Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Yet, for me, it’s not just anything. It’s everything.
After class, I leave the building and head out to my car. I almost drop my bag when I see the figure standing in the shadow of the coffee shop across the street. He’s wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. He’s famous, after all, but I can tell from his build and the him-ness that it’s Lukas.
This differs from all the other times I’ve “seen” him this past week. There have been many times when I was sure Lukas was watching me. I’d feel a tingling down the back of my spine. I knew that if I turned around, he’d be there, those intense eyes fixated, but I was wrong.
When this Lukas raises his hand, gesturing to me, I know it’s him. Proverbial butterflies dance around me as I walk across the parking lot and join him in the shadows.
“Come for a drive?” he asks.
No, I try to make myself say. Maybe I’ll tell a lie. It’s been getting easier to forget you. Please don’t make it difficult again. The truth is, it’s been difficult every single second.
“Okay,” I murmur.
He reaches down as though to take my hand, then seems to remember himself and gestures to a black sedan instead. I follow close behind, an illicit feeling swimming through me. There’s nothing wrong with walking through a parking lot together, but it feels like we’re being bad. We’re being taboo again. We’re going to get intimate again.
In the car, he takes off his hat and his sunglasses. He looks down at me, clenching his jaw. I know that look well, even if I’ve only seen it a few times. It’s replayed in my head over and over ever since we left each other. He’s trying to hold himself back. He wants to leap on me, own me, and I want it too, so freaking badly.
“I need to tell you something,” he says, starting the engine, “and… it’s bad.”
He drives aimlessly around the city. I get the sense it’s because if he’s not focused on the act of driving, he’ll give in to the desire blazing between us both. The more he talks, the more panic tears through me.
“He wants ten mill,” Lukas finishes.
“What did you tell him?” I ask.
“I needed time, but that was only so I could warn you.”
“Yeah, thank you,” I murmur. “It’s better I know about this.”
He stops at a red light, glancing at me. “I don’t think you understand. I need to warn you we’ll have to tell Kayla.”
“What?” He’s right. I didn’t understand. Reaching over, I grab his arm, feeling his thick muscle through the fabric of his shirt. “We can’t just… We can’t. We agreed to forget it. It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but we agreed!”
“Ethan—Finn—wasn’t factored into that agreement,” Lukas growls. “Finn is going to play the recording for her otherwise. Would you rather she heard it from us or him?”
“Why can’t you just pay him?”
“I won’t be blackmailed,” Lukas snaps. “I refuse to let somebody manipulate me.” His arm is trembling against my hand. I’m sure I can feel the heat blazing through him, the outrage.
“But… but…”
“I promised myself years ago I’d never let somebody blackmail me again.”
“Again?” I ask. “What do you mean? Who blackmailed you?”
The light changes, and he drives on, pulling his hand away and putting it on the steering wheel. His eyes have a faraway look, an angry shimmer to them.
“Don’t close up on me now,” I say.
He sighs tiredly. “When I was a kid, my dad forced me to help him with his scams. He’d make me pretend to be lost or tell a stranger I’d lost a piece of jewelry or owed some bad men money. They were lame, petty crimes before he graduated to his real business. Even at a young age, I knew it was wrong.” He laughs ruefully, shaking his head. “Dad recorded some of this crap. He threatened to show it to Mom. Never again, Maci. Never again.”
My heartbeat flutters painfully as I picture a younger version of Lukas dealing with all this. “It will break her, Luke,” I tell him. “It will ruin her life. We were being good.”
“We’ve already been bad,” he says. “Now, we’ve got to pay the price.”
He turns a corner. Wait, he’s not driving aimlessly. He’s going toward Kayla’s apartment.
“What are you doing?” I snap.
“We have to do this,” he replies. “We’ll tell her we made a mistake. We got carried away. We’ll tell her—”
“Stop the car.”
“Maci—”
“I said stop the fucking car!”
He pulls over at the side of the road. I push the door open and run into a nearby alleyway, puking into the nearest trashcan, acid burning up my throat like the guilt burns in my gut. Lukas walks up behind me, placing his hand on my shoulder.