Chapter Eleven
Katherine awoke to bright sunshine in a large, spectacularly appointed room with gold and marble accents.
Monaco and the Mediterranean Sea lay beyond the windows, which had no treatments to distract from the view.
She levered herself onto her elbows. Despite it being December, she saw plenty of people on the water in their yachts.
Never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought she would be in this position. Living in a driver’s home, pretending to be in a relationship with him. Pretending was the important part. That’s why after enjoying Lukas’s passion in the lounge, she’d asked to be taken to her room.
This wasn’t a real relationship. They were doing this because they were backed into a corner and neither of them wanted to risk their careers.
Anything more than that was simply an opportunity to indulge in some pleasure, but pleasure was all it was.
Katherine didn’t want a relationship with anyone.
She didn’t want to move in with anyone. Love was dangerous.
Love derailed dreams and then what would she be left with?
A life of mediocrity and unfulfillment while trying to convince herself that she was just fine? No, thanks.
She wasn’t her mother. Katherine wouldn’t let that happen to her.
But thoughts of her mother made her realise that her parents would have been unprepared for the wave of news announcing her relationship with Lukas.
Last time she’d spoken to them she was assuring them that she’d never been in any danger in Lapland.
That there was no truth to the rumours, and she’d promised to visit the first chance she got.
Katherine groaned and flopped back on the pillows.
She reached for her phone and just as she expected there were numerous calls and messages from both her parents. Well, only one from her father—the only one that made her feel guilty.
Why didn’t you tell us? You didn’t have to hide it. Take care of yourself, Kittykat. Enjoy Monaco.
He loved the sunshine, would love it here.
Isn’t it a pity that he’ll never meet Lukas?
Yes. No. It wasn’t a real relationship, so no, it wasn’t a pity.
I have no family to spend it with.
Her father would never let Lukas feel so alone. He didn’t let her feel alone.
For twenty weekends in a year, that was.
‘No! Stop it, Katherine,’ she ordered herself and got out of bed. Her phone lighting up as she did so.
It was a message from Robert.
Scott isn’t happy that you two are hiding out in Monaco. I suggest getting out for some ‘in public’ time.
Scott Courteney being unhappy wasn’t a good thing for her, so Katherine went down to the lower level—she had found out it contained the kitchen, two dining areas, a lounge and a home theatre, which was a lot of space to entertain for a man so alone—barefoot in her satin pyjamas.
The aroma of freshly brewed coffee led her to the kitchen where Lukas was shirtless and sweaty in a pair of grey track pants hanging low on his hips, downing a bottle of water.
Drop after drop of perspiration ran down his carved torso to the band of his pants where they were wicked by the fabric.
Heat rushed to Katherine’s face. A tightening in her core.
‘Good morning.’ There was a teasing lilt to his voice. Obviously he’d caught her staring. She did that a lot but honestly, how could she not when he looked like a fantasy given life?
‘Would you like some coffee? I don’t have any tea. I wasn’t expecting guests.’
‘Do you ever?’ She walked up to him and curled her hands in the fabric of his pants, giving him the smallest of kisses, growing satisfied at his gasp. It was only fair to level the playing field.
‘Not in recent years,’ he admitted.
How lonely.
‘I have a life, Katherine. I just don’t like bringing the world into my sanctuary.’
‘But you brought me here.’
‘I did.’ He said nothing else. Instead, he reached for a cup and poured her a coffee.
It wasn’t how she normally started her day, but she had always loved coffee.
She developed the habit of drinking tea because that was what everyone else in her home preferred growing up and she didn’t want to be demanding, so she had made do.
Now starting her day with a cup of tea was habit.
‘Robert messaged me, they want us to go out in public today.’ She sipped the coffee, relishing the comforting warmth. It wasn’t overly bitter, and she could taste notes of dark chocolate and caramel. It was delicious.
‘I expected as much. It’s a good thing I already had a plan, then, isn’t it?’
‘Oh? And what’s that?’
‘Get dressed and I’ll show you.’
Lukas’s plan was strutting down a street.
Maybe that wasn’t completely fair. They walked hand in hand down the most high-end street in Carré d’Or.
Haute couture brands lined up everywhere she looked.
Lukas had taken her shopping—a normally mundane outing yet with him it was anything but.
Her heart hadn’t found a steady rhythm since he’d held her hand.
It was made even worse by the kiss he had given her outside a world-famous bag boutique that had rendered her light-headed.
From one store to the next he had spoilt her.
Something that wasn’t spoken about in their agreement, but she had also never seen him in such a good mood and it made her wonder if he enjoyed taking care of people.
Hadn’t he said he wanted to do so for his mother? But his mother didn’t want to see him. Katherine moved closer to him, and he slipped his hand from hers, wrapping it around her shoulders.
Not real.
She had to keep reminding herself of that fact.
