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Chapter Sixteen

Eva

No more words are spoken until we’re being guided to our rooftop table at one of the most prestigious new restaurants around here. My eyes are open with wonder, my senses bombarded with elegant music, rich lighting and smells I’ve never smelled before. “Luke, this place is,” my mouth opens wide having never seen anything so stunning in all my life, “it’s breathtaking.”

His hand is at the small of my back as my jacket falls off my arms, my eyes glued to glowing lights on the city below us. When he stays silent, I turn to look at him, finding him watching me.

“It certainly is.” He doesn’t look at the surroundings.

My cheeks blush, hot heat weaving through my veins. “Stop looking at me like that.”

He smiles thoughtfully, pulling out my chair so I can sit down before placing my jacket over the back.

Before long, he’s ordering for us, fresh olives and wine being brought to the table.

I give him a wry smile as I place an olive in my mouth, enjoying the savoury taste on my tongue. “That’s ten pounds down the drain,” I muse, sipping my wine whilst Luke’s shoulders jump up and down a little.

It’s obvious his admission half an hour ago is weighing heavy. I can tell he needs to know how I’m feeling. To be honest, I might be in the dark to the hows and the whys, but I’m still every bit as drawn to him as I was the first day I met him. It’s undeniable and alarming, but when I’m with him, he makes me feel like the person I once was.

“Very good, Little Warrior. But I don’t consider money spent on you being thrown down the drain.”

I smile at his flattery, watching cars go about their business down below. “I never knew how beautiful where we live actually is. Feels like time wasted to be only noticing it now.”

“Better late than never,” he says in reply, his knee gently knocking mine as he sits more comfortably in his chair.

I angle my face to him, still holding my glass of wine. “Where did you grow up, Luke?” My normal question feels out of place as he lifts his glass of water and takes a sip. Unlike the waiter at The Savoy, this waiter has poured him a glass of wine that I know he won’t touch.

“My parents split when I was a kid. After Dad left, me and my mum moved not too far from here, although a lot has changed from how I remember it.” My expectant eyes must show I want more. “And… well, you know where I ended up.”

Prison. “Were you inside for very long?”

He might find it hard telling me this, but he knows he has no choice. He promised he would. “Six-thousand, two-hundred and five days.” My eyes widen but that’s maths I can’t compute. “Seventeen years, Eva. I was in prison for seventeen years.”

I fall back against my chair, my hand almost dropping my wine to the table. It hits the white cloth with a gentle thud, the liquid reaching the rim of the glass. “Seventeen years?”

He nods.

Heat prickles my ears. “You must have done something serious.”

When he flashes a look to the passing waiter serving the table next to us, I watch his shoulders tense. “I had to make sure my younger brother and sister were safe.”

What ? I lean forward when his eyes lock on hard to mine. Again, that isn’t what I thought he was going to say. I fear my next question, and I see him prepare for it, his hands steepling in front of his face .

“What did you do?”

Two dishes are placed in front of us, but food is the last thing on my mind. There’s a gentle buzz from the alcohol numbing the edges just enough, I’m confident I want to know what happened.

The waiter leaves us. Neither of us look down at our food. “I killed the person threatening to cause them harm, Eva. Right there in my own home.”

His face is murderous, his body language tense and fierce. “I’m sorry.” My eyes close, picturing him when he must have been a young boy, dealing with something as evil as murder to protect his family. This man ended up killing more people, and even though I know I’m no expert, I can already tell the two incidents are linked.

“I’m not sorry, Little Warrior.” He catches my gaze before I can glance a look to the city below. Anything to not have to see the hurt in his eyes. “It meant my brother and sister stayed with their dad. They lived happy lives and now I get to work with my brother every day.” He chuckles to himself. “Which, actually come to think of it, isn’t always a good thing.”

Fond memories must flash before him. Seeing him smile in the face of something evil lights up my centre. “And your sister? What does she do?”

He looks down, picking up an olive with one of the sticks in the dish. “I don’t know.”

“Oh?”

He chews the olive, going back for another. “She stopped wanting to see me after what I did.”

My eyes scrunch involuntarily. “How could she after you did what you did to protect her?”

He takes me in like he’s never had anyone on his side before. “Because it was our mother.”

Tears instantly swell, cold prickles break out on my skin. “Your mother?” I choke, my blinking becoming rapid.

Luke grabs my chair from under the table, pulling me closer to him. “Why are you so upset, Eva? Talk to me, please.” His hand moves the hair off my face, his thumb swipes away the tears hitting my cheeks .

