For the Night: Complete Box Set (72 page)

‘Angel? If you don’t get your backside into bed
with me now, I’m coming for you,’ he bellowed. ‘Don’t make me mad. Not
tonight.’ I smiled sadly, wondering if I actually had the courage to go through
with this, as I knocked back the whiskey and shuddered as the heat hit the back
of my throat. I walked to the bedroom doorway and saw him frowning in my
direction, his face looking really swollen and I knew I didn’t have a choice.
He’d do anything it took to keep me safe, to keep us together.

I really didn’t have a choice.

I picked up one of the packs the paramedics had
left us with and squeezed it, activating the cold and carefully climbed onto
the bed next to him and held it against his swollen eye.

‘Where were you?’ he demanded, his tense facial
muscles relaxing somewhat as he looked at me.

‘Lucas, I have to tell you something and you’re
not going to like it.’

‘Fuck. You’ve come to the same conclusion,’ he
groaned. ‘We have time, Summer. Give me a chance, let me try and catch this
bastard before you go and break my heart. You’re the only woman that I’ve ever
loved and I’m not letting you give up on us. I need time to fix this, please,’
he asked, his voice full of so much pain and anguish that I felt it crushing my
heart.

‘What do you mean?’ I looked at him puzzled, his
face was crestfallen and he had tears of emotion swimming in his visible eye.
Lucas and tears weren’t something I was used to and I felt my eyes filling up
as well. I’d never experienced so many emotions in so few hours as I had
tonight, I was exhausted.

‘You can’t break up with me like this. Let alone
on fucking Valentine’s night.’

‘Who said anything about breaking up with you?’ I
gasped, holding his gaze and letting him see how shocked I was at his
statement. He dropped the ice pack onto the bed as he held my gaze, trying to
read my face for answers.

‘That’s what you’ve come to tell me, isn’t it? You
already know that I’m not breaking up with you, I’ll never walk away from you,
angel, my heart wouldn’t survive, so if it’s going to happen it will have to be
you who does it. Just give me a damn chance, Summer, I just need more time.
Don’t I at least deserve that?’ he gasped the last question, his voice choked
full of emotion, reflecting how I felt.

‘Lucas, I’m
not
breaking up with you. I
won’t have anyone tell me who I can or can’t see, no matter what his past may
be. We’re a couple, however many photos he has, or sordid facts, that was
Logan
Steele
. He doesn’t exist anymore, I’m seeing Lucas Steel and nothing will
make me leave him.’

‘Jesus, Summer, you could have led with that
information,’ he groaned. ‘I’ve just died a million deaths here.’

‘A million more than when you ran up those
stairs?’ I teased, as I held his free hand and massaged his palm, trying to
ease out the tension in it.

‘What the hell’s going on then?’

‘I’ve just spoken to Brian and asked him to get a
PR team together, to come up with a way for us to spin your past, how we met
and that we’re dating regardless. Then we’ll break the news ourselves, before
this guy has a chance to do it. If we can do it in a controlled manner, he has
no hold over us anymore, the threats stop.’

‘You’re joking right?’ he bit, angrily.

‘No,’ I replied, as I picked up his cold pack and
put it back over his eye, holding it gently in place.

‘I don’t care about me Summer, everyone I care
about already knows. This would ruin you. What about your parents? What will
they think of me? Your dad would kill me.’

‘I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, Lucas. But
I think if I tell it from my point of view, if I’m honest and explain why I
went to you and how we fell in love, it could be ok. Yes, my parents would need
to be told first and I can’t even begin to imagine how they’ll react, but this
is the only way.’

‘No, it’s not. I’m not having you stand up and
relive your childhood trauma in front of the whole world, Summer. To be shamed
for sleeping with me, knowing what I was. Don’t ask me to do that.’

‘I’m not asking, Lucas,’ I replied firmly. ‘You
don’t get to decide this for me. I don’t feel ashamed of what I did and I don’t
care about what anyone thinks of me. I was scared and vulnerable and I chose a
man who would treat me respectfully, a man who showed me how beautiful sex
could be instead of how ugly I thought it was. He healed me and I fell in love
with him. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, I
love
you and I’m
not letting this man bully me into walking away from you. Not after we fought
so hard to get here.’

