Chapter 11
I bulldoze through the back door and continue without slowing, my heels clicking on the damp city sidewalks. Cold rain pelts at my face, wetting my hair and dress. I shiver, having forgotten my coat in my haste, but it’s too late now. I can’t go back in there. Goddamn him. Did he have to do this?
How dare he? Just how dare he ?
Sin in a bespoke suit. Seduction in a panty-melting smile.
Stupidity for every woman who falls for it.
Argh! My mind frazzles, shooting in a million directions a million miles a minute.
Fire burns my chest. Venom seeps through my pores.
Pain prickles in the cracks of my barely reglued heart.
Searing, poisonous hate flows like a current through my veins.
I didn’t want to be in there with him and yet my pain and indignation forced me to stand my ground. I won’t be weak with him again. But his words… I just had to get away.
When Luca broke my heart, I did what any heartsick girl who fell in love with the wrong man would do.
A man too old for her. Too out of her league.
A man she had no business loving in the first place but had all her life.
I told him I’d always love him on a Post-it note and left it for him on his bedroom door.
I wanted him to know what he had done. What he was giving up—real, honest, pure love.
Then I left that island, left the state, left the country, and never looked back.
Then the flowers started.
Maybe it’s the lack of closure that’s causing this reaction? The way we ended was so brutal. Why do you keep trying to hurt me when I’ve already been hurt enough by you?
“Miss Raven?”
I startle, nearly tripping over my own feet as I come to an abrupt halt, brushing the wet strands of my hair sticking to my face back. “Jerimiah?” My hand goes to my chest, over my pounding heart. “You startled me. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
“I heard you playing tonight. It was beautiful.”
A small hint of a smile presses against my lips. “Thank you. I should have known you’d be listening.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it. Mister Antonio left me a ticket, but I just couldn’t.”
I nod in understanding, taking in his dirty, dark skin and sunken eyes, his ratty clothes and hunched stance and as always with him, my heart breaks.
“Can I get you anything? Help you get somewhere dry?”
“No. I’m—”
“Raven?” Luca’s voice booms through the dark night, the tap of his shoes loud and urgent until he’s pushing me back a step, placing himself protectively in front of me. One hand holds his umbrella up over my head, his other angled out in front of him.
His eyes are all over Jerimiah even as he talks to me. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Who are you talking to?” His hand reaches out, grasping my bicep and pushing me back behind him as I try to move to the side of him. He shakes his head, telling me no. “Is he bothering you?”
Jesus, Luca. Always so fucking overprotective.
Superman has nothing on Luca Fritz. It’s how we inadvertently got here in the first place.
Luca’s penchant for heroism has landed him in the wrong place at the wrong time in the past, but I know he still can’t stop himself from stepping in.
It’s nearly tempting to mess with him, but after all he’s been through, I would never do that to him. Or to Jerimiah for that matter.
“He’s not, Luca. Even if he were, do you believe I couldn’t stop him on my own?”
Luca lets out an uncomfortable grunt. My mother was Mossad. My father is a former MI6. I was a little girl when my mother died, but my father trained me and trained me well.
Luca knows this. He just doesn’t like it.
I push his hand off and step beside him, nudging him back a bit so he doesn’t spook Jerimiah further.
I lower my voice, speaking evenly, “This is my friend, Jerimiah. He’s a cellist. A brilliant one. He lives in this alley behind the symphony and watches out for us fellow musicians.”
Jerimiah ducks his head, creeping back ever so slightly into the shadows of his alley. He doesn’t like attention and he certainly doesn’t like attention from men like Luca. Men who are tall and broad and ready to attack.
Luca’s head whips in my direction and when he sees I’m telling the truth, he softens his stance and his voice, turning back to Jerimiah.
“Well, in that case, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Jerimiah.
” Luca offers Jerimiah his umbrella. Jerimiah glances at me, his gaze unsure, but I give him a warm smile and nod my head.
Jerimiah slowly takes the umbrella, holding it half over his head, almost as if he’s not quite sure what to do with the gift.
“It’s yours. I don’t want it back,” Luca assures him before shrugging off his suit jacket and holding it over my head with one hand to keep me dry.
Only the wanker doesn’t realize that by doing that he’s also swallowing me up in his body heat and heavenly scent.
