Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Luke
L uke leaned against the wall outside the school on the opposite side of the road. He had his arms crossed with his eyes fixed on the main door. Thankfully everyone knew who he was and his friendship with Freya. Otherwise, he’d be worried someone would question why he was there at all.
The bell rang in the distance, and he pushed himself off the wall to standing, then shoved his hands in his pockets. As the kids piled out of the main entrance, he strolled across the road and pushed through the thong of boys and girls into the main corridor. There was one thing to be said about schools, they emptied fast. A few stragglers were humping on their backpacks. Staff meandered between classrooms, but mainly the hallway was empty.
A kid ran out of the classroom, running hell for leather. It was Ralph’s kid, Kenny .
“Why are you running for your life? Those shitty kids giving you a hard time?”
“No, Sir,” Kenny said.
“What’s your hurry?”
“Need to get to the main house, Dad’s working late, and I said I would meet him in his shed. Do my homework there before we went home for dinner. He doesn’t like me being in the house on my own.”
“Well, if you can wait five minutes, I’ll give you a lift. The buggy is one street over, hang out there, and I’ll take you up.”
Kenny brightened. “That would be awesome.”
“All right. Take off. I won’t be long. And it’s Luke, not Sir.”
“Okay,” he said and ran off.
That was the second time he had understood Ralph was sacrificing his home life for the Turners. He needed to talk to Archer about it. But, first, he needed to talk to Freya.
Luke walked to her classroom and peered through the small square glass window to see she was sitting with her chin on her hands, looking to the end of her classroom. He strained to see what she was looking at, but no one else was in the room. He turned the handle, and her eyes came to him. They rounded for a second, and then she smiled.
He felt that smile in his gut. Wanted to bask in its light.
“Hey,” Luke said, coming into the classroom and shutting the door behind him.
“Hey, yourself. What are you doing here? Another ironing lesson?”
“Absolutely not. I wanted to talk to you.”
Freya stood, shimmied down her dark grey fitted dress, and stepped away from her desk. The hand with the ring was tucked under her elbow .
Her dress was doing all kinds of things, but now wasn’t the time to concentrate on that. So Luke came forward until he was toe to toe with her. Luke cupped her cheek and grinned. He was done with her being fake engaged. Luke wanted her single.
“You’re a liar, Freya Riley,” he whispered.
She didn’t move from his touch. She stood her ground. The only indication he knew she had cottoned on to the subject was a minute flare of her nostrils.
“I’m not,” she whispered back.
“Show me your hand,” he said, taking a step back.
Freya gave him a hand that didn’t have the engagement ring on it palm up.
“The other one, Freya,” he said.
She put that hand palm up in front of him like she was holding two invisible grapefruits. He took the hand with the diamond and turned it over. He dropped his eyes to the ring and then back up to Freya’s face.
“You’re not engaged, there is no fiancé, and this ring is not yours,” he said.
She couldn’t answer without perpetuating the lie, and he knew it. So he nudged the diamond to the left and to the right, but it didn’t budge.
Freya watched him. “How did you know?”
“Lots of tiny different things. But one thing I do know, you don’t keep secrets from me. If you’d fallen in love, you would’ve shared that with me. It stung for a while that you would keep your happiness from me, but then you were acting weird and checking out the hot guys. Not to mention no one else has seen this mysterious person.”
“Fuck,” she whispered.
He held the hand with the diamond, dropped it between them, and entwined their fingers. Then he cupped her cheek with his other hand and stepped back into her space. Her fragrance was light and sweet like peaches and seemed to calm him. She’d always smelled like that, so familiar to his senses.
“It won’t come off, Luke. You gave me such a scathing look when I told you I was engaged. I was hurt that you wouldn’t think it was possible, so I lied. The truth is I tried it on, and it won’t come off.”
He loved her confession, delighted that he was free to pursue her.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“Of course, it’s gorgeous.”
“You know it’s a Turner ring, right?”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Keep it, Peaches.”
“I can’t,” she said, shaking off his grasp and lifting her hand.
