AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I let her pull me up from my chair, partly because I don’t want her to let go. Partly because I’m scared if I don’t go with her, the inertia of her pulling me will end with her in my lap.
And if that happens, I might actually lose my goddamn fucking mind.
She pulls me along the office floor to the dining room, where I’m greeted with a giant shout when I step into the room.
In the crowd, her hand lets me go, and I feel immediately lost.
Lost without my tether.
“Here, try this.” She suddenly appears in front of me again, holding out a spoon of soup.
I lean in closer, sipping the liquid, tasting nothing but her scent as she watches me, eyes expectant, waiting for my response.
“Delicious,” I say, only because I have the inkling that I’m supposed to.
She jumps up, throwing her arms around me, spoon and all, then lets go, turning back to the crowd and raising her arms in a victory gesture, as half of the group cheers and the other half groans. “I added soy sauce to the soup and wanted to know what you thought,” she explains excitedly.
Someone pushes past her in the crowded room, and she stumbles, falling against me with a soft chuckle.
My arm plasters itself to my side to stop me reaching around her waist and keeping her close to me.
“Well, it was delicious. But Marcus’s soup has always been good,” I say diplomatically.
“Told you!” Marcus shouts behind me, having overheard.
She leans back into me, whispering like it’s our little secret. “But they loved our bread even better.”
The way she says “our,” one singular word, unleashes a desire in my chest that I hadn’t even thought to restrain. One of closeness, intimacy, togetherness. “Thank you for taking the time to teach me this morning,” she continues to whisper.
I make a one-off deal with the devil that since we are in public, standing this close to her isn’t breaking any rule.
“Anytime, Luna. Anytime,” I whisper back.
She gives me a smile that tightens my chest and sends a searing ache through my groin that almost makes me gasp from the intensity.
The devil fucked me hard.
Time to run.
“Hey, er, I have to go now.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” I say, injecting as much coldness into my voice as I can. “I told you I was busy. I’ve popped in, everyone’s seen me. Now I have to go. This is just… the job.”
Her face falls, and if I was any other man, in any other room, with any other woman, I would reach out and press my hand against her face and lean in and promise whatever I could to bring her smile back.
Instead, I excuse myself from the party, from her, before someone notices me hugging my arm where she’s touched it, close to me.
My three brothers stare back at me through the screen on our weekly Wednesday family meeting. I just told them about managing Luna’s trust, and they’ve had a sum total of zero words to say to me.
But it’s coming; they won’t stay mute for long.
“Wait.” Matthias shakes his head. “What do you mean Ernest had a daughter?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“Did you know?” Kylian asks.
