Dad looks at me, his lips twitching. “I won’t lie, Lori. I want to be happy for you. You know me. I don’t judge people about their personal choices, and your mother’s right. I can see how delighted you are. But…”
He sighs, facing Lukas.
“You have to understand. When a man of your age goes after a woman of Lori’s age, often their motives aren’t, well, what they say they are. What’s to stop you from leaving her in a little while, once you’re bored and want to move on?”
“Dad!”
“No, it’s a fair question.” Lukas smiles softly at me, diffusing some of my outrage. “I swear, Mitchell, Viola, I swear that I want to be with your daughter forever. I swear I want to spend the rest of our lives together. I swear this is the sort of devotion that will never waver, never crack, never break. And, as for your last point, I could never get bored of Lori.”
“I feel the same,” I whisper.
Dad leans forward, placing his elbows on his knees.
“If what you’re saying is true, if this isn’t a fling, if your intentions are to truly create something long-term and real, then I won’t stand in your way. It will take some adjusting. But if you hurt her, Lukas, and I know this might sound strange coming from a man you outweigh by a hundred pounds, maybe more…”
Dad looks significantly at Lukas, and Lukas nods.
“I understand. But you don’t have to worry on that front. I’d die before I hurt Lori.”
Mom waves a hand. “Look at them, Mitch. They’re clearly crazy about each other. They’ve got my vote.”
“Thanks, mom,” I whisper.
“It’s like I said,” Dad says, “I’m happy if you’re happy. And I believe you, Lukas. I believe what you’re saying. But if you ever hurt my daughter…”
“I’d expect nothing less,” Lukas replies. “And, honestly, it makes me happy to know that Lori has such supportive and protective parents.”
“I think it’s safe to say we all want the best for Lori,” Mom says, giving dad a significant look.
I can’t help but let a wide smile spread across my face, even if there is a little awkwardness between dad and Lukas.
But that was to be expected and, when I look at the situation as a whole, there’s no way I can see it as anything other than a success.
But then my smile falters, as I think of Jamie.
Can I really expect the same from him?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lukas
“Are you okay?” Lorena asks, looking across the glass coffee table.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
My woman smiles tightly. She’s got both her hands wrapped around her mug of coffee like she’s going to break it, her forehead furrowed, and her fingernail tapping against the mug. Even with nerves clearly eating her up, she’s never looked more beautiful, with her lips pursed and her hair all messy, making my manhood twitch as I mentally strip her clothes.
But no, I have to focus.
“I didn’t expect him to be the one to ask to meet,” I go on, sitting up and looking around my apartment.
“Why do you keep doing that?” she asks.
I grin. “I’m thinking of all the ways you’re going to change it – or decorate our new home – when we live together.”
She looks around. “Hmm, I suppose it could do with a feminine touch.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
She places her mug down, leaning forward and giving me a tempting look at her cleavage. She’s not wearing a low-cut top, but there’s enough there to get my blood stirring, to get the animal within howling and roaring with hunger.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” she mutters. “We don’t know what he’s going to say yet.”
“He has no idea we’ve got anything to tell him,” I say, shaking my head slowly.
Yesterday we told Lorena’s parents and part of me wants to cling onto that hope, to believe that because everything went well with them, it’s going to be the same with my son.
This morning, I woke up to a text from him.
Hey, Dad. This is going to sound strange, but can I talk to you and Lori about something? You’re the people I’m closest to and I think there’s something you need to know.
“Maybe he knows,” I muse.
Lorena sits back, pressing her hands down on her knees as she lets out a long breath. “Do you think somebody saw us? Or maybe mom or dad mentioned something. But they promised they wouldn’t.”
“I have no clue,” I say. “What else would he want to see us both about, though?”
“It’s strange,” she agrees. “Maybe he’s going to tell us we have to end this. Maybe that life we’ve talked about, the one we want so bad—”
“Hey.”
I walk around the coffee table and sit down next to her. We agreed we’d make an effort to keep our hands off each other until Jamie got here but lately, a single touch has been enough to ignite all our pent-up desire, everything thundering through us the moment our flesh makes contact.