She let the dogs inside. Luke was in the kitchen.
“Did you get everything unloaded?”
“Yeah. Looks like a good storm coming in.”
She nodded as she met him in the kitchen and opened the cooler to unpack the sodas and leftover food. “Yeah, it does. Does anything outside need to be secured?”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Okay. I’m going to head up to take a shower.”
“I’ll do that myself after I finish outside.”
Emma grabbed a quick shower and slipped into a cotton sundress, leaving her hair damp. Luke showed up just as she was finishing combing out her hair.
“Wow, you look gorgeous.”
She laughed. “My hair’s wet and I have no makeup on.”
He kissed her shoulder. “I like you that way.”
He was so . . . different from Vaughn, who’d preferred her dressed up, made-up, always perfect.
She took a deep breath. “I’ll let you take your shower. I think I’m going to make us some iced tea.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be right down.”
She brewed the tea, then poured it in the pitcher, adding ice. By the time she gathered up sugar and sliced lemons, Luke had reappeared in a pair of shorts and a sleeveless top, his hair still damp from his shower. He slipped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“You smell good.”
She took a deep breath. “So do you. I made sweet tea. I can brew a pot of unsweetened if you’d rather have that.”
“Bite your tongue. All tea should have sugar in it.”
She grinned and poured two glasses of tea.
Thunder had started rumbling outside. Emma glanced at the dogs, all three of them asleep in the living room, unaffected by the gathering storm.
“They must have had an eventful day,” Emma said.
“Lots to bark at outside. Protecting the homestead, you know.”
They took their glasses outside and sat on the front porch. It was still warm, but windy, the limbs of the trees stretching back and forth, the waves of the lake kicking up powerful crests as the skies darkened further.
“I’ve always loved storms,” Emma said. “The sound of thunder, the crack of lightning, and the smell of rain. God, I love the smell of rain.”
“It’s a pain in the ass when I’m working, though. People don’t know how to drive in it.”
She looked at him. “And you have to deal with a lot of accidents.”
“Yeah. But days like today, when I’m off work, I love the rain, too. Being here where it’s quiet and all you have to deal with is nature, it’s perfect. When we were kids, my brothers and I would build forts in our rooms during thunderstorms and pretend we were mighty knights defending the castle during a siege.”
She laughed. “Obviously you all had good imaginations.”
“We had to do something. Three rambunctious boys forced inside due to weather? You can imagine the potential for destruction.”
“You could have read books.”
He cocked his head to the side and gave her a look. “Come on. I mean, books were fine later, when I was older. When we were young we wanted to be doing something, not reading about someone else doing something. Though my dad read to us. And would watch movies with us. That’s where we got the warrior and castle ideas.”
Again, not his mother. Sad. “I like that you envisioned yourselves as knights.”
“We’d use broomsticks as our swords. I gave Logan a black eye during a particularly vicious sword fight one stormy afternoon.”
She laughed. “Oops. Did you get in trouble?”
“Nah. My dad accepted that we were boys. It’s not like we were fighting—just having some fun. And Logan laughed about it.”
“You got lucky. I always got in trouble for fighting with Molly.”
“I imagine your fights weren’t physical like ours were.”
“True enough. We mostly yelled at each other, then I’d get the blame for starting it because I was the older sister, when half the time it was Molly bugging me or taking one of my toys.”
“Younger siblings can be a pain in the ass sometimes.”
“Yes. I’d try to escape from her a lot. Fortunately, during stormy days she’d crawl onto my mother’s lap. She was afraid of storms.”
“And what would you do?”
“I’d sit on the porch like this, as long as I could anyway, until the rain would drive me inside. Then I would cuddle up alone in my room with my blanket and read.”
“Oh, no. One of those bookish types.”
She laughed. “Yes. I’d sink into one of my stories and get lost in it while the world outside thundered and crashed around me. But inside I was safe and warm, with a story to keep me entertained.”
He reached over and slid a curl between his fingers. “Sounds pretty perfect to me. But you weren’t afraid of storms.”
“Never.”
“Me, either. We’d have been out playing in them if my mother hadn’t complained she’d have to do our laundry when we got muddy.”
“Little boys are supposed to get muddy.”
“That’s what I thought, too. She wasn’t much for anything that would cause extra work for her.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
She slid her hand in his. “But it was, wasn’t it, Luke?”
Her gaze met his and lightning arced across the sky, followed by a loud crash of thunder that drew their attention. The clouds burst, and rain came down in sheets so thick you couldn’t see. The wind whipped around them, rain lashing the porch. They grabbed their glasses and dashed inside.
“Wow, that was rather abrupt,” she said, shaking the water droplets off.
They went into the kitchen and dried off with a towel.
The rain came down hard for the first thirty minutes, then settled into a steady, light shower after that. Emma and Luke curled up on the couch in the living room to watch.
“Did you have fun water-skiing today?” he asked.
He’d picked up her legs and draped them over his lap, pulling her closer. Emma had to admit, she didn’t mind this at all. She tilted her head back to look at him. “I had a great time. Thanks for taking me.”
“Thanks for driving the boat so I could get in a little skiing.”
“I enjoyed it.”
“Oh, right. That whole control thing. We were going to discuss that.”
She arched a brow. “No, I don’t believe we were.”
“Yeah. You said you liked being in control, and then I got hard thinking about you being on top.”
She laughed. “I think this conversation played out entirely in your head.”
“Did it? Huh. So about that control thing.” He laid his glass on the table and pulled her on top of him. His hands splayed across her back, then started a slow trek south, stopping when he grabbed her butt.
Her body started up a fast rush of pleasure. She wriggled against him. “So not subtle, McCormack.”
He quirked a wickedly sexy, bad-boy grin up at her. “I wasn’t really going for subtle, Dr. Burnett.”
She palmed his chest. His body was warm, a storm raged outside, and she couldn’t think of anyplace she’d rather be than right where she was.
“No, you’re definitely not being subtle.” The hard proof of that rocked between her legs, igniting her passion. She surged against him, lost in his eyes, which, when he was laughing, were a light greenish blue, but when filled with passion, like now, turned dark as a churning sea.
“So, it’s storming outside, Emma,” he said, brushing her hair away from her face. His touch ignited her pulse rate as his hand lingered at the side of her neck. “Do you want to play indoors?”
“Swordplay?” she asked.
Luke laughed. “Yeah. Swordplay sounds good to me.”