Chapter Twenty-Two
Lumi
Idon’t take a real breath until I make it into my shitty little apartment with all its dark and silence.
Why did I run? I guess I was hurt he didn’t tell me it was him.
Or maybe knowing he’s always been there but never telling me was just too much for me.
Or the shock that I don’t think I really know him.
He doesn’t even know all of me, so how could I know all of him?
Still…it seems he has more to show than I do.
I mean, who the hell is he really? He’s this hotshot CEO with tattoos and rides a bike like he was born on it.
And the real question swirling around my head just makes me sick.
Was any of it real, or was it just his way of getting his kicks?
Was I just a kink for him because I wasn’t like all his high society girls?
And everyone knows. The entire place was talking about it, and I had no idea.
God, I was such a fool, grinning like an idiot while everyone knew he was just slumming it.
I throw my heels across the room as a sob comes welling up from somewhere deep inside my soul.
I trudge to the bedroom and flop on the bed.
I'm not sure how I’m going to get out of this dress, but for right now, all I want is to cry myself to sleep.
I don’t care if I am in a thousand-dollar dress.
A sound has me catching my next sob and listening harder. Is that…the lock on my door? I sit up quickly and start thinking about what to do next. Surely it isn’t my landlord. Not at this time of night. So, is my luck so bad that I’m being broken into on the same night my heart has been stomped on?
A shadow falls across the door, scaring the hell out of me and causing me to scream out before the light in the room comes on and I recognize the big man standing in the doorway.
“How…how did you…?”
He’s no longer in a tux but in dark jeans and a leather jacket. It’s a far cry from what he looked like at the party. I don’t know who the man standing in my room is now.
“We have to talk, angel.”
“I…” I try to move away from him, but get caught in my dress and end up falling off the bed on my butt.
It’s enough to give him time to come around to me and lift me in his arms and put me over his shoulder.
“What are you…? “He walks out of the bedroom and through the livingroom, “Where are you taking me? Luka!!”
He walks out the front door with me thrown over his shoulder, even shutting and locking my door back before proceeding down the stairs and out of the building. He finally sits me down next to his bike and stands looking at me. Why bring me out here? Why…?
He grabs my gown and squats down in front of me.
“Hey!” Before I can take a step back, he’s got a knife out, cutting into my dress. “What the hell, Luka?! What are you doing?”
“I love the dress, but I love you more.”
What the fuck?! My mouth is fully open, and I am in complete shock. Did he just…so casually?
“I’m not taking a chance on it getting caught in the wheel and hurting you. I’ll buy you another one just like this one.”
He pushes a helmet on my head once he’s ripped my dress to my knees and fastens the thing under my chin.
“I don’t…”
“Get on, baby, or I’m riding with you up front with my dick in between that sweet ass.”
OH MY GOD!
Who is this man? After he shows me where to step, I hop on the back and hold on to him for dear life. This is the first time I have ever been on a motorcycle. This is the first time I’ve ever had a man cut my clothes off me, or met the man I thought I knew so well.
He turns his head and wraps my arms tighter around him. “Keep those arms wrapped around me tight, baby.” His eyes are a burning blue flame that makes my insides go all melty and, between my legs, turn molten. “And don’t ever let go.”
He makes a move, and his visor falls down over his eyes, hiding his face from me.
Only my own reflection is looking back at me, and it looks…
confused and a little lost. He starts the bike, and we’re off before I am really ready.
All I can do is hold onto him and hope to God I make it to wherever he is taking me in one piece.
After the initial shock and feeling so exposed on a moving object going so fast, I started to settle in and really enjoy the ride. It’s still scary, but amazing at the same time. Freeing in a way I never felt before.
The experience is over way too fast, and we are pulling into his home, but taking a different path to his garage under the house.
It kind of makes me think of Batman and reminds me that I don’t really know who I am with.
We pull in, and he helps me off the back of the bike before picking me up and carrying me to an elevator.
He doesn’t set me down the entire time, and when we step out, it’s into the hallway right in front of his room.
“Luka, I don’t think…”
“We need to talk, and I need to be sure you aren’t going to run from me again. If I have to tie you to the bed I will, but I am hoping we can just sit and talk things over.”
He kicks the door shut before finally setting me down.
I try to ignore the bed in the room, even as I put space between us.
“Luka…” “I grew up…poor.” He interrupts me, and I go quiet so I can listen to what he is trying to tell me.
“A street kid. I fought…a lot. Got into a lot of shit I probably shouldn’t have.
My mom…she was great. She’d patch me up and remind me she loves me no matter what.
But that didn’t stop me from doing some really bad shit. ”
He pauses before continuing, “I got smarter, learned how to make things hurt in all new ways for people who tried to fuck with me or mine. Here I am. I’m not a businessman, Lumi. I don’t have soft, manicured hands. I didn’t come from the same background you did.”
What? How does he know how I grew up?
“I fell into being a businessman by accident because I was good at being ruthless. And I liked it. I like buying and selling, and I like giving a little hell back to people who would otherwise step on the people under them. I’m not a good man and probably can’t even be classified as a law-abiding one in some states.
Most states, actually. I don’t deserve you, but I am keeping you. And I’ll always take care of you.”
His words have me sitting down heavily on the bed, no longer caring what kind of furniture it is as long as it will support me in my state of shock.
“Luka…”
“No, let me finish. I know you’ve never been around a man like me, never rubbed elbows with someone who’s done the things I’ve done.
So you don’t understand exactly what it means to a man like me when I say I keep what is mine, but for a man like me, love, loyalty, sweetness, all that is something I don’t take for granted.
I don’t just say words to say them.” He takes my hands in his and drops to his knees. “I know what your father did to you.”
I gasp and try to pull my hands away.
“Don’t…don’t pull away from me, baby. I had to know. I had to find out what put that sad look in your eyes. At first, I thought it was a man who broke your heart, but it quickly became apparent that wasn’t the case.”
“Qu…quickly became apparent? You mean…”
He nods. “The day I kissed you, that was your first kiss. I was your first kiss. Wasn’t I, baby?”
I nod for him.
“I had to find out who hurt you. I had to find out…if I needed to handle anything for you.”
Does he mean…?
“You…you didn’t…my father…?”
“Of course not. I’m not happy about a grown ass man acting like a spoiled toddler, but I would never put you through the pain of having him killed.”
“How…was he? When you saw him, how was he?”
“Let’s just say I didn’t have to do anything to hurt the guy.” I look at him, the question clearly on my face. “He’s doing all that on his own by letting her ruin him.”
My shoulders slump at the news. It’s not unexpected but still…I wouldn’t wish bad things for my father either. Even if he did kick me out over someone’s lie.
“I also talked to your lit teacher, who can’t wait for you to come back…if you want to. I told her I would tell you hi when we talked about it. I always meant to tell you, I just…wanted you to be in love with me when I did.”
“What?”
“I wanted you to be in love with me when I came clean with you. I was going to tell you. About everything. The visit to your father and the school, the security team I put on you so I could breathe when we weren’t together, me sitting outside your apartment because I couldn’t be too far from you without feeling like my heart was about to burst out of my chest and run straight to you…
who I really am. I just…wanted you to be in love with me when I did because I’m already in love with you and I can't lose you.”