greedy hands clasped at her hips, pulling her ass against his body.

She reached behind her, finding his cock and bringing it to her opening. As he sank inside her, they both cried out in pleasure.

“Harder,” she pleaded. He thrusted inside her again, pressing her against the wall, and she felt him deeper this time.

His fingers circled her clit, and she felt rapt. Her eyelids dropped, and she simply—felt. Luke’s breath on her neck, his chest raspy against her back, his cock plunging against her in a delirious, intoxicating rhythm.

Right then, pinned against a wall in one of her favorite hotels in the world, she would have had difficulties answering common questions like what was the name of said hotel, what she did for a living, or where she lived. She would fail at telling someone her name even.

Because then, she was just a woman getting exactly what she needed most at the moment from her lover, in the most delicious, unrelenting way.

“Voy a—” she started saying, and the first notes of release had her screaming.

“Posso sentirlo,” he said, his lips on her ear, a chill racing down her spine. And she could hear his pants—and the smile on Luke’s lips.

As they both orgasmed, rammed against the wall, Sol couldn’t help but realize she’d never been so thoroughly fucked in Los Angeles.

“So much for needing a bed, eh?” she told him while he rested his forehead on her shoulder, his lips already kissing her there.

“But we definitely needed the walls, cara,” he said, and they both started laughing.

···

“Is this the moment when we talk, then?”

“Should we do relationship or case chat first?” he answered.

They lay in bed, naked, facing each other, their legs intertwined, their profiles aligned—noses touching, lips practically meeting.

She was well aware that he’d managed to modify yet again the order in which things had happened.

Since fucking against the wall had been followed by some slower-paced lovemaking on the bed.

“I thought you were going to keep pretending like I wasn’t involved in the case and just keep me in the dark,” she said, only slightly reproachful, as her fingers traced the outline of his collarbone.

“Since when have I kept you in the dark? You’ve managed to inveigle yourself into plenty of my cases whether I’ve liked it or not,” he said, searching for her eyes.

“Please. It’s just been two cases, and in the first one it was you who implicated me.” Her hand had moved to play with the dash of hair on his chest, tickling him.

“Let’s not row again,” he pleaded.

“Agreed.” She sighed. “Why were you following me?”

“I wasn’t following you. I wanted to find you and apologize. I needed to mend things. And then Alex texted me pictures of the guy who delivered that letter for you yesterday?”

“The one saying I should stop sitting on my ass and read Simon’s book?”

“Same guy was lurking near the house again this morning,” Luke explained.

“Oh my god! Are they going to be okay? I need to call Lola!” Sol sat up and searched around for her clothes and phone.

“Relax, they’re alright. Alex texted me right before we checked in at the hotel.

They were all at the house, tucked in for the day, ready to watch a movie.

Geoff, of course, was cooking something that sounded delicious.

” His words relaxed her a bit. He’d also sat up and reached for her searching hands, enclosing one of her wrists in his fingers and trying to appease her.

“And what happens tomorrow?” she said, turning to face him.

“Let’s worry about right now. We don’t even know if the mystery delivery person is dangerous.” Luke tucked a strand of her disheveled hair behind her ear.

“It must’ve been worrisome enough for you to have us promptly moved out of Lola’s place!” she objected.

“That was just an excuse to get you finally alone and naked.”

Even though she knew he was turning up the charm to the fullest to soothe her, it was still working.

“Did Mystery Delivery Person leave another message for me today?” Sol asked.

“They did,” Luke admitted. “Alex also sent me a picture of that.”

He stood from the bed, finding his cell phone inside his discarded trousers on the floor. She followed his every move while he was doing it, not because she was anticipating whatever the new message said, but because she liked watching Luke’s elegant moves—especially if he was naked.

“ Done any fucking reading yet? ” he read from his cell phone. “ Don’t be afraid to skip a few chapters. Any idea of what they bloody mean?” Luke asked her, visibly confused.

“I think I do.” She bit her lower lip. She loved it when she was able to surprise him.

“One, that’s very sexy,” he said, still standing on the other side of the room. “Two, please tell me.”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve been told I can’t get involved in this case,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and trying her best at seriousness.

“You’ve got to be joking me!” He groaned .

“Uh-huh, I have a very stubborn partner who thinks I must stay away from all this investigating business. Apparently, and I’m quoting here, I’m an amateur and dating a detective doesn’t make you one,” she continued, running her fingers through her hair and sweeping it to one side to look sexier.

Luke groaned again in a mix of regret and anticipation. She knew he wanted to know what she’d figured out about the case. But there was something Sol wanted first.

“Please don’t hold my foolishness against me. I didn’t mean what I said yesterday. I just wanted you safe and stupidly thought that was a good strategy,” he said.

“So you’re ready to admit that you were a total ass,” Sol said.

“An idiot. An arse. Someone who most definitely doesn’t deserve you.”

“Okay, okay. Don’t overexaggerate. But I’m going to need you to sweet-talk me. A lot.”

He returned to the bed, grabbed her waist, brought her back against the mattress, and pressed himself on top of her, brushing but not quite touching her neck with his mouth.

“We said we’d talk before the lovemaking. In the end it was the other way around,” she whispered. “And now you’re trying to make me lose focus again .”

“This is no lovemaking attempt. This is sweet-talking and me trying to extract information from you. Information that you clearly want to be tortured for,” he said, grinding his hips against her body. His tongue took a slow, thorough trip along the length of her neck.

“Okay, okay, okay,” she gasped. “You win. Let’s wrap up this conversation quickly.”

“Gladly,” he said, rolling to his side and propping his head over his muscled, flexed arm .

“There was no need for the whole pinning me down and tortuous neck play since I’ve already divulged the information you’re so interested in.”

“Huh?” Luke asked.

She had to admit that toying with him was fun. Plus, a confused Luke was an even sexier-than-usual Luke.

“I had a chat with your work partner this morning, remember?” Sol said. “I told her about what Simon wrote at the very end of his manuscript.”

When Luke returned a blank stare, Sol continued talking. “I guess she still hasn’t told you about that since you were probably pestering her so that she’d give you my location ...”

“What does Simon say in the book, Sol?”