He noticed she didn’t move away from the hand cupping her cheek. If anything, she leaned into it as she admired the rock on her finger.
“It suits you. It’s beautiful, just like you.”
She raised her other hand to demonstrate it wouldn’t come down her finger. Luke couldn’t care less. There was more jewellery in the Turner vault none of the wives would be able to wear it all in a lifetime. Erica would have the most opportunity when she walked the red carpet, but it would stay in velvet cases for the rest of them.
“Luke,” she whispered.
“Yeah?” he whispered back.
“I’m sorry I lied.”
“That’s okay. I’m sorry you thought I was disbelieving someone would love you. Maybe you’ll explain tomorrow why you did because the woman I know, even faced with someone who thought she couldn’t bag a husband, wouldn’t have shied away from telling them. She wouldn’t have cared. What I want to know is, why do you care that I was shocked?”
Freya stayed quiet. Luke didn’t expect her to answer, so he let the question settle for a few moments.
Then Luke wrapped the hand holding her diamond around her back and pulled her flush with his body. She was trembling. They’d always horsed around when they held each other. Not ever had they held each other this quietly, this closely and fuck if he didn’t love it. Freya slowly placed her hands on his chest. The heat branded him like an iron. It felt like his body wanted to know the feel of her hands everywhere.
“I gotta give Kenny a lift up to Turner Hall. Have dinner with me tomorrow, and I’ll update you with what I found about the headstones.”
“Okay,” she said, slowly nodding.
Luke moved to kiss her head like he always did, but this time he saw her eyes close as he moved. She’d never done that before. It was always a quick press of his lips, and then he moved away. This time Luke tightened his hold and heard her whimper, then he dropped his head and kissed her temple, brushing his lips against the soft skin. Luke left his lips there for a few seconds and then moved a step away. It took a few more moments for Freya’s eyes to open, and they were locked on his mouth. That sight went straight to his cock.
Luke was hard for his best friend.
“You can start the rumour that your fiancé decided not to come back to the island but said you can keep the ring. It was a whirlwind romance, and he has been summoned home to marry someone else,” Luke told her, holding her gaze.
She nodded, and he walked to the door, opened it and left it open before he walked away, down the corridor and out of the school.
He thought of all kinds of horrible things to get his erection to go away by the time he met up with Kenny. As soon as he was twenty feet away, he saw the kids from the ironing class rocking the golf buggy with Kenny in it.
Erection gone, fury arrived.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Luke roared.
The kids froze in their intimidation tactics and turned their upper bodies to look at him. Then two seconds later, they ran away. It was on the tip of his tongue to call them all pussies for running away, but they were kids, and he’d remembered he shouldn’t let out the f-bomb. He knew they said worse, but he was the adult.
“You okay, kid?”
“Yeah. I hope the buggy’s okay.”
“I’m sure it will be fine. It’s seen worse. What were they doing this time?”
“They keep calling me rich boy. Telling me, I should hand over all my money. I tell them that my dad works at Turner Hall, not owns it.”
“Those lads need a dose of humility and something to distract them. Leave them to me. Let’s get you to your dad. We don’t want Miss Riley thinking you can’t do your homework.”
“No, S-Luke,” he said.
Luke hauled his arse into the driver’s seat and nodded to Kenny to pull the seatbelt across his lap. He dropped his bag between his feet and buckled up. When they arrived at the back of Turner Hall near his dad’s shed, he pulled to a stop .
“Kenny,” Luke called out as he exited the buggy.
“Yeah?”
“When your dad is working in the evenings, what do you do when you have finished your homework?”
“Read mainly. Bailey lets me into the library.”
Luke smiled. Bailey was a good man.
“Well, I might have something more interesting you can do. I’ll ask your dad first if it’s okay, and then I’ll let you know.”
Kenny brightened and shifted his bag further up his shoulder.
“Cool,” he said and shuffled off down the path to the gardener’s shed.
Luke thought he might be able to kill two birds with one stone.