Page 54 of My Best Friend's CEO Dad

“I should’ve controlled myself,” Lukas says, stroking his hand up and down my arm. “At the end…”

“I know,” I whisper. “But weirdly, I’m not worried.”

“Maybe I’m too old for it to be a problem.”

I nudge him. “Don’t tease. It’s not that. It’s just… I don’t know.”

“Would it be so bad?” he asks.

Propping my hands on his naked chest, I sit up and look up at him. He’s staring at me with those intense eyes. “Are you kidding?” I say.

“No,” he replies. “I mean, let’s imagine this works. Let’s imagine we somehow get through this without breaking Kayla’s heart. If you were… you know… What would you do? Would you keep it?”

“Yes,” I say right away, watching his reaction.

A strange shimmer dances through me when I see the relief on his face. It’s an out-of-place shimmer since nothing good can really come from this.

“But we’re talking about hypothet?—”

His cell phone rings. Immediately, Lukas darts to his feet. The yellow light bounces off his muscled body as he walks to his shorts, kneeling to grab his cell phone from his pocket. He answers it.

“Yes?” There’s a pause, and his face tightens. “Okay. We’ll go talk to him.”

He hangs up, walking over to me.

“Is it them?” I ask.

He takes my hands and pulls me to my feet. “Yeah,” he says. “I wish we could just stay here together. I wish we could talk about the future. I wish we could talk about marriage and the chance that I just put a baby in you, Maci. I wish?—”

“Me too,” I cut in, placing my hand on his chest. His heart is beating so, so hard. I wonder if it’s from the sex, the news, the future, or what he has to do now. “Please…” My voice cracks. “Come back to me, Luke.”

He smooths his hands around me. I can feel his lust trying to break through, but he tames himself for now. He keeps his hands on the upper part of my back, then leans down and kisses me softly, almost tenderly. I return the kiss with the same energy. He brushes my wet hair from my face, then kisses me on the forehead.

“I…”

I naturally complete it with “love you” when he trails off. I want to say it, too, as crazy as it would seem or as crazy as it is. Then he goes on, “I’ll see you soon. Before you know it, I’ll be home. We’ll be together again.”

“And then what?” I ask, but I realize it’s a mistake when his expression tightens. “No, just focus on what you have to do. Focus on getting your friend back.” I kiss him again, wishing we could stay here. “I’ll see you soon, my maybe-boyfriend.”

He smiles.

CHAPTER 27

FINN

“Fully sober yet?” Kayla asks me when I return from the bedroom.

We’re staying in one of the rooms that has two single beds. She watches me from her side, shrouded in blankets.

“Yeah,” I tell her, sitting on the bed and kicking my feet.

“So… do you regret what you did? Telling us the truth?”

“The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner,” I say. “The only thing I regret is letting it go this far.”

Kayla nods. “Maybe I should’ve stuck with girls.”

“You’ve had girlfriends?” I ask.

---