How can he ask such a ridiculous question? How can he not see that what he did was what anyone brave enough would do to protect the ones they love? “Because it seems unfair.”

His eyebrows scrunch before he’s relaxing, one hand cupping the side of my face as he looks deep into my eyes.

“What did your mother do?” I ask shakily.

Luke sighs before he turns and picks up a napkin from the table. “Your mascara’s running,” he tells me, gently wiping it under each of my eyes, ignoring my question.

Waiting, I let him see to me in a way that’s nothing short of caring and loving. “Luke?” I press gently, my hand lifting to his.

I sniff whilst he slows his task of making sure I’m okay. “She didn’t take care of me like a mother should.”

I want to press him further, but I don’t have to. I’ve seen the cuts and scars across his body. At first I had assumed they would all be from his time inside, but realisation dawns, and I know there’s a much darker truth to the one he’s told me.

Tender eyes caress mine. “Can we please eat this meal together?”

I work my lips into a thin smile. “I need to go to the ladies’. Sort myself out.”

He leans forward with angelic grace. “You look beautiful just the way you are, Eva.”

My racing pulse quickens, and against my better judgment, I test my own willpower by placing my lips against his. He tastes like everything I’ve ever needed. The pull of his lips, the smell from his cologne. Luke has me hook, line and sinker without even knowing it.

When our slow kiss ends, I reach for my bag. “I’ll be two minutes.”

He kisses the corner of my mouth before I stand and leave him at the table. Looking for where I’m headed, I spot the door we came out on the balcony through and head towards it. I know he’s watching me walk away. Distant eyes are burning right through me. He’s probably hoping I won’t run, but I left my jacket at the table as a sign I’d be coming back.

Once I’ve finished in the ladies’, having cleared the black smears off my face, I make my way upstairs. Back out on the terrace, my eyes glue to Luke’s back. I pause, studying him. He’s watching the hustle and bustle like I was, not eating his food as he presumably waits for me. He seems calm. Like an invisible weight has been lifted.

Given what I’ve come to know about him, I’m shocked Luke isn’t more unhinged or, for loss of a better word, more fucked up.

Eyes still on him, I take a step forward, crashing into the back of a man I hadn’t seen. Not looking where I’m going, I hit the floor with a thud, and the man spins around to help me to my feet. “Oh my God!” I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.

“Eva?” I hear Luke yell.

As a waiter and the gentleman I knocked into help me to my feet, Luke needn’t look so worried when he makes his way over to me.

“I’m fine,” I tell him, dusting myself down, grateful it wasn’t the waiter I bumped into as he was carrying a tray of drinks. “Luke, I’m fine.”

His eyes scan the space around us then fall to me, alarmed hands feeling over my arms and face. “What happened?” He sounds worried.

I laugh. “I wasn’t looking where I was going. I bumped into this—” I look around seeing no signs of the man I literally just walked into. “He was right here.” I turn to the waiter who’s now looking at me. “I’m so sorry.”

The lovely man smiles at me as he picks up the tray of drinks off a nearby table.

I can’t stop laughing, my cheeks once again turning bright red.

“No need to apologise, these things happen. No harm was done.”

Luke kisses the side of my head, tension still evident. “More water for our table.”

The waiter nods, and Luke directs me to where we’re sitting. “I can’t believe I fell over in a place like this.”

He laughs with some relief. “Sad I missed it.”

I tap his arm, noticing him looking over my shoulder as he pulls out my chair.

“I think after tonight we try somewhere less flashy. Somewhere I don’t have to wear heels.”

He looks at my feet when I shyly turn my toes inward. “You don’t go out that often. Do you? ”

“Christ, is it that obvious?” I sip my wine, thinking perhaps I should stick to water.

“A little,” he chuckles. He then pulls out his phone and quickly sends a text to someone before looking at me. “But besides poor etiquette, I meant because of your son. Liam you said his name was?”

My heart warms. “That’s right. He certainly keeps me busy.”

Luke finally picks up his fork and takes a mouthful of food.

I copy him, showing my pleasure at how much the delicious taste is lighting up the inside of my mouth. “It’s like my mouth’s having an orgasm.”

Luke scoffs like he can’t believe I just said that.

Shit. I can’t believe I just said that. It’s dangerous to tread anywhere close to anything intimate with Luke. I know what’ll happen, and whilst it’s all I can think about when I watch him take bites of his food, I also want more than that with him.

“Tell me more about Liam.”

I wipe my mouth with my napkin, this time choosing to take a sip of water before I speak. “Do you mean; tell you more about Liam, or more about his dad?”

Luke’s hand pauses mid-lift. “Observant, Little Warrior.”

