Author's Note: This chapter is intended for our teen and adult readers. Although this story is rated PG-13, it's a subjective rating. My idea of PG- 13 may be different from yours, so please keep that in mind with this chapter. However, I have done my best to adhere to my rating. Thank you! I don't own Gilmore Girls or this suggestive little song...
Crash by Dave Matthews Band...
Touch your lips just so I know
In your eyes, love, it glows so
I'm bare boned and crazy for you
When you come crash
Into me, baby
And I come into you
In a boys dream...
Lorelai bounded toward the door when she heard the bell. She quickly opened it and smiled widely upon seeing Luke on her doorstep.
"Hey," she said moving aside for him to enter.
"Hey," Luke said returning her grin.
This was their first private meeting in two days. Most especially it was their first private meeting since their fight. Lorelai closed the door behind him and, once behind closed doors, Luke immediately pulled Lorelai toward him and firmly planted his lips on hers. Lorelai gave into his kiss hungrily and threw her arms around his neck as he lifted her slightly as they kissed. It was an explosion of heat and desire when their lips met. When they both stopped to gasp for air they spoke in unison.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," Lorelai said.
"I'm sorry about last night," Luke said.
They both grinned and Lorelai giggled as she lunged in to taste his lips again. Luke's hands roved Lorelai's back, then waist. It had only been a day, but feeling her, kissing her, was like an addiction. Now that he had experienced it not a day went by that he didn't want for her touch. Lorelai's hands explored Luke's chest over his shirt as they kissed. The heat generated between their bodies made Lorelai's stomach flip-flop. She felt all consumed by her desire for Luke. Finally, Lorelai was the one to break the contact. She took his hands and moved back a step.
"Maybe I should invite you in instead of molesting you in my hallway," she kidded.
"In case you didn't notice I wasn't complaining," Luke protested wryly, but followed her lead into the living room anyway.
Lorelai sat down on the couch and felt her stomach in her throat. For some reason she felt extremely nervous. Up to this point every time she was with Luke things felt normal and stress-free, but tonight she felt like there was more at stake than usual. The uncontrollable lust she felt for Luke when she answered the door was still there but she forced herself to slow it down. The problem was, the more she put those feelings in the back of her mind, the more apprehensive she became.
Luke watched Lorelai as he sat down next to her. She looked nervous. In fact, she looked as nervous as he felt. There was an unspoken weight that seemed to be hanging over them tonight. He couldn't quite place it, but tonight seemed more real, more important than other nights they had spent together.
Lorelai was still holding Luke's hand and she was staring at it intently. She absently brushed her fingers over her lips, still able to feel the sensation of Luke's lips on hers. The longer the silence lingered the more nervous Luke became.
"Is everything okay?" he asked placing his other hand on the back of Lorelai's head and gently running his fingers through her hair.
"Yeah," Lorelai said. Her mouth was very dry. 'Calm down!' she willed herself. She cleared her throat. "Everything is great."
"Really? Cause it seems like something's on your mind," Luke countered. He loved holding Lorelai's hand, but he felt like his hand was getting clammy. 'Get a grip,' Luke thought to himself.
"No, I'm great. Really," she smiled at him hoping it didn't look forced. Lorelai hadn't been this nervous since...
'Oh my God,' Lorelai thought. It dawned on her that she hadn't been this nervous about a guy since the night she first slept with Christopher. She wanted to be with him in every way, but the night finally came and she felt like she was at a loss for words. Her stomach felt tight, her throat felt dry and she felt exactly the same way then as she did now.
'This is ridiculous," Lorelai told herself. 'I don't get nervous about guys. So what if we sleep together, big deal? Except that will change everything,' she thought. The impact of that thought was not lost on her. In fact it seemed that was all she could think about. They had come somewhat close to taking their relationship to the next level before, but it didn't seem to carry the same weight. Lorelai wasn't even sure if that was where the evening was headed. All she knew was that when things did progress between them it would a much more profound step in their relationship than any she had had before.
Luke looked at Lorelai's smile and it made him feel a little better, but somehow he felt it looked forced. He swallowed hard. 'What is wrong with you Luke?' he thought to himself. He finally had everything he ever wanted. 'This should be comfortable,' his mind told him.
"Luke?" Lorelai broke the deafening silence.
"Hmm," he said absently playing with her hair, but relieved that she had broken the silence.
"Do you feel weird?" Lorelai said.
