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“Take care of yourself for me, then.”
Luca blinked those sweet brown eyes, his mouth lifting in a slow smile. “Like I could say no to you.”
I nudged him with the toe of my shoe. “I need you to motivate me.”
“How so?”
I sighed, nervously twirling one of my curls. “I don’t sleep well without my nest but the prospect of washing or replacing everything in mine is fucking daunting, not to mention expensive.”
“Would hiring a professional company to clean everything be enough or do you feel like you need brand new?”
“I dunno.” I shrugged. “Hard to tell for sure until I’m in there. I keep turning things over in my head. Ridiculous things.”
“Like what?” Luca laid his arm over my shoulders and I leaned in rather than pull away.
“Like if I should quit my job to avoid anything with Kevin before he can ruin that place for me, maybe move somewhere I never have to see Rodney’s stupid face again.” I groaned. “But I can’t do any of that.”
“You could—” He kissed the top of my head. “—but a lot of people would be crushed if you did.”
I had no idea how to deal with Rodney and Kevin. Wild fantasies of dropping everything and actually opening the yoga studio Billie had offered were looking better and better. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“You have to be honest, okay?”
Luca nodded and I turned the question over in my head.
“You remember how I talked to you before about opening a yoga and aerial silks studio in the facility Nicky’s pack is building?”
“Yep. I still think it would be perfect for you.”
“Is it actually, though? I feel like I’m tying myself into knots thinking about it. Starting a new business isn’t financially stable. I’d have to quit my finance job and pour all my focus into getting things set up. I also don’t want all this bullshit with Kevin to be a deciding factor.”
“Shouldn’t it be? He’s dangerous to you and you could be in a much safer environment doing something you love. You can always go back to finance if you decide running a business isn’t for you.” Luca twisted his straw, watching me intensely. “Even without Kevin, I know you love teaching your classes way more than you like doing finance work. Owning your own business is as impressive as being head of the finance department, and you can do one of those a lot faster than the other.”
“It’s not taking the easy way out?”
“What part of running your own business seems like the easy option? I’d think staying exactly where you are is the easy way out.”
Those simple words flared up my competitive nature. I knew that was probably his goal in saying it, but damn if it didn’t work. Could I actually do this? I’d run my life on necessity, on grabbing stability to make up for the lack of it all my life, and now here I was contemplating flipping everything on its head.
“I can see the gears turning.” Luca beamed at me. “I like when you get that fire in your eyes. More so when it’s for me, but I love this too. What can I do to help?”
Luca had convinced me to let a private forensics firm go through my apartment to remove anything that looked compromised and then a cleaning company had followed. He hadn’t been able to convince me to talk to the police, but I did appreciate that at least this way I didn’t have to interact with anything that had been touched.
“I can’t believe one of them jacked off on my nest. Fucking animals.” I crossed my arms, staring at the empty remnants of my bedroom. It wasn’t fair that these were the circumstances in which I allowed Luca in my nest for the first time. I was standing amid the ghosts of my sacred space.
I shuddered. Better they had desecrated my nest than me, I supposed. I didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if Luca hadn’t been able to get in.
“Want me to take you to Nest is Best to restock?” Luca offered.
I hesitated, wrapping my arms around myself. “I hate that I don’t want to stay here at all. The idea of settling back in like nothing happened makes me queasy.”
Luca gathered me close, and I let him.
“Okay, so let’s not pretend nothing happened. Contact the building owner, get them to change the locks on the whole building, put in a code instead of keys so Rodney can’t steal anything.”
I let out a soft sound of distress against his chest before I steeled my spine and nodded against him. “You’re right. Let me call.”
