I closed the main door as the last of our visitors left. My shoulders slumped and I gripped my side again. Some fucking romantic night this had turned out to be.
‘Lucas,’ came Summer’s voice behind me as she gently touched my shoulder. I could tell she was crying without even looking around. ‘Please come and lie down, I’m so worried about you.’
‘I was worried about you, angel. I’ll be fine now, because I know that you’re safe.’
‘I can’t believe you ran all the way up.’
‘I thought you were in danger, Summer. I’d have run up as many as it took.’
‘It’s forty floors,’ she pointed out.
‘I know,’ I laughed, then moaned and clutched my side again. She carefully turned me around and screwed up her face as she looked at my temple. ‘How bad does it look?’
‘You’ll have a black eye in the morning, it’s swelling and bruising now, but even with that scar you’re going to end up with, I think you’ll still be the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.’
‘You’ll like my scar?’
‘Indiana Jones looked seriously hot with the one on his chin, as do you with that one under yours, which you’ve never told me how you got by the way.’
‘I was distracted playing hockey and got hit by a puck. Damn lucky it didn’t break my jaw and this scar is all I have to show for it,’ I smiled as I reached for her hand, blowing out a deep breath as I did. Every bloody movement hurt.
‘Come on, I need to get you to bed.’
‘There’s an offer I can’t refuse,’ I replied, trying to lighten the mood, noticing she’d changed into her lounging clothes.
‘Well there’s not going to be any of that for some time, with your ribs broken. Come on, my hero.’ She stripped me and helped me into the large bed, biting her lip as she fought the tears when I grimaced, as I lay back against the pillows and she tucked me in.
‘What about my surprise?’ I asked, as I caught her hand and kissed it.
‘It will have to wait for another time,’ she sighed as she kissed my forehead gently and ran her fingers through my hair. She offered me the painkillers with a glass of water and I knocked them back quickly.
‘What was it?’
‘Me, in a red bow this time, ready to present myself to you, Sir, but it seems that bows and I don’t have much luck,’ she smiled ruefully, reminding me of the time she’d been tied up in a blue bow at Christmas and had fallen asleep. God damn it, the first time she was planning on offering herself to me submissively and it was out of the question.
‘Then as soon as I’m better, you’re going to wrap yourself up in both colours and I’ll give you double the pleasure.’
‘No sex until you’ve been seen at hospital when we get home and we know how bad it is and how long it will take for you to heal.’
‘Damn it, Summer,’ I groaned. The thought of no sex for weeks hurt far more than my head and ribs.
‘We made it fourteen months once, we can make it a couple more.’
‘You’ll be lucky if I give it a couple of weeks, angel. Nothing’s stopping me from pleasuring you. Take my mind of sex. Tell me about the package, so I can ring Ian and Mason in the morning.’
‘It was the same, sort of. Roses in a black satin lined box, but one of them was red, not black. I was so excited about getting ready for you, and finding a present that I thought was from you, that I didn’t even notice it was a Parkers’ box or the black ribbon around it.’
‘Three again?’
‘No,’ she frowned, going silent as she seemed to be processing something.
‘What? What is it?’
‘There were only two.’
‘And?’
‘The first box had five, second box was four, then three, now two. It’s … it’s a countdown,’ she nodded as she looked at me, her blue eyes wide with fear.
‘Shit, I can’t believe we didn’t piece that together before now. What did the card say?’
‘I still haven’t opened it, I was too upset about you.’
