“Tell me you love me,” he whispered, tracing my nose with his.

My legs moved, wrapping around his waist, pinning him to me. “I love y-” but just like I hadn’t let him finish, he didn’t let me finish. I felt him smile against my lips as I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, happier than I had been in weeks. While I was with Luke like this, everything was right in the world and nothing else mattered.

Chapter 27

As sleep ebbed away, the first thing I noticed was how comfortable I was. The soft sheets were pulled up to my chin, and the hard, warm thing I was cuddled up to felt like luxurious satin against my bare skin. A lazy pattern was being drawn on the small of my back with a fingertip. My first thought was: heaven. Blissful, beautiful heaven I was waking up in. I already knew what I would see when I opened my eyes.

Blinking against the sunlight that was filtering in through the blood red drapes, I looked up into Luke’s warm brown eyes. He was already awake, just lying there silently, watching me sleep as he traced his fingers over my back. His other arm was wrapped loosely around me, holding me against his chest.

Happiness seemed to radiate through every cell in my body at once, warming my skin and making my heart stutter. I raised a hand, tracing the line of his jaw, just wanting to check to make sure he was definitely here, and that this was definitely happening. It almost felt like a dream. It had been so long since I’d woken up with him like this, like part of a couple, that it didn’t feel real. His night’s growth of hair scratched against my fingertip and I let out a little contented sigh.

A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth, his eyes glittered with elation as his arm tightened around me. “Hi,” he whispered.

I chewed on my lip, fighting with my hormones that were currently raging and would soon burn everything in their wake. “Hi,” I croaked, hating that my voice was thick with sleep and not in the sexy way that some girls had.

His boyish smile grew into an outright grin as I snuggled closer to him, wanting to feel every part of his skin on mine. As I moved, I realised that my body ached in delicious ways that it hadn’t ached for in weeks. My muscles felt tight and overused because of what we’d gotten up to last night in the back of his car, and after in the front hallway downstairs, and then again in his bed. My body was out of practice with all this physical exertion, but I would get used to it again pretty quickly, that much I was sure of.

“How are you this morning?” he asked, his eyes searching my face, almost as if he was trying to ascertain the answer without me even speaking.

I felt the heat flood my face. Silly little girl in love Maisie was back again. “My body aches. I think I have sex muscle syndrome,” I answered, giggling and looping my arm around his neck.

He laughed at my answer and rolled gently so I was half under him. “You do? Want me to give you a massage?” he offered, bending his head and tracing his nose across my cheek before breathing in lungful’s of my hair as his hand instantly started massaging my outer thigh.

I closed my eyes, overcome by sensation as my fingers dug into his shoulders. “No,” I croaked. “How about we just stretch them out again?” I offered, gasping as he kissed the sensitive spot on side of my neck, just below my ear.

He didn’t immediately jump on me like I was expecting. Instead, he pulled back, his eyes tight, seeming slightly worried. “Baby, this isn’t just a sex thing is it? This thing that’s happened, this is us getting back together again, right? Not just us sleeping together.” His eyes searched mine and his hand stilled on my thigh as he seemed to hold his breath in anticipation.

My heart melted because he just looked so hopeful and so pleading. He wanted me back so badly that it made my insides tremble. In that moment, my love for him was overwhelming, and I knew that he felt the same as me, that we belonged together. Even after everything that had happened, I was destined to be with Luke Hannigan forever, I knew it deep down in my heart.

“This is us getting back together again,” I confirmed, fisting my hand into the back of his hair.

His whole body seemed to relax as he closed his eyes and gulped. “Thank you,” he whispered. His eyes opened, glistening in the dim light of his bedroom as he smiled down at me. “Thank you. I promise I won’t ever do that again, not ever. You’re my life, Maisie, and I almost lost you. I won’t ever do anything to jeopardise that again. I’m so sorry.” His voice was earnest and full of emotion as he spoke.

I nodded. “I know you are.” That was the truth, I knew he was sorry, and I knew how important I was to him.

“I’ll spend my life making it up to you, I promise.” He bent and kissed my cheek, and I felt everything fall back into place, just like it was before all of this happened.

“How about you start right now?” I suggested, raising one eyebrow suggestively as I hitched my leg over his hip and pulled his body closer to mine.

