About that Night (15 page)

“Yes, I have. I pushed you away so many times.” I sighed and pressed my cheek to his chest, calmed by the steady beating of his heart. “I just wasn’t ready yet.”

“Ready for what?” Luke’s voice sounded hollow with my ear pressed to his chest.

“For you, I guess.” I lifted my head and thought about how to explain it so that he could understand. “Before I met Neil, I believed in love. Even after losing my parents and then my fiancé, I still believed that I would find love someday. I didn’t even love Neil, but after what happened with him, I started second-guessing everything. I stopped believing in the possibility of love, and I hated him for that. I wanted to be able to believe again, but I didn’t think it would ever happen. And then you came along…”

“And I rocked your world?” His lips curled into a dazzling smile and I nodded. That was putting it mildly, actually. “Welcome to the club, kid. The man that I am today, everything I’ve done in the last few years, is because of you.”

“What? How?” I stared dubiously at him.

“After that night we spent together, I started second guessing everything. I remembered the look you gave me when I said that I was working at my father’s firm after all the terrible shit he put me through. You expected more from me. You made me change my life.” Luke stroked my cheek. “I wanted to be the kind of man that deserved to be with a woman like you.”

I kissed his bruised knuckles again and leaned into his hand when he cupped it around my cheek. “Are you really mine?” I whispered, still disbelieving.

“Forever and always,” he said definitively. “You’re my home, Kasey. The only place I ever want to be.”

Luke was my home, too. He was my family, my best friend, my everything. Now that I had Luke, nothing else in the world mattered. I just wanted to be with him, forever and always.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Monday started off normally enough. Luke and I had spent our entire weekend in my bed, alternating between making love and sleeping. We had a meeting together bright and early to discuss the drug scandal.

After a lot of debate, I convinced Luke to take the case. I didn’t want to deal with Neil, and I didn’t want Luke to kill him, but Maverick could use the paycheck and the prestige that would come from representing a handful of famous baseball players. He put Dan in charge of the whole thing, selling it as a great learning opportunity, but really I knew that he wanted no part of making Neil look good.

I stayed behind after the meeting to talk to Luke, and when I finally left the conference room a few minutes after everyone else, I ran right into Dan who had been lingering in the hall.

“So it’s true then?” he asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dan. More information please.” I kept walking because I had to be in another meeting in less than five minutes. Dan was more than willing to hurry along behind me.

“You and Donovan. Bumpin’ uglies.” Dan smacked into me when I pulled up short.

“What did you say?” I sputtered.

Dan enunciated very slowly. “You are screwing the boss. Everyone knows.”

My mouth dropped open. I knew that Rachel had learned the truth and that if she went forward with her lawsuit there was a good chance the truth would get out. But I hadn’t been expecting it to happen so soon. I wasn’t ready to face the music.

“I’m late.” I said, hastily adding, “For a meeting. I’m late for a meeting.”

I knew that my face was a brilliant shade of red as I stepped into the meeting room. Several of my colleagues were already gathered around the table and they all stopped talking abruptly when I entered. It only took one guess to figure out what they had been discussing.

After the meeting, one of the female attorneys on the legal team cornered me in the ladies’ room. “Nice work,” she said with a wink.

“Sorry?” I kept my head down as I lathered soap on my hands, hoping she would take a hint and go away.

“Donovan. He’s damn fine. And rich. You played that well.” She smiled at me when I glanced up at the mirror. “People are talking, but don’t listen to them. They’re just jealous.”

I got several judgmental looks on the way to my office and even heard someone mutter
slut
. The moment I had been dreading had officially arrived. I had two choices- I could hide in my office all day and avoid my phone and email, or I could suck it up and act like it didn’t bother me. I had made my own bed, so to speak, and now I had to lay in it.

The day only got worse. Everywhere I turned, I interrupted hastily whispered conversations that ended abruptly upon my appearance. By the end of the day, I went home without even checking to see what Luke wanted to do for the evening. Hiding in my apartment for a couple of years seemed like the best idea.

He showed up a couple hours later. I had already changed into his University of Chicago t-shirt and a pair of baggy sweatpants. Certainly not my best look, but at least I was comfortable.

“What’s wrong?” he asked the second he saw my face. I was ashamed to admit that I had been crying for the last hour, but my swollen eyes gave me away.

