Chapter Twenty-Seven: Fall Hard, Fight Forever-3

Amazingly, despite the insanity that continued to spin out of control outside of us, Luke and I were getting on our combined lives with a reassuring pace, just falling into a rhythm like we've always known we would do this. We mostly stayed home (now his penthouse) and hung out with each other, only going out to dine privately with a few select friends. There were moments when I wondered if Luke would get bored with all of this but considering how much of our alone time he'd spent blowing both our minds away, I shook off the worry. He'd be fine. Sex was his favorite activity, after all. Not that it was all we ever did, of course. The nights when we did nothing but hold each other and sleep were some of our best new memories. "I believe, last time I checked, you own half a dozen cars," I told Luke as we finished breakfast one morning. "If I absolutely need to go somewhere, which there isn't much of these days, I'll just pick a car and drive that. Just tell me which ones are off-limits and I'll skip over those." Luke shook his head and downed the rest of his juice, glancing at Terrence for help but the guy was busy gobbling up a big forkful of the omelette I made. "It's not about the cars we already have, Max. I just want to give you a car. And put a driver in it. I'm away on business trips a lot and Terrence usually comes with me. I don't want you wandering around the city all by yourself." I smiled. "Is this suggestion actually rooting from a genuine concern for my safety and convenience or you just want to impress me by buying me a ridiculous present for no particular reason?" Terrence laughed but sobered up quickly when Luke glared at him. "Why can't it be both?" he demanded, getting up and fixing the collar of his white dress shirt. "I want to get you something. The past couple weeks have been hell and you stood graciously beside me through all of it." I narrowed my eyes at him. "If you're suggesting that I require payment for doing what I did, I'm going to dump the rest of my omelette on your head, big meeting or not." Terrence gulped down his own drink and got up as well, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "I think this is my cue to drag Luke out of here before Max can go through with her threat. You two can continue this friendly discussion later. I don't want Charles to beat us there." Knowing that Luke was going to be meeting with a group of very important shareholders who were very concerned about the effect of Luke's personal scandal on the company, I shrugged off my irritation, got up my chair and went over to his side to help him fix his tie. "I'll think about it, okay? So don't even spend a second worrying about it," I told him before grabbing his jacket from the back of an empty chair. "Focus on your meeting, get it done and come home so we can head off for some much-needed time-out." "Sounds fair," Luke conceded with a smile, leaning down to brush a kiss on my lips. "Thanks, babe." "Don't worry, Max. I'll make sure he's not delayed," Terrence said with a grin and a small bow. "Thank you again for breakfast. It was fantastic." I winked. "Anytime, Terr. I'll see you boys later, okay? You both be good." "No, you be good. Don't get into any kind of mischief," Luke said as he gave me one last kiss. "Love you." "Love you, too." Once they were gone, I went back to my chair, tucked my legs up and finished my breakfast. It was Thursday morning but I was still in my pajamas because it was the first day of the short vacation Luke and I were taking. We were flying out tomorrow morning to Barrett House, the Hedenby family home in Southampton, New York-a hundred-fifty-year-old, oceanfront Tudor mansion in a massive estate, apparently, from the pictures Luke had shown me. Gramps house would probably fit easily into any of the two dozen bathrooms it had and my studio apartment in a linen closet. Anyway, the property had come down from Luke's paternal grandmother's family, the Barretts, who'd owned the largest bank in the east coast in the twenties until marriage into the Hedenby brood resulted in a historic merge. Charles was born there and so was Luke. Both men had split their time between New York and California until Charles decided to focus on their banking and finance business and gave Luke full reign of Hedenby Holdings. Charles had suggested the trip as a short reprieve from prying eyes. He'd flown in last night so he could be there for Luke's meeting with the shareholders. He wasn't needed but his presence would lend prominent weight to Luke's stand on the whole issue. I was grateful enough for his reassurance that when the offer came, I couldn't feign modesty and say no. Besides, as convinced as I was where Luke and I stood, between the endless hounding from the media and the countless meetings with legal and PR, I had to admit that this whole exercise had been quite exhausting, maybe not physically but definitely emotionally and mentally. After breakfast, I tidied up in the kitchen and went back to the bedroom to inspect the pair of suitcases I'd laid out open on the floor. They were packed with mostly clothes. I grabbed a plastic toiletries bag and headed to the bathroom to pack what I could, quickly realizing how much of the stuff we had weren't really travel-sized. I didn't have any smaller travel containers either. I made a quick list and showered. I slipped a parka over my jersey shirt and jeans and put a white knit cap on. With a pair of big sunglasses, I would probably be a little less recognizable. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem because the world didn't really know who I was or what I looked like. Recently though, more and more photos of me and Luke resurfaced, many of them not the most flattering-just mine, of course. Luke was ultra-hotness at every angle. He was just that way. But while I wasn't going to be a Victoria's Secret model anytime soon, I thought I looked pretty at the very least, always a soft smile on my face, my cheeks just a bit flushed especially because many of these shots had Luke grinning down at me. I never really thought about it before but it would seem that happiness could really make someone attractive. Some were kind enough to say that while I wasn't what they expected for Luke, the fact that I was different was probably the biggest indication of the big change in him. Oh, there were still critics, alright, especially after Luke's team made the official announcement of his engagement to me. I didn't think it was necessary to broadcast it to the world but Luke's lawyer explained that it was better for the facts about our relationship to come out through an official statement, the direct source countering whatever was said otherwise by speculators. I wasn't sure how effective that tactic was because it didn't really stop the slew of emails and messages I got from people I knew. Whether it be email or social media, people were nosing around. I selected a few I knew and thanked them for their support but offered no other details. I was getting some more hate mail but so far, only one other direct text message from an unknown sender. [Unknown: You are a waste of his life and the bane of mine. You deserve hell.] That had creeped me out enough that I changed numbers the next day. I debated whether to tell Luke or not but I didn't want to stress him out further because the moment I showed him those two text messages, I wouldn't have a choice but to show him the rest of the nasty correspondence from other people. I decided to bear it, that this was a weight I didn't have to heap over Luke's shoulders.