1While Lucas was out with the rest of his men working to clear as much of the road they could, Brooke found herself indulging in a hot bath in an erase the memory of Lucas' hands on her body and the way his lips felt against hers earlier that day. Unfortunately, she found herself fighting a useless battle as she thought for sure the memory of it as been forever ingrained into her soul.
She entered the bedroom and slipped on the robe that she had placed on the bed and started to wander through the house until she came to a room where the walls were aligned with books. She walked toward the old mahogany desk in the corner and out of pure curiosity, fingered the contents that lay there. Books of sonnets, poems and what have we here?
"Huh, a volume of love poetry.." she whispered to herself as she opened to front flap only to pause upon reading the inscription in the cover.
To my darling Lucas...Just so you remember. Love, Peyton
Shutting the book with a snap Brooke found herself sorely tempted to toss it in the trash can next to the desk. Squinting her eyes in disgust at the jealousy she felt, she placed the book back in it's original spot.
"Why does it matter to me if Lucas has a romantic poem book from another woman?" She mumbled under her breath as she made her way out the door. "It's not like I have feelings for him or anything." She only wished that she believed her own words, but deep in the depths of her soul, she knew it was a lie.
Brooke made her way back to the living room where she made herself a nice fire and decided to curl up on the couch and await Lucas' return.
An hour turned into two, and then three. Why hasn't Lucas returned yet? Brooke glanced out the window and noticed that the sun had long since set, he should've been home by now she thought to herself.
What if something happened to him? What if he, like her, was trapped in the snow and nobody knew? Frantic thoughts started racing through her mind as each minute passed and still no sign of him.
Fear laced its way through her body and a chill ran up her spine.
Why am I so worried about him?
"Because,: she said aloud, slowly, "I love him. I've completely lost my mind and fallen in love with the insufferable jerk." She lifted her hand over the erratic beating of her heart as she felt the weight of that knowledge suffocate her.
"This can't be happening. Of all the men I've met, and of all the men in this world, how could I be so stupid to fall for him?"
Before she could give her newfound revelation any further thought, she heard the creak of the side door being open, and before she could talk herself out of it, she ran towards the sound, found a snow covered Lucas and threw herself into his arms.
"Brooke, what's going on?" Lucas tried to pull her away from his cold wet clothes.
"I thought something happened to you." Her voice was muffled against his chest, her cheek oblivious to the frigid dampness.
"Except the fact that I'm half frozen and soaked to the core, nothing's happened." Firmly, he took her shoulder in his hand and disentangled himself from her arms. "I don't want you to be covered in snow." His grip was gentle.
She stared up at him with huge, swimming eyes. "I'm sorry I was gone so long, but things were piled high out there and ti's slow work trying to clear a mess like this." He offered her a sideways smile, hoping to alleviate some of her concerns.
Embarrassed by her outburst, she backed away. "You must be exhausted. I'm sorry, I'm being silly. It's just probably from being alone here all day." As she rambled on, she purposely backed toward the door leading to the living room. "You should probably take a nice hot shower and grab something to hot to drink. I-I've got dinner on the stove."
"Is that what I'm smelling?" Lucas sniffed the aroma in the air. "Smells good." His eyes roamed over her flushed face, and a smile spread over his features.
"Yeah, it's ju-just spaghetti." She despised herself for her lack of speech. "I'll go finish it up."
Brooke practically ran into the kitchen, anything she could do to get away from him and embarrassing herself even further. She listened for his retreating footsteps before she allowed herself to release a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"I'm such an idiot," she sighed and pushed her hair from her face in an angry gesture. Throwing herself into his arms, and practically crying, behaving that way would only get her into trouble. Trouble she didn't want, trouble she couldn't handle.
As she poured the cooked pasta into the strainer in the sink, she swore to herself that she would keep her emotions regarding Lucas Scott on a tight leash going forward. She would not embarrass herself in front of him any further. Fortunately, tomorrow would be her last day at his ranch before she could make her trek back to her sister's. She would only have to get through one more day. Surely, she could control herself for another day.
She was setting the table when Lucas returned.
"If that tastes as good as it smells, I'm going to die a happy man." He lifted the lid on the pot and gave a sigh of approval. Grinning, he disappeared for a moment only to return a minute later with a bottle of wine.
"A nice burgundy," he said, opening the bottle and setting out two glasses.
"Brooke, this tastes fantastic." He broke off eating long enough to give her a satisfied smile. "Where'd you learn to cook like this?"
"New York can be pretty expensive for a struggling dancer. Had to learn to cook sometime."
"What other talents are you hiding from me?"