Luke was taken aback. He wasn't sure how he should answer. He knew he should be honest, but if he told her that he felt incredibly weird would she decide things were too weird for them to be together? He cleared his throat. "A little, I guess," was all he offered.
"Oh," was her reply. She was hoping he would tell her that he felt nervous, scared something other than what he said.
"Uh, do you?" he asked her.
"Kind of," she told him.
Luke wasn't sure what to make of her topic of conversation. He thought back to a few moments earlier. Lorelai seemed to respond favorably to his kisses. In fact, he felt like she broke away from him in the hallway just to help their heartbeats regulate once again. Luke pushed back his hat slightly and scratched his forehead.
"What are you nervous about? Are you having second thoughts about us?" he finally ventured tentatively. Lorelai changed her position on he couch. She continued to hold Luke's hand but she sat on an angle to face him.
"No," she stated emphatically. "I am not having second thoughts about us."
Luke breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He had thought for a moment that Lorelai was going to tell him that she had changed her mind. Luke was rarely insecure, but his relationship with Lorelai was different. In some ways he almost felt as if she was too good for him. He felt that a hermit like him didn't deserve her. Little did he know that Lorelai often felt she didn't deserve a man as caring and supportive as Luke.
"I just feel nervous for some reason," Lorelai continued. "This probably sounds stupid but I kind of feel like tonight is different."
'So she felt it too,' Luke thought to himself. Lorelai had felt the electric desire between them.
"It's not stupid," he told her. "Things do feel a little different I guess."
"It's not good or bad," Lorelai said. "It's just..."
"Different?" he teased her as she struggled to find the words.
"Yes," she said and playfully lunged forward to slap him on the arm.
But Luke was ready for her. He grabbed her wrist and held it tightly in his grasp to prevent her from getting off a clean hit. Lorelai, not one to be dissuaded, raised her other hand in a second attempt to hit him, but once again he was too quick for her and he had her wrists firmly gripped in the air between them.
"If you drank less coffee you'd have quicker reflexes," he chided her.
"Oh do you owe your lightening fast reflexes to the Mega-Man Protein Powder?" she taunted him. Lorelai remembered stealing a glance of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-like powder in Luke's apartment once upon a time.
"I'm still quicker than you," was his cool response.
And so they sat there for a moment deadlocked. Neither moving, just staring at each other to see who would break first. Sookie had them pegged. They were both stubborn. Lorelai knew she couldn't wriggle out of Luke's grasp so she decided to do the next best thing. She threw all her weight at him with full forced and knocked him backward on the couch. Her sudden movement surprised him and he didn't have time to react. Luke was on his back and she pounced on his waist and sat one leg on either side of him.
"I win," she gloated.
"In case you hadn't noticed I still have your hands Macho Man," Luke said.
"Oh Luke," she sighed happily. "You underestimate my knowledge of pro wrestling. I have your shoulders pinned to the couch. Therefore I win," she said smugly.
He realized she had a point and released his grip on her wrists. "Fine," he said. "You win," he tried to suppress a grin when he saw how excited she was that he had caved.
"Yea!" she celebrated by clapping her newly liberated hands together, but not moving off of Luke.
"You gonna move anytime soon?" he asked her laying his head back against a pillow.
"Nope," she said. "I'm savoring victory," she told him.
"And what exactly did you win?" he asked her.
"Well I still have my self-respect and dignity, whereas you, being beaten by a girl, have lost both," she told him in all seriousness.
"I also win this," she said leaning over his face and slowly moving her lips to his.
Lorelai placed a hand on either side of Luke's face and gently kissed him as he moved his hands to her waist. The gentle kiss started slow and tender. Their lips barely touched at first. Luke's bottom lip gently grazed Lorelai's top lip. Just as Lorelai got ready to pull his lips closer he teased her and she felt the heat of his breath on her neck as he sat up slightly and kissed her neck and moved slowly down her collarbone. His hands slipped under her shirt and he caressed her back and his lips moved lower into the V-neck of Lorelai's shirt.
Lorelai, still perched atop Luke's lap, leaned her head back to allow Luke easier access to her neck. She felt his hands roving up her back and when his lips stopped at a particularly sensitive part of her neck she took hold of Luke's shirt and twisted the material with both hands. A breath of air escaped her lips and she knew that she wanted Luke more than anyone before.
