Chapter Twenty-Three

With narrowed eyes, Lucas watched Kara close the door of her cottage behind her right after her stubborn ass went inside. A very nice ass, but bloody stubborn nonetheless.
He didn't understand why she wouldn't just listen to him.
He couldn't go down to Rein to sort her problems out and be on the ranch to make sure she was safe at the same time, could he? Of course not.
But when he'd tried to explain that to her, what had she said?
"I don't need you sorting out my problems for me, Lucas. I can handle myself, Lucas."
Like hell. Would it be so hard for her to just pack her damn bags and stay in his house? Where he could look out for her and shoot the next sonofabitch that tried to drag her out of a window right to high heaven. He'd make sure she was safe and okay and warm.
He scowled at the roof of her cottage and doubted it was half as warm as his new house. And his arms.
"What are you doing here?"
Lucas turned around and found François standing in the doorway to the kitchen, frowning at him in disapproval. Typical. Always the big brother, wasn't he?
Ever ready to find fault in anything Lucas does, then bitch about it. Well, lucky for Luc, he didn't give a fuck what his step-brother thought of him.
François narrowed his eyes at Lucas.
"What are you doing here?" he repeated. "Raphaël and Bella are gone. You only came because of them, right, so why're you still here?"
Lucas ran his tongue over the inside of his cheek and fought down the defensiveness that François always seemed to bring out in him.
"Didn't you always want me in this place?" he questioned, not answering François's question.
"And didn't you always make it clear that you'd rather spend a day in hell than be on the ranch?"
Lucas didn't let himself get angry over their old argument.
He shrugged. "Well, I spent the whole damn weekend here, Franç, so I guess off to hell I go."
"Save me the sarcasm, Lucas."
Luc looked up into François's blue eyes and saw the anger there. And the pain.
Fuck it, he wasn't about to deal with this.
He turned around and began walking away.
"It was yours too, Lucas!" François said sternly.
Lucas spun around. "It was never mine! He was your father and he left you the ranch. Just because he married my mother doesn't mean I have to accept to raise chickens and cows for my entire life!"
Lucas saw his brother flinch and called himself an asshole. But the damage was one and he wasn't even going to try and change it.
"It's more than just that, Luc," Franç said, unable to stop the pain from entering his voice. "And he wasn't just my father. He loved you like his own. I hate that you don't see that."
With a final heart piercing stare, François turned on his heel and strode into the house, stalking past a wide eyed Celeste. She practically felt the anger emanating off his body and quickly turned back to the the open doors to look at Lucas in askance.
He looked back at her with a darkly clouded expression and said nothing. Celeste put her hands on her hips when Lucas too, angrily stormed away.
She sighed and turned back into the house. Honestly, men were such babies, she thought.
Kara was happily stirring the stir frying chicken as music played from the TV.
She threw spices in as she swung her hips with the confidence of somebody who knew there was nobody in the house to film their horrible dance moves. Horrible, they truly were, but Kara couldn't have cared. It wasn't like she was going to a damn dancing competition anyway. She reached out and picked up the metal spoon drainer in the boiling macaroni pot and stirred it a little.
It was during a particularly tricky Michael Jackson dance move that she heard her door burst open.
With a shriek, she jumped back against the kitchen counter and realized too late, that she'd smacked the hot metal spoon right onto her chest. Yelping, Kara threw the spoon so far it landed by her bedroom door and began blowing at her chest like crazy.
Damn, it hurt like a bitch, she thought, although she really couldn't say just how a bitch hurt.
With tears in her eyes, Kara ran to the sink and began putting cold water onto her hot chest, she didn't want to deal with a burn and intruders.
"What happened?"
Kara spun around. And glared. Bloody Lucas.
"You inconsiderate imbecile! Couldn't you for once have considered that knocking the door down like some caveman could startle somebody into burning themselves?!"
She flung her hand, sending a fleet of cold water spraying onto his chest, further infuriated when he didn't even so much as flinch.
Lucas saw first the red patch on Kara's milk white chest and his eyes grew round.
Shit.
Then he saw that her white dress shirt and lace bodice were wet around her chest. Wet, making them nearly see-through.
Fuck.
He cleared his throat and dragged his eyes away. "No, I didn't consider. I'm an inconsiderate imbecile, remember?"
Kara snarled at him and started storming past to get the discarded spoon when he stopped her with a hand around her elbow.
"Stay still," he ordered.
Lucas picked up a cloth, dunked it in cold water and then reached for her.
