Marching Luke across the sand only got Noah so far. Luke ground to a halt and with all his strength pushed Noah's chest back.
"You really worked the crowd well tonight," Noah called after him as Luke walked off ahead, illuminated only by the moon and stars.
"I wasn't working," Luke responded. "I was just being myself. Not that you would know anything about that."
Noah caught up with him. "Hard work is it? Prising open those wallets?"
Luke stopped dead. "Why are you making it sound underhanded, as if I have other motives?"
Noah smirked with sarcasm. "Oh I'm sure when you were on Andy Lawson's yacht last summer off the Outer Banks, you had the best interests of the charity at heart," Noah charged with his arms folded against his chest. "And when you were in New York earlier this year with Nigel Slate, it was purely a charitable impulse."
Luke blinked rapidly. "Why Mr. Mayer," he wondered aloud. "I do believe you're jealous."
"No, not jealous." Noah shook his head. "Territorial. There's a difference."
"I'm not a country, Noah," Luke said coolly.
But Noah could clearly tell he'd rattled the blonde.
"You can't invade me and plant your damn flag," Luke continued, making the appropriate gesture with his right arm.
"I can do whatever I want."
Noah had a hold of Luke's wrist. He wasn't even sure how that had happened. He just wanted answers despite everything telling him not to delve any deeper into the world of Luke. All those possessive feelings had roared into life, when Luke had so casually admitted to a professional equestrian career to a table full of strangers and not first to Noah.
Luke hid everything; and here Noah had thought he was the expert at keeping his private feelings under wraps. Hell, Snyder could give him lessons.
"You realize, don't you?" Luke said coldly. "that you're implying I sleep with men for money. I really don't want to talk to you anymore. I'm going to bed."
Noah shook his head.
Luke looked down to where Noah's hand held him firmly rooted. "Are you going to let go or what?"
Luke's voice was very calm, but Noah could see the betraying uncertainty in his expression. He was taken back to the first time he'd seen Luke's eyes.
"First I want you to explain all the parties you throw at your house?"
Luke frowned, shaking his head. "God! When you investigate, you really investigate, don't you?"
"Luke..."
"Why do you even care about that? What is it that you want from me, Noah? What's with this sudden interrogation?"
"I want to understand you." The words were almost prised from Noah's lips. He couldn't understand where the seething frustration came from. He just knew he needed answers.
The urge to rip off Luke's clothes and have this out skin to skin in the sand; along with the need to protect Luke from himself, had Noah in a vortex of desire and self-loathing.
"Work!" Luke almost shouted at him in answer, shoulders rising and falling. "Just like you. I work! The CEO of the charity often asks me to host fundraisers. His wife finds external functions too oppressive. I was brought up to efficiently handle those types of events."
"By your mother?"
"Yes, along with my grandmother. They are both strong business women. I couldn't fail them."
Noah stilled. There were tears behind Luke's eyes. He suddenly looked much younger and somewhat lost. Noah gently released his grip. "What happened, Luke, to make you feel this way? Something must have happened."
Luke's eyes fell to the sand beneath their feet. "I knocked her down the stairs."
Noah's eyes widened. "Your grandmother?"
Luke shook his head. "No, my mother. She was nine months pregnant with my baby brother. She missed his birth because of me."
"She survived?"
"Just," Luke nodded. "I became such an angry person, when they said I couldn't ride anymore. It broke me. I was determine to get back in the saddle. She tried to stop me at the top of the stairs at home. We struggled. . . and she fell all the way down to the bottom of the staircase."
Noah took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."
"I ran away to Los Angeles. I ran to Damian of all people! A man I hated for most of my life."
"Is that why you still hosted the fundraisers, even though you couldn't afford it?" Noah carefully probed. "Is that where the debts have come from?" He kept his voice low, not wanting to trigger those tears. He didn't know what he'd do if Luke started to cry.
Luke lowered his head again. Noah could almost see the blonde's heart hammering away inside his chest. Guilt took a bite out of him. But he had to know everything, if he was ever going to help Luke.
"Does this CEO guy know about your problems with money," Noah asked.
"I don't have a problem with money," Luke insisted, lifting up his chin a bit more aggressively. "I have a problem with paying my bills. And no, I don't care to share my private business with him, the world...or even you."
Luke spun around and headed for the car. Noah loped after him, hitting the automatic door release on the Jeep.
The ten-minute drive back to the bungalow was tense, but it gave Noah time to reflect on all Luke had said.
As they entered the dark living room, Noah asked, "How long did you think you could hide it?"
"I wasn't hiding anything," he rapped out in staccato-like speech. "I was dealing with it. . . in my own way."
"And how did that work out for you?"
"Well, I'm sorry Noah," he replied turning toward Noah. "But we're not all big, capable genius directors, who can fix everything with the snap of our fingers!"
Noah stared at Luke. "What did you just call me?"
"You heard me; and I think your ego's big enough for me not to repeat it."
Noah wanted to kiss Luke; frame his beautiful, frustrated face and kiss him to oblivion. "Do you want me to fix this for you. Is that what you're hoping?"
Luke frowned.
"Well...do you?" Noah repeated the question.
"You really don't know me at all, do you? You haven't even bothered to scratch the surface."
Noah made a low sound of frustration. Didn't Luke understand he was going out on a limb for him here? He never pried too deeply into his lovers' lives. To do so invited intimacy and he didn't do that. He did sex, not analysis.
"How is it, Noah, that I know so much about you and you seem to know so little about me? You only know what you've read in the media and most of that's crap." Luke narrowed his eyes like a cat toward Noah and started to head off to his bedroom only to stop dead in his tracks. He spun around and bowled right back to Noah.
