Page 104 of Knot What She Seems
“These are beautiful, Luka. Thank you. And, errr, tell the others thank you as well.”
Luka’s face lights up instantly, and my breath catches at the sight. He’s handsome normally, but when he smiles like that, free and uninhibited, I can’t help but feel a little lightheaded. He’sradiant,though I can’t help but think that he doesn’t smile often enough. None of them do, now that I think about it.
Except for Kylian—but those smiles are usually reserved for pain and bloodshed.
Luka hurries to open the passenger door for me, and I slip inside, running my hands restlessly along the smooth leather of the seats.
Luka gracefully slides into the driver’s seat and starts the car. Immediately, a