Her Secret Sons by Tina Leonard

subject you think dads ought to be good with, besides girls?” By the tiny scowl on Pepper’s face, he figured it was best to choose another topic.
    “We don’t know,” Toby said.
    Luke nodded, gazing at his sons. “It’s okay. We’ll work on it together. It’ll be fun that way.”
    They grinned at him and Luke had a sudden vision that family was his new calling in life—thanks to Pepper.
     
    T HE BOYS went to bed a few hours later. Pepper walked Luke to the front door, relieved and torn at the same time. “Thank you for making that as easy as possible.”
    “I thought we did well,” Luke agreed. “But you raised fine kids, Pepper. They’re calm. Like you.”
    She warmed from his praise. “Their aunt Jerry is pretty capable, too.”
    “So can I take them to meet Dad, tomorrow?”
    “Of course,” Pepper said quickly. She wanted to go as well, but didn’t feel right about intruding. After all, Luke deserved some time alone with his boys as they got to know each other.
    “Want to come, too?”
    She glanced up at him, thinking he really was a handsome, caring man despite all the rumors of his wild ways. “Oh, no,” she murmured, “you and your dad need time with Toby and Josh.”
    “It would probably feel more normal to them if you were there. They’re calm kids, I know, but it still helps to have your mom around sometimes.”
    She smiled, recognizing he was trying hard to appeal to her sentimental side. “Do you always get what you want?”
    He touched her cheek. “If I think it’s right, I work pretty hard at it.”
    A shock of sexual desire hit her unexpectedly and hotly, deep in the core of her body. The feeling stunned her, and a long-slumbering flower of lust bloomed. She stared at Luke, her eyes wide with wonder. It felt so good that she didn’t want it to cease.
    His palm slipped down her cheek to caress her chin, a gentle introduction of his flesh to hers, a feeling of sensuous possession. It was so different, so unlike what they’d known before, that Pepper was riveted, wanting to feel more.
    “Pepper?” he said huskily.
    He wasn’t looking for a reply, but permission, she realized, her body heating with excitement. Hewould leave her alone, remove his hand, if she only said—
    “Yes,” she replied softly, giving him the permission she knew he was craving. So Luke bent his head and kissed her deeply, hotly, the way a man kissed a woman he wanted.
    And Pepper knew she wanted him just this way. After all these years, it felt good—right—to be kissed by Luke.
    She felt like an angel, Luke decided, drawing Pepper to him tightly so he could taste her more deeply. He’d known attraction many times, but this was different. This was a soul-deep connection making him hungry for everything he could learn of her mouth, her body, her emotions. What made her happy, what made her sad.
    He was going to spend every day of his life learning how to make her happy. He’d been given a family: sons, a father, the mother of his children. Pulling Pepper more tightly to him, Luke molded his body against hers, feeling how perfectly they fit together. This is the real meaning of lucky.
    Pepper pulled away from him slowly and he let her go—for now.

Chapter Eleven
    Luke talked Pepper into going to his dad’s with the boys, using the irresistible lure that Toby and Josh would probably like her moral support. It had to be difficult to meet one’s grandfather for the first time, he’d told her, when the children never knew they had a living grandparent. This was all true enough, but the bottom line was Luke wanted Pepper with him.
    The more he kissed her, the more he craved her.
    It was a really strange phenomenon for a bachelor with freedom deeply embedded in his soul. He glanced at Pepper, who sat beside him. Shapely legs showed beneath a flared skirt he thought was perhaps a little old-fashioned, but typical of Pepper—she did like the mother role, and certainly no teenager would be caught dead in