Chapter Twenty-One
Luka
Istand at the bottom of the stairs and wait for what feels like forever for my little elf to come down to me.
This morning, when I had her in my arms under me, everything was perfect…
until it wasn’t. She touched my face and got the saddest look in her eyes, but before I could ask about it, my sister was knocking.
All I could do was kiss her silly before slowly taking my hand away from the soft, enticing mound of her breast and yelling for Janie to give us a moment.
It’s like my angel was already mourning me leaving her, and I needed her to understand I am not going anywhere.
Mentally cursing her father in three different languages, I cupped her face between my hands and made a promise to her while lying in our bed, my sister on the other side of the door waiting for us.
“When it happens, Lumi,” I stare right into her eyes, “it’s not going to be just some normal thing, sweetheart.”
She deserves to know. To be forewarned about who I am.
“I always keep what’s mine.”
I dragged my lips across hers before finally letting her up so my sister could sweep her off for their girls’ day.
That was hours ago, and I have missed my angel more than is probably normal.
I don’t sleep if she isn’t right beside me, I don’t feel right if she isn’t in the room with me, if I can’t breathe her in and touch her skin.
She’s enchanted me, and I am completely fine with it.
My sister runs down the stairs first and turns me around, so my back is to them. Her cheeks are flushed, and she looks happy.
“Okay, okay! Are you ready to see your Christmas elf…,” she turns me around slowly, “when she’s turned into Mrs. Claus?”
Standing at the top of the landing is my Lumi…wrapped in red velvet and glowing. My breath catches, and for a moment I am struck speechless.
“Close your mouth, bro.” Janie gives a maniacal laugh before dancing around me.
She’s stunning…and all mine!
“Do you like it?”
She comes slinking down the stairs to me, and all I can think about is picking her up and carrying her back up to our bedroom.
“I…you…fuck!”
“That means he likes it…a lot!” Janie chimes in, all too happy to translate for her.
Lumi gives me a killer smile before looking down. I use my knuckle to tilt her head up, so she has to look at me. “Is this makeup the kind that stays no matter what?”
I might be looking at Lumi, but I’m asking my sister, who seems to realize it because she’s the one who answers me. “Yeah.”
It’s all I need to know before I take my little elf’s lips and show her just how I feel about her in this dress.
“Son,” a hand lands on my shoulder, and I reluctantly break the kiss, “let’s get to the party before you try to eat Lumi.”
Lumi gasps at my mother’s words as I give her a big goofy smile and straighten us back up. “Yes, ma’am.”
I lead my angel outside and to the limo and help her in the back, thoughts of me sneaking away with her to eat her somewhere private dance through my head.
Once we arrive at the party, every head in the room turns to stare at my little beautiful Christmas present, and I can’t help but pull her closer.
I’m giving her one -maybe two- dances before I’m making the visions in my head come true.
My mom and Lanie have other plans. They start introducing her to everyone, and it takes me a while to sweep her away so I can dance with my little angel.
Her eyes twinkle, and I can tell she is having a good time.
It’s there in her smile and the easy way she starts talking to everyone once she’s introduced to them.
She was made to be by my side. She was made to dance in my arms like a princess from one of those fairytales my mother used to tell me when I was a child.
I’m about to whisk her away when Saul from shipping stops me. He gives me a big grin and completely ignores my little angel, which is fine by me because I don’t want Saul anywhere around her.
“Is it true? What they’ve been saying down in marketing?”
I make a quick mental note to fire him. After the holidays. I’m not a monster after all.
“What have THEY been saying, Saul?” Anyone who knows me knows the tenor of my voice is the first clue he should back up slowly while apologizing for overstepping boundaries, but Saul isn’t a smart man, and he doesn’t know me at all.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Denver head for us because he does know me.
“They say you’re a caught man. All but trussed up in the hangman’s noose.” He wiggles his third finger for a visual. “They say you got a little chicky on the side at some dump over on Eastman Street.”
Beside me, Lumi gasps out loud, but that still doesn’t stop Saul.
“Bill in Security says you sit outside her place at night to make sure no one else gets a piece of your pie.”
I take a breath to tell Denver to throw Saul off a bridge, but he is already dragging him from the room with utmost discretion. I turn to look at Lumi and see hurt and betrayal on her face.
“You…you watch me!”
“I told you I always keep what is mine, angel.”
She shakes her head and pulls her arm from my grasp as she takes a step back.
“That was you. The biker outside my apartment, who I thought was making drug deals. That was you.”
She’s still not asked me a question, so I don’t answer her. She already knows the truth. She’s known the truth from the beginning. She’s mine, and I plan to take care of her. She takes off running, and I let her go. For now.
My mom comes up beside me, “Is everything alright, dear?”
“It will be, Mom.” It will be. Because my little angel is about to learn who I really am…and there is no getting away from me.
It’s time to come clean.