Chapter 252

“You win, you win,” Luca sighs, letting me slip in his arms a little until we’re face to face. “That was awesome – you improved so fast.” He nudges me happily with his nose. “We should have got you in the gym long ago, Shrimpy.”

“Well,” I sigh, letting my weight fall back against his arm as I stretch my hands languidly above my head. “If we’d done that, it would have been me in the boxing ring against Atalaxia this Midwinter, and I just couldn’t do that to you, champ –“

Luca laughs, pulling me forward against him and kissing me soundly. I smile and then give into it, taking his face between my hands, kissing him deeply and losing myself to him completely.

We’re only brought back to reality by the sound of my stomach’s fierce grumble.

Luca breaks away, glancing down at my belly. “Come on, Shrimps,” he says with a happy sigh, putting me down on my feet. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

I lean against him for a moment, resting my forehead against his chest and taking a deep sniff of his lovely sunny scent before I peer up into his face with a happy smile, slipping my hand into his. “Okay,” I say, cheerful. “Unless you think Rafe brought my food to Daphne again.”

Luca laughs, shaking his head. “Poor Daphne, getting your cold plate. Honestly, I thought Rafe was good with girls – but if that’s his best move, then I’m going to have to teach him a thing or two.”

Laughing, the two of us grab our bags and head out of the gym.

On the long trip back upstairs, Luca and I take a moment to discuss our plans for the charitable donation I’m planning to send towards his gym, each of us quietly laying out our priorities for what is, apparently, becoming our joint partnership.

“I don’t want to change your vision, Luca,” I say quietly, looking up into his face. “I just want to help. But my dad was right – I should have some say in where the money goes.”

“I get it,” he says, nodding to me seriously. “Honestly, I liked the idea of hiring someone to take over the whole business – I mean, it would have to be the right person, but doing so could give my uncle the chance to just…concentrate on the boxing. And with the money wisely invested, we could help a lot more people.”

“Okay,” I say, wrapping myself around his arm a little bit as we finish climbing the staircase to the floor that my room is on. “So, at the call later in the week with my parents, we tell them that’s what we decided? To search for someone who can head up the organization business-wise, while your uncle stays on as like…head coach?”

“Yeah, I think that’s best,” Luca says, beaming down at me, clearly excited. “And then we can…move forward from there once they’ve found someone. Honestly, Ari, I think this is…really cool. I love that we’re in this together now.”

“Me too,” I say, smiling so happily that my eyes crinkle up at the corners. Luca glimpses around the hall quickly but, seeing that it’s empty and quiet, quickly dips his head and gives me another swift kiss. I return it happily, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck, very pleased and content.

Luca exhales softly as he pulls away and I can feel down the bond that he feels exactly the same as we move to the door to my room and Luca pushes it open.

Of course, all of those good feelings wipe quickly away from Luca the moment he sees Jackson sitting on the couch in the living room.

And unfortunately, to make matters worse, Jackson’s sitting…precisely where Luca usually sits.

“Hey!” Rafe calls happily from his arm chair. “Come in, we had dinner served late so yours wouldn’t be cold!”

Jesse and Ben call their hellos too but the room quickly fades to awkward silence when they see me and Luca just standing at the door, Luca staring angrily into the room, me just…grimacing a little as I look up into his face.

Down the bond, I can feel Luca immediately lose his temper at the sight of Jackson here, at dinner, when he expressly agreed not to be. Guilt rushes through me because of course his is my fault – I had every opportunity to tell Luca what to expect, but it just…completely slipped my mind in the chaos of my new daily schedule.

“Do you…not want spaghetti?” Jesse asks awkwardly, gesturing towards the plates still waiting on the coffee table. “Um, maybe we can send for something else?”

Ben leans closer to Jesse, probably explaining quite patiently that Jesse’s completely misinterpreting the entire situation, as I tug on Luca’s sleeve, feeling his anger surge, trying to draw his eyes back down to me.

“Luca, please,” I say quietly, a little desperate, glancing between him and Jackson. “I can explain.”

To my surprise, Luca snaps his eyes shut and forces himself to take a long, deep breath. And I realize that this is not at a performance – that he’s actually working, really hard, to control his temper and to not flip out, even though everything inside of him is telling him to do that.

After a few long moments, Luca opens his eyes again, settling them on Jackson, who sits very still on the couch, watching Luca’s every move.

“What are you doing here, man?” Luca asks, and even though his voice trembles a little bit with his anger, I can tell that Luca is working incredibly hard to be casual, to appear cool.

Jackson, I can see, senses this too. His reply is just as even. “I’m having dinner,” he says quietly. “Ariel asked me to come.”

Luca takes another deep breath and shifts his gaze to me. “Okay. Could I…have a word with you in the hall? Please?”

“Of course,” I say softly, taking his hand and tugging him with me.

As I turn, Rafe puts his hands on the arms of his chair, his face worried, like he’s going to stand up and come with us – like he’s worried at me. I look wide-eyed in Rafe’s direction and vehemently shake my head no.

Because, I mean, there’s no risk here – Luca would never hurt me, and he’s working so hard to contain his temper, he doesn’t need Rafe coming to tick him off.

Besides, this whole thing is very much between my mate and I. I owe him this conversation. In private.

Luca and I step back into the hall and he drops my hand as I pull the door quietly shut. He slumps back against the wall, letting out a long breath, running his hands through his hair. “So, are you like, aware of the deal that Jackson and I struck?” he asks, confusion mixing with his dulling anger now. “Because…we kind of made a deal that he wasn’t supposed to be here for these sorts of things.”

“I am aware,” I say, folding my hands behind my back and forcing myself to meet his eyes, determined to do right by Luca and tell him the full truth as plainly as I can. “But…I don’t like how you and Jackson made that decision without asking me, Luca. I told him this as well, but I’d like to be consulted, in the future, when you decide how to split up my time.”

Luca scowls, dropping his head to look at the floor. “It wasn’t really like that, Ari,” he says, snapping a bit, even though guilt chases his anger soon after the words leave his mouth. I can feel that, down the bond. “We weren’t trying to decide your time for you…it’s just very hard for us – or me, at least – to be in a room together. It felt…better to find a way to avoid it.”

I watch Luca as I feel, down the bond, his renewed determination to be calm and fair, to not snap at me. And even as I’m worried and anxious about this conversation, a big part of me admires – very much – how hard Luca is working to control his temper.

“Okay,” I say quietly, nodding so that he sees I understand as he lifts his eyes to meet mine. “But…Jackson is part of this group, Luca. You were part of it first, but now? After the examination, after Midwinter? He’s…family.”

I can feel Luca go rigid as he hears the word.

“I want him here for group dinners and study time,” I say quietly, forcing myself to continue, to make my point heard. “At least, as long as he’s happy to come.”

Luca’s fist clenches a little bit, and I know that it’s an unintentional physical manifestation of his emotion, but something about it makes me feel incredibly remorseful. I feel myself falling back on my knee-jerk desire to say something to make him happy – to make it better – and I wrack my brain for what that could be –

But suddenly, my wolf nips me, fierce.

I stand up straight, looking down at my chest, wondering what the hell that was about.