"Here's what I know," Luke presented his case, using his fingers to emphasize his points. "You're amazing. You're hard working and driven. You also have this hard shell, which comes handy when you're in the public eye. But when you're with your friends you're different. You don't push your opinions or need other people to agree with you. You're so certain of yourself in a way I'll never be. In the end... I admire all those things about you."
Luke was breathing hard, his eyes bright with repressed feeling. Noah tried not to engage. But there Luke was, still speaking right in Noah's face. "But all you admire about me is my world-class ass," he glared at the taller man. "And don't even think about smiling because as far as I'm concerned you can kiss it, Mr. Hollywood Director! I'm not waiting around for you to wake up to yourself!"
He really should have stopped after amazing.
As this thought brushed his mind, Noah stepped up to Luke, meshed his hand through the blonde hair and brought his mouth down on his.
As if he'd lit a match next to an open gas tank, Luke ignited, surging against him, aggressive unlike Noah had never seen. Even the first time Luke had kissed him, when he'd taken the initiative, there had been a reticence in Luke as if he needed to keep the protective barriers in place.
There were no barriers up now. The feel of Luke's mouth moving desperately against his own made Noah crazy. Kissing him, he staggered both of them to the nearest flat surface, which conveniently happened to be one of the guest bedrooms.
Noah would have laughed if he could at how eager Luke was...
...acting like a damn teen-ager...
...reefing down his trousers while making desperate noises as he cleaved to Noah, making it more difficult to actually shed any layers of clothing.
Noah slid his hands up Luke's thighs and remembered as his hand touched bare skin that Luke had gone commando.
Oh God.
Luke whimpered as his back hit the bed; and he drew Noah to him, clamping his thighs around Noah's hips. His eyes were wide and what Noah saw there wasn't simply desire. It was anxiety.
"Luke?" Noah was so close to the edge, and yet Luke was looking at him as if he wasn't quite sure what was happening.
"Noah," the words seemed almost wrenched from Luke. "Noah, I'm scared."
All the while Luke's fingers dug into Noah's shoulders as if he were dangling off a cliff, his bright troubled eyes fixed on Noah.
"Don't be," Noah suddenly didn't feel all that secure himself. And sure as hell, that was a feeling he hadn't felt since he'd confronted his bigoted father. The words he found to comfort Luke came from way down deep in his soul. "Don't worry. I've got you."
As if that were enough for Luke, he lifted his mouth to Noah's somewhat, but shaking and yet a little wild. Luke's body seemed to come alive beneath Noah's, coaxing Noah to take him. It was only then that Noah remembered the condom.
...
Deep inside Luke, he held onto his control by receding increments as Luke seemed unable or unwilling to let go. He felt Luke's resistance not as a challenge but rather a desperate uncertainty on Luke's part. Luke's words came back to Noah - "You're so certain of yourself in a way I'll never be."
Noah pressed his forehead to Luke's.
"Look at you," he said, grazing Luke's cheek, his mouth, his throat with his lips, slowly moving... slowly. "So strong. So wild. Do you remember when you confronted that deputy sheriff?"
Luke gave a little start under him.
Noah pressed that special place deep inside the man, causing Luke to buck.
Noah did it again.
"I knew it then," Noah continued.
"What?" Luke gasped, "What did you know?"
"I'd never give up." He shifted his hips.
Luke made a sound, part approving murmur, part pleasurable moan.
"You stuck your face in his and read him the riot act," Noah cupped Luke's behind. "I thought you were going to get us arrested."
Luke quaked against him. "Sorry. I'm sorry!"
"No! No, don't be sorry," Noah paused, staring fire into Luke's eyes. "Do you remember when I was driving you back to the penthouse?" He moved again, angling his thrusts to reach higher. "This... (thrust) is... (thrust) what... (thrust) I... (thrust) wanted... (thrust) to... (thrust) do... (thrust) right there... (breath) in the Porsche!"
"Why? Ah, why didn't you?" Luke was already there. A sound not unlike an animal ripped from the blonde's lips.
"Stick shift," Noah groaned as Luke's inner muscles clamped around him. Noah was grabbed and thrown down again and again, until his body convulsed uncontrollably against Luke's. The blonde clutched at him, riding out his own pleasure.
While Noah heavily subsided on top of Luke, the chemical high kicked in and for several minutes they just held each other; chests pumping. An exhausted Noah was conscious only of Luke's trembling, responsive body cleaving to his, until he became aware something else at play.
This wasn't just the euphoria of great sex. He could feel an absolute connection with Luke and he didn't want to break it. Ever.
Luke's body shuddered and everything about Luke's insecurities spoke to Noah, stirring up something he hadn't had to acknowledge in years, something insidious, the voice of his old man, telling him it was his fault, always his fault.
To be a man and not some sniveling, four-year-old boy.
He needed to hold Luke. The part of him that told him it was weakness was at war with the man laying there now; gathering Luke in his arms.
Luke turned his face into Noah's shoulder and Noah experienced a surge of tenderness and understanding threatening to completely undo him. He was not accustomed to bathing in the afterglow of lovemaking. Yet here he was, stroking the back of Luke's neck, using his broad thumb to trace the curve of his ear, kissing Luke there because he craved it.
Luke lifted his face, eyes glowing amber; his cheeks hot and flushed. He had never looked quite so beautiful, and he was smiling at Noah, softly laughing, his face haloed by soft blonde hair.
"Stick shift," he giggled, as if he'd never heard anything funnier.
As Luke lost himself in a helpless, happy laughter, it hit Noah like a bolt of lightning. With this man, only with Luke, he felt like a conquering king.