Lorelai pulled Luke's lips away from her neck and kissed him passionately on the mouth. Unlike the gentle kisses of before this kiss was long and deep and urgent. It ignited a desire within them and Luke instantaneously pulled her toward him. Lorelai let out another small moan as she ground her hips into Luke and she felt him react. He had to admit that the feel of her body against his was almost overwhelming.
Lorelai decided it was time for her to take charge of the situation. They had been dancing around each other for years. Lorelai hadn't paid too much attention to it but over the last year she had noticed the tension between them more than ever before. A year of foreplay was more than enough. She took her hands off Luke's chest and quickly flung her shirt up over her head.
"Luke," she said breathlessly, "I want you." She moved in again for another kiss, which Luke hungrily returned. As she kissed him she threw her arms around his neck and pulled off his baseball cap. She carelessly tossed the hat to the floor and pressed her chest into Luke's. His hands roved over her back up to her shoulder. He lightly fingered the strap of her bra and gently tugged it down to kiss her shoulder.
Luke struggled to rip off his top layer of flannel. Lorelai sprang into action and helped him with the chore. Afterwards she quickly extracted Luke's T-shirt from his body. She lightly ran her nails over his chest and he took a sharp intake of air and kissed her deeply. She pulled back for a moment and took in the sight of a shirtless Luke. Her hands glided down his chest and abdomen. She shouldn't have been surprised by his stellar physique, yet she was. His chest abdomen looked as if hey had been carved by Michangelo himself. His arms were powerfully strong and she took in the sight as if feasting after being denied food for years.
She ran her fingers down his sides and leaned in to kiss him again. Luke moved his hands to her waist and pulled him closer to him. Lorelai pressed her body closer to his. It was an odd feeling. It was the feeling of wanting to be so close to someone you wished your bodies would melt together. Luke felt Lorelai's tongue enter his mouth and lightly, playfully massage his own. She pulled back slightly and gently nipped his bottom lip with her teeth.
Luke pulled back from her for a moment and said huskily, "I love you Lorelai." The look in his eyes was so sincere and devoted that Lorelai wanted to cry. She thought about the years that she thought she was in love. She thought she knew what love was. It wasn't until she heard Luke tell her he loved her and saw the look in his eyes at that moment that she understood that she hadn't a clue what love was until now. Because now love was looking back at her and she finally understood what it was.
"I love you too," Lorelai whispered, overcome with want and need and emotion. "Come on," she said standing up and taking Luke's hand. She led him over the staircase and they both knew what was going to happen next.
Lorelai stood a step above Luke and said in her best mock flight attendance voice, "Welcome to the stairway to heaven," she said using her arm to motion upstairs. It was so cheesy even Luke had to laugh, but it lightened the mood. It seemed that all the insecurities and nerves that had plagued them in the beginning of the evening had disappeared.
"I love you," Luke said shaking his head. "You're crazy, but I love you."
"If you love me and I'm crazy then what does that make you?" she asked him.
"Certifiable," he said simply. He put a hand on Lorelai's waist and pulled her him. She returned his kiss instantly.
Later on Lorelai was resting her head on Luke's chest, absently tracing patterns on his stomach with her finger. Luke had an arm around her neck and their legs were tangled, as were the sheets on Lorelai's bed.
"Luke," Lorelai said.
"Hmm," he replied placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head.
"I'm very happy right now," she told him.
Luke smiled and pulled her closer to him. "Me too," he replied.
"I was nervous before because I kind of thought this might happen tonight," she informed him.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," he finally admitted to her.
Lorelai planted her hand on his stomach and pushed herself up a little. She turned her head toward Luke to look him in the face. "You were nervous?" she asked.
"Of course," he told her.
"But you were Mr. Cool and Collected!" Lorelai said. "I asked you if you were nervous and you said 'not really,' she told him.
Luke laughed a little at her reaction. "Well I'm glad I came off as calm because I really didn't feel it. Why were you so nervous?" he asked her.
She settled back into Luke's chest and ran her nails over his torso. "I don't know," Lorelai said. "This just seemed...like if we did what we just did that things would change forever. Before there was kind of a cushion you know? If things were weird or not working we could probably go back to how things were. But this seemed like a big deal," Lorelai finished.
"Do you regret what just happened?" Luke asked hesitantly.
Lorelai sat up and looked at him again. "No, not at all," she said sincerely. "That isn't what I meant it to sound like. I just felt like us sleeping together would make it more real. I don't usually feel like that. It was kind of scary," she said, trying to make him understand.