It’s making me postal and if Jerimiah wasn’t standing here, skittish as a cat in a roomfull of rocking chairs, I’d dick punch Luca for being so thoughtless and chivalrous at the same time.
“Thank you, sir. That’s mighty kind of you.”
“Here. This is also for you.” Luca hands me his jacket, making sure I’m holding it over my head and then pulls out his wallet, handing Jerimiah what looks to be a few hundred-dollar bills.
“Please get yourself something to eat and somewhere dry. Anyone who is good to Raven, I want to make sure is taken care of.”
I roll my eyes at that. “That extends to yourself?” I hiss under my breath.
Whatever. I’m done here.
I toss Luca’s coat back at him, forcing him to catch it. The man is absolutely soaked, but so am I, so who gives a shit at this point?
“Night, Jerimiah. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
I stalk off, headed for… crap. I didn’t drive my dad’s car tonight. I took the T. Dammit! I ran in the completely wrong direction from where I need to go because freaking Luca Fritz felt the need to be the ghost of lovers past and ruin my night.
I could weave around and end up by Northeastern or backtrack by Symphony Hall, but—
“Raven, stop!”
I pivot around and cross the empty street, heading up back toward Symphony Hall and the nearby T stop, but he’s chasing after me, one of his strides equaling two of mine.
“Fuck off, Luca.”
“Dammit, you’re so stubborn. Stop running from me and let me drive you. You’re soaking wet and likely late for dinner.”
I am late for dinner and no doubt look like a drowned rat. But luckily, I can blame it on the T and not the good doctor who felt the need to stalk me into the street because I sure as hell don’t want to have that conversation with my father, Dr. Fritz, or Octavia.
He catches up to me quickly, despite my quickening my pace to a near sprint. His hand latches onto my arm, and he spins me in place to face him, my momentum carrying me a bit too fast, and I slam into his soaked chest.
Righting my body, I thrust myself away from him, but he’s not letting me go. Not this time.
His coat flies back over my head, shielding me from the cold, pelting rain, ruining what is likely a ten-thousand-dollar suit and not caring a bit.
He stares down at me, his eyes pleading. “Let me drive you. Please. I won’t talk if you don’t want me to, but it’s dark and pouring, and I don’t want you on the T and then walking to Mistral.”
I smirk. “How did you know that’s where we’re eating tonight?”
“I bribed my father with news on Landon’s girl.”
“Landon has a girl?”
A smile blooms across my face and he matches it. Landon experienced heartbreak that makes mine look like a child’s birthday party. The idea of Landon in love is something else. For a quick beat, I forget to hate Luca as I practically squeal with delight.
“He does,” Luca says. “A total spitfire who doesn’t take his crap. I guess that’s the one thing he and I have in common—difficult women who love putting us through our paces.”
And just like that… bubble burst.
I shake my head. I don’t understand him. Why he sent the flowers all these years. Why he showed up to random performances—I know he did even if we didn’t see each other or speak. Why he’s here now, chasing after me and talking like a man in need of a second chance.
“I don’t need a ride. I’ll take an Uber.”
“Without your purse or phone?”
Right. Without my purse because clearly my jacket isn’t the only thing I forgot tonight.
I inwardly sag. Cold and wet and pissed and epically annoyed. “Your fault. You sent the damn flowers, and it threw me off.”
He licks his lips, shifting into me, water dripping off his hair and clinging to his eyelashes.
God, does he have to look like this? So freaking gorgeous?
He makes me feel so small when he stands close like this.
The man is well over six feet and built of solid muscle, and though I’m not pint sized, he towers.
I always loved that about him. How safe and worshipped his size made me feel.
His gaze grows more insistent, telling me he’s not letting go, and now I outwardly sigh. Out here without a phone or a purse, I’m up shit creek without a paddle.
“Please, Raven. I’m begging now.”
“I’ll let you drive me, but you need to keep your mouth shut. As far as I’m concerned, you’re my Uber driver and I do not know you. We have no past, but more importantly, we have no present or future beyond this ride.”
Without a word, he ushers me along, still holding his coat over my head though at this point the gesture is futile. I’m just glad I don’t have Azrael with me, even if she’s in her hard case. The idea of getting her wet makes me shiver.
“Cold?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Come on. My car is just up here.” We pick up the pace, jogging across the street against the light, heading straight into a parking lot. Luca digs into his pants pocket and hits a button.
A crazy SUV like I’ve never seen before lights up.