“Okay. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
“That’s the thing. Everybody in the business wants to become indispensable to me. Only a few have made it. I don’t give lessons, rich boy.”
“I guarantee I’ll become indispensable to you,” I say, “but first you have to stop calling me rich boy.”
“I’ll call you what I damned well please,” he says.
Quick as a flash, I’ve got him on his back. Knife hand to his throat. “Still going to call me rich boy?”
“No,” he says. “I like your first name, though. It’s…satanic. Literally.”
“Thank my old man for that.”
“You’re no longer an Ashton, and you’re no longer rich boy. From now on, you’re Raven. Lucifer Raven.”
For some reason, the name seems to fit. Though I don’t know why. “Why Raven?”
“The Raven is intelligent and cunning. Already I can see those qualities in you, but the biggest one is survival and adaptability.”
“Are you some kind of shaman or something?” I say sardonically.
“Just a guy who knows a few things. Just a guy who puts a little faith in symbolism.”
“And you think I’m a survivor?”
“I know you are, Raven. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
16
KATELYN
I’m floating. Living on a comfy cloud.
I inhale, and Luke’s scent infuses me—all spicy, wild man.
I open my eyes, and I remember. I’m here, Luke’s place. He asked me to come, and I asked him about his eyes.
He walks toward me then and sits down on the bed.
“Katelyn,” he says, “are you okay?”
“I think so. You look—” I gasp.
“You asked me about my eyes. They’re blue, Katelyn. Not nearly as beautiful as your blue eyes, but they’re blue.”
“Why?” I ask.
“I have my reasons. I’ll tell you all of them, but not right now. Right now I just want to be with you.”
“Luke, I—”
He covers my lips with his fingers, just a gentle nudge to get me to quit speaking.
“Please, baby, let me love you. I need you so badly.”
My nipples harden, and the tingles… The tingles that are always present when Luke is near surge through me. Why would he keep those gorgeous blue eyes a secret? And the hair. There must be a story there.
I open my mouth, but he kisses me. Kisses me hard with his tongue and lips and teeth.
I shouldn’t let him off the hook so easily, but I can’t help myself. I love him. I love this man—this man who kept things from me.
Can this work? I don’t know because my only experience with men during the last ten years was on the island. Men who were masquerading. Wearing fake names as masks—sometimes wearing actual masks—to lie, to abuse, to torture.
I don’t like lies.
I should break this kiss. I should demand an explanation.
Yet I can’t stop kissing him. The force between us—the chemistry, the sheer magnetism we seem to share—I can’t control it. I can’t stop it.
What’s more? I don’t want to stop it.
He deepens the kiss, taking my tongue with his, exploring my mouth with his warmth and his passion.
I give in.
It’s so easy to give in.
Again I revel in the fact that I never thought I’d feel this way. I never thought I would want to be so close to any man.
With Luke, things are so different.
So what if his eyes aren’t brown? They’re a lovely blue—darker than my own and more intense.
I open my eyes, hoping to get a glimpse of them. But his eyes are closed.
He moves on top of me, keeping his weight on his upper arms so he doesn’t crush me, but grinding into me. He’s hard—so hard—and he pushes the bulge in his jeans against my clit.
My body is on fire. So hot, and I want him so badly.
He was going to leave me.
He was going to—
I push him away, and the kiss breaks with a loud smack.
“Baby?” he says.
“I can’t, Luke. I can’t do this. Why are you hiding the beautiful color of your eyes? Why were you going to leave me? And what brought you back?”
“Katelyn, I… It’s a long story, and I don’t… No, I can’t… I can’t get into it right now.”
“I can’t either, then,” I say. “I need something real in my life, Luke. Something real and solid and wonderful. I thought it was you. But now I’m not so sure.”
“Are you saying your feelings for me have changed?”
“God, no. They haven’t changed. How do you fall out of love? Just because I find out the man I’m in love with lied to me about the color of his eyes doesn’t mean I fell out of love.”
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“You covered them up. Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Maybe I had a reason for doing that.”
“Why? Tell me the reason, then.”
“It wasn’t to lie to you. That I can promise you.”
“Then it was to lie to someone else?”
“It’s more complicated than that, Katelyn. I’m kind of…in hiding.”
My stomach cramps up. “Hiding from whom?”
“From a lot of people. If I tell you… Never mind. I just can’t tell you.”
“Why can’t you? Maybe I can help.”
“You can’t. The only person who can help me is me.”
“Does this have anything to do with why you left me in the middle of the night?”
“I’m afraid it does. Katelyn, I love you. I never imagined loving anyone the way I love you.”
His words warm me. They warm me because I feel them too. I open my mouth to return the sentiment, but he keeps talking.
“I want to be Luke Johnson more than anything.”
“You are Luke Johnson.”
“But I’m not. Not really. I tried to blend in. I tried to be every man. The kind of guy no one would notice.”
“You’re never going to be the kind of guy no one notices, Luke.”
“You’re right about that,” he says, “but not for the reason you think.”
“You can trust me. I’ll never harm you.”
“I know you won’t, baby. There isn’t a vindictive bone in your body. But the less you know about me—about who I really am—the safer you’ll be.”
I shudder. My safety is at issue?
I lived the last ten years with my safety at issue at all times. Diamond always told us that our safety was a top priority. Sure, these men could violate us in whatever twisted ways they wanted, but they couldn’t kill us.
So in that way, we were safe.
That was an interesting definition of the word safe.
But one thing’s for sure. Not much scares me—I mean truly scares me—now.
“I’m not afraid,” I say to Luke. “I’ve seen the worst in humanity. There’s no way you’re bad for me.”
He rubs his forehead. “So much you don’t know. I’m afraid. I’m afraid for you.”