Chapter 13

Gemma

When I woke up the next morning, I found us lying naked under the thick covers of his bed. Luke’s arm was across my breasts, folding me into him, and his breath fell softly on my face. I blinked, staring at his peaceful sleeping face. He looked handsome, even in the morning. His dark long hair was disheveled and messy all over his face, his stubble had grown darker, and I could detect even more strands of gray in the morning light. I smiled as I stared at him. Who would have thought I would ever wake up next to a man who looked like this? Who was vacationing in a cabin like this one?

I was eager not to wake him, but I wanted to get out of bed as well. I felt restless in my happiness. Gently lifting his arm from my breasts, I slid across the massive bed and swung my legs over. Still naked, I stared at Luke’s splayed nude body as I picked up his plaid shirt from the floor.

This wasn’t my first chance to admire his nakedness, but I couldn’t get enough of it. His rugged muscles, the strength in those calves, the slimness of his waist. Even his butt looked delicious enough to eat. Luke was sleeping peacefully; his eyelids hadn’t even flickered with my movements.

I buttoned his shirt down, realizing how large it was on me. It reached the middle of my thighs. The shirt smelled of him, and I felt goose bumps on my arms again. What was wrong with me? I had spent the whole night with this man, and I wanted him again!

I found his master bathroom and walked in to take a look at myself.

My hair was expectedly a mess. My dark curls were tangled and in a jumble, but it didn’t bother me. I imagined Luke hooking his fingers into the knots and pulling my face to his. I couldn’t wait for him to wake up so I could kiss him again. My face was devoid of any makeup but then I couldn’t remember putting any on yesterday in the first place.

A bright red love bite peeked from the top of my cleavage. I remembered Luke’s teeth on that exact spot the previous night when we were fooling around under the covers. I was smiling again. God! It seemed like I couldn’t stop beaming today. I was blushing and nervous and excited, all at the same time. I couldn’t remember the last time I had woken up feeling this great.

The previous night was like a dream, but I had woken up next to him. I could still feel him inside me. So, it had to be true.

I splashed a handful of warm water on my face and then shook my head. I wanted Luke to wake up, but then again, this was the perfect time to think things through.

“Oh, shit!” I said aloud, my hand flying to my mouth. I remembered my parents. I hadn’t spoken to them at all. They knew nothing about where I was or what I was doing.

I ran back into the bedroom, Luke was still sleeping, and I rummaged around my discarded clothes for my cellphone. Sixteen missed calls and five text messages. All from my parents. They were worried sick about me. They had gotten word about the scene in the diner and that Big Mike had fired me. They were worried that I was depressed and had done something stupid.

“Mom?” I said, cupping my mouth with my hand as I rushed out of the bedroom.

“Gemma! Thank God. Where are you?” She sounded more worried than I had ever heard her. I immediately felt a pang of guilt for having forgotten about them for so long. I should have remembered to at least send them a text.

“I’m fine, Mom. Sorry, my battery died and I couldn’t text you last night,” I whispered into the phone, pacing around the living room. As Luke had said, someone had killed the fire from the previous night, dusted the rooms and the house was sparkling clean again. I wondered if the housekeeper was still around, but I couldn’t hear a sound anywhere in the cabin.

“I asked you where you are!” Mom said in a harsh tone. She was beginning to sound more angry than worried now, and I breathed in deeply.

“I’m with a friend. I just lost track of time and had to stay over for the night,” I said, walking into the kitchen.

“Which friend? Pat told me that he saw you with some strange tourist at the diner yesterday. What is going on?” Mom said, and her voice had gotten louder.

“Nothing is going on, Mom. He’s just a friend,” I said, placing my hand on my hip. I was a little taken aback by her tone. She sounded more upset than I expected her to be. Like I had done something personally to offend her.

“And you lost your job! That friend of yours punched Big Mike! And now you’re spending time with him. Come back home this instant!” she screamed into the phone.

I could feel my heart racing. My good mood had dropped to a sudden low. I couldn’t believe my mother was reacting this way.

“I’m an adult, Mom. I can decide what to do for myself, thank you very much,” I snapped and hung up the phone. Before she had a chance to call me back, I switched the phone off and threw it over on the kitchen counter top.

It had taken my mother all of two minutes to ground me back to reality. I breathed in deeply, eyeing that tin of Luke’s Columbian ground coffee on the counter.

****

I was walking around the cabin with a mug of freshly brewed Columbian coffee in my hand. The place was huge, and with Luke still sleeping in the bedroom upstairs, I felt like I was completely alone.