"I get it," he said. "It's like we were together, but this sort of cements it. We're not just friends who occasionally date. We're...you know, together," Luke said feeling that the end of his sentence didn't adequately capture the true essence of what he was trying to say.
"Right," Lorelai reaffirmed. "And in case I didn't tell you enough over the last hour, I love you," she told him with a mischievous grin.
"I love you too," Luke smirked back at her.
"I just wish Rory was as happy about all this as we are," Lorelai thought out loud, instantly regretting it.
"What do you mean?" asked Luke, still oblivious to Rory's temper tantrum.
"Oh, uh, I don't know why I said that," Lorelai said trying to back peddle.
"Lorelai," Luke prodded her.
"Oh all right," she conceded. "I told you that Rory and I got into a fight about the inn, but what I didn't tell you is that we also got into a fight about you," Lorelai sighed.
"Me?" Luke questioned.
"Yeah, she kind was kind of irritated when I told her about us," Lorelai admitted sheepishly.
"Oh," Luke said trying to mask the hurt in his voice. "Rory doesn't like me?"
"No, that's not it at all," Lorelai told him, taking his hand. "I just think she's going through a lot right now. My Mom thinks she feels threatened by you!"
"You told your Mom about us?" Luke asked surprised and happy that Lorelai had shared that information with her mother.
"Yeah. She called to yell at me and that's when she told me about everything going on with my Dad and then I ended up telling her about us. She was almost supportive. It was very odd," Lorelai old him.
"And your Mom thinks Rory is threatened by me? I don't get it."
"Well I think my Mom was just practicing a little armchair psychology. She wondered if Rory felt threatened because I was dating you when she wasn't around. Like you'd take her place at home while she was gone or something Oedipal like that."
"I thought Oedipus wanted to sleep with his mother?" Luke inquired.
"Huh?" Lorelai responded.
"Well wouldn't it be an Electra complex? I'm sure Rory doesn't want to sleep with you," Luke reasoned.
"No, I thought Electra wanted to sleep with her father? Since Chris is out of the picture I'm going with Oedipus. And when did you become an expert on Greek mythology?"
"I'm a layered and complicated man," he deadpanned. "I don't think either example is a good analogy."
"Okay, not Oedipus and not Electra," Lorelai relented. "I think I'll stick to pop culture from now on," she sighed.
After a quiet moment Luke wanted to broach the subject of Rory again. "So, do you think Rory will ever like me?" he asked.
"Oh Luke, she likes you. Rory loves you. She's just really mixed up right now I swear," Lorelai tried to make him understand. "She was more upset with me. She was worried I'd break your heart," Lorelai admitted to him.
"Oh," he replied noncommittally.
"Oh? That's your response? Aren't you supposed to say, 'you could never break my heart Lorelai. You are wonderful, sexy woman?'" she asked.
"Well aside from the wonderful, sexy woman part it wouldn't be true," Luke said quietly.
"What you mean?" she asked surprised.
"I mean that you could break my heart," he said looking deeply into her blue eyes.
"Well you could break my heart. How come everyone thinks it's going to be me doing the breaking around here?" Lorelai said getting upset.
"Lorelai," Luke said, "I'm hoping no one's heart has to get broken here, but I've wanted you for so long that I never thought it would happen. But now that this has happened it's the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can't say you couldn't break my heart because if you woke up tomorrow and changed your mind I'd be very upset, okay? End of rant," he finished looking down mad at himself for giving her so much power over him, but in some ways she had always had it anyway.
"Luke," Lorelai said pulling his face up with her hand to meet her gaze. She was no longer upset. "I understand why people think it would be me that would break your heart. I'm flighty sometimes, but I promise you that I love you. I honestly didn't think a relationship could feel so right. Tonight was amazing and I'm not planning on going anywhere. I didn't think I could ever feel like this about anyone," Lorelai finished, her eyes glistening with scant tears in her eyes.
Luke smiled slightly as took his finger and brushed a tear from Lorelai's cheek. "Again with the crying?" he teased her.
Lorelai giggled. "I do this to keep you in practice," she said wiping her other eye. Luke took her hand and pulled her toward him. He gently kissed her on the lips, then on the cheek and finally on her forehead. They snuggled next to each other exhausted. Lorelai fell asleep with her head wedged in the crook of Luke's neck. Their hands loosely overlapped and they slumbered better than either had in years.
TBC