Katie’s interior muscles held him tightly. They wrapped around him like a vise. On every descent she relaxed, on every withdrawal she clamped around him as if she didn’t want him to leave. He felt the pressure inside his balls build and had to use every ounce of his strength to ward off an imminent orgasm. It was difficult not to give into the pleasure that she gave him so freely. Not to let himself go and accept everything she offered him. Because for him, too, this moment meant forgetting the past. He, too, needed to make new memories to deal with the old ones, the ones that haunted him in his sleep.

He whispered sweet nothings to her, telling her that he desired her, that she made him feel good. That she was perfect.

She thanked him with gestures: a tightening of her delicious channel, passionate caresses with her hands, and her ankles crossing below his butt to imprison him. And unlike the prison he’d inhabited for twenty years, this was a prison he didn’t want to flee. It was a prison of softness and warmth, of tenderness instead of cruelty, of belonging instead of loneliness. With every plunge into the center of her body, he felt himself drawn deeper.

Had it really been over two decades since he’d felt such joy? How had he survived without the warmth and comfort only a loving woman could provide?

Eager to gobble up what Katie gave him, knowing that soon all this would come to an end, he unleashed his passion on her. Soon he would turn his back on San Francisco again, but until that happened, he had to fill the void in his heart with the illusion that there was somebody in his life who cared enough about him to grant him a few hours of bliss.

What had Katie said earlier? That Hollywood had been one big stage, a pretty illusion. Maybe this here was the illusion he needed to go on with his life. To lay the demons of his past to rest. To forgive Vivian and himself.

He gazed into the passion-drugged face of the beautiful woman beneath him and found her looking back at him. Her gaze was open, and he felt as if he could see into her soul.

“Oh, Katie,” he rasped. There was so much he wanted to tell her, to give her, to make her feel.

It was then that he felt her clench around him. Her orgasm caught him unaware, and it was too late to hold back his own release.

With a guttural moan, he thrust into her again and joined her in ecstasy. Before his eyes everything blurred. A sensation akin to floating gripped his body and carried him away to a place where nothing mattered, where the world was in order. Where everybody was happy.

35

Katie pulled the pizza out of the oven and placed the hot baking tray on the stove.

“I’d almost forgotten what it smells like in a kitchen when somebody’s cooking,” Luther said from behind her.

She looked over her shoulder, smiling. Luther was leaning against the kitchen island, wearing sweats and a T-shirt, both belonging to Haven, for whom she kept a small closet in her house in case of emergencies, while Luther’s own clothes were in the dryer. Katie had slipped into yoga pants and a T-shirt after they’d slept for a few hours. But a text message had awoken them.

“That’s not surprising,” she said. “You haven’t been around humans in a long time.” She turned to switch off the oven.

“My wife liked to cook.”

Katie froze, surprised that Luther was revealing something from his past. She hesitated, but then asked as casually as she could, “Vivian?”

“Yeah, she would spend hours in the kitchen. I think she always found it a pity that I couldn’t eat what she concocted.”

“Well, I’m not much of a cook,” Katie admitted. “I didn’t make the pizza. I get it frozen from Pasquale’s, and just shove it in the oven.” The sound of the garage door interrupted her. “Just don’t tell them. They think I actually make it from scratch.”

Luther’s hands were suddenly on her shoulders, and he turned her to face him. “Another illusion? That of the perfect aunt?”

“Don’t we all try to show others what they want to see?”

“Are you doing that with me, too? Showing me what I want to see?”

Slowly she moved her head from side to side. “I can’t pretend with you.”

“Good.”

Luther gripped her chin between thumb and forefinger and dipped his head to hers. His kiss was gentle, but full of heat nevertheless.

The door to the kitchen was flung open, and Luther immediately released her.

“Mmm, pizza!” Cooper said, charging in. “I’m starving!”

The closing door almost hit his sister Lydia in the face. She stopped it with her palm and thrust it open again. “Cooper, you have no manners!” she chastised her younger brother, then tossed a long suffering look at Katie. “Sorry, Aunt Katie, he still hasn’t learned to knock. I keep trying, but he’s a lost cause once he smells pizza.” Her eyes darted to Luther, then quickly back to her. “Sorry to interrupt.”