She tensed when his hand moved towards her chest. He stood inches from her and slowly, he peeled her damp shirt away from her chest.
Lucas held his breath without even knowing it. The lace of her bodice looked delectable against her creamy skin. The cups held her breasts up like a pure offering and he was painfully tempted to accept. The rounded globes begged for him. For his hands, his tongue.
With effort, Luc focused only on the red spot higher up on her chest. Slowly he dabbed the cool, wet cloth around the redness, easing away the burn.
Kara hissed at the first touch of cloth against her skin, but knew it wasn't as much from the burn on her chest as from the burning between her legs.
Lucas seemed entirely focused on his task. She studied the line formed between his eyebrows and the hard set of his mouth above his beard as he cooled the burn away.
Kara swallowed. God, he was beautiful. Being that close to him when she was currently trying to convince herself that she wouldn't give in to wanting him was danger. It was madness. It was straight up vagina suicide.
But Kara could live with that, couldn't she? She was strong and aloof and goddamn royalty and...
Lucas looked up and locked their gazes.
Fucked.
Something exploded between them, Kara didn't know what it was, but in the next second, Luc's lips were hot and hungry over hers. This time there was no panic or fear inside her, although she searched for it. Searched for anything that could motivate her to drag herself out of his arms, but all Kara found was heat and desire. Wet and ready.
When his arms slipped around her body and pressed her to him, Kara melted against Lucas, driving him half mad with the feeling of her soft chest pressing against him. Lucas groaned into her mouth.
He wanted her badly and he was drowning in his own desire, but fuck it. Luc would have shot anybody who'd tried to save him in that moment. He wanted to drown. Wanted to be taken over with everything that Kara made him feel. Wanted to be submerged in the overpowering need she sent flaming through him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, opening her mouth wider for him and Lucas thought he would die. Right there on the kitchen floor.
Kara killed him and brought him back to life with the same mouth.
The heat grew stronger as their mouths collided and their tongues tangled in burning lust, hungry to taste what they tried to resist.
Lucas kissed fire down her throat, nipping and sucking at her hot skin, making Kara gasp and moan in little pants. This was wrong, she knew. But it felt so so good to just let him touch her like this. And touch him and taste him. The scent of raw desire filled the air around them.
Along with another smell.
Sniffing the air once, then twice, Kara's eyes flew wide open.
"My chicken!"
Luc's head jerked up and away from her neck, leaving her marked by his mouth. He looked dazedly down at her, seeing how dilated her pupils were.
But wait.
"What?" Lucas asked. Had she called him her chicken?
Kara darted unsteadily past Lucas and only then did he notice the pots and pans on the stove.
He watched Kara quickly put the pan aside and turn the stove off for the pot.
Ignoring him, she checked on her chicken, stirring it with shaky hands to make sure it wasn't burned. Browned and not like the picture in the cookbook, but not burned.
"Kara."
She turned on him and pointed the wooden spoon at his chest.
"You!"
Luc gave his lips a quick nervous swipe with his tongue, loving how Kara followed it with her sharp green eyes.
"Me?"
"Yes, you! You nearly made me burn my chicken!"
He hid his smile. "Oh, just blame me. What else did I nearly make you do?"
Kara dropped her tell tale eyes to the spoon in her hand and pretended to think.
Nearly made her cum with just his mouth on her neck was what else he nearly made her do, but she wasn't about to say that.
"You made me burn my chest," she murmured finally.
Lucas ran a hand through his hair, as the guilt hit him. "I'm sorry, ma cherie." He pulled her closer, glad to see the redness on her chest fading. "Is it sore?" he asked gently and Kara was about to nod to purposely intensify his guilt, then froze when Lucas puckered his pink lips and began gently blowing over the burn.
The. Feeling. Of. It.
Kara was absolutely mortified by her response to Luc's blowing at her chest this time. The poor guy was probably just trying to make the burn better and here were her nipples getting all happy about it. Disgraceful.
She bit her lip as he drew back and gave her a small smile, his grey eyes a sparkling silver at that moment.
"Better?"
Kara blinked away tears and nodded slowly. "Yeah." Or not. Maybe he should blow again.
"Good."
Before she could respond, he jerked her forward and placed a hard kiss to her lips sending her heart into overdrive.
"Now start packing, Kara. We're going to my house."
Immediately a dark frown fell over her face. "No."
"Why not?"
She crossed her arms and turned her nose so high in the air that Lucas had to grin. "Cause you can't make me."
"I can't, but I just told Celeste and François everything about you an hour ago." He shrugged. "You left me no choice. They want you out. Now."