37
Alarie
With Cass gone, our group of six was now just five—Luke, Karina, Rhett, James, and me. I spent my days training, but my nights were lonely. My heart ached for Cass so viscerally that I often spent my hours in bed tossing and turning, trying unsuccessfully to forget the comfort I had once known wrapped in his muscled arms and cocooned by his gigantic wings.
It wasn’t all bad, though. Since my breakup with Cass, it felt like Karina and James had started to make an effort to be my friends, which was nice. We’d always been friendly, but now they invited me to hang out even when Luke and Rhett were not around. I had my suspicions that their recent friendliness was, at least in part, spawned by their curiosity regarding Nik and me being his Chosen.
It was clear that everyone assumed my breakup with Cass had something to do with Nik. But I couldn’t tell anyone about the prophecy or the role I was supposed to play. Luke knew the truth about the prophecy. The entire High Council knew. But no one else could know. So, I just had to go on letting everyone believe whatever they wanted to believe about me and Nik.
“Luke, throw me that blanket, will ya?” I asked.
The five of us sat in a sitting room at Luke’s house. We’d opted for a low-key night—dinner at the High Court, followed by drinks and cards at Luke’s. Luke grabbed the blanket on his end of the lounge, throwing it over me and tucking the blanket under my legs as he scooped my feet up so that my legs rested in his lap.
“Who’s ready to lose?” Luke chirped, beginning to hand out cards.
After just two short hands, Karina popped up out of her seat like it was made of hot coals. “I think I’m going to bed.”
Luke looked over at Karina, his brows furrowed.
“Okay,” he responded flatly. “I’ll walk you over.”
Karina was staying in a guest house adjacent to his manor.
“No, you look comfortable, Luke. You can just stay right where you’re at,” she snipped, looking pointedly at my legs slung across his lap.
I noticed Karina’s glance and jumped like I’d been poked with the sharp end of a stick. I quickly shifted to move my legs off of Luke, but he stilled my movement. He took his time delicately picking up my feet and placing them gently on the couch. Then he stood and walked over next to Karina.
I had convinced myself that my prior relationship with Luke had escaped Karina’s attention. I felt embarrassed that I had unknowingly acted in a manner that had hurt Karina’s feelings so soon after she had gone out of her way to be nice to me. I had grown so blind to the innate intimacy in the way Luke and I interacted with each other. I wondered if Cass had felt the same way as Karina.
“I’ll walk you back,” Luke repeated firmly.
We heard Karina burst into tears before she and Luke were out of sight. Rhett gave me an indifferent smirk.
“I should probably get out of here,” I said, stating the obvious.
“I think I better go check on Karina,” James said.
Rhett nodded, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“‘Night, Alarie,” James said with a small smile. I appreciated that she was trying not to choose sides.
“Al, I’ll walk with you,” Rhett said, grabbing my arm and tucking it in his elbow as we began to walk back to House Rein.
****
I was already in bed reading when I heard a knock on my front door. I had no idea who it could possibly be. Nik didn’t knock. He just appeared whenever and wherever he wanted, so it couldn’t be him.
I opened the door in my golden silk nightgown. He started at my bare feet, moving his gaze up my tanned legs until he focused on the hem of my silk slip. I blinked, and his hands were buried in my hair, pulling my head back to feed on my mouth. He kissed me deeply before pulling away.
“Luke,” I managed to gasp. “What are you—”
“If I’m going to be accused of being with you, then I’m going to fucking be with you,” he said, seething with anger. “Tell me you don’t want this, Al, and I’ll walk away like this never happened,” he offered, his arms tensing around me.
I looked up into his dazzling blue eyes, his hunger for me evident. But I knew he meant it. He would respect my wishes and walk away if that’s what I wanted, and we would go back to being just friends.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his mouth back to mine. Luke picked me up, wrapping my legs around him. I squeezed my legs around him. We fell onto the lounge outside my foyer, Luke’s hulking body pressed down onto me. My hands moved to his belt as his hands pushed the straps of my nightgown off my shoulders, revealing my breasts. His hands fumbled with his pants until he freed himself. I loosened my legs around him just enough for him to angle at my opening. In a matter of seconds, he went from knocking on my front door to pushing my panties to the side. He slid into me, finding me more than ready for him.
“Luke. Oh my gods. Yes,” I moaned, moving against him.
It was like I had been starving for him but had not even realized I had been hungry until the very moment he crossed my threshold. And now I was ravenous. I wrapped my arms around his back, digging my fingers into his skin.
“I missed this, Al. I missed you,” he murmured against my neck, as he moved in and out of me. “It hurt when I couldn’t be with you,” he whispered.
His words washed over me, mirroring my own thoughts.
“Yes, Luke. Yes,” I chanted, rocking my hips in sync with his thrusts.
I felt the familiar feel of his magic working its way over and through my body, awakening a part of me that had lain dormant during our time apart. I was glowing underneath his touch. The tingling of his light on my skin progressed to a humming and then a throbbing. I was moments away from losing myself in him.
“Come with me, Luke,” I urged, tightening my legs around him, burying him deeper inside of me. I wanted to feel the unity of us crossing our finish lines together.
