AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I rushed Luca into the cab. How dare Henri come up to me and demand to know if I had dated Éliott? Where did he even get that idea from? He had some nerve to pretend to be all hurt. It was six years ago. I was barely eighteen, and we dated for all of six weeks. Not everything was my twins’ business.
Across from me was a very drunk Luca, which was not incredibly exciting for me. He was sitting there rather awkwardly. I supposed I didn’t have to drag him home when it was me who was angry, but when Henri told me Luca was incredibly drunk at the bar, I knew I had to take him home.
I had seen him flirting with that woman, and truthfully, I was feeling a little jealous. I didn’t own Luca; we weren’t evenactuallydating, so I knew I didn’t have a right to be jealous. It’s not like he grabbed her onto the dance floor because then I would have been furious. The hypocritical nature of my comment was not lost on me since I had spent the night dancing with Éliott, but it’s not like anyone knew we had dated. We were friends, and I had a right to be able to dance with my friends; plus, Edward and Lauren had joined us.
Luca started to look more visibly relaxed in the cab, and by the time we got to the hotel, he had scooted a little closer to me in his seat. As soon as we got to our hotel room door, I realized that the alcohol had now clearly caught up with Luca, and he went and laid down on the couch, kicking his shoes off and flopping them across the room – without a care in the world. I couldn’t help but laugh at his drunken state.
“Cara,” he called out, “it’s nice to see you laugh again.” He stuck out both his hands as if he was inviting me into a hug. I moved closer to him but sat on the couch next to his feet, not taking his invite for a hug.
“Oh?” I said casually, pretending not to know what he was talking about.
“You were so sad earlier… it made me feel sad.” He said simply, putting a big, stupid grin on his face. “I thought maybe you were regretting our kiss,” he mumbled out. His eyes were closing shut and then quickly opening again, like a kid who was too tired to stay at Disney World but refused to let his parents see his sleepiness.
Ahh, so he had thought about the kiss.I smiled softly and looked at him. Luca looked adorable this drunk.
“Had to show all those pretty women who Luca Rossi was going home with at the end of the evening,” I said with a wink.
Come on, Georgia, you can flirt better than that,I reprimanded myself.
As Luca began to sit up, he leaned in towards me. His eyes looked directly into mine, and he let out a deep breath. He reached his hand up to my chin, his mouth just inches from mine.
“You’re the only person I wanted to go home with tonight,”he whispered.
My heart stopped for a moment. I needed to remember that Luca was drunk – very drunk. And yet, in his eyes, something seemed genuine. It was what I had wanted him to say all those years ago when I had originally agreed to go on a date with him. I had the biggest crush on him, and when I came back from Indy Car for winter break, Luca had asked me on a date. I was ecstatic. Luca was kind and funny, and Edward spoke so highly of him.
So when he didn’t show up for our date, when he left me in that Monaco restaurant all alone, I was embarrassed. I went back home and cried. He hadn’t even sent a text to say why he had stood me up. Instead, all I saw was a social media story of him out at a club with Edward and Noah. He never reached out to me to explain, but I knew why.
I was boring – that much had been made clear by several of the men I had tried to date. I was the boring Dubois twin who competed in a man’s sport.What was sexy about that?
And yet here I was, all those butterflies that I had experienced at the podcast show returning in full force. He leaned in slowly; his lips were barely touching mine. It’s as if Luca was waiting for permission to kiss me, waiting for me to meet him 10% of the way since he had put in the 90%.
I leaned in a little and softly kissed his lips. They tasted of whiskey and champagne. His hands stayed on my chin gently, and he guided the kiss a little deeper. I smiled, kissing him back just a little bit more before he pulled away and looked at me.
“When I saw Éliott with you, I was so jealous, so angry. It shouldn’t bother me that you have history, but it does.”I pulled back a bit, looking right into Luca's eyes.
“What did you say?” Before he could say anything, I stood up and backed away from the couch. It all made sense now. That’s how Henri had known that Éliott and I had dated –Luca had told him.
I was speechless – and angry. Luca looked confused as I backed away. He opened his mouth to say something, but I put my hand up to stop him.
“Did you tell Henri?” I asked.
“Wha-”
“No, tell me the truth,” I demanded.Luca didn’t say anything, but I knew the truth. I could see the guilt in his eyes.
“It wasn’t your place to tell him!” I screamed back.
“I didn’t realize when Éliott told me that it was a secret,” he huffed back at me, wobbling as he stood up. He reached out to me, but I just backed away more.I was livid. I turned on my heels and headed towards my room.
But before I slammed the door in his face, I yelled back, “And to think all those years ago, I was actually sad you stood me up. Looks like I should be thanking you. Really spared me from a whole lot of heartbreak. ”
ChapterEleven
CAN I OFFER YOU A HAMSTER?
Georgia
When I woke up Monday morning after the Monza race, I was still livid at Luca. I quickly packed my bags and met Edward, Henri, and Noah at the airport, not saying a word to Luca as I left our shared hotel room. Noah had hired us all a private jet back to Monaco since the three of us all lived there. Henri was still not speaking to me, which was fine because I had absolutely no interest in speaking to him.