“Cat’s out of the bag,” I said, stepping back to let him in. I had an open bottle of wine waiting for me in the living room and I headed there without giving Luke a proper greeting. “I’m the office slut. Just like I predicted.”

“What do you mean? How did people find out?” Luke stripped off his coat and threw it over a chair.

I flopped onto the couch and took a big gulp of wine. “Dan. He’s friends with Rachel and he has a big mouth.”

“Shit, Kasey.” Luke sat next to me and gave me a long look. “Was it terrible for you?”

I shrugged and took another drink. “I survived.”

“What can I do?” He looked so desperate to help but there was nothing he could do. This was the path we had chosen- the path
I
had chosen.

I put down the wine bottle now that it was empty and thought for a second. Eventually, I just shook my head. “Hold me?” It was the only thing I could think of that would make things better.

Luke slid over until he could put his arms around me. As I snuggled close to him and burrowed into his arms, I was able to forget for a minute about the name-calling and hateful looks. All that mattered was that I still had Luke and somehow I knew we would find a way to make it work.

He let me feel sorry for myself for exactly fifteen minutes. Then he launched into a tirade about one of our clients at work. I knew he was trying to take my mind off things and I was grateful for the distraction. He held my feet in his lap, gently working the sore muscles in my arches.

“So our client is part of the royal family in Italy? That sounds made up.” I hadn’t even known that Italy still had a royal family.

“Old royalty. A distant ancestor was a Pope, or a Cardinal. Something like that. Honesty, I don’t really know. But the oldest son was just caught with a mistress.” Luke’s hands moved from my feet up to my calves. “An older mistress. Like twenty years older.”

“No way.” I laughed. Who would’ve thought this day would end with me and Luke gossiping like old ladies? “So when are you going to Italy?”

“Two days.”

“Two days?” That was way too soon for my liking.

Luke shrugged. “It’s an urgent matter. You can come with me if you want.”

“Not happening.” People at work already hated me. Using the job as an excuse to follow Luke to Italy would make things a million times worse. “Just don’t fall in love with some Italian princess while you’re gone.”

“Fine.” Now his hands were over my knees and still heading north. “We should go to Rome soon though. You would like it. It’s more romantic than Florence, if you ask me.”

“I’m sure I would love it.” I was sure I would love any place if I went with Luke.

I had been pretty sure I knew where Luke was headed with his hands but he threw me a curveball when his hands left my body and he said very quietly, “I heard you met with Mark from Veritoil.”

I felt like slapping myself in the forehead. How could I have forgotten about that meeting? Of course Luke had found out and now, because he hadn’t heard it from me, he could only assume the worst.

“Yes, we met for lunch. He wanted to thank me for the work I did on the oil spill campaign.” I saw that Luke somehow already knew the full story so I plowed ahead. “He offered me a job.”

Luke nodded slowly. “I suspected as much. Was it a good offer?”

“It was.” No sense in lying now. “But I didn’t take it.”

“You didn’t say no either though, right?” Luke sounded resigned.

“That’s true.” I pulled my legs away from his lap and sat up straight. “I have to at least consider it, Luke. Maverick doesn’t have a future for me. Not now that everyone knows about us.”

“We can make it work,” he said, but he didn’t put much heart into it.

“I’m not saying I’m definitely taking it. I’m just saying I didn’t say no yet.” I took his hand. “I was going to talk to you about it. I promise. It honestly slipped my mind with everything that has happened these past few days.”

“The job is in D.C.?” His eyes were unnervingly calm. I had no way to tell what he was really thinking.

“Yes. I would have to move.” If I had to be completely honest, the relocation was the number one reason I hadn’t said yes. I loved living in Chicago, and I didn’t want a long distance relationship. I had already done the D.C. thing once and it hadn’t lasted longer than two years.

Luke leaned back and closed his eyes. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, Kasey. You’re an adult and you can make your own decisions. You need to do what’s best for you.”

“Would you really be okay with me moving to D.C.?” I had expected him to at least put up a small fight, or tell me how much he would miss me.

“If it would make you happy, then I would find a way to deal with it.” Luke opened his eyes and smiled. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

My heart literally jumped in my chest. He had the most amazing smile and I couldn’t help myself. I curled up in his lap and we made out like teenagers. I didn’t think I would ever get tired of kissing Luke Donovan.