I climbed the stairs to the second floor, the feel of his soft plaid shirt comforting against my skin. This cabin, which wasn’t even Luke’s actual home, seemed to give me a sense of how he lived in his real life. This time with me was only an alternate reality for him, and I needed to remind myself of that. I grazed my fingers along the velvet-smooth walls as I walked down the hallway. I was imagining Luke’s home, with his chocolate-crazed cousin and his mother who slept with her fur coat at night.

I could picture Luke standing at the end of the hall with his arms open, calling out to me. I had never met a kinder man, even though he was also the most handsome and the richest I knew. He made me feel warm and safe, special. Like he had eyes only for me.

All my insecurities from the previous day had vanished. It was true that Luke didn’t know everything about me or my background, but he didn’t seem to care. He hadn’t pressed me about my past; he wasn’t curious. It seemed like he was interested in only me and our time together.

I kept walking until I came to a room at the end of the hall, directly below the bedroom upstairs where Luke was still sleeping. The door was slightly ajar, and I pushed it farther, sipping from the mug again. The coffee scalded my throat as it slid down, filling me with warmth and a caffeine-stimulated tingling sensation.

The room I had entered was a study/library. The walls were lined with books. In the center of the room was a large wooden table, polished and stacked with files and more books. A plush green leather chair was on one side facing me, and I could almost picture Luke sitting in it. An open laptop faced the chair as I walked around the table to it. I couldn’t help but slide into that chair. It was inviting me over; I couldn’t say no.

I sank into the soft and welcoming seat, and I placed the mug on the table and closed my eyes. Luke sure led a luxurious life. I could see that he was rich beyond measure, that I couldn’t possibly predict the amount of money he had. Did I want to know?

The black screen of the laptop teased me as I blinked at it. I sat back up in the chair and breathed in heavily. My fingers were clenching and twisting around on my lap. Maybe I could peek a look at his laptop. Maybe it was password protected and I wouldn’t be able to see anyway. Was there anything to see? Was Luke hiding something from me?

My fingers hovered for a second over the keyboard. Why was I suspicious again? I knew this was wrong. I was a guest here. Luke had opened the cabin and his life to me, and it would be evil for me to snoop around. I hadn’t pressed a key yet; my soul was torn between my curiosity and what I knew was morally wrong to do.

But then my eye fell on a magazine cover tucked under the laptop. It piqued my curiosity, because Luke’s piercing lava-black eyes peered out at mine. I tugged the magazine out, and my heart sank.

The cover was of Vincent Stoltz. In a gray suit, his hand on his cuff, adjusting a gem-studded cufflink. His usually ruffled dark hair was slicked back and neat. He was clean shaven and barely recognizable. His eyes were the same though. He had posed for the photograph and had a stethoscope around his neck.

The cover was captioned: The most eligible bachelor in the country also makes breakthrough medical discovery, more on page 3…

My hands shook as I flipped the magazine over to the third page.

The man sleeping upstairs, the man who I had spent the night with, was Vincent Stoltz. The billionaire doctor and entrepreneur who had discovered the cure for Coeliac Disease. The article spanned four pages, and I scanned it hurriedly with my eyes. I couldn’t bring myself to read all of it, but there was no doubt now that Luke and Vincent were the same man. How could I have been so foolish? He’d thought so little of me he hadn’t even given me his actual name.

When I’d researched Vincent Stoltz, I had focused on boring medical journals that were printed with no pictures of the man’s face. I’d had no clue about his personal history. It seemed all I’d had to do was pick up any fashion magazine, and I would have known.

Pictures of two women in the article caught my eye.

One was designer Sarah Popov, and the other was socialite Maria Smirnov. Both women were rich and came from aristocratic Russian families. Just like Vincent Stoltz. He was rumored to be engaged to one of them, and the media was in a frenzy trying to guess which girl. Millions of hearts would break if the rumors were true and Vincent was indeed engaged to be married. The playboy would be throwing in his towel soon and settling down.

I couldn’t read anymore. I flung the magazine to the floor and stood up from the chair. Everything I had read in the magazine had come as a shock. I had no idea who I had really spent the night with. Luke—Vincent—wasn’t just an ordinary stranger. I had been foolish enough to fall into the trap of the country’s most notorious playboy.

Still in his shirt, still barely clothed, I ran out of the study. My mom was right; I should have gone straight home. I should never have given this man a chance.