One
Laura
Fuck my life. Fuck my family. Fuck this credit card. Fuck this damn rain and this broken-down car. Just fuck, fuck, fuck!
I leaned my head against the steering wheel, wishing some hot tow-truck driver would materialize and take away all my worries. If he looked like Luke Cassel, all the better.
And fuck my libido or whatever it was that wouldn’t let me forget that man.
Even when I’d been engaged—albeit unwillingly to a man I’d never met—everything in me had stood up and paid attention the first time I’d met Luke.
My girlfriends and I were in a bar in NYC, Bradford’s , the day he’d irrevocably entered my awareness .
He’d been there with his brothers, and we’d met them ten minutes before my group was supposed to leave for a show.
That ten minutes? Life changing.
The meeting was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, making me feel things, spiking an awareness, I’d never experienced.
It awakened me and drove me to put down my foot and refuse to marry the guy my parents arranged for me.
Yeah, unfortunately, arranged marriages still existed, especially in old-school, totally religious-fanatical families like mine.
And fucking fuck that.
I grinned for the first time in an hour, enjoying my little bit of internal rebellion.
My refusal hadn’t gone well that day. My father had locked me up; I’d literally climbed out a window and run away.
I’d been subsisting on my cash savings, but when my car had broken down, no one would help me without a credit card.
Not that I had much cash left. I was down to my last couple hundred.
That was how I found out my dad canceled my Visa.
Effectively stranding me. Now, it would be just my luck he had people watching the card.
He was trying to force my hand with the credit card thing.
Heck, he likely would have reported my car as stolen if it weren’t in my name—a technicality from a clerical mistake that had never been corrected.
But without money to repair my vehicle, what could I do?
For about the millionth time, I questioned not getting a job as soon as I’d run, but I’d been afraid I’d be traced with my social.
Not that I had experience of skills from doing any job.
I had an Applied Arts degree with honors, but it was hard to get a gig designing people’s living rooms when you were on the run.
What I needed to do was call Emerson. My best friend would know how I should proceed.
Except she was on her honeymoon.
But I was stuck, and literally, she was all I had.
Sure, I had other friends, but none were as close to me as Emerson was.
Plus, I knew Em didn’t particularly care for my relatives, so she was Team Runaway all the way.
She’d been less than thrilled over my engagement but determined to stick by my side and give me every bit of support I asked for. I hadn’t asked for anything.
At first, I’d resolve to just do what my parents wanted.
It was the way in our family and in the families of all of my parents’ society friends.
Heck, I was lucky I hadn’t ended up as a child bride.
My mother had put down her foot on that and somehow kept my father from marrying me off, as she’d been when she was fifteen.
My whole life, she’d put on a serene, all-is-good face, but I knew she wasn’t happy.
She was totally stuck. For all my family’s wealth, she had very little freedom.
I would never be like her. I would never let someone rule over my life as she did.
What Em had with Fraser Cassel was nothing like that.
Again, I thought of Luke and wondered what it would be like with him.
Would he be like Fray or like my father?
The prospect of loving him, then finding out and being stuck, scared me.
It was why I’d avoided him, both at Christmastime and at Emerson’s wedding.
God, that had been difficult. Because I was drawn to that man as I’d never been to another.
He looked so similar to Fray, yet I had no interest in my friend’s husband, not even a flicker of attraction.
Luke, however…
That man set off all my alert systems and fired up all my pleasure centers.
And I needed to stop thinking of him, with his dark hair, chocolate-brown eyes, and lickable physique I wanted to climb like a—
Stop it, Laura!
I pulled out my phone. I had signal, thank God, but my battery was dangerously low. With my dead car, I couldn’t even charge it.
Emerson answered on nearly the first ring. “Laura, what’s wrong?”
“I see your ESP is working full-force,” I laughed.
“Well, I know you wouldn’t call me on my honeymoon unless there was a problem.”
I heard Fray in the background, telling her to find out where I was.
“My car died,” I told her. “I’m sorry to call you; I really am. But I didn’t know who else to phone. Most anyone else would sic my dad on me. He canceled my credit card, so I can’t even get someone to come tow me, so I can get it fixed.”
“Where are you?”
“In the middle of BFE Michigan?” I sighed.
“More specific?”
