Chapter 162 Initiating Destruction
Following her purpose, Peach started winning over Luke’s heart, taking over his mind, his senses and without realising, he was being swayed in the proximity too.
"You know, Luke…" She trailed off, her finger tracing a line on his jaw, drying his throat, turning him oblivious of the surroundings.
He was compelled to stare at her beautiful emerald eyes only, not realizing what was happening to him.
"Everyone thinks you are so untouchable. So 'perfect.' But I see how hard you work. You don't have to be perfect around me, Luke." She murmured, her fingers raking in his beard, hitching his breaths.
"I don't think I know how to be anything else," he admitted, his guard dropping by each passing second.
“I see William. All I see is perfection and I must not disappoint him.” He confessed, pulling away slightly.
“Just because he is paying for your fees doesn’t make him a hero. Or makes you obliged to do what he wants.” She mumbled in a sour tone that made Luke raise his brows.
“I mean, the company with your fee is being paid belongs to you. William is only managing it. He has to return it one day.”
“I know but the fact he is doing this for me means more than you can imagine, Peach.” He spoke truthfully, unable to think of another response.
“I can see it on your face. You respect your brother too much. He is everywhere in your life, isn’t he? You must love a lot,”
“I do. He is doing all this for me.”
She smirked, raising her brows, “Is that why he thinks he owns your life? As the big brother?”
She was the first person to speak against William. Not even Luke’s mother had turned him against his brother. He was not sure how to tackle the talk.
“No-”
She got up without listening to him and began to walk away after inducing doubts in his heart, letting out a snicker that echoed in the air.
“Funny…”
Luke kept staring, disliking how it sounded but shaking his head to not distress himself with unwanted talks, he decided to focus on his studies.
Peach knew a few talks won’t be enough to induce poison in his heart but her determination was unbreakable too.
She refused to settle until Luke was forced to believe in her words.
Over the months, she became a whisper, slowly inducing doubts about his brother’s ‘suffocating’ protectiveness, turning William’s adoration into a cage in Luke’s mind.
One night, they were working late at night, all alone in the library, working on the reports together.
Luke glanced at her from time to time, his throat drying, heartbeats enhancing when their shoulders were touching.
Suddenly, his phone vibrated against the mahogany table. The caller ID read: William.
Luke sighed, a mix of habit and newfound hesitation. He reached for his bag. "I have to go. William is waiting.”
“Are you going to leave a girl, especially your partner, all alone late at night over a call?” She smirked, teasing him while flipping the page of her book.
He paused. Glancing at the text, ‘Do let me know if you will be late, okay?’
“I will drop you off and go home.” Luke shook his head and was about to stand up but Peach rested her hand over his, her gaze softening.
“Stay, Luke… please.”
She was tucked into his side, her head resting on his shoulder, her hand tracing the veins on his forearm, defeating the man instantly.
Luke’s phone rang again.
"He's still calling," Peach murmured, her voice low, concealing a smirk perfectly when Luke was confused on what to do.
She didn't look at the phone. She looked at Luke’s jawline, watching the tension there.
"He doesn't think you can handle a night alone, does he? He thinks you are still that little boy who lost his father." She mocked, blurring his perception.
Luke’s jaw tightened, pulling away slightly from her, "He means well."
"William loves the version of you that fits in a frame," She ‘corrected’ him, her hand reaching out to caress him. His throat was drying, body jerking up at the contact.
Haziness began to consume him. His eyes averted, curling his hand in fist with his gaze falling on the dark screen, stuck in a dilemma.
"Meaning well is just a polite way of saying he doesn't trust you to be a man." She shifted, her body pressing closer, her warmth becoming a drug he was impotent to resist at this point.
"I trust you, Luke. I don't want to protect you. I want to be with you. Even if it doesn’t make sense."
Luke turned his head, leaning down to brush his nose against hers, “Honestly speaking, Peach…” He chuckled huskily. Peach could feel a knot building in her but she didn’t care.
The distance between them was gone. He was blinded- not by light, but by the sheer intensity of the attention she was feeding him.
"You are the only thing that makes sense lately,"
He stayed. And in the shadows of the library stacks, Peach’s smile turned into something sharp and victorious, lifting her head up to brush her lips against his.
Her hand extended and switched off his phone.
She wasn't just winning a grade anymore. She was dismantling a man, brick by brick, and he was helping her do it.
“Then look at me. Don’t look at the man who thinks he can own you.”
She reached up, her fingers tangling in the hair at the nape, pulling him down, offering her first kiss to Luke only to make him stay. To force him to choose her over William.
When their lips met, it was a gentle beginning of their bond. Luke found his life making sense, all his happiness gathering in his laps.
A smile adorned him. Kissing her back with slow, magical intensity. His finger beautifully tugged a strand behind her ear. Peach smirked.
Peach felt a thrill of cold victory. He is choosing me. He is leaving William in the dark.
Eventually, the kiss became consuming. The heartbreaker was being entangled in the web he used to lay for others.
Luke kissed her with the desperation of a drowning man, his hands gripping her waist as if she were the only thing keeping him on earth.
He was falling. No- he was diving into her deepest depths. Clearing the table, he was throwing away his brother’s calls, his father’s legacy, and his own common sense for the girl who had once sworn to destroy him.
Pushing her down on the table, he was hovering over her, trailing the kiss to her neck. Pinning her wrists down on the table, sucking on her tender skin to imprint his mark.
“Fuck… you….” He panted, inhaling her scent, driving him insane, “You make me want to leave everything and choose you,” He hissed, the heat between them growing.
“Then choose me. This is what I want too, Luke~” She moaned, arching her back, hands wrapping around his neck to leave no gaps between the collision of their bodies.
…. Initiating this night of passion as their destruction.