Chapter 28
Luke came out of his office shortly after I hung up with Jamie. The weight of his phone pulled at the waist of his pants, revealing more of one sexy hip.
“Feel like going out today?” he asked.
I cocked my head, studying him. There was a tightness to his smile and a dullness in his eyes.
“Where to?” I asked, moving to stop in front of him.
“You like surprises?”
“Maybe. Should I ask if you’re okay?” I gestured to his office. “I mean the phone call. I don’t want to make anything worse if you don’t want to talk about it.”
Luke inhaled and exhaled with exaggerated slowness. “You can ask, but I’m fine.” He rubbed his temple. “New Year’s Day and the man calls to berate me for ruining Mother’s dinner plans but disguises it in work of all things.”
I figured as much.
“I just …” He sighed. “I don’t want to become him.
My father’s a smart businessman. I’ve always thought so, but now I wonder how much of his wealth was made from morally questionable decisions.
How often has he called me on holidays to talk about work?
Maybe he hates his lot in life and sees work as a vacation. ”
“Don’t give him that much credit. The man’s an adult. He’s very aware of his choices, so leave him to them.”
“Yeah.” Luke circled my shoulders and tucked my face into his neck. “Can you stay with me today? We’ll have some fun.”
“Naked fun?” I asked, then brushed his skin with soft kisses.
Luke chuckled. “Yeah, later, once this pain reliever has kicked in.”
I rubbed the small of his back as he groaned. “I joke, but you’re not an old man, just my old man.”
Luke pinched my chin and pecked my lips. “I know. And you’re my playboy.”
An hour later, we were showered and on the road with to-go coffees in the Range Rover’s cup holders.
We both had on jeans, and I’d helped myself to one of Luke’s undershirts and a sweater softer than anything I’d worn before.
He’d mumbled something about his doorman as we’d left, but whatever it was concluded with a “fuck it.”
City streets and buildings disappeared quickly once on the highway. Luke wouldn’t tell me the surprise, no matter how many blow jobs I promised. Ten minutes after getting on the interstate, he exited, then turned into some sort of industrial park with warehouses in the distance.
“Where are we?”
Luke grinned in answer before stopping briefly at a guard station, who opened a wide gate for us with a wave, and then he drove down the lane between buildings. Most had huge bay doors, and none had any activity. This place was a ghost town.
He stopped at a cream-colored building with white roll-up doors that looked the same as all the others.
“Come on.” Luke hopped out and headed for a panel beside one door. He unlocked it with a key, used a different key inside the box, then punched in a code.
The door lurched once, then opened smoothly without much noise beyond a series of clicks. The interior was dark, size or contents unknown. Luke kept throwing me grins over his shoulder, which made me return it without knowing why.
I followed him in, staying inside the square of natural light. “What’s in here?” My voice echoed.
“You’ll see.” Luke stepped into the shadows. I could barely make out his silhouette along the wall, and a second later, the door started to close behind me.
I didn’t fear the dark, and I trusted Luke not to put me in danger, but I was a little worried, wouldn’t deny it.
The door closed completely with a final rumble, and then a loud click brought light to the warehouse.
“Holy …” I stumbled a step forward, eyes out on stalks at the rows of sparkling cars. “Luke?”
“The Dorset car collection.”
“What? All of these?” The Shelby sat proudly in the row of classics along one side. Across from them were newer cars. From muscle to exotic, American to European to Asian, there had to be thirty cars inside the long room with a wide alley between them. Wide enough to safely drive one to the exit.
Luke took my hand, lacing our fingers, and tugged me toward the first car, a red Ferrari. As he had at the car show, he told me a bit about each, where it was found and when, and how much work had been done to it and so on.
“One day, I want a house on acres with a garage right on the property for my own collection.”
“You drive them all?” I asked.
“Not as often as I’d like. We have a crew who keeps them ready at a moment’s notice.”
I stopped and faced him. There’d been plenty of suspicion about this man, but now I narrowed my eyes, thinking. The events, the donations, the wine sold for several grand, with more where it came from, his parents’ mansion, his two-floor penthouse apartment, the casual way he wore his money …
“Not that I really care, but just how rich are you?”
Luke huffed a laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, my exact net worth fluctuates with the market, but I’m squarely in the multi-millions, not including my non-liquid assets.”
“Jesus.” I shook my head. “Fuck, Luke. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why would I? I don’t go around introducing myself as Luke, millionaire.”
