Vanessa was moved by his generosity, as she had been by several of her friends while facing getting her life back together. She was working on having realistic expectations; her former ideas about her sister and their reconciliation had been fantasies.
She’d learned that the hard way. Luke had been right about Julie—mostly—not that she had a chance to tell him that. She hadn’t heard a word from him. What they’d had on the boat was a fantasy, too. Now she was firmly grounded in reality. And reality had its good points, too—like people who stood by you.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Edwards. I will definitely be in touch, and I plan to be back in this classroom come January.”
“That’s good to hear.”
While a handshake would be more appropriate, Vanessa caved to her emotions and stepped forward, giving the principal a hug. As she looked over his shoulder for that quick second, she was shocked to see Luke standing in the doorway of the classroom, his gaze glued to them. Vanessa let go quickly.
“Well, I’d better get back to my office. Lots of work to do at the start of the semester,” Edwards said, looking speculatively from Vanessa to Luke. “That is, if you want me to go?”
“Yes, I’m fine, thank you,” Vanessa said, her voice slightly breathless as she continued to hold Luke’s gaze—which cooled considerably when he looked at the principal.
Luke stepped inside the classroom, holding his hand out to Edwards, as Vanessa watched, still in shock.
“Luke Berringer.”
Recognition of the name showed in Edwards’s expression—of course he’d read the news—and he smiled. “Good to meet you. I’ll just be going now.”
As Edwards left them alone, the words dried up in Vanessa’s throat. She had no idea what to say.
She held back tears she’d been fighting since she’d last seen Luke. She sat down on a nearby chair and covered her face.
When Julie had forced her hand, Vanessa had known her answer—and her feelings for him—right away. No way could she have left him there to die. Not for anyone, not even for Julie. She’d known in that instant that she’d fallen in love with him, but clearly, he hadn’t felt the same.
“Vanessa, please, I don’t want to make you cry.”
Wiping her tears away, she summoned her courage and glanced up at him.
“I’m sorry. It’s just been a stressful time, and I didn’t expect to see you.”
What was he doing here? He looked amazing, cool and steady in his khaki cargo shorts and white tee, watching her with eyes that seemed to see everything. But he also looked tired, and strained.
“I know. I had to see you. I’m sorry for interrupting.”
“It’s okay. What brings you here?”
She was proud of herself for not sounding too desperate, even though her heart was pounding inside her chest.
“You. We need to talk.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I thought maybe you needed time to yourself. And there was a lot to straighten out with the authorities. I thought that would never end.” Then he shook his head before she could respond. “No. That’s not it. Well, not all of it. The truth is, I didn’t think you’d want to see me. Not after everything that happened.”
She stared at him in surprise. “I thought the same thing. I thought you were over me. That it was merely a...fantasy.”
Luke pursed his lips, which made her want to kiss him. She missed him terribly, and it was almost harder to have him so close than when he had been avoiding her.
“It was a fantasy, but it was more than that, too. I’ve missed you. I’ve thought about nothing else since we left the island, but I hadn’t heard from you, and I knew you’d gone with Julie, so...I thought it was better for me to stay out of it. To let you two mend things, if you could. But I was just making excuses. I understand if I’m too late, but I needed to tell you that, and I had to at least thank you.”
“Thank me? For what?”
“When I saw you at the house, when you drove up with the police, and Julie, I was so shocked, but I shouldn’t have been. You stand by people. That’s who you are. And now—” he took a deep breath “—I know that I didn’t do that for you. I’ve been an idiot. I should have contacted you right away, but I was afraid.”
That caught her off guard. “Afraid of what?” She couldn’t imagine him afraid of anything. He’d charged back up to a house of killers to lead them away from her—put his own life in danger to save her and Julie. He was fearless.
“That you wouldn’t want me, or that it was all over. I thought what happened with Julie hurt, and it did, but not because I loved her. She hurt my ego, my pride. But with you... I know it would hurt a lot worse to lose you, but I still wanted to let you know how I feel.”
The idea that she could hurt him stunned her and moved her all at once. Her heart came alive as she took in the expression on his face, the emotion in his eyes. She closed the distance and took his face in her hands, needing him to listen.
“Of course I came back for you. I was terrified that something had happened to you because you tried to save us. I thought I would do anything for Julie to save her, but in that last moment, I knew I wouldn’t let her hurt you. Not again. Not ever.”
“Why, Vanessa?”
She knew what he wanted to hear. And what she wanted to tell him.
“Because I love you. And I would die before I’d let anyone hurt you, even my sister. Anyone. I love you so much—”
He stopped her with a kiss, and then leaned his forehead against hers.
“I love you, too. I’ve loved you since that first kiss, or since I saw you wrapped up in a robe in my apartment, looking so fragile, but being so tough. Maybe even when you were practically spitting at me across that jail cell. I was so angry with Julie, so focused on vengeance, that I couldn’t imagine how you could love me.”
“I’ve loved you since you first touched me, too. And I wasn’t completely right about things, either. I should have listened to you about her. But when she made me choose, it was an easy choice,” she said with a smile, kissing him again, her heart complete.
His mouth was soft on hers, gentle, as if he was afraid that anything more would shatter the moment. He brushed a thumb over her cheek.
“I made you cry.”
Her hands settled lightly on his chest as she focused on him, solemn. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw you standing there. I thought I’d never have a chance to touch you like this again.”
“Now we have all the time in the world.”
She smiled. “That’s a nice thought.”
His expression turned serious again.
“Speaking of Julie, how is she?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Not great, I imagine. She won’t take my calls, and no one will tell me anything. She was very angry with me the one time I did talk to her. She accused me of betraying her after she tried to help us. I can’t believe it, that after everything, she says I betrayed her.”
He looked at her intently. “Because you chose not to let her go?”
She nodded weakly. Vanessa knew that she’d done the right thing, but she hated thinking about her sister suffering in jail in the years to come because of the choice she’d made.
“How are you handling it all?”
“I’m doing okay. Better now,” she answered, turning her lips into his palm. “It’s been difficult. I have a lot to sort through. The school is giving me paid leave at least until January, and that will help.”
“If you’ll let me, I can try to help you with that and I can help Julie, too. I’ll make some calls and get her a good lawyer, make sure she’s treated well. We’ll get her the best help, I promise.”
“Do you really mean that?”
“I do. You were right. She w
as being manipulated by Max, and she was being used. I’m sorry I didn’t listen. She did the things I accused her of, but I...feel sorry for her, too. And she’s your family.”
Vanessa’s pretty brown eyes widened and filled with tears.
“Oh, Luke, that means so much to me.”
He framed her face with his hands. “I know you. I know how much you care, and that you never give up on the ones you care about. Do you know how rare that is?”
She sniffled and he wiped hot tears off her cheeks.
“I think what we have is more rare, what we have together,” she said huskily. “What we could have.”
He smiled. “On that we agree.”
The stress, tension and gray misery that had dogged her for days lifted as she turned her face up for his kiss.
Luke kissed her again, and it was only at that point that everything started really being okay again. He was here, holding her, his mouth moving urgently on hers, as if he were as desperate for her as she was for him.
Vanessa pressed into the comforting heat of his body. This was good. This was better than good. For the first time in a while, she really felt like things might be all right.
“I could borrow the boat again for the weekend,” he offered. Desire stirred in her blood. It was wonderful after being so numb for days. She wanted to get her life back on track, and to help Julie, but she and Luke needed time, too. Time to heal, and time to enjoy these new feelings they had for each other.
He nuzzled her cheek, which led to nuzzling her ear. That led to the deep need to get her clothes off—and his—so that he could nuzzle everything else.
“A weekend on the boat sounds lovely. And I have to go to Vermont to see my parents. We could get an inn, if you wanted to come, too?”
“That sounds nice. I like Vermont. Maybe we could stop in Philly, and you could meet my cousins,” he said, nibbling at her neck.
“I’d love that. I’d like to tell them in person how much I appreciated their assistance.”
“But right now, we need to get out of this classroom and somewhere more private,” he said, pressing his sweet lips against her mouth.
Vanessa let her kiss tell him how much she agreed with that idea. No matter where they went, here in Luke’s arms, she knew she was already right where she belonged.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from CAPTIVATE ME by Kira Sinclair.
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1
A PERFECT BLEND of the absurd and obscene. That described the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. Scantily clad women strolling beside men in cat costumes and stilts, all while evangelists screamed about the perils of sin.
Excess. Excitement. And that ever-present air of danger...because just about anything could—and did—happen.
Strangers rubbing against strangers because that was the only way through the wall-to-wall humanity. Heat and hedonism. Music, loud voices and raised laughter filling every available inch of space.
All around him, the party raged. But Beckett Kayne didn’t care.
Leaning against the railing, he watched dispassionately as the crowd beneath the balcony swelled. Beside him Mason Westbrook, his best friend since childhood, held out several blinking LED necklaces. Shaking them enticingly, he yelled something crude.
Two women, wearing short, flared skirts and bustiers, giggled up at them with glassy-eyed interest. They clung together, no doubt keeping each other from falling flat on their wasted asses.
“You know what you have to do to get ’em,” Mason taunted.
One of the women—and Beckett used the term loosely, because if they were a day over twenty-one he’d be damn surprised—shook her head slowly. Considering he owned a series of nightclubs scattered in major cities across the United States, he’d gotten pretty talented at spotting minors.
The brunette pouted. “We can’t.” Tugging at the edge of her top, she yelled, “It’s too tight.”
Mason simply grinned, his teeth flashing white through the dark night. “Then show me something else.”
Moments like these, Beckett wondered why the hell he’d kept Mason in his life past the bonding years of their uninhibited carousing. Yes, there was a time when he would have been beside his friend, trying to coax the coeds into showing what the good Lord gave them.
But at thirty-two he was getting too old for this shit. Certainly too old for the doe-eyed girls on the street.
With a sense of disgust and inevitability, Beckett watched their heads go together as they whispered to each other, cutting quick glances up. After several moments they spun around. Beckett really hoped they were leaving but knew they probably weren’t.
Instead, he watched them bend at the waist and flip up the edges of their skirts to show their practically naked rears.
Mason let out a wolf whistle and rained necklaces, gold coins and a handful of cheap trinkets down onto the street at their feet.
Tonight, the uncontrolled excess seriously bothered Beckett. Or maybe that was just the bad mood he’d been fighting for the past few weeks. He was getting jaded.
Instead of growling something at Mason he’d most likely regret later, Beckett raised his glass and pulled a healthy swallow of expensive scotch into his mouth. It was smooth, and the welcome fire burning down his throat beat back the words threatening to break free.
He didn’t want to be here. Had tried to tell Mason he’d be bad company, but his friend had guilted him into coming anyway. A private balcony party the Friday before Fat Tuesday, thrown by one of the partners in his firm, wasn’t something to be missed.
But his head was firmly embedded in business and the way everything he wanted was slowly slipping through his fingers.
A dark scowl, an expression he’d been wearing all too often lately, pinched his brows. Beckett wasn’t used to being...ignored and dismissed, but that was exactly what V&D Mobile Technology was doing.
Although not anymore. Not after tomorrow.
“Seriously, man, you’re scaring off the chicks. Stop scowling. It’s Mardi Gras,” Mason yelled, as if the music, the people and the mask Beckett was currently wearing weren’t enough for him to notice.
The air of wild debauchery, so palpable he could taste it on the back of his tongue, dark and sinfully sweet, was hard to ignore. Even if he would have liked to.
The girls on the street moved on, but Mason wasn’t disappointed. Not when several feet away two more women, also decked out in feathered masks and barely stable enough to stay atop their skyscraper heels, pulled up their shirts and flashed their naked chests. A hailstorm of beads, accompanied by catcalls, landed at their feet.
Charming. Beckett looked away, disgust twisting hard in his gut. Shaking his head, he watched Mason scoot down the railing toward the women busy gathering the beads they’d exposed themselves to win.
Using Mason’s distraction as a chance to finally slip away, Beckett moved farther into the shadows along the balcony. The big building was divided into expensive townhomes, making the space long and narrow. The balconies, on the second and third levels, curved around the front and all the way along the far side. Most everyone crowded near the street, so they could watch the people and party
going on below.
Beckett just wanted a moment of peace to try and combat the headache threatening to balloon into a migraine. Settling his back against the rough brick, he propped a single foot on the intricate metal railing in front of him and closed his eyes. A deep breath and another healthy swallow of scotch had some of the knots unwinding from between his shoulder blades.
He could still hear the noise from the street, but the side balcony wrapped around into a controlled-access alley. During Mardi Gras, without fences—and sometimes with—every square inch of real estate was covered with humanity. But this building was pricey enough to have very good security—high fences, electronic locks and surveillance cameras. With a practiced eye, Beckett had noticed the expensive recording equipment.
The alley was empty, filled with nothing but shadows, trash cans and a black cat that stared at him with wide, yellow eyes. He was enjoying the muted solitude, gearing up for his inevitable return to the decadence, when a light snapped on in an apartment across the alley.
It startled him. That was the only reason he looked. But once he did...he couldn’t tear his gaze away.
The balcony he was standing on was higher than the windows he was staring straight into, which meant he was looking slightly down into the room.
A bedroom.
A woman’s bedroom.
Blue, green and purple light scattered across the space from a stained-glass lamp on the bedside table. Shadows chased across pale green walls and smooth, dark floors. Heavy furniture, the solid kind that carried age and history, filled the room.
A four-poster bed occupied most of the space with gleaming golden wood and an inviting cloud of fluffy jewel-toned pillows. Appealing and comfortable, the whole room looked like a sumptuous invitation he wanted to accept.
But that really wasn’t what had his gaze glued.
She stood framed by the window. A soft radiance from the lamp slipped across her body. It lit her from behind, painting her in an ethereal splash of color that made her seem dreamy and tragic and somehow unreal.
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