I smile, pleased with myself. I saw the rage when he looked at Ben, and I know he knows Ben was there the night of my accident. That will never take away from him being Liam’s father, though. “He’s an okay dad most of the time. He’s been looking for work for over a year, and as much as I can’t stand to be anywhere near him, Liam loves him.”

He breathes a long breath. “So, you really aren’t with him?”

I give him a confused look. “You think I would flirt with you if I was with someone else? Please, give a woman some credit.”

His eyebrows dance on his face. “You call that epic fall, flirting?”

My mouth opens on a gasp. “Coming from the man who clearly had no experience in the bedroom before me.”

“That’s true. I had no experience in the bedroom. We only made it to the table the first time.”

I ignore the fiery heat swelling between my thighs. “Still, at least I know what Ben and Jerry’s is. ”

“I do now. And it doesn’t taste the same when I’m not licking it off your body.”

My legs press together, my grip on my fork tightening as I slowly twirl it into some of my food. I then lift it to my mouth, pausing mid-air. “That can be arranged.” I part my lips and close them around the fork seductively. Luke’s eyes are burning, his temple twitching with desire.

He can’t look at me. His head drops with a smile, knowing my game. We’re sitting closer than we were before.

In a flash, his hand snaps up to my nape and he pulls me closer to him, catching me off guard.

My breath gets caught as I lick my lips, mere seconds away from getting to taste him.

When he speaks, his warm lips touch mine. “Sorry, Little Warrior. I don’t put out on the first date.”

He drops his hold on me abruptly, and I look around, hoping no one can see how desperate I must look, licking my lips all flustered and leaning into him.

Oh. Okay. So this is how tonight’s going to go. “I mean, technically you did put out on the first date, but it’s not like I remember.” I shrug acting nonchalant.

Luke laughs, eating another mouthful of food. “You lie, Little Warrior. You remember every second my mouth was on your pussy.”

I cough, yet again caught off guard.

“More wine?” He’s grinning like a mischievous boy.

I let him top up my glass, now in desperate need of it. When he’s done, I take a sip, enjoying the refreshing way it runs down my throat, feeling the buzz instantly. I need to eat more.

Luke places his hand on my knee, and I take another, larger sip than I was planning to, avoiding his eyes as I put my glass down and take a mouthful of food. “So,” I start, still not looking up. My dress feels like it’s suddenly too tight. My chest feels hot, my palms feel sweaty. “The lady you were with the night of the function. Who was she? Really?” I look up at him then, refusing to look away first.

“She was helping me with a job.”

“You were on a job? ”

Luke nods. When he leans in, placing his elbows on the table, his arms bulge underneath his suit jacket, the material pressing into hard lines. “She helped me find you after I’d conducted my business.”

I slowly connect the dots. “So, finding me at the function was no coincidence?”

Luke smiles sheepishly.

“Jesus.”

My head drops as his hand finds mine. “She works with me, Eva. It’s nothing like what you’re thinking.”

“Have you slept with her?” I’m not entirely sure why that’s my question.

His eyes narrow and he smirks, clearly enjoying my possessiveness. “Would it upset you if I have?”

My eyes dart to one side when a car horn blurts out from down below. “Depends.”

He quirks a brow when I look back at him. Soft, dark eyes land on mine. “On?”

“Whether you’d sleep with her again.”

Luke laughs, but it’s lost on me. “Eva, you think I’d do that?”

“You’re a handsome man, Luke. She’d be crazy not to want to spend more time with you.”

Sliding his hand further up my leg, I have to bite my lip to stop myself from quivering. “She’s a friend, yes, but you’re the only person I’ve slept with, Eva.”

I smile but instantly freeze. Not, he hasn’t slept with her. But he hasn’t slept with anybody? “Wait. What?” I startle.

His hand squeezes my thigh. “I met you with very little experience of what I was doing. Then you showed me what it was like to enjoy being intimate with someone.” The pad of his thumb begins light strokes on my skin, need and want both swelling deep inside me. “When I ran, it wasn’t anything other than fear. Fear of being in a situation that I had no clue how to handle. It had nothing to do with you.” His other hand he places over mine on the table, the gentle way he flexes and caresses my skin tells me he needs the contact. “Tell me you understand that, Eva.”

“I understand,” I answer helplessly .

