CHAPTER 47

YOU'RE SOMEONE I REFUSE TO LOSE...

The house was too quiet after Kate’s departure. The echo of her words lingered in Abigail’s mind, a faint whisper threading through the steady rhythm of her heartbeat.

Protecting someone doesn’t always mean keeping them in the dark, more like a deliberate word said to hunt her, getting under her skin just like Luke said or an advice given under a voice laced with unhidden yet shown venom.

She sat on the velvet settee by the window, her legs curled under her, staring out at the gardens without seeing them. Luke had disappeared upstairs after that kiss in the dining room no explanation, no parting glance, just a long, silent retreat up the staircase.

It wasn’t anger that drove him away; she knew that much. It was calculation.

Luke Vandell didn’t react. He assessed. He measured. And then, when the moment was right, he struck.

Her fingertips toyed with the rim of her glass, tracing lazy circles as she replayed the look in his eyes when she’d told him to push back. It had been equal parts challenge and promise, and she had no doubt he’d taken it personally.

She just didn’t know how personally.

Footsteps sounded in the hall slow, deliberate, heavy enough to make the hardwood groan faintly. She didn’t turn until he spoke.

“Still thinking about her?”

Abigail glanced over her shoulder. Luke stood in the doorway, jacket gone, shirt sleeves rolled to his forearms. There was a contained energy in the way he leaned against the frame, like a predator too patient to pounce just yet.

“Maybe,” she said, her tone deliberately mild.

“Don’t.”

She arched a brow. “Don’t what? Think? Or think about her?”

His jaw ticked. “Both.”

She almost smiled at that, but the seriousness in his expression kept her from pushing further. “She’s not wrong, Luke. You hold too much back and it kills me in as much as I bear the name wife I need to know at least a bit if it even though not all.”

“I hold back what you don’t need to know.” He came closer, the scent of his cologne mixing with the faint tang of wine still clinging to the air. “Not because I don’t trust you. Because I don’t trust anyone else.”

“Then why keep me here?” she asked, tilting her chin up as he stopped in front of her. “If you think the world is that dangerous, wouldn’t it be easier to just let me go?”

The laugh that left him was low and humorless. “Easier, yes. But I’m not in the habit of letting go of what’s mine.”

Her pulse jumped at the possessive weight in his words, but she forced her voice to stay steady. “I’m not something to be owned I'm not a property Luke I'm a human just like everyone else, atleast I have some right over myself although you make it seem like I don't.”

He crouched in front of her, his hands braced on either side of her knees, effectively caging her in. “No,” he said softly, “you’re not. But you’re someone I refuse to lose. And that means I’ll keep certain truths from you if it keeps you breathing and maybe maybe not I don't know about you having rights over yourself but just so you know I fully have rights over you in every aspect maybe for this moment we could say as a husband.”

She studied him for a long moment. “And if I decide I’d rather know the danger and take the risk?”

His lips curved, but it wasn’t a smile. “Then we’ll have a bigger problem than Kate. I keep telling you my world is a whole different thing from yours puppy….your too delicate to meddle anyhow and alone in my world. It’s just full of chaos and something you can't survive if I let you know everything cause your certainly going to put yourself in danger that I, myself might not be even able to save you.”

The way he said it sent a shiver down her spine not from fear, but from the awareness that every inch of him was wound tight with the kind of intensity she’d come to crave.

Before she could respond, his hands slid to her thighs, fingers pressing into the soft skin just above her knees. Her breath caught as he leaned in, his mouth brushing the shell of her ear.

“You want truth, Abigail? Then here’s one…you push me like no one else ever has. And I can’t decide if I want to tame you… or let you set the whole damn place on fire.”

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. “Maybe you should let me burn it down.”

He pulled back just enough to meet her eyes, his thumb stroking slow, dangerous circles against her skin. “Careful. I might just help you.”

And then he kissed her slow at first, as if he had all the time in the world, before deepening it until she had no choice but to clutch at his shirt, pulling him closer.

When he finally broke the kiss, his forehead rested against hers, breath warm and uneven. “Dinner. My study. Half an hour.”

It wasn’t a request.

She didn’t know if that meant they were going to talk… or if he planned to finish what they’d started in the dining room.

Either way, she knew she’d go.