‘Angel,’ he whispered, as he picked up my free hand
in his, holding it between his own. I had to catch my breath, every brush of
his skin against mine touched me so deeply. ‘This could ruin your career.’

‘So?’ I replied with a shrug. ‘I’d have to get a
normal job, like billions of other people.’

‘But you love acting,’ he uttered, disbelief
saturating his tone.

‘I love you more,’ I confessed with a smile and
got a sad one in return.

‘I asked you to choose once before and you refused
to give it up for me then. How’s this any different?’

‘I wasn’t in love with you then, Lucas Steel,’ I
whispered. ‘The only people I care about hurting are you and my parents. I’ve
got you covered, because I’m not leaving you and if you even think about trying
to leave me, I promise I’ll never take you back, we’d be over for good. Don’t
take my love for you as a sign of
my
weakness when it comes to
protecting my heart,’ I warned him, almost paraphrasing a speech he’d used on
me a few times before.

‘I can’t believe you’d do this for me, Summer,’ he
choked, his fingers tangling around mine.

‘You gave up a career you loved for me, I owe
you.’

‘You don’t owe me anything,’ he replied, with a
shake of his head. ‘Actually you owe me two gift wrapped seriously hot sex
sessions, but other than that, nothing.’

‘Lucas Steel,’ I laughed and leaned in and kissed
him gently, mindful of his ribs. ‘The PR team will come up with the best spin
possible. If you haven’t managed to find this Mr. Black by the time we get the
last rose, then we have a plan in place and we’ll use it. One way or another it
will be over and we can get on with our lives, whatever they may be like by
then.’

‘Summer, seriously, this is a really big
decision.’

‘I know, but like I said, the only people I care
about upsetting are my parents. I obviously won’t tell them if I don’t have to,
but if we can’t stop him and I don’t say anything, he’s going to do it for me
anyway. They’ll be hurt if they hear it from someone else.’

‘Just like my parents were,’ he sighed, with a
shake of his head. ‘Why the fuck couldn’t I have just stuck with my day job? If
I had this wouldn’t have come to bite us in the arse.’

‘If you had we wouldn’t be sitting here now, we’d
never have met,’ I reminded him, as I kissed each of his fingers.

‘Yes we would. I thought that myself once, but
then I realised that we were fated to be together, Summer. I knew the minute I
saw your face in the media, I’d have tracked you down and badgered you until
you agreed to go out with me.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ I asked, as I continued
with my kisses.

‘Because the moment I opened your damn photo on
that first booking, you had me by the balls, angel. You invaded my thoughts
constantly. I know without a doubt that you’re the woman I’m meant to marry,
who’ll carry my children and I’ll grow old disgracefully with.’

‘I am?’ I asked, tears filling my eyes. He dropped
his ice pack on the floor this time as he looked at me, sincerity tattooed all
over his handsome face. Even his injury didn’t take away from it.

‘Yes, too much?’

‘No,’ I sniffed, as I wiped my face, noticing how
my heart was skipping a beat at the thought of us being in that place one day.
‘I’d like that too, just not for a while.’

‘Define a while?’ he demanded, as his face lit up.
‘Months? Years?’

‘If you promise to go to sleep and let the doctors
check you out tomorrow, then we can talk about maybe living together first,
officially, though God knows where as your place is too small for all of my new
clothes.’

‘Exactly what I said to Dan!’ he laughed, then
clutched his side.

‘Come on, sleep for me, you’ve been through quite
an ordeal. I need you to rest.’

‘I’ll sleep when you’re in the bed, next to me.’

‘Lucas, I don’t want to hurt you,’ I protested. I
was worried sick about him.

‘You’ll only hurt me if we’re not touching, angel.
I nearly died for you tonight, you owe me,’ he teased. I scowled at him as I
got off the bed and pulled back the duvet.

‘Don’t even
think
about any funny business
while you’re in that state,’ I warned, as I pulled off my comfy snuggling
jumper and shimmied out of my lounging pants, leaving me standing in just a
little t-shirt.

