Chapter 158

After a moment Luca starts to laugh with me before he takes a deep breath and nods. “Fucking fight,” he murmurs, running an anxious hand through his hair. “I have so much to do.”

“I know,” I say, resting my head on his shoulder. “But I don’t want your mind on me at all, okay? Put all of this out of your head and concentrate on what you have to do. I’ll be there, tonight, in the box. Just like I promised.”

“Are you sure?” he asks, tentative – because he knows that there will be eyes on me now that this article is out – way more than there were before.

“Royal box,” I whisper. “Dead center. I’ll be right there, nowhere else.”

“You’re not just saying that you’re not mad so that I won’t worry about it?” He whispers, and I grin at him, shaking my head a little because he’s overthinking it.

“You didn’t do anything bad to me, Luc,” I say, pressing another kiss to his mouth. “So, I’ve got nothing to be mad about. We’re good. You just concentrate on the fight – bring me home a pretty new belt to add to my accessories.”

Luca laughs and then kisses me, swift and passionate, sending a great flood of love and gratitude and something very close to reverence down the bond. And I kiss him back for a good long time, not letting my own emotions travel to him, because I’m still mad as hell at his uncle and – frankly – a little sorry for Luca. And he doesn’t need to know that right now.

Luca – he’s so brash, and brave, and funny and charming and charismatic. But he’s had someone behind him controlling a great deal of his life, hasn’t he? And every part of me can see how a teenage Luca – so angry, so driven by his emotions – needed that control. Bruce and Luca – there’s a great deal of love in their relationship, but also some condescension I’m not sure I can forgive.

No, I’m not sure I can countenance at all a man who has told his nephew that his only worth is in his ability to get into a ring and beat the tar out of other boys. I’m not sure I’m going to stand for that at all.

But…that’s something Luca and I can talk about later. There’s plenty of time for that.

“Okay,” I say, laughing a little and breaking our kiss, running my fingers through his hair slightly. “I’m going to go. You have to concentrate.”

“No,” he mutters, bringing his face back to mine, “five more minutes –“

“Luca!” I laugh, pulling away.

“Two!”

But when I laugh harder he does too, and holds me tight for a second before letting me go. Luca stands with me, walking me to the door, and we kiss one last time before I leave him there and hop cheerfully down the stairs. He sends a warm pulse of affection after me, and I send it right back, along with a great deal of assurance.

When I get to the ground floor and peek into the living room, I grin to see that basically all the cake has been eaten, and that Jesse and Gran are looking together at a photograph of the entire royal family that she’s taken down from the wall.

“That’s me!” Jesse says, pointing at his image insistently. “Duke Jesse! Me!”

A little dubious, Gran looks between him and the picture. “Duchessa Cora?” she asks, hesitant, pointing to Aunt Cora in the picture.

“That’s my mom!” Jesse exclaims, throwing out an eager hand. Gran grimaces, staring at him like that can’t possibly be true and making Rafe laugh.

Linda stands and comes over to me, slipping an arm around my shoulders. “She knows who he is, she figured it out ages ago,” she whispers in my ear. “She’s just messing with him now.” I look at Linda in shock and then burst out laughing. Jesse and Rafe turn my way, Rafe getting to his feet.

“All good?” he asks, hesitant. I look to Linda, seeing the same question in her eyes.

“All good,” I say, nodding around to everyone. “Luca and I are fine.” I look up at Linda again. “We’ll see you at the fight tonight? Would you like to come and sit in our box? You’d be more than welcome.”

She beams at me, genuinely pleased. “We always sit ringside for Luca’s fights,” she says, giving me a little squeeze. “But thank you. That’s very kind.”

“Offer stands,” Rafe says, coming over with Jesse, Gran between them with one arm around each of their waists. “Any concert or sporting game – if you want to use the box just let us know.”

She blushes and laughs like we can’t be serious, but Jesse assures her that we are. Then we all say our goodbyes and head out the door, dashing as fast as we can for our black car so that the paparazzi can’t get a good picture.

But as we run, I wonder if it even matters –

Because I’m going to be at Luca’s fight tonight, front and center. And isn’t that all the confirmation they’re going to need?

I’m still wondering about it, a little worried, when I wander into my bedroom about half an hour later, barely concentrating on my surroundings because I’m so lost in my thoughts.

So, it’s no surprise that I don’t notice the tiny Queen sitting on my bed.

“Heyyy babyyy,” she croons, and I shriek and basically jump out of my skin, making her laugh and fall back against my pillows.

“Mom!” I growl, dashing forward to smack at her, even though she dodges my half-hearted blow. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“It’s not my fault you were lost in Lala-Land,” she says, grabbing me and hauling me over to her when I slump down onto the bed. “What would you have done if I was some kind of agent from another country sent to kidnap you? Aren’t they training you for precisely this sort of thing in that school of yours?”

“I would poison you,” I mutter, laughing a little, “because my education hasn’t gotten me any further than that yet.”

“Oh yes, very powerful,” mom murmurs, stroking my hair and grinning at me. She pulls me back against her, my back to her chest, and starts to pet my hair. In the mirror across the room, I watch as her face falls into more serious lines. “How did it go with Luca?”

I sigh, nestling more comfortably against her as mom leans over and produces, of all things, a cup of hot coffee, pressing it into my hands. I grin and take a sip, pleased both to have it and because she knew I’d want it – she saw I didn’t have any caffeine this morning at breakfast.

“It went okay,” I say, nodding and relishing the taste of the coffee. “Luca and I are fine. He wasn’t the one who told the press.”

Mom exhales a deep breath and nods to me with relief.

“But,” I continue with a grimace, “his uncle did.” She gasps satisfyingly – mom is a great listener of gossip – and then sits quietly while I tell the whole story. By the end she’s shaking her head in a bit of awe.

“It’s such a shame it had to go like that,” she says quietly, staring into space a bit and idly playing with my hair, curling a strand of it around her finger. “If Luca needed funds – especially for his family, or for such a good cause – then they could have come to us instead of gambling your secret away. We’d have been happy to help.”

“That’s what I said!”

She nods to me. “But I agree with you – his uncle is underestimating Luca’s abilities to support himself for the rest of his life. Luca – he’s more than just a talented boxer. I just hope his uncle didn’t get so far into his head that Luca can’t see that himself.”

“Well, we’ll help him.” I say, curling up closer to her and resting my head back against her shoulder, pleased to have my mom’s support.

“Of course we will,” she murmurs, slipping her arm around my shoulders. “Now, let’s talk about your mate.”

I blink for a second, and then turn my head to frown up at her. “Didn’t we just do that?”

“No baby,” she says, grinning at me. “Your other mate.”

And I sit up straighter because…Jackson?

Did something go wrong?