Page 85 of Lumi

CHAPTER 16

Friend Zone

Damian

We carried the dishes to the sink without speaking.

In my mind, I was going over all the things Jolene had pointed out to Lumi and me. It was shocking how bad I was at reading Lumi and how easy it had been for Jolene to spot her lies.

“She’s pretty sharp, that Jolene, huh?” I muttered and placed another glass in the dishwasher.

“Yes. It’s impressive how much she can tell from people’s body language, but I’m irritated that she locked up the key.”

I was close to telling Lumi not to worry about it. However, I was tired of her running from any confrontation, so I didn’t point out that these handcuffs were made for playing. If we wanted out, any sex shop in town could probably sell us another set of cuffs with a key that fit, or I could open the handcuffs with a small screwdriver.

I closed the dishwasher while she dried around the sink. My heart rate was picking up because of the questions burning on my tongue. “So, Spencer didn’t like ye sayin’ my name.”

“No.” Lumi washed her hands and dried them.

Leaning my free hand on the kitchen counter, I looked at her. “I don’t blame him.”

She shrugged. “Neither do I.”

“There’s somethin’ I’ve never told ye,” I admitted with my hands feeling sweaty. “I’ve made the same mistake myself. I said yer name in my sleep.”

Lumi blinked with the sweetest expression of surprise. “How do you know?”

“I know because Meghan accused me of havin’ an affair with ye. She said I called yer name in my sleep.”

“But we didn’t have an affair.”

I rubbed the heel of my hand against my forehead. “It started after ye came on to me and asked me to take yer virginity, I fantasized about it. A lot.”

“Then why didn’t you do it?”

“Because it would have been wrong, Lumi. Our age difference and you being a Robertson…” I shook my head. “It wouldn’t have been right.”

“You were afraid people would judge you for it?”

I slammed a hand to my chest. “Iwould judge me for it. You were so pure and innocent, and I was… not.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you ashamed that you slept with me?”

Shaking my head, I narrowed my eyebrows. “By the time we slept together, ye had turned twenty, and I’d fantasized about it for at least a year and a half. Seein’ Logan come on to ye at my birthday party made me sick with jealousy.”

“You didn’t want me, but you didn’t want anyone else to have me either,” Lumi accused me.

“That’s not true. I wanted ye to find love, just not with my friends or colleagues. None of them were good enough for ye.”

“As if you treated me any better. You took my virginity and made me feel that I did something wrong.” Lumi’s tone was hard, but her eyes turned glassy with moisture.

I closed my eyes. “You didn’t do anythin’ wrong, and I didn’t know it was your first time.”

Lumi scrunched her face. “You knew!”

“It had been eighteen months since ye asked me to take yer virginity. I didn’t know if ye’d been with someone else in that time. I mean, there was a bit of blood, but ye could have had yer period.”

Lumi scoffed, “You’re an idiot.”