‘You’re quiet,’ Lukas said, his dark sunglasses hooked on the front of his shirt.
‘Aren’t I always?’
The sound that came out of him was somewhere between a chuckle and a snort. It was the most undignified she had ever seen him and she had seen him use some colourful language on the team radio over the years. She couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Is that a no?’
‘What is the saying you English use? When pigs fly?’
Katherine laughed harder then. He spoke so well that sometimes she forgot English wasn’t his first language. She wiped a tear and saw a softness enter his eyes but he quickly looked away, so she did too.
‘That jacket is stunning.’ She tried to change the subject but it was clearly the wrong thing to say with Lukas being in such an odd mood, because he immediately led them inside.
‘Try it on.’
‘Lukas, it’s really not necessary,’ she tried to refuse.
Just then a very polished shop assistant came towards them. ‘Can I help you?’
‘No.’
‘Yes.’
They said in unison.
‘Yes,’ Lukas insisted. ‘She would like to try on that coat.’ He pointed at the window.
‘Of course, right this way.’
‘You’re being ridiculous,’ Katherine whisper shouted.
‘Am I, or are you?’ Lukas challenged. ‘How often do you get opportunities like this?’
Never, really. Katherine earned a very comfortable living and if everything went to plan it would only get better.
That was why she was here, so that she didn’t lose her career progress.
So that she could eventually be rich and successful enough to take care of her parents.
So that they could retire. And so that Paige, and to a lesser degree Christopher and Nicholas, would have a safety net.
Buying a five-thousand euro coat wasn’t on her radar. She had big-picture concerns.
‘From the look on your face I’m going to say not often. So let me spoil you. You only have to put up with it for a month.’
Katherine hated the way that reminder made her mood plummet, but she forced herself to smile and said, ‘Thank you.’
She went into the fitting room and tried the coat on.
It was perfect. As if some magical tailor had made it to her exact measurements.
She looked at the black fabric and white floral detail from every angle in the large cubicle fitted with the flattering light, and just as she slipped it off her shoulders and back on the hanger there was a knock on the door.
She opened it a smidge and found Lukas on the other side holding a dress.
Before she knew it, he was barging in and locking the door behind him.
‘I want you to wear this.’
‘What?’
‘Try it on.’
‘You realise you’ve walked into my fitting room, right?’ The audacity of this man, barging his way in and making demands.
‘Yes, I’m aware. I know I drive on a closed track, but I have a very good sense of direction.’
‘You’re impossible.’
He simply shrugged.
‘Are you leaving?’
‘Would you mind if I stayed?’
‘No.’ She really didn’t. She loved the way he didn’t hide his attraction to her, and how it made her feel. Was this appropriate in such an exclusive store? Katherine found that she didn’t much care.
She took off her sweater and her jeans while looking at Lukas, whose grey eyes had darkened like a storm. Still, she watched him watching her as she slipped on the soft, heavy dress. The weight made sense since it was covered in sequins. The softness was surprising.
‘Turn around.’
She obeyed and saw herself and Lukas reflected at her. Could see when he bent, trailing kisses up her spine as he pulled the zip all the way up.
‘Beautiful.’
This dress was more than just beautiful. The long sleeves sat off her shoulders. From chest to toes she was covered in glittering sequins forming a silver and gold gradient. It fit every curve until her hips where it flared out just slightly in a sparkling column.
‘Look at me.’
Her eyes found his in the mirror, watching him trail kisses over her shoulder, along her neck.
His hands gliding down her covered arms to her waist and then he spun her around, pushing her against the mirror.
Her chest heaving even though he hadn’t done very much.
But then his nose was running along her neck. His lips brushing after.
‘You’ll wear this tomorrow,’ he said. Instructed.
‘Why?’
‘That’s not what you should be saying.’ He inched the dress up higher and higher, gathering the fabric of the skirt in his hands, allowing one of them to trail over the inside of her thigh until he reached her sex covered in satin and lace, and he hummed in approval.
‘You should be saying, “Yes, Lukas.”’
She could hear his smirk but couldn’t look because his fingers were taking her apart and putting her back together.
‘Lukas,’ she breathed.
He chuckled, deep and low. ‘That’s half right.’
She couldn’t think when a moan was building in her throat.
‘Quiet,’ he said, then he kissed her deeply, swallowing every sound she made as his fingers drove her to insanity. Her hips meeting the movement of his skilled hand, wanting, needing more.
‘You’re being so good for me right now,’ he praised.
His lips brushing hers as he said the words.
The taunt of a kiss and it was all too much.
His words and fingers and lips, and then his tongue was in her mouth silencing her as she climaxed in a fitting room in Monaco wearing the most expensive dress she ever had on.
‘Yes, Lukas,’ she agreed because, if this was a taste of what awaited, she would wear anything to have more of him.