Decode (Luke Series, #7) Read Free

Brina. She has the same beautiful brown hair and round
brown eyes that melt my soul.
    Once we’re at cruising
altitude, we unbuckle the kids and set off for the sitting room to
build the fort. Violet is already there with the pillows and piles
of blankets. Lucas runs and dives on top of the pillows.
    “My pillows!” he shouts
as he wraps his arms around two pillows and attempts,
unsuccessfully, to pick them up.
    Violet kneels next to him
and tickles him until he lets go. Brina looks uncomfortable as she
watches this.
    “Violet, we’re okay for
now. You can go back to your room and relax, if you want,” I say as
I scoop Lucas off the floor and he laughs as I hold him above my
head.
    She stands there watching
as I slam Lucas onto the sofa and he giggles uncontrollably.
“Actually, I’m not tired at all. I don’t mind hanging out with the
kids.”
    “Stay!” Lucas shouts at
her.
    I turn to look at Brina
and she’s sitting on the sofa on the other side of the sitting room
with Rhianne in her lap. They’re engaged in a conversation, but I’m
certain Brina is paying close attention to us.
    “We’re fine for now.
Thank you,” I insist to Violet.
    “But,” she whispers as
her eyes burn into me. “We need to talk.”
    My heart pumps wildly as
I see the plea in her eyes. She knows we can’t talk about this
here. We’re 30,000 feet in the air. Maybe she thinks this is the
only place we can talk about it where I’ll have nowhere to go to
escape. I won’t deny that I’m a hard man to get alone when we’re on
solid ground.
    “Later,” I whisper.
    “Talk later!” Lucas
shouts.
    “Talk about what?” Brina
asks as she approaches us with Rhianne balanced on her hip.
    “Daddy said to talk
later,” Lucas says and I want to kick myself—or Violet—for being so
inconspicuous.
    “Talk about what later?”
Brina continues as she sits Rhianne down on the sofa next to
Lucas’s head.
    “Nothing. I was just
telling Violet that we’ll talk about the schedule later. Right now
it’s fort-building time. Right, buddy?”
    “Right!” Lucas slides off
the sofa and grabs the blankets to start building.
    Brina appears skeptical
of this explanation. She can always smell bullshit from miles away.
I just hope this trip doesn’t become more trouble than
vacation.

Chapter Three
Brina
    By the time we’re
checked into our suite at Claridge’s at four in the morning, I’m
thoroughly annoyed with Luke. I don’t think Luke would ever cheat
on me, but I’m getting a sick feeling that he’s holding something
back.
    Violet takes the kids to
their room to get them changed and into bed while Luke and I change
so we can get a few hours sleep before he has to wake up and go to
his first meeting in Covent Garden. As I watch him undress on the
other side of the king sized bed, the voice of insecurity in my
head keeps telling me to talk to him or at least give him something
to think about while he’s in all those meetings later today. But
the voice of reason wins. He needs his rest.
    As soon as we lie down, I
hit the button for the lights and we’re plunged into a cold
darkness that penetrates through the blankets and sheets. I’ll have
to adjust the thermostat in here tomorrow. I pull the covers up to
my nose and curl up on my side. Luke scoots closer to me until his
warm, solid chest is pressed against my back. He rubs my arm gently
as he lays a soft kiss on my bare shoulder.
    “Are you okay?” he
whispers, and a slow warmth spreads through me as my muscles
relax.
    “Yes.”
    “Good night,
sweetheart.”
    I turn over so I can face
him and, through the darkness, I can barely glimpse the curves of
his cheekbones and lips. But I can see that look; the look I’ve
come to know only as the look of love.
    “I love you,” I
whisper.
    He lays a soft kiss on my
lips. “I love you most.”

    When I wake, the room
is dark and quiet. It takes a moment for me to remember where I am.
I turn over and the empty space where Luke lay last