“If you move to D.C., we won’t get to do this as often,” Luke said between snog sessions.

“Maybe not together,” I said, happy that he was finally trying to convince me to stay.

“Funny. You keep that up and I’m taking back my shirt.” He tugged at the t-shirt and I glared at him.

“If you take this shirt back, I’m taking my vagina back. And my boobs.”

Luke laughed so hard it shook us both. I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “You should definitely keep the shirt,” he decided. When we fell asleep a couple hours later, I was still wearing his shirt.

Work wasn’t any easier the next couple of days and I began to seriously consider Mark’s offer. I even emailed him with some follow-up questions. Luke stopped by my office on his way to the airport. He was going to be in Italy for at least a week and I already missed him.

“Kasey,” he said, closing the door behind him. “I have something I really need to tell you.”

“You’re not breaking up with me again, are you?” I was only half-joking. “Because that would be a little excessive.”

“Would you please stop predicting our demise?” Luke tucked his hands into his pockets and looked at the ground. “I came to do the exact opposite actually.”

My eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

“I said that I wouldn’t tell you what to do with your job decision. But I’ve been thinking about it, and I really don’t want you to go.” He looked up at me with wide eyes. “We just found each other, Kasey. I’m not sure I could let you go.”

“Are you asking me not to take the job?” If he was, I wasn’t sure what I would do. I wasn’t the type of woman to take orders from a man, but we were a couple now and he deserved a say in how we would spend our relationship.

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” He shrugged helplessly. “I came to make you a different kind of offer.”

“An indecent one?” I said with a waggle of my eyebrows.

Luke sighed in annoyance. “Can you be serious for one minute?”

“Fine.” I made a big deal about checking the time. “One minute of seriousness. Go.”

“Quit.” Luke said. “Quit your job here, but don’t take the other job.”

I let out a snort. “Well, I didn’t know it was that easy. Such a great idea, Luke. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, right. I’m not independently wealthy. I’m also not a hooker, so please don’t offer to pay me not to work and just screw you all the time.”

“That’s not what I’m offering.” Luke looked away and I had a pretty good idea that was exactly what he was about to offer me. “You can move in with me, just until you find another job in Chicago. Or for good, whatever you want.”

I felt my face grow hot and I started to yell but Luke cut me off. “Kasey, I have a lot of money. I’m not trying to imply anything by that, I’m just stating a fact. Let me take care of you. I’m the reason you can’t stay at this job, and I’m the one asking you not to move to D.C. At least let me offer you an alternative.”

When the initial rush of anger had passed, it was replaced by a feeling of gratitude. Yes, Luke’s offer was a tiny bit condescending, but it came from a good place. He didn’t want me to leave, and he was taking a big leap asking me to stay.

I circled around my desk until I was standing in front of him. “Thank you, but no.” I smoothed down his suit lapels and kissed him on the lips. “This decision needs to be what’s best for both of us, not just you.”

“I know.” He smiled sheepishly. “You can’t blame a guy for trying, can you?”

“Certainly not.” I kissed him again. “But you don’t need to save me, Luke. I can take care of myself.”

“Trust me, I know. But that’s not going to stop me from looking out for you.” He kissed my cheek. “Just promise me you’ll at least consider my offer. We can talk about it more when I get back from Rome.”

“The answer will still be no,” I said, confidently.

He regarded me carefully. “I have this horrible feeling that if you move to D.C., I’m going to lose you.”

“That will never happen.” I sounded more certain than I felt though. Like Luke, I was worried about what would happen to us if I took the job. “Have a safe trip. I’ll miss you like crazy.”

“Likewise.” Another ten minutes of kissing and groping and we finally completed our goodbyes.

Two days later I found myself missing Luke terribly. If this is what it would be like to move to D.C., I didn’t think I would be able to make it. I kept myself busy by checking in on Andrew and his kids. His wife had moved out a few weeks earlier, taking off in the middle of the night with no explanation. Andrew had been taking care of everything on his own ever since.

The house was actually in good shape which I quickly learned was because Luke had paid for a housekeeper to come in three times a week. He had also hunted down a terrific nanny that was keeping the kids well-fed, groomed, and properly dressed. She had taken them for a walk so that Andrew and I could talk openly.