Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Dean
By the time we reached my room, neither of us had said much.
I unlocked the door and stepped aside to let him enter first, trying to ignore my pounding heart.
The silence followed us in.
Luka stopped a few feet inside, hands at his sides, as though he wasn’t entirely certain what came next.
That alone was strange enough to worry me. I’d seen him handle pressure better than almost anyone I knew. Whatever had brought him here, it had him rattled.
“You okay?”
His laugh arrived without any humor. “I am… extremely not okay.”
I arched my eyebrows. “That’s not a phrase.”
His gaze flickered to mine, steadier than the rest of him. “It is now.”
That almost got a smile out of me.
He drew a breath and lifted his head.
“Mila and I aren’t together.”
That wasn’t where I’d expected this conversation to begin.
For a fleeting second, all I could think was that Ethan was going to be unbearable.
“Okay,” I said carefully.
“We never were.”
I nodded, still trying to work out why he’d come here to tell me this. “Right.”
Luka glanced away, his jaw tightening before he added, “I’m not interested in women.”
The room fell quiet around us.
“Oh.”
Oh God.
Suddenly I wasn’t trying to understand Luka anymore.
I was trying to catch up.
His gaze snapped back to mine. “No one else can know about this.”
The urgency in his voice left no room for misunderstanding.
“I won’t tell anyone.” The promise came easily. “I mean that, Luka.”
A dozen thoughts were trying to arrive at once.
I shoved all of them aside.
Right now, the important thing was the look on his face.
He held my gaze a moment longer, as though testing the promise for weaknesses.
Eventually he nodded, and I had the feeling I’d just passed some kind of exam.
“Is that why you came here?”
“No.” That answer came faster, surer. Luka looked down at the floor, as though searching for words that refused to cooperate. “I thought this would stop. That I could go back to normal.” A humorless laugh escaped him. “It was a ridiculous assumption.”
I didn’t ask what this was. I already knew. Or at least I thought I understood.
Luka had a habit of making that feeling temporary.
When he looked up again, his expression was almost hesitant.
“The woman from the café.”
It took me a second. Then I laughed. “Claire?”
He frowned, as though he hadn’t expected that reaction.
I let out a breath. “She’s my ex.”
The reaction was instant.
His shoulders loosened. The tension around his mouth eased. Even his breathing seemed to settle.
His eyes widened. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” My thoughts exactly.
Luka looked down at the floor again, and for once I didn’t feel any urge to push him for an answer. Then it hit me.
Since he’d arrived, he’d been the one taking all the risks.
Maybe it was my turn.
I swallowed. “You’re not the only one.”
He raised his chin, his eyes locking on mine, steady and unflinching.
“I think about you when you’re not there.” The words settled between us. “And when you are...” I let out a quiet laugh. “Apparently I stop acting like myself.”
Luka didn’t move.
Neither did I.
“I’ve spent days trying to convince myself you’re just another athlete.” My stomach twisted. “That stopped being true a while ago.”
Luka’s breath caught. “How long?” he asked, so quietly I almost missed it.
“Since the day after I arrived in Milan.”
I watched the answer sink in.
“You mean this?”
“Yeah.”
I stepped closer, moving slowly enough that he could have stopped me if he’d wanted to.
He didn’t.
My pulse hammered against my ribs.
For days it had felt like every conversation ended with one of us retreating. Another interruption, another wall. Another reason to leave things unsaid.
Not this time.
Luka stood perfectly still, waiting, looking at me as though he’d run out of places to hide.
My chest ached.
I wanted—
No.
I knew exactly what I wanted.
I reached for his wrist.
His lips parted.
“Bo?e.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” The answer came far too quickly. Again.
Despite my racing heartbeat, I smiled.
“Didn’t sound like nothing.” I rubbed my thumb over the inside of his wrist.
He closed his eyes for a moment, but when they opened again, whatever composure he’d carried into the room was beginning to unravel.
“Kvrat.”
I might not have known the meaning, but I knew the tone.
