Chapter 5 #2
Luca opens my door, shuts, and locks it before walking us to my bed. Slowly, he slides me off until I’m standing before him. He stares intensely at me, all humor gone from his face. “I have to be up early. Your father is flying my father and me to the hospital.”
I forgot Luca is going too. He’s been going with his father three days a week to work in the simulator lab they have there.
Rehabbing his shoulder has become his main focus in the last few weeks.
If he’s not with me, he’s working his shoulder or doing mock surgeries in the lab.
Even when he’s with me, he’s still working on his shoulder.
He’s not quite where he wants to be, but he’s close and I’m thrilled for him and terrified for myself.
I can’t let him go. I just can’t.
“So this is good night then?”
Delicate fingers coast over my forehead, down my cheeks, along my jaw, through my hair and across my neck, all the while his eyes never waver from mine. “You seem disappointed by that.”
I shrug, feigning indifference and not fooling him for a second.
“You don’t have to pretend you’re not obsessed with me. It’s obvious.”
“Obsessed with you?” I squawk, rolling my eyes derisively. “Please. You’re the one obsessed with me. I have to try not to throw up in my mouth every time you kiss me.”
He chuckles, toying with a strand of my hair, his eyes dancing about my face. “Raven Fairchild, I’ve fallen so in love with you.”
My breath catches in my throat, my eyes instantly filling with tears. “You have?”
“More than I ever imagined was possible to love someone. In a way that makes me want to keep you, hold on to you forever.”
Trembling hands press into his chest, right over his heart. “I love you too. So much, Luca. I’ve loved you nearly my whole life, but I’m so in love with you now.”
His lips crash to mine as he lifts me back up, squeezing me into his chest, wrapping his arms impossibly tight around me. We tumble onto my bed, clothes falling away as mouths and hands and bodies seek. Love. Become one.
I move on top of him, taking him in as deep as I can while we stare into each other’s eyes.
His hands cup my breasts, squeezing and playing with them the way he knows I like.
Sweat coats our bodies as passion spreads like wildfire between us.
His fingers trace along my skin, across my ribs, over my collarbone, and between my breasts until they reach the spot where we’re connected.
I’m light headed. Trembling in euphoria as we come together. I fall on top of him, breathing hard, everything inside me feeling different. Perfect. Whole. My heart gallops in my chest, matching the cadence of his.
But when the hour becomes too late—or too early as it is—and will no longer be denied, Luca and I dress quietly in the dark of my room. Me into pajamas, him into what he wore to dinner. Tiptoeing out of the house, he kisses me, holding my face in his hands.
“I love you.” His forehead meets mine.
“I love you.” Always. Forever.
Another kiss and then he’s gone, slinking off into the shadows, heading for the main house and his bed, needing a few hours of rest before he has to get up.
My hand presses to my heart and I blow out a sigh.
Smiling in a way I’ve never smiled before, only to have it slip off my face as I turn around and find my father standing there inside, waiting for me.
I close the main door behind me and walk to him, swallowing hard at the steely glint in his eye. The man is a former assassin for the English government, and I’ve never been afraid of him a day in my life. But this look is enough to shake my insides.
“I’m an adult, Dad.”
“Which is why I haven’t said anything until now. I thought it was just fun. Nothing serious. But, Raven, what are you doing with him?”
“I love him,” I tell him honestly.
My father’s anguished gaze drops to the floor, his hands going to the top of his dirty-blond head. I have his eyes, but my hair is my mother’s.
“Luca Fritz isn’t a man to fall in love with.”
I bristle at that. So hard, I have to take a step back. “He loves me too.”
“Of course he loves you too,” he barks, staring at me once more.
“Look at you. You’re young and beautiful and everything he needed to get himself back on track.
But, Raven, he’s going to break your heart.
He’s going to leave. Soon, in fact, if he can help it.
I heard him discussing this with his father just the other day. ”
A tidal wave of devastation slams into me and I rock back on my heels. “I know.” Because I do. I’m not delusional. Just in love. Tears fall helplessly down my cheeks and my father drags me into his chest, holding me, rocking me as I cry.
“My darling girl, I should have stopped this sooner. I should have known you’d give him your heart. I’m sorry. This is when I wish your mother were still alive. She would have done better.”
“I don’t want to stop being with him. I don’t want to give up and walk away. And I don’t think he wants that either. I think he wants me, Dad. I think he wants to try and make us work somehow.”
He pulls back and cups my face, staring into my eyes. “Has he said that?”
“No. Not outright. But he said things that sort of indicated he wants beyond this.”
My father blows out a breath, looking tired and torn and wrecked. “What about London? This is your dream. To play on stages all over the world.”
“I can still do that last part and be with him.”
Agony sears across his face. “Don’t give up your dream for someone else, Raven. You’ll always regret it.”
“You did. For Mom. For me. For Dr. Fritz.”
“You were my dream, darling. Your mother too. And I owed Dr. Fritz a debt greater than I could ever repay. I don’t regret giving up that life for this. But you’re so young. You have so much ahead of you.”
“What if Luca’s my dream now too? Like Mom and I were for you?”
His eyes hold mine and then he sighs, crestfallen. “Then as your father, I have to tell you to follow your heart. But also as your father, I have to tell you, if you give up on London for Luca, I think you’ll be making the biggest mistake of your life.”