He plunged into me, grabbing one of my legs and pushing it wide and up to my chest so he could bury himself in the deepest part of my center. I angled my hips, taking him into me until he could go no farther. The glow around us was so bright that I closed my eyes and gave into the pleasure pulsing through me. My orgasm coursed through my body and dragged on as Luke thrust his way to his own release, filling me.
Luke carried me to bed at some point that night. It was late at night, turning into morning. I was lying in the crook of his body, playfully lacing my fingers through his, when he finally spoke. I felt him take in a big breath, his chest expanding.
“What are we going to do, Al?”
“I don’t know,” I said, intertwining my fingers with his and laying our hands on his chest. “Everything else feels so complicated. But this,” I said, indicating our intertwined bodies, “just feels easy. It’s always been easy with you, Luke.”
He brought my hand to his mouth and lightly kissed the back of it.
“So then be with me,” he said, simply.
“Luke,” I groaned.
That wasn’t that easy.
“Be with me, Al,” he said again, more earnestly.
“Your mother will lose her fucking mind if you break it off with Karina,” I protested.
“That’s her problem,” he said, leaning up on one elbow and hovering over me.
“I—are you serious, Luke?” I asked.
We had never been together in the way he was suggesting. We had never even discussed it. I’d never even considered it as a possibility.
“I want you, Al. I want us,” he said, his blue eyes piercing me with his need.
I remembered he had said almost that exact same thing to me moments before he had crossed my threshold for the first time.
As if reading my mind, he said, “It’s always been you. Just you.”
The thought of Cass ran through me like I had been plunged into an ice bath. A pang of pain radiated through my body every time I so much as thought his name.
But I couldn’t feel bad about being with Luke. Luke had always been a part of me. It was like every relationship I had ever been in since Jay had a Luke exception—I could be with someone else as long as they were okay with the fact that Luke was mine and I was his. I couldn’t feel bad about Luke, because being with Luke, in any capacity, had always felt right.
Plus, Luke knew about the prophecy. If I was with him, I wouldn’t have to be alone in my duty any longer.
Luke waited with bated breath.
“Okay,” I said.
He still waited, hovering over me.
“Yes, Luke!” I said with more enthusiasm.
He smiled down at me, and the happiness on his face took my breath away.
****
I awoke to the smell of bacon. With my eyes still closed, I reached my hand out to the other side of the large bed, finding it empty. Wondering where Luke had gone off to, I rolled out of bed, finding his undershirt from the night before and throwing it on as I walked out of my room, following the smell of breakfast.
I heard his voice before I saw him. I walked into the kitchen to the sight of Luke’s tanned, muscled back. He was humming a pleasant tune that I knew but couldn’t name. He must have turned the servants away that morning and was making breakfast for us himself.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s dangerous to cook without a shirt?” I teased.
He half-turned away from the pan that had his attention, granting me one of his easy smiles that regularly made my heart skip a beat. I stopped by the chair I meant to sit in, unable to look away from Luke’s blue eyes.
“And miss that look on your face? I’ll risk the burns,” Luke replied, lifting an eyebrow at me before turning back to the stovetop.
His cockiness broke me from my trance.
“For bacon, I’ll let you risk the burns too. Where’s the coffee?”
Luke laughed, moving to the counter to pour me a cup of coffee that was much needed after our late, mostly sleepless night. He handed me the mug, and I moved to touch him, but he danced away, back to his cooking, before I could ensnare him. I just wanted to run my hands across his chest, perhaps down his abs, maybe see if he was wearing boxers under those shorts.
Thwarted, I collapsed into a chair with my cup and took a moment to inhale the scent of the coffee before taking my first sip. Luke started singing and humming again. He was making me pancakes now. I could smell the sweetness of the batter in the air and…blueberries.
I sunk further into the wingback chair, wrapping both of my hands around my warm mug. Luke’s voice and the aroma of the coffee melded together. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Tension I didn’t even know was there lifted from my shoulders before the relief spread through my chest. After my breakup with Cass, I’d felt perpetually drained, like the act of getting up and doing my everyday activities was too much. But in this moment, I finally found comfort. Everything just felt like it was finally going to be okay. When I was with Luke, I…
Fuck.
I took another deep breath, this time trying to calm the sudden spike of adrenaline I felt from my realization that I was hopelessly in love with my best friend. I knew I wanted Luke, that I loved him. I knew he loved me, too. But being in love was completely different.I felt guilty about realizing this so soon after Cass. I loved Cass. How could I be in love with Luke so soon? Unless I’d been in love with Luke all this time? What if Luke didn’t feel quite as deeply as I did?
Luke came to the table, placing plates overflowing with food in front of me. I gave him an analytical look, like I could look through him and see the answers to my questions. He sat next to me and then pulled my chair to him until our legs were touching under the table. He misread the intensity of my gaze for something else.
“Eat your food before you start some shit I have to finish,” he quipped.
I gave him a small smile, huffing out a breath, as I picked up a fork.
I was overthinking things. It just didn’t matter as long as I had Luke by my side.