"Well, I can do a superb swan dive, if I do say so myself, and a very graceful arabesque. Oh, but my proudest is that I can walk on my hands as easily as some can walk on their feet."
"I'm impressed. How did a woman of your talents spend the day?"
"Sleeping, mostly." She began to toy with the food on her plate.
"Hmm." His cough did not quite cover his laugh.
The rest of their dinner was spent in comfortable silence. Once they were done, Brooke grabbed the plates on the table and prepared to wash them.
"Those can wait til later Brooke, I'll get to them, you've done enough." Lucas quickly pulled her hand and led her into the living room where he already had two glasses of wine waiting for them.
"No, no, thank you." She took a deep breath and willed her voice not to betray the nerves she was feeling from having him stand so close to her.
"Not going to make me drink alone are you?" He dangled the glass in front of her and raised a brow.
Smiling despite herself, she took the proffered glass. "The fire's nice." Her eyes stayed riveted on the flames, anything to keep from looking into his eyes. "I've always wanted a fireplace in my bedroom." Great, she just had to mention the bedroom. What a great thing to bring up when you're trying to avoid such intimate topics, but before she could correct what she meant to say, Lucas was raising her chin with his finger and forcing her to look at him.
His face moved closer, and when she tried to jerk back, his brow lifted in amusement. He bent toward her again, and again she tried to jerk away.
"I'm only going to kiss you Brooke." He tightened his grip on her chin. Sliding from her chin to frame her face with his hands, his lips moved over hers, soft as a whisper.
In spite of herself, Brooke relaxed into his touch and leaned further into him as she parted her lips allowing him access to explore the inside of her mouth.
"Brooke." Her name rolled off his tongue in a sigh.
"Kiss me again," she demanded breathlessly as she lifted her face to his again.
With a low groan, he crashed his lips down on hers. She clung to him, her body throbbing with heat, her heart desperate against his, while a part of her looked on, shocked at her response, as she answered his kisses just as fervently
Her mouth clung to his, passion that had long since laid dormant inside of her suddenly awakening and flooding her senses.
He opened her shirt and claimed her breast with his mouth. The desperation soon melted away into slow exploration as his fingers trailed lightly over her skin, eliciting trails of fire along the way.
His mouth trailed down the center of her breast as he placed open mouth kisses down her stomach. He moved his way back up, sampling the length of her neck. She pressed against the rippling muscles of his back as his mouth and tongue and hands raged fire over her.
She felt, rather tahn heard him say her name against her mouth, sensed, rather than felt the tension enter his body before her lips were set free. Some where in the distance, she heard the insistent ringing of a telephone.
"Bloody hell.." She opened her eyes, dark as the depths of the ocean and stared without comprehension. "There's nothing I'd like more than to ignore that Brooke, but it could be an emergency." Her lids fluttered in confusion. She could feel the warm raggedness of his breath against her cheek.
"I'm sorry." His body left hers and took the warmth with it. She struggled to sit up, pulling her shirt closed.
"Shit!" She muttered under her breath out of his hearing range as her unsteady hands tried to do the buttons on her shirt. Pushing at tumbled hair, she wrapped her arms around her body and closed her eyes.
She had lost her freaking mind, losing herself to the sensations he evoked in her like that. She tossed pride out the window like a damn imbecile. Her arms closed tighter around her body as she tried to ward off the tears that threatened to fall. Does love always hurt? Does it always make a fool of you?
Before she could make a quick getaway to her room, Lucas was already walking back into the living room, his hands on stuffed into the pockets of his jeans.
"Brooke." She winced at the sound of her name rolling off his tongue.
"I...um...was just going to go to bed, I'm a little tired." She avoided his eyes and toyed with the imaginary string on her shirt. She took a step backward when she saw Lucas advancing toward her.
"Brooke. Come, sit down." He held out his hand for her to take. She knew if he touched her, she would be lost.
"No, no, I don't think that's such a good idea." Her color ebbed again, leaving her cheeks pale.
"Still running Brooke?" The anger in his tone was well controlled.
"No, I..I.."
"Alright, then, for the moment we seem to be at a stalemate." He was at her side in one stride and captured his chin her his hand once again before she even thought to move. "But, we haven't finished what we've started here by a long shot. Do you understand?"
She nodded, then broke away to flee to the sanctuary of her room.
A/N: Okay, so it was a long time in the making...loads of doubt...loads of writers block...loads of bull...you get what I'm saying.
Hopefully, you're all still interested in reading this. If not, I'll forever put this story in hibernation.
Thanks for all the reviews. Let me know what you think.