He sucked in a breath through his teeth and let it out as a low groan as his mouth headed towards mine. I smiled against his lips and melted into his embrace, giving myself over entirely, body, mind and spirit.

Two hours later and we had only just dragged ourselves out of his bed. For ages I’d just laid there in his arms while we talked about random stuff, with the TV showing nothing in particular in the background. In my eyes, it couldn’t get any more perfect than that. I’d wanted to stay in that moment forever, never moving forward or back, just frozen in time with him. Unfortunately, being an eating machine, his body had something else to say about my staying in bed forever plan.

“There’s nothing much in here,” I muttered, frowning into his half empty fridge. I picked up the remaining two eggs and the packet of suspicious looking ham. “I guess we could make a ham omelette?” I offered, turning my nose up at the prospect. The ham looked like it had been open for a while, the edges curling in a stomach wrenching way.

His arms wrapped around me, his bare chest pressing against my back as he pulled me away from the fridge gently. “I have a great idea,” he said into my ear before kissing the back of my neck softly and playing with the edge of his T-shirt that I was wearing.

I tipped my head to the side, smiling now. “I thought you were hungry,” I teased.

He chuckled, taking the eggs and ham out of my hands and placing them onto the counter top. “I am hungry. Which is why I was going to suggest that we get dressed and take a drive over to that little café that you like, the one that makes those muffins with the cranberries?”

I gasped, my eyes widening with excitement as I turned in his arms and grinned up at him. “Yeah?” I chirped. “I love that idea!” The café he was talking about was a quaint little old fashioned tea room that we had found once when we were camping. It was about an hour drive from here, but the muffins and pastries were to die for. Luke and I had made a point at stopping there whenever we went that way to camp.

He grinned, tracing my lips with his index finger. “I thought you might. Come on then, let’s get dressed and go. It’ll be like a date.”

I grinned ecstatically. If he was going to be making this much of an effort to make it up to me then I was a seriously lucky girl. “Race ya,” I joked, shoving myself out of his arms and dashing for the stairs. He chuckled darkly, and I heard his heavy footsteps behind me. He caught up with me before I even made it half way up the stairs. I gasped as he swept my legs out from under me, pulling me into his arms and crashing his lips down to mine. I giggled against his lips, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him back instantly. Of course I’d known that the running away from him action would bring out his playful side, so no doubt the trip to the café would be put on hold, at least for a while anyway.

The café was just as lovely and romantic as I remembered. We had been the only ones in there, sitting in the corner, feeding each other iced pastries and muffins while the early afternoon sunshine shone in through the window. The lady even recognised us and gave us a free refill on our coffees. It had been perfect; every single second of the day with him had been spectacular, and I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to have to share him with other people again when we went back to school.

“I can’t wait to go to college,” I mused as he threw money down on the table to cover our meal.

He looked up at me and grinned. “Me either, it’s going to be great. Just me and you, away from everyone and everything that’s happened here. It’ll be like a fresh start for both of us,” he replied, holding out his hand to me.

I placed my hand in his, letting him help me out of the booth. I smiled at his words. That was exactly what I felt too. With us going away to college together and moving to another town hours away, there would be nothing there to remind either of us of the bad things that had occurred recently. “Sounds great.” His arm slipped around my shoulder as he guided me out of the little café, both of us waving to the owner on the way out. I climbed in his Jeep, watching as he walked around to the driver’s side. The little smile on his face made my heart melt.

As he got in and started the engine I suddenly realised I didn’t actually want to go home. I liked being out here with him, with no one to bother us, and no need to worry about some psycho that wanted to hurt me. A sigh of disappointment left my lips as I scooted down into the seat, trying not to let my feelings show on my face. I didn’t want to ruin this happy day, but I couldn’t get my mind off of the fact that everything would be different once we got home.

“What’s up, baby?” Luke asked as he backed the car out and headed in the direction of home.

I shrugged, not really knowing how to explain that I was just fed up with feeling frightened all the time; that I was fed up with looking over my shoulder and not knowing what was going to happen next. “I just don’t really want to go home. You know, the police thing and stuff,” I explained. “I just wish it was me and you all the time and that all that other stuff would just disappear.”