‘Define funny business?’ he asked, with a naughty
grin on his face. I rolled my eyes at him, as I turned off the lights and
carefully climbed in beside him. He held out his arm so I gently snuggled up to
his good side, as he clutched my shoulder.

‘Thank you for running up all of those stairs for
me,’ I whispered as I kissed his chest. ‘Butwoman appreciates her man of steel,
more than you’ll ever know.’

‘You’d have done the same for me.’

‘In my heels? Think again, I’d have waited for the
lift,’ I teased.

‘Sorry to have ruined your Valentine’s night.’

‘You haven’t! We had an amazing evening, one I’ll
never forget, then incredibly naughty, but very hot public sex. It’s been
magical, but then you went and gave me the best gift any girl could ever have.’

‘What?’ he asked, sounding puzzled.

‘Absolute proof that you love me. You risked your
life for me, Lucas. I could never ask for anything better than that.’

‘And I’d do it again, angel. Anytime you need me
to, I’d lay down my life for you.’

‘Let’s hope you never have to, because I quite
like you, Lucas Logan Steel.’ I planted a delicate kiss on his chest, my heart
too small to contain all my emotions tonight and tears rolled from my face onto
his warm skin as I started to sob. He ran his hand up and down my back and
kissed my hair.

‘And I love you, angel. Please don’t cry, you know
how much that hurts me, to see you in pain when I can’t help.’

‘I feel the same right now. I can’t help you and I
know you’re suffering.’

‘I’ll be fine, I’ll be healed before you know it.
You and me, we’re going to get stronger by the day, pretty soon we’ll be
invincible, Summer Beresford.’

‘I hope that day is sooner than later. Come on,
you need to rest for me. Even Superheroes need a break now and then too, you
know.’ I wiped my eyes and let his gentle caressing fingers on my back lull me
to sleep.

I called reception to ask them to come and carry
the cases, as Lucas was really feeling the pain in his ribs this morning. He
had to complain about me asking for help of course, not wanting me to perceive
him as weak. I’d run my fingers through his hair as I’d gently kissed him. I’d
never see him as anything but strong. I still couldn’t believe he’d charged up
all those stairs for me, thinking that I was in danger. I’d known I could trust
him that first night I met him, and if his hero act didn’t convince my parents
that he was an incredible man, in spite of his past career, then I didn’t know
what would. Patrice, the hotel manager had informed us that if we wanted to
stop by his office, he’d share the footage taken of the man who’d dropped off
the envelope and flowers. I made Lucas rest while I finished packing, then I
helped him get dressed in his trademark blue jeans, crisp white shirt and black
jacket. We’d need to get his suit dry cleaned when we got home, it had his
blood all over it. I went for casual attire, not really caring today about
reporters. A pair of skinny jeans, teamed with a white shirt, grey suede ankle
boots and a grey cape. I let the porters in and they disappeared with our bags,
along with the box of roses containing the cards so we could hand them over to
Mason when we got home. We headed down to the ground floor and across the lobby
to see Patrice.

‘Lucas? Lucas Steel. Is that you?’ came a distinct
firm male voice, with a
very
sexy French accent. Lucas and I turned
around and I took in a sharp breath. If I hadn’t already been in love, I might
well just have fallen. Striding towards us, commanding the vast hotel lobby,
was a tall gentleman, with the same dark tousled hair as Lucas, his muscular
build filling out the three piece suit he was totally rocking. He was gorgeous,
I mean the French accent was bad enough, but he was top male model material all
over, oozing confidence and reeking of pure sex appeal. I had a feeling he’d
dominate his women in the bedroom too and doubted any would object to that,
judging by the admiring glances being thrown his way. When he reached Lucas and
extended his hand with a smile, I nearly swooned. He had perfect white teeth
and those dimples I loved on my man adorned his face too. Close up I could see
that he had the glossiest of deep chocolate brown eyes. Yes, Mandy and Jayne
would kill to be introduced to this fine specimen of a man, but I had my own
perfect man right next to me, one with the most expressive eyes I’d ever seen,
grey eyes that I couldn’t get enough of, and a heart as large as the universe.
And best of all, he loved me back just as much as I loved him.