Page 71 of The Mechanics of Lust

I lifted his knuckles to my lips, and he watched me kiss them with an incredibly tender look that punched me in the heart.

“Anyway,” he finally continued, “One day, I decided enough was enough and got dressed and went out dancing.”

I blinked and stared up at him. “Dancing?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. Stupid, right? But then I met a guy in the club who made me laugh and fucked my brains out, and I was able to forget for a while. I started smiling again, since people invite you out more if you do that, and we met up a few more times before he cottoned on that I was a sandwich short of anything resembling stable and suggested we call it quits and that I get some help. Wise man. And so, I stopped trying to date and just... escaped if you catch my drift.”

My heart tumbled a little, remembering how I’d judged him so unfairly.

“It was maybe not the healthiest choice, but it got me through, at least for a while. But on my therapist’s advice, I also started flying again at the local aero club, and that was the best thing I ever did. Being back in the air was the only place I felt like myself again.”

I watched the dark water ripple in the chilly breeze sliding off the Alps and sympathised. “I totally get that. I know it’s not the same, but after everything that went down for me last year, my dogs were my only refuge.”Until you.

“I think it’sexactlythe same,” he said softly, kissing me again as the dogs hurtled around us before taking off back to the canal. “Anyway, my life slowly settled and I began to think that maybe I had turned a corner. But when I found out Gil had moved down here, it felt a little scary, like I might lose something important: the chance to talk about the part of our lives we shared with Callie. And so, I followed him here to try and salvage what I could.”

I turned in front of Luke and slid my hands around his neck. “And you did.”

He enveloped me in his arms and brushed his lips over mine. “And here we are.”

I couldn’t stop from smiling. “And here we are.”

We walked for almost an hour and then drove back to Luke’s where we made out and then exchanged a couple lazy blowjobs on his sofa while the dogs lay curled up in front of the open fire and pretended they weren’t disgusted by the whole affair.

More coffee, and two chocolate croissants later, we each took one end of the sofa and spent some time reading—Luke with his David Baldacci thriller, while I grabbed a photographic account of World War II from his bookcase.

His lips quirked at my choice. “A bit of light reading, then?”

“Hey, those who don’t learn from their mistakes are forever doomed to repeat them,” I said loftily.

He chuckled. “You don’t need to remind me. I’ve got a few I don’t plan on repeating anytime soon. Where did your love of history come from?”

I settled myself against the cushions and dragged his feet onto my lap. “My grandad was a big fan and I loved listening to his stories about my great-grandfather in the war and his father before him. If I hadn’t loved dogs and station life so much, I might’ve been a history teacher. Now shut up, you’re cutting into my reading time and I don’t get much these days.”

“You’re cute when you’re grumpy.” Luke wiggled his toes against my stomach until I groaned and shoved his feet to the side.

“You’re a pain in the butt.”

“I do my best.” He shot me a wink and went back to his book.

I chuckled and did the same, sneaking the occasional glance his way to watch him as he read, the vertical crease between his brows deepening with concentration. He caught me looking more than once and returned a soft, almost-shy smile that only added to all those worrying feelings squirming in my belly.

We read for a good hour, broken only by a couple of short breaks of conversation and when the dogs pushed their snouts in for some attention. In his inimitable way, Luke solved that latter problem by ignoring my protests and inviting both dogs onto the couch. They promptly curled up between us, neither daring to look my way for fear of being ousted.

It was... nice. More than nice. The cosy room, the crackling fire, the smell of coffee and baking, the crisp blue sky out the window, the sun striping the floor, the dogs curled up between us and... Luke. It filled a hole I’d carried with me for as long as I could remember.

I gave up pretending to read, closed my book on my knees, and settled for watching Luke instead. He was chewing on his bottom lip and flipping pages at speed.

“Getting exciting, huh?”

“Shh!” He held up a hand.

I put my book on the coffee table and whistled the dogs off the couch. Then I got on my hands and knees and crawled toward him.

“Don’t. You. Dare.” He raised a finger without even glancing up.

“Dare what?” I leaned in and nuzzled the soft lobe of his ear.

“That.” He groaned softly, then shrugged his shoulder in some pretence of rejection. “They’ve just found the cop’s body.”

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