“Maybe we shouldn’t overthink it,” I say. “Maybe, just for a little while, we should forget. Let me take you somewhere, Lori. We can go for an early meal outside the city, somewhere we can be together and not have to worry.”
Perhaps that’s the coward’s way out, but after a week apart from her, the idea of leaving her causes my stomach to churn.
Her face lights up. I’ll never get tired of that glimmer in her eyes, as her shyness wars with her sassiness, as all the different aspects of her clash captivatingly.
“Don’t you think I’m underdressed?”
She gestures down at her outfit. I clench my jaw as I study her body, her thick thighs in those pants, her baggy shirt doing nothing to conceal those round and plump breasts. The bagginess of the shirt makes me want her more, makes me think about what it would be like to peel that shirt away and reveal the beauty underneath.
“No, I think you look beautiful. You could wear anything and look beautiful. But I can take you home if you want to change.”
“Not if you like it,” she says, shaking her head. “I know it’s wrong. But I sort of want to run away and forget for a little while too. I don’t want to think about how wrong it is. Does that make me a bad person?”
I lean forward and softly kiss her on the forehead.
“You’re not a bad person,” I tell her firmly. “But yeah, this is complicated. It’s messy. But there’s not a person alive who could call you bad.”
“Let’s go, then,” she whispers. “Let’s just forget.”
I pull out of the parking lot and join the road that will lead us out of the city, mentally sorting out my work tasks so I can complete them tomorrow.
Everything can wait where my woman is concerned.
Nothing takes precedence over her.
As we leave the city, I glance at her from time to time, studying the way she watches the passing buildings and then the countryside. I’m taking us to a small town with a few restaurants and stores, a place Jamie would never have a reason to go…
This sort of thinking makes me feel like a piece of dirt, but I feel physically incapable of stopping.
With her unique and enthralling scent filling the car I know there’s no turning back now.
I tried. I failed. Now I know what I have to do.
I have to make this woman mine. I have to put my baby in her belly.
And pray that Jamie understands.
Chapter Fifteen
Lorena
We find a cute Italian place on the corner of a picturesque street, an hour and thirty minutes outside of the city. It’s the sort of place I can imagine moving to one day, with Lukas and our growing family, walking down the wide Main Street with our baby cradled to my chest.
Lukas has his hand on the small of my back as we enter the restaurant. It’s cozy in here, with landscape paintings on the walls and soft lamps shining over the tables. The hostess leads us to a table in the corner, the restaurant is mostly empty except for an elderly couple and a man reading the newspaper.
I can’t help but smile when Lukas pulls my chair out for me, tucking it in behind me.
“Your waiter will be over shortly,” the hostess says. “In the meantime, would you like anything to drink?”
“I’ll just take an orange soda, please,” I say.
Lukas nods. “Sounds good to me. Two of those, please.”
The hostess leaves us and Lukas smirks over at me. He looks as handsome as always.
“I can’t believe I’m on a date with Lukas Landon.”
He chuckles. “You say that like I’m a celebrity.”
“Well, you were, once upon a time.”
He shrugs. “I had some minor fame from my boxing career, it’s true, but I was never a superstar. Honestly, I preferred it that way. I was able to make some decent cash without giving away my privacy.”
“Do you miss it?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, honestly. I loved boxing when I was a teenager and a younger man, but I’m happy I got out when I did. People said I was crazy for retiring at thirty, but I was already feeling the effects of all those punches to the head. So I got out, used my money to start a business, and here we are.”
I smile. “Here we are. But I didn’t say it because you’re a celebrity.”
I close my mouth once the words escape me. I didn’t plan on saying that.
The waiter gives me a good reason to keep my mouth firmly shut as he places our drinks down. After Lukas says we’ll need a few minutes to look over the menus, he turns to me, his stark eyes feeling like they’re pinning me in place.
“So how did you mean it, eh?”