CHAPTER 20

YOU DRIVE ME INSANE

The door had barely clicked shut behind Kate and Obetta when the silence broke like glass.

Abigail stood in the middle of the living room, her chest rising and falling with each jagged breath. She could still feel their eyes on her Kate’s cool dismissal, Obetta’s quiet venom and it burned.

Not just anger. Humiliation. Fury that she didn’t belong in this world, no matter how much Luke pretended otherwise.

And Luke… he hadn’t said a word.

She turned to him slowly. He was still standing by the window, fists clenched, shoulders tense, like a man barely holding back a storm.

“Are you going to say something?” Abigail demanded, her voice shaking. “Anything at all?”

Luke didn’t move. Didn’t even look at her. That cold stillness. God, it made her want to scream.

“Of course not,” she bit out, crossing her arms. “Why would you? You just let her come in here with your mother and treat me like I’m trash. Like I don’t even exist.”

Luke’s head turned then, his eyes dark and lethal. “You think I let that happen?”

Abigail laughed short, bitter. “What would you call it then? Because from where I was standing, you said nothing while she walked all over me. While she stood there with your ex-girlfriend, by the way.

“Enough.” His voice was a whip crack, sharp enough to slice through the air.

But Abigail was past caring. Past scared. “No. Not enough. I want to know why she thinks she gets a say in your life. In our life. And I want to know why you didn’t shut it down, the second she opened her mouth.”

Luke moved then. Fast. Too fast. One second he was across the room, the next he was in front of her, towering over her like a wall of heat and fury. His hands came up, gripping her arms not gently, not cruelly, but with a force that said he was one second from shattering.

“You think I don’t fight for you every damn day?” His voice was low, dangerous, vibrating with something raw. “You think I don’t take bullets for you behind the scenes? Every single move I make is to keep you breathing, Abigail. So don’t you dare stand there and act like I’m doing nothing.”

Her breath hitched, but the anger didn’t stop burning. “Then say it to her. Say it to their faces instead of hiding behind silence like a coward!”

Something snapped in his eyes then something sharp and blazing. And before Abigail could blink, his mouth was on hers.

The kiss wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t sweet. It was a collision hard, punishing, desperate. All the rage, the fear, the need that had been coiling between them exploded like fire. Abigail gasped against him, her hands going up to his chest, meaning to push him away except she didn’t. Just couldn’t.

Because the second his tongue slid against hers, the second his body pressed flush against hers, every bone in her body melted.

Luke growled low in his throat, a sound that made heat curl deep in her belly. He spun her, slamming her gently but firmly against the wall, his hands framing her face as he devoured her mouth like he’d been starving for years.

“Luke” she gasped between kisses, but he swallowed the sound, his teeth catching her bottom lip hard enough to sting. She moaned actually moaned and that was all it took.

His hands tore downward, gripping her thighs and hauling her up against him like she weighed nothing. Abigail wrapped her legs around his waist on instinct, her arms clinging to his shoulders as he carried her toward the nearest surface.

The couch. They crashed onto it in a tangle of limbs, Luke’s body pinning hers in the most intoxicating way. His hands roamed everywhere down her sides, over her hips, up beneath the thin T-shirt until his fingers brushed bare skin. She shivered violently, yearning into his touch like a live wire.

“Tell me to stop,” he rasped against her mouth, his breath hot, ragged. “Right now, Abigail. Tell me, and I will.”

Her nails dug into his shoulders. “Don’t you dare.”

Something like a groan ripped from his chest, and then there was no more talking.

Clothes vanished how, she didn’t know. His shirt hit the floor first, and for a second, she just stared. Broad chest, muscles cut like marble, a faint trail of dark hair leading downward that made her thighs clench involuntarily. Then his hands were on her again, dragging the T-shirt over her head, baring her to his searing gaze.

“Christ,” he muttered, and then his mouth was on her throat, sucking, biting, leaving marks she’d feel tomorrow and maybe the rest of her life. Abigail cried out, her back arching as heat flooded her veins.

Every kiss was rough. Every touch was desperate, like he wanted to memorize her with his hands, his teeth, his tongue. And God help her she wanted him just as ferociously.

He slid down her body, slow enough to make her squirm, fast enough to keep her begging. When his mouth finally found her hot, wet, devastating part, Abigail broke apart with a strangled sound, her fingers fisting in his hair as he wrecked her in ways she didn’t know she could survive.

“Luke…oh God…Luke”

He didn’t stop. Didn’t let up until she was shaking, crying out, cumming so hard that stars exploded behind her eyes.

And then he was back, kissing her like he wanted to steal her soul, his hand guiding her leg higher around his hip. She felt him then hard, huge, ready and she didn’t hesitate. Didn’t think. She just nodded, breathless, and he surged into her in one deep, relentless thrust that tore a scream from her throat.

The world disappeared. There was no storm, no family drama, no danger just this. Just him.

Luke moved like a man possessed each thrust harder, deeper, dragging raw sounds from both of them. His forehead pressed to hers, his breath shattering against her lips.

“You drive me insane,” he growled, slamming into her, making the couch creak. “I should stay away.

I should never fuck”

“Don’t,” she gasped, clinging to him like a lifeline. “Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop”

He didn’t. Not until they were both wrecked, trembling, bodies slick with sweat and need. Not until Abigail collapsed against him, boneless, her cheek pressed to his chest, his heart pounding like a drum against her ear.

For a long time, neither of them spoke. Just breathing. Just being quiet.

Then Luke tilted her chin up, his thumb brushing her swollen lip, his eyes softer now but still burning.

“This changes nothing,” he said, voice low, hoarse. “Except everything.”

Abigail swallowed hard, her pulse still galloping. She didn’t know what that meant if it was a promise or a warning.

She only knew one thing for certain.

She was already too far gone.