“Northern BFE Michigan. I’m about ten miles outside of Brandywine. Upper Lake Michigan.”
“’Kay,” she said. “Hang tight. We’ll get you taken care of and safe. It could be a couple hours, alright? But we’ll have you out of there by tonight. Will you be okay to wait there?”
I heard Fray talking in the background while I glanced down at my console. “Yeah, I have water and my tablet. I’ll just kick back with a book. I’ll wrap up in a blanket, since it’s February and pretty dang cold. At least, it’s not snowing.”
Yet. The rain had been slowly turning sleet-like over the past half hour.
“Stay as warm as you can. Don’t go off with any strangers; you hear me? We’ll be there soon?”
“ You’re coming?” I exclaimed. Crap, I didn’t want her leaving her honeymoon for me.
Emerson didn’t answer. Glancing down at my phone, I saw it hadn’t died yet, but the wind must have shifted or something. I had zero bars, and the cell had dropped the call.
I sighed, tossing it onto the seat beside me. This day was super freaking great. And I’d just disrupted Em’s day, by dragging her into my drama, too. Well, fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck.
* * * *
The knock on my window startled me from sleep, and I jumped about a mile, slamming my head against the glass in the process. I rubbed my hand across the frosted-up surface, trying to clear it enough to see outside.
All I could make out was a large body in what looked like a long wool coat.
It was open, revealing a charcoal suit, white shirt and silvery-gray tie.
I couldn’t see the person’s face through the icy glass, but this wasn’t a tow-truck driver or some regular Joe happening by.
The guy seemed like a businessman of some sort.
Then he leaned down, and I reared back, my eyes wide as I met the dark-brown stare of the man I’d steadfastly tried so hard to forget.
He didn’t look happy as he glared at me, even as a smirk lifted one side of his full lips.
Luke…
“Open the door, Laura,” he ordered, his voice muffled by the window.
I hesitated. If I released the lock, there was no protection from him—not that I thought he’d hurt me. I just… A deeper, more fragile part of me was in danger.
“Laura,” he growled.
What could I do? Stay here and freeze? I didn’t have much choice.
Even as bundled up as I was, my fingers barely worked due to the cold.
I fumbled with the mechanism. I’d barely clicked it when the door opened.
Luke crowded inside immediately. He pulled me into his arms, leaving everything else, then stalked toward a running black SUV, waiting several yards away.
My arms went around his neck. I held on tight, though I didn’t think he’d drop me.
His warm woodsy scent enveloped me, and I closed my eyes momentarily just letting it sink into me, envelop me, comfort me. Along with it came surprising peace.
“What are you doing here?” I murmured into his neck.
“Get everything from her car. Everything. Clean it out,” he told the man we passed. I hadn’t even seen him until we were going by him.
“Yes, sir.”
Luke didn’t say anything more until we were settled into the back of his vehicle. “I’m here to get you.”
“I…”
He shook his head, and the words froze in my throat. He was here. He was saving me. But he was super pissed.
“I’m sorry you had to come get me. I—”
“Don’t,” he interrupted.
“But—”
“Don’t,” he said again through his teeth. “Just give me a minute to calm down.”
He wasn’t calm? He seemed calm.
“Do you have any idea what could have happened to you? In this weather. Out here all alone. If some predator… My God, Laura. When I think about it…” He lifted a hand as if to swipe away his words and sighed, staring out the window opposite of me.
My eyes burned, and I blinked back my emotions.
I hated for him to be upset with me. It was as if I felt his agitation down to my bones.
And what was that? I’d never felt that way.
My father was the master of guilt, and I’d learned early on not to cave to it.
But with Luke… I wanted to promise him whatever he needed to ease his pain and irritation.
His driver climbed into the front seat before I could say anything else. “Everything’s in the back, sir.” He reached over the seat and handed me my large purse. “I put your phone, wallet and tablet in there, ma’am.”
“Thank you,” I told him, surprised. I tucked the bag on the floor by my feet, not feeling as if I needed to look inside to confirm his words.
He nodded then shifted his gaze to Luke. “I called the service, and they’ll be here for the car shortly.”
“Thank you,” Luke said. “We can go.”
This time, the man gave Luke a chin lift then turned to shift the SUV into gear.
“Where are we going?” I asked my brooding rescuer.
“Home.”