‘Go and get it. I’ll open it just in case,’ I added, not wanting to risk her seeing more photographs of me with Yasmin fucking Taylor or any of the other clients this Mr. Black had somehow managed to capture me with. I’d been to the 710 club with Dan and met with Lacey Armstrong, the owner, who’d been mortified at the breach. She assured me that her cameras were merely for security in the event of any client being hurt, or property damage being done and she had a team of staff who reviewed and deleted the footage the following day. There was therefore a small window of opportunity for someone to have discovered that I’d even entered the club, to being able to hack into the feed, find me and keep a copy of that recording. I’d rung Ian while we’d been on the premises and he’d hacked into her system within minutes. She’d immediately agreed to pay out for a state of the art system, which he’d have his team install, that he insisted had better layers of security than the Pentagon had. He said he should know as Davenport Technologies designed this particular firewall and used it themselves. I’d realised that someone had to have been following me that night, and reported that I’d entered the club to whoever had the skills to access Lacey’s system. I’d tried to be vigilant the moment I found that out, but in London, every time Summer and I went anywhere, virtually everyone was watching. I wasn’t trained to pick out one face in a crowd. Summer returned, holding the envelope by the edges, just like I’d told her to do. She handed it to me and sat down on the floor, resting her head against my hip. I patted the bed beside me. ‘Come and sit here with me.’
‘I don’t want to hurt you, I can sleep on the sofa tonight.’
‘Like hell you will,’ I hissed. ‘This arsehole is not coming between us, Summer. I don’t care how many broken ribs I may have, I’m not sleeping without you next to me tonight. I won’t be able to sleep without you.’
‘Lucas,’ she smiled. ‘I’m not a furry teddy bear and you’re not five years old.’
‘I’ll worry about you if you’re not in bed with me.’
‘I’ll be right outside, we can leave the double doors open.’
‘No,’ I shot back forcefully. ‘You’re either in bed with me, or I’m on the sofa with you. Your choice, but don’t for a second think that there’s any alternative. Don’t argue with me.’
‘Ok,’ she relented, with a resigned shake of her head. She closed her eyes as I opened the envelope and I wondered if she was imagining what I’d done with Yasmin again. I let out a sigh of relief to see there were no photos this time. ‘What does it say?’ she asked, her eyes still tightly shut.
‘Read for yourself,’ I advised, as I tried not to get even more worked up about it.
She looked back up at me after reading it, then gracefully stood up and disappeared into the lounge, as I pinched the top of my nose. This had to fucking stop. He was right, letting him leak that photo and my escorting history could ruin her. I’d already tracked down Yasmin and warned her, she was furious, but there wasn’t a lot I could do. She’d already shacked up with one of the guys who’d fucked her that night, DB another premiership player, so it wasn’t like her exposure would end her relationship, but no way was I prepared to walk away from Summer. My head was pounding, I could barely see out of the one eye now, but suddenly everything was painfully clear. The next note that arrived would be our final one, then his next step would be to expose me and it would be her that ended up suffering. Through no fault of her own. There was only one way it could end, if we couldn’t pin this bastard down. If I couldn’t walk away from her, she’d have no choice but to walk away from me. Just thinking it felt like someone had pierced my heart with a spear of ice.
Summer
I left him in the bedroom and grabbed my phone, I knew it was late, but that was what agents were for, to deal with crises and there was no doubt that we were in the middle of one. I’d never asked Brian for anything, and I knew that he was making good money off me now, so it was time for him to step up, regar
dless of what time it was back in London. I was thankful when he answered and I paced the lounge as I spoke in a low tone, to make sure Lucas couldn’t hear me, as I explained what I needed him to do. He wasn’t exactly over the moon with my suggestion, I wasn’t either, but I couldn’t see any alternative. I walked away from Lucas or it came out, they weren’t exactly great options. Much as Lucas would want to do the right thing, I knew how much he loved me, I didn’t think he’d be able to leave me, so I had to be strong, I had to fix this. Brian tried objecting again, but I told him that if he couldn’t do as I asked then I’d find another agent who could. Being around the domineering Lucas Steel had toughened me up, I wasn’t a bitch by any stretch of the imagination, but I was nobody’s fool either. Brian soon backed down and apologised and said he’d get on the case on Monday, draw up a proposal and then we’d meet before deciding what to do. I hung up and went to pour myself a stiff drink. I was going to need it, I knew Lucas was going to be furious, but I didn’t have a choice. He’d been calling for me for the last few minutes to return to bed. Each call had his voice rising and the urgency in it increasing. I needed to face him or he’d hurt himself by getting up to come looking for me.