I tightened my fingers around his wrist, and his pulse grew wilder.
So did mine.
“Tell me to stop.”
I meant it.
If he wanted distance, I’d give it to him.
If he wanted me gone, I’d step back.
Luka held my gaze.
There was no hesitation in him now, only that steady look I’d been trying to understand since the day we met.
I lifted my hand to his face, moving carefully, giving him every opportunity to change his mind.
He didn’t, and I was past fighting this. I traced the line of his cheekbone with my thumb, unable to miss the hitch in his breathing, the way his eyes widened.
And still he didn’t stop me.
So I kissed him.
His lips parted against mine almost immediately, and suddenly all those careful distances we’d been maintaining for days meant absolutely nothing.
Luka caught my wrist hard enough to stop me from pulling away, even though I hadn’t even considered doing that. For the first time since we’d met, he was meeting me halfway, and the feeling of that grip went through me like an electric shock.
I made a rough sound against his mouth before I could stop it, and he smiled.
Then the kiss deepened.
Neither of us seemed particularly concerned with doing it well.
Luka was kissing me back. That was enough.
His fingers remained wrapped around my wrist while my hand settled against his jaw.
For a second he went very still. Then he leaned into the touch, and every coherent thought I’d been hanging onto vanished.
There was only Luka standing impossibly close, his breath unsteady against mine, one hand still gripping my wrist as though letting go wasn’t an option.
Fuck, I would’ve let him stay that way all night if that was what he wanted.
I backed him against the wall next to the bed, my body pressed to his, unable to keep still. I flicked my tongue along his lower lip, and Jesus, his moan…
Then my phone started vibrating across the desk.
The sound cut through the room so abruptly that I jerked back.
For a second neither of us moved, both our chests heaving.
Luka still had hold of my wrist. My hand was still against his face.
The phone kept vibrating.
“It could be important,” I said.
The excuse sounded thin.
Luka’s grip loosened slowly.
I stepped away before I could change my mind and crossed to the desk. Mark’s name flashed across the screen.
Of course.
I answered on the last vibration. “Yeah.” My voice cracked on that single syllable.
Mark launched straight into schedule changes, meeting times, and adjustments for the next few days.
I listened, answered where necessary, and stared at the wall while my pulse gradually remembered how to behave.
“Got it,” I said eventually. “I’ll be there.”
The call ended. Silence settled over the room again.
When I turned around, Luka was standing near the door. He’d put a few feet between us, but not much.
“Luka.”
He stopped with his fingers curled around the handle.
I dragged a hand through my hair. “We’ve got the team event in four days.” He looked at me over his shoulder, and I did my best to breathe. “Can we not blow up our lives until after we’ve skated?”
Luka let out a slow breath, then the corner of his mouth tightened. “I cannot pretend this did not happen.”
“Good. Because neither can I.”
His eyes lifted to mine. After a moment he nodded. “After the team event.”
“After,” I confirmed.
This time he opened the door.
I stood there listening to his footsteps fade down the corridor.
Then I laughed and dragged both hands through my hair. My heartbeat was still nowhere near normal. There was a fluttering in my stomach that I couldn’t ignore. Warmth radiated through every inch of my body.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could already hear Claire saying I told you so.
God, I hated it when she was right.
Four days suddenly felt like a very long time, and I had a feeling Luka was going to be front and center of my thoughts for every damn one of them.
Luka
I walked the length of the corridor without really seeing it.
Athletes passed in the opposite direction. Someone said my name. I didn’t register who it was.
My mouth still tingled.
The thought arrived unexpectedly and refused to leave.
I stopped outside for a moment, letting the cold air hit my face.
It didn’t help.
Dean had kissed me.
Worse, I had kissed him back.
The memory returned immediately.
His hand against my jaw. The look in his eyes before he moved. The certainty of it.
I should have felt panic.
I found myself remembering how reluctant I had been to walk away.
Four days.
Kvrat, I wanted him, and it was time I stopped trying to convince myself otherwise.