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“Oh, I’m sorry.” Luke spun around to glare. “Did you want tostayhandcuffed and naked? Since you refuse to let me leave and don’t want him in here, he’s the only one of the three of us who can go find you shit. And why does that goddamn shirt keep slidingoffyou?”
He strode forward, scowling and clearly annoyed that one of my boobs and a hard, pointed nipple was showing again.
“I don’t know,” I muttered, “it’syourstupid shirt.”
“Right.” He knelt beside me and very carefully straightened the shirt again so that it was covering me better
My teeth chattered and my shivering persisted, making the shirt slip and begin to slide off me again.
“Seriously?” Luke muttered, catching the cloth before it exposed me again. Then he looked into my eyes. “You’re fucking freezing. Your lips are turning blue.”
My teeth chattered as I attempted to smile at him. “Dax really should’ve invested in some heated cement flooring, huh?”
“He better have invested in a fucking funeral plan.” His words were spoken with anger and hissing venom, but when he met my gaze, he looked worried and apologetic. “Do you want my pants too?”
“Good Lord,no,” I muttered, and I closed my eyes, turning my face away from him so I could stop seeing the worry and concern in his blue eyes. “I’m already being tortured enough, I don’t need to see you stripped down to your yellow-stained tighty-whities, too.”
“Ha-ha, funny,” he muttered, as he took hold of my arm and began to rub his fingers briskly up and down it. “And for your information, I don’towntighty-whities, yellow-stained or otherwise.”
“Don’t care,” I mumbled, opening my eyes and glancing over at his hand which was actually causing enough friction to warm my arm. “What’re you doing?”
“Trying to keep you from freezing to death,” he answered, distracted as he let go of my arm to move his attention to my leg. But as soon as his palm moved up over my calf and above my knee, I jumped.
He immediately stopped, lifting his hands as he looked up. “Sorry. Did that hurt?”
“No,” I rasped. But the more I took in his concerned expression, the more I began to freak out. Because ifLukewas worried about me, then all this started to feel serious and real. My chin trembled. “I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t. I was going to lose my sanity for real, any moment now, and he was going to witness my breakdown.
That was almost more horrifying than being kidnapped by a psycho ex and handcuffed naked in his basement. Luke Hamilton being present for my rock bottom was like breaking a sledgehammer through the rock floor and falling even lower. It had to be the worst thing to ever happen to me.
Gah, I was an idiot. Everything I’d done wrong tonight and with Dax in general and pretty much throughout my whole life seemed to crash down around me all at once.
I should’ve been firmer with Dax when I’d broken off the relationship. I should’ve set the baby down somewhere. I should’ve gone out to help Lucy from the beginning. I should’ve told Luke I loved him when I was fourteen. Maybe he would’ve—Fuck.
I squeezed my eyes shut, and this time, I knew for sure that the wetness dripping from both my eyes was tears.
But neither drip landed in either ear. Two warm fingers caught the twin trails and gently wiped them away. And that hurt my heart more than anything. I sobbed so hard that it made my chest burn.
Before I knew it, I was weeping loudly and uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry,” I blubbered. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…”
Luke merely murmured, “Nothing to be sorry for. Just get it out, okay? Get it all out of you.” He didn’t try to shush me or make a joke, or anything. He just kept wiping my eyes, and then my runny nose, keeping my face clear so that I could fill it again with more messiness.
“I wanna go home,” I sobbed, shaking my head back and forth. “I can’t do this anymore. I want my bed and my blankets and my pillows. I just…I wanna go home.”
“You will,” he swore. “Before the end of tonight, I promise you, you’ll be tucked into your own bed, safe and warm. Either at your house or your parents’, though I’m banking on your childhood bed because I seriously doubt Pick and Eva are going to let you go home alone after this.”
My parents. Yes. I wanted them too.
I blinked my eyes open, and they burned a little from crying so hard. Peering up at Luke, I stared at him a moment before saying, “Did you seriously just wipe my runny nose with your hand?”
“Yeah,” he whispered back, nodding solemnly as he wiped his palm on the hip of his jeans. “And you owe me one for that, by the way.”
I started to laugh, only to jerk in fear when I heard more footsteps on the stairs.
Luke lifted his face toward the door, then popped to his feet to go guard it. Putting his foot down to act as a doorstop, he pulled the entrance open about three inches and peered out through the crack, demanding, “You find anything?”