I stared, then snorted. “Okay, yeah, good point. So this …” I waved at the open room.
“About seven million. It’s not the largest collection by far.”
“Dude, my Civic cost six grand. This is amazing.”
“Thank you.”
He followed me as I moved down the line of cars and started up the other side.
“So is this your family money or what you’ve earned—I mean, made.” Fuck, I didn’t want to insult him, but how should I ask if he bought these with money he worked for without making it sound like I was calling him out for being born rich?
Luke smiled and moved to hug me from behind.
“I knew what you meant,” he said as if reading my worry.
Maybe it had been a good idea to hold off this surprise until we got to know each other better.
I’d have been a nervous wreck had I known exactly how big those snooty britches were at the beginning.
“The titles to these are under the Dorset Trust. Not technically mine yet, but I treat them as if they already were. These are part of my inheritance. I already manage them and grow the investment.”
I chuckled and snuggled into him. “I’m not that far into my degree.”
Luke sat his chin on my shoulder, and we kept walking slowly, staying hugged together. “You’ve heard it takes money to make money, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Same thing, basically.”
“Your wine collection?”
“Another investment. Its worth isn’t quite as high yet, but it’s in my name only.”
“What’s the difference in stuff in your family trust versus your own name?”
“I’m a beneficiary, not the trustee. As long as my parents approve of the investment, I can grow the fund how I see fit. The wine collection, my Range Rover, my loft, all of those are in my name. I have complete control. I could burn it to the ground if I wanted to.”
“Your insurance company might have something to say about it.”
Luke laughed. “See, you get it.”
“My uncle Gene is in insurance.”
“Not a cousin?”
I elbowed his stomach. “Those cousins have parents.”
“I was beginning to wonder.”
We made it back to the front, and then Luke turned us to face them all.
“Can I take a picture of them?”
He chuckled and kissed the side of my neck. “Sure, but how about driving one?”
I blinked as I ran those words through my head a few times. Yeah, they meant what I thought he meant. “Are you serious?”
“Can you drive a manual transmission?”
I nodded.
“Then take your pick.” Luke stepped away and rocked on his heels.
“This is crazy,” I breathed but thought about it. How could I pick one? A voice said to pick the Shelby, but it seemed taboo for some reason. Instead, I stopped in front of a McLaren.
“This one?” Luke asked. “Not the Shelby.”
I peered at the classic, but nah. “I can’t bring myself to do it.” I pointed at the 765LT with a bright-ass green paint job and a custom rainbow design near the rear fender. It probably wasn’t a rainbow, technically, but the multicolored stripes reminded me of one. “What’s this one worth?”
“Last I checked, nearly five hundred grand.”
“You like it?”
“I like them all, or I wouldn’t have invested in them.”
“Buy me one?”
Luke chuckled and dropped his chin as his cheeks flushed. He lifted his head with a grin spreading his gorgeous lips. “And what would you do if I showed up at your dorm with a gift like this?”
“Faint.” We both laughed. “I’m just playin’. But if you were serious, I’d like to drive this one.”
And that was exactly what happened.
Luke let me pull the car out of the warehouse. We waved at the smiling guard, obeyed every speed limit while in town, got a shit ton of double takes from everyone. But once on the interstate …
“Luke?” I asked. The smile had not left my face yet.
“Yeah?”
“Will you bail me out of jail if we get pulled over?”
He skimmed his fingertips along the inside of my wrist, then gripped my leg. “Of course. How can I say no to my little playboy?”
I winked at him. “Flirt.”
That afternoon, I found out what zero to sixty in under three seconds felt like, what the world looked like at a top speed of 205 miles per hour, and how raw my throat got after screaming at the top of my lungs. I was pretty sure I’d never laughed so loud or made my heart race so hard.
When we got back to the industrial park, I made Luke put the car back in its spot, because I shook too badly to do it. I stood off to one side, watching and waiting, and when he came back to me, Luke knew something was up.
“Hey? You okay?” he asked as he rubbed my upper arms.
I nodded, not trusting my voice at first, but finally said, “Yeah. I’m good. I’m great.” I popped onto my toes and kissed him. “You’re amazing, Luke.”
“You mean the car.”
“No. I mean you.” I sniffled, overwhelmed. I didn’t know how to make him understand no one had ever done something like this for me. I loved my family, with all my heart, but with there being so many of us, sometimes I was lost in the mix.
Today was about me. Luke did all of this just for me, and I selfishly loved every second of it. He might not see it the same way, but I’d never forget.