‘Angel? If you don’t get your backside into bed with me now, I’m coming for you,’ he bellowed. ‘Don’t make me mad. Not tonight.’ I smiled sadly, wondering if I actually had the courage to go through with this, as I knocked back the whiskey and shuddered as the heat hit the back of my throat. I walked to the bedroom doorway and saw him frowning in my direction, his face looking really swollen and I knew I didn’t have a choice. He’d do anything it took to keep me safe, to keep us together.
I really didn’t have a choice.
I picked up one of the packs the paramedics had left us with and squeezed it, activating the cold and carefully climbed onto the bed next to him and held it against his swollen eye.
‘Where were you?’ he demanded, his tense facial muscles relaxing somewhat as he looked at me.
‘Lucas, I have to tell you something and you’re not going to like it.’
‘Fuck. You’ve come to the same conclusion,’ he groaned. ‘We have time, Summer. Give me a chance, let me try and catch this bastard before you go and break my heart. You’re the only woman that I’ve ever loved and I’m not letting you give up on us. I need time to fix this, please,’ he asked, his voice full of so much pain and anguish that I felt it crushing my heart.
‘What do you mean?’ I looked at him puzzled, his face was crestfallen and he had tears of emotion swimming in his visible eye. Lucas and tears weren’t something I was used to and I felt my eyes filling up as well. I’d never experienced so many emotions in so few hours as I had tonight, I was exhausted.
‘You can’t break up with me like this. Let alone on fucking Valentine’s night.’
‘Who said anything about breaking up with you?’ I gasped, holding his gaze and letting him see how shocked I was at his statement. He dropped the ice pack onto the bed as he held my gaze, trying to read my face for answers.
‘That’s what you’ve come to tell me, isn’t it? You already know that I’m not breaking up with you, I’ll never walk away from you, angel, my heart wouldn’t survive, so if it’s going to happen it will have to be you who does it. Just give me a damn chance, Summer, I just need more time. Don’t I at least deserve that?’ he gasped the last question, his voice choked full of emotion, reflecting how I felt.
‘Lucas, I’m not breaking up with you. I won’t have anyone tell me who I can or can’t see, no matter what his past may be. We’re a couple, however many photos he has, or sordid facts, that was Logan Steele. He doesn’t exist anymore, I’m seeing Lucas Steel and nothing will make me leave him.’
‘Jesus, Summer, you could have led with that information,’ he groaned. ‘I’ve just died a million deaths here.’
‘A million more than when you ran up those stairs?’ I teased, as I held his free hand and massaged his palm, trying to ease out the tension in it.
‘What the hell’s going on then?’
‘I’ve just spoken to Brian and asked him to get a PR team together, to come up with a way for us to spin your past, how we met and that we’re dating regardless. Then we’ll break the news ourselves, before this guy has a chance to do it. If we can do it in a controlled manner, he has no hold over us anymore, the threats stop.’
‘You’re joking right?’ he bit, angrily.
‘No,’ I replied, as I picked up his cold pack and put it back over his eye, holding it gently in place.
‘I don’t care about me Summer, everyone I care about already knows. This would ruin you. What about your parents? What will they think of me? Your dad would kill me.’
‘I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, Lucas. But I think if I tell it from my point of view, if I’m honest and explain why I went to you and how we fell in love, it could be ok. Yes, my parents would need to be told first and I can’t even begin to imagine how they’ll react, but this is the only way.’
‘No, it’s not. I’m not having you stand up and relive your childhood trauma in front of the whole world, Summer. To be shamed for sleeping with me, knowing what I was. Don’t ask me to do that.’