“Two days,” he begins, his fingertips still drifting on my skin. “Two days on the outside world that felt like two years. I needed distraction, Eva. Anything that would stop the torrent of uncertainty I felt.” Luke tugs me closer, and I go willingly. “I wound up working with Adam and found my escape in women. Hundreds of women, Little Warrior.” A flare of jealousy stabs at my gut. “But it was never intimate like what we had. Never came close to those moments we shared. They never touched me, and I never fucked any of them. I came on them. Over them. In their mouths,” I recoil but he grips me tighter, “but never inside them. The things I’ve done… none of it comes close to the thing I want most from you.”

My brows knit with confusion. Hot, heavy breaths begin expelling from me. My mind begins racing, the unwanted images of Luke being intimate with hundreds of women make me feel sick all of a sudden.

Letting go of my hand, the tip of his finger sweeps my hair over my shoulder. He trails it between my breasts, his palm pressing flat over my chest. “This, Eva. The thing I want most is your heart.”

All I can do is swallow, unable to look away from him. “My heart?”

He smiles. It’s beautifully captivating for someone so manly. “Isn’t it customary when someone gives you something you should return the gesture?”

I’m pulled closer, my eyes dropping to his mouth. “Like you did with my money?” My voice is softer, doused in lust.

Luke’s hand cups my neck. “You’re getting funnier, Little Warrior.”

“I just thought, 'what would Luke say?', and went with it.” We’re eye to eye, mouths on the cusp of pressing together.

“People need to stop doing that.” Warm lips then capture mine in a delicate embrace. “I mean it.”

I sink into the contact, my eyes closing. I no longer care that we’re in public.

“You’ve had my heart ever since you made me that shitty cup of coffee.” We both laugh, still dotting kisses on each other’s mouths before he continues, “I knew it then, and I spent every hour since I ran thinking about you, wanting to get back to you.” He kisses me again, his tongue breaching the parting of my lips. It’s so sensual, if it wasn’t for the fact that having sex in a public place is a crime, I’m pretty sure I’d let him bend me over the table. “I thought about you every day. The idea of looking after you. Spending every minute with you. That’s what kept me going.”

“That and all the women.”

He stops, both our breaths hot and flustered. “Eva.” He sits straight, his hands still on me. “You wanted to know all my truths?” he asks, already knowing that I do. “The only truth you need to know is, everything I did whilst I wasn’t with you, was for you. Making something of myself, learning a thousand different ways to make a woman come… it was so that when I found you again, I could show you—prove to you that I was man enough to be someone you’d consider trusting with your heart.”

Reality kicks in and I’m pulling back to see him clearly. “My heart belongs to my son.”

Luke’s hands clamp down further, his unbridled need to make me really listen, ruling him. “And if you’ll let me, I’ll prove that these hands are strong enough to hold two hearts, Eva.”

My emotions take over, my eyes once again filling. “Do you really mean that? Because, although I think I understand why you ran, I don’t understand why once you had me, you stayed away again.”

“I wound up in a bad situation, Eva. The best thing to do was lay low for a while. People were looking for me. Probably still are.”

“But you said they tortured you, Luke.” I lean in, keeping my voice down. I’ll have a public display of affection with him, but I don’t want anyone overhearing me. “That isn’t normal.”

“Little Warrior, is there any part of what we have that has been normal thus far?”

I shake my head, smiling mildly but covering my mouth with my hand as I rest it in my palm. “Okay, so being stabbed and rescued wasn’t a great start,” I turn to him, “but Liam is the normal I need. I can’t bring danger anywhere near him. If you come with that,” my other hand lifts to cup his face, knowing I don’t want to say what I have to next, “then I can’t be yours, Luke. No matter how much I want you; he has to come first.”

He’s silent. For far too long .

“I understand, Eva.” Luke’s face drops, and following his movements, my eyes rise when he stands. He removes his wallet, placing enough cash to cover the food we, yet again, haven’t finished.

His breathing is heavy, his body being held tight. I take his hand when he holds it out to me, rising to stand, my body being pulled in close to his like a lifeline. “You’re a good mother. Liam is very lucky.”

Lucky?

His words are carried with pain. Pain that is so palpable, I can taste his sadness, can feel the grief and agony burning my tongue.

“Luke?” I shoot him a look, my hands lifting to hold his arms.

He looks at my touch, and I see it. When he searches my face, I see it shining as bright as the sun. Luke must have been hurt in ways I can’t comprehend. Unimaginable ways no boy should have to endure. The gut-wrenching thought that it was at the hands of someone he trusted and should have loved him the most, frightens me beyond words. Fear and terror slice me right down the middle, one half of me wanting to scream at him to tell me, the other not wanting to make him relive it.

If he ever opens up to me, I don’t know if I’ll be able to hear it.

My throat burns as I tell him, “Take me home.”