“Come on, please,” I murmured. But, the dream never returned. “Fuck!” I roared.
I threw the covers off my body and stormed into the bathroom. I ran the hottest shower I could stand and washed the night sweat from my skin, only to wrap my hand around my dick and start pumping. I needed to get rid of this erection. I would never be able to think straight if I didn’t blow a load against this wall really quickly. But, the only thing I thought the entire time I stroked was how it didn’t feel like Luna.
“Shit,” I whispered.
I leaned my head against the wall as my cock dwindled. My balls throbbed with a need for release, and I couldn't even keep my dick hard long enough to do anything about it. My head felt woozy. My stomach felt sick.
But, more than that, my heart felt empty.
Do I really love Luna?
The second I even thought about her, my heart took flight. It fluttered so quickly I thought I’d start floating, and it gave me the answer I needed. I wasn't ready to say it out loud. I wasn’t even ready to imagine what it might be like to confess something like that to Luna. But, my heart already knew.
And so did my brain.
You love her, you idiot. Just say it.
“Not right now,” I growled.
I reached down and flipped the water to cold, drowning out the voice in my head. I’d tackle it another day, but not right in the middle of the biggest business project my family had ever taken on. I needed to get my head back in the game. I needed to stay on top of the bank.
Like you want to stay on top of Luna.
“Come on!” I exclaimed.
I turned off the water and yanked a towel off the rack beside me. I wrapped it around me and marched out of the bathroom, running my fingers through my wet hair. I sat on the edge of my bed, wondering if a strong dose of caffeine might wake my mind up enough to stop torturing me.
Then again, the caffeine might make it worse.
When I stood to go downstairs and make some coffee, my phone started vibrating. And when I looked down, I saw Luna calling. All at once, the dream came rushing back. The sloping lines of her body and the peaks of her nipples that swelled my dick right back into place. I eased myself back down onto the bed as I reached for my phone, hoping and praying she didn’t hear the sheer need for sex in my voice.
Not just sex, but sex with her.
“Shut up,” I murmured.
“What was that?” Luna asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing, sorry. Just getting an early start. I see you are, too? Do you have any news for me?”
“Actually, I was really hoping to speak with you on a more personal matter.”
I paused. “Oh?”
“Well, I mean, I have business to talk about as well, but I was kind of hoping I could have your ear for a second before the workday starts?”
My heart beat hard against my chest. “You can have me any way you need me. What is it?”
“Anyway?”
I closed my eyes. “Luna, there’s actually something I’d like to speak with you about as well. Since we’re on a more personal note.”
“Well, you go first then. Mine kind of requires courage I haven’t summoned yet.”
Could it be? “Are you sure?”
She snickered. “That’s the only thing I’m sure of right now.”
Do it. Just tell her. “Well, I actually wanted to speak with you about what might happen once I get back into Conroe.”
“So, you do have plans to come back?”
I furrowed my brow. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. You’ve just been in Houston for so long—”
“On business, yeah. I’m not secretly settling back here or anything.”
I heard her sigh with relief. “Well, that takes a weight off my shoulders.”
I grinned. “Mind if I ask why?”
I heard something tick on her end of the line before her voice sounded. “Hold on. I’ve got someone calling me. It might be Mr. Derecho.”
“Wait, Luna. Just a second. You can call him ba—”
“I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere. Promise me.”
I smiled softly. “I’m never going anywhere. I promise.”
She giggled. “Good. Hold on.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to enjoy the moment. This was it. This was the moment. This was where I’d tell Luna how much I loved her, and how I want to take her out whenever I got home. I felt unstoppable, and I knew exactly how I wanted our first date to go. I remembered back to the times I had ogled her as a young man. Enjoying the way her curves surfaced and doing anything just to make her laugh. If someone really got Luna going, she snorted. And dammit, I loved that sound more than anything in this world.
So, when I heard the line click back over to my end, I drew in a deep breath before Luna’s panicked voice sounded.
“I have to go. I’m so sorry.”
I shot up to my feet. “What’s wrong?”
“I have to go. Sick leave! I need to cash in the medical leave.”
“Luna, what’s happening? Who was that on the phone?”
I heard her sniffling. “The hospital, Bart. I have to go. I’m so sorry.”
“Luna, wait! Who’s in the hospital?”
I heard her softly crying on the other end of the line before her voice barely sounded over the phone.
“Daddy,” she choked out. “Daddy’s had a heart attack.”
She hung up the phone, and I felt the entire world come to a screeching halt. I tried to call Luna back, but she kept shooting me to voicemail with every call that got placed through. I looked around the room, wondering what the fuck I could do that might help her from sixty miles away.
But, when my eyes landed on my suitcase, I knew exactly what I could do.
And I didn’t care if it cost the family business it’s fucking refinery.
20
Luna
I burst through the hospital doors. “Where is he?”
A nurse looked up at me from her desk with a deadpan expression before her eyes slid down my body. “Can I help you, ma’am?” she asked.
I strode for her apathetic presence. “Where’s my father? He just came in via ambulance.”
“Name?”
I blinked. “Michael Faircloth.”
The woman’s phone on her desk started ringing, and she turned her attention away from me. With my mismatched flip flops on the wrong feet and my hair piled into a messy bun, I felt my robe slowly slipping open. I raised up and tightened the bow around my waist as I watched this nurse have the audacity to “put me on hold,” as if my father’s life weren’t currently hanging in the balance.
“What’s your concern again?” the nurse asked.
I groaned and reached over her desk, pressing my fingers against the phone receiver until the call hung up. And when her angry eyes whipped over to mine, I leaned in close.
“Where. The fuck. Is my father?”
Her nostrils flared before she started typing away on her computer. “ICU Room 4. Now, can you move your hand?”
ICU? “Thanks. Sorry I inconvenienced your day with my dying father.”
A foreign voice sounded behind me. “Miss Luna Faircloth?”