Encore (The Black Eagles Series Book 2) Read Free Page A

going to lose and he was always going to win.’
                  Luke took her hand and squeezed it. ‘He’s a monster. What made you decide to say no, really?’ He agreed she was right, that they would lose either way so he was interested in the reason for her choice.
                  Melissa shifted forward taking his other hand. ‘You. Apart from that, I’d be cheating on you, which I could never do. You work so hard and put everything into it. I know you love me but you love what you do so much. How could I disrespect you like that? If I had agreed, done what he asked and the truth came out? I would not only humiliate myself, I would do that to you too. I could see in my mind the headline: “Luke Black: girlfriend fucked for his contract”. You would lose any respect you’d built up. It would ruin you in the end anyway. It was never worth the risk. Your dream is mine and I want you to have it for the right reasons.’ She hoped she had explained it right. It was hard to think straight when they had these talks: she was always paranoid she would say the wrong thing. Jay-Den had damaged her mentally more than physically.
                  Luke hadn’t said a word while she spoke, waiting for her to finish. His face had softened and he was looking at her with admiration and awe. ‘You know me better than anyone. Everything you just said was spot on. That would have broken me. I would have lost everything, and I would have hated you.’ He had to be honest on that part and Melissa had known that anyway.
                  ‘You hating me is my worst nightmare. I know that you could never have forgiven me. Why should you? So I put us before anything else. If Jay-Den had the chance to do what he threatened I knew deep down you boys would survive it.’
                  Luke held his finger to her lips to stop her and leaned in to kiss her, softly. ‘You would have your dignity intact. Held your head up and known this was his evil games. We would have survived, and we still will. I still have you and you have me. We haven’t lost anything important.’
                  Melissa finally smiled. ‘When you put it like that, I guess not.’ She pressed her hand against her cheek, frowning.
                  Luke pulled it away, and kissed her scars, although he hardly noticed them. ‘You don’t have to worry about them either. You’re still the most amazing, beautiful girl in the world.’ He kissed her so sweetly, she melted and some of her pain slipped away.
                  There was one other thing they did need to discuss, and Luke was being stubborn about it. Melissa on the other hand wanted to do it, she needed to know why? ‘I think you should meet with Dean. We should...’ she said. She saw his expression change, from calm to annoyance in a second.
                  ‘No.’
                  Melissa had expected that answer; it was always his answer. She didn’t blame him.  ‘Listen, I know seeing him will be really difficult. But I think we need to know why. I want to know, Luke. I want to know what made him betray us so badly. He’s desperate to explain, giving me the impression there’s more to this.’
                  Luke sat on the side of the bed and sighed heavily, thinking it through. ‘I don’t think I want to know, or maybe I do. I don’t know. He was supposed to be my friend. I spoke to him through our split, he watched me fall apart, comforted me. Let me bang on about it. I-I pretty much cried on the guy’s shoulder. And all the time he knew the truth, could have changed it. He didn’t and that fucking hurts.’
                  Melissa wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. ‘I know. Babe, I know.’
                  He grabbed her hand and kissed it. ‘He helped to break us. What if Kelsey had never told the