‘I’m not asking, Lucas,’ I replied firmly. ‘You don’t get to decide this for me. I don’t feel ashamed of what I did and I don’t care about what anyone thinks of me. I was scared and vulnerable and I chose a man who would treat me respectfully, a man who showed me how beautiful sex could be instead of how ugly I thought it was. He healed me and I fell in love with him. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, I love you and I’m not letting this man bully me into walking away from you. Not after we fought so hard to get here.’
‘Angel,’ he whispered, as he picked up my free hand in his, holding it between his own. I had to catch my breath, every brush of his skin against mine touched me so deeply. ‘This could ruin your career.’
‘So?’ I replied with a shrug. ‘I’d have to get a normal job, like billions of other people.’
‘But you love acting,’ he uttered, disbelief saturating his tone.
‘I love you more,’ I confessed with a smile and got a sad one in return.
‘I asked you to choose once before and you refused to give it up for me then. How’s this any different?’
‘I wasn’t in love with you then, Lucas Steel,’ I whispered. ‘The only people I care about hurting are you and my parents. I’ve got you covered, because I’m not leaving you and if you even think about trying to leave me, I promise I’ll never take you back, we’d be over for good. Don’t take my love for you as a sign of my weakness when it comes to protecting my heart,’ I warned him, almost paraphrasing a speech he’d used on me a few times before.
‘I can’t believe you’d do this for me, Summer,’ he choked, his fingers tangling around mine.
‘You gave up a career you loved for me, I owe you.’
‘You don’t owe me anything,’ he replied, with a shake of his head. ‘Actually you owe me two gift wrapped seriously hot sex sessions, but other than that, nothing.’
‘Lucas Steel,’ I laughed and leaned in and kissed him gently, mindful of his ribs. ‘The PR team will come up with the best spin possible. If you haven’t managed to find this Mr. Black by the time we get the last rose, then we have a plan in place and we’ll use it. One way or another it will be over and we can get on with our lives, whatever they may be like by then.’
‘Summer, seriously, this is a really big decision.’
‘I know, but like I said, the only people I care about upsetting are my parents. I obviously won’t tell them if I don’t have to, but if we can’t stop him and I don’t say anything, he’s going to do it for me anyway. They’ll be hurt if they hear it from someone else.’
‘Just like my parents were,’ he sighed, with a shake of his head. ‘Why the fuck couldn’t I have just stuck with my day job? If I had this wouldn’t have come to bite us in the arse.’
‘If you had we
wouldn’t be sitting here now, we’d never have met,’ I reminded him, as I kissed each of his fingers.
‘Yes we would. I thought that myself once, but then I realised that we were fated to be together, Summer. I knew the minute I saw your face in the media, I’d have tracked you down and badgered you until you agreed to go out with me.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ I asked, as I continued with my kisses.
‘Because the moment I opened your damn photo on that first booking, you had me by the balls, angel. You invaded my thoughts constantly. I know without a doubt that you’re the woman I’m meant to marry, who’ll carry my children and I’ll grow old disgracefully with.’
‘I am?’ I asked, tears filling my eyes. He dropped his ice pack on the floor this time as he looked at me, sincerity tattooed all over his handsome face. Even his injury didn’t take away from it.
‘Yes, too much?’
‘No,’ I sniffed, as I wiped my face, noticing how my heart was skipping a beat at the thought of us being in that place one day. ‘I’d like that too, just not for a while.’
‘Define a while?’ he demanded, as his face lit up. ‘Months? Years?’
‘If you promise to go to sleep and let the doctors check you out tomorrow, then we can talk about maybe living together first, officially, though God knows where as your place is too small for all of my new clothes.’
‘Exactly what I said to Dan!’ he laughed, then clutched his side.
‘Come on, sleep for me, you’ve been through quite an ordeal. I need you to rest.’
‘I’ll sleep when you’re in the bed, next to me.’
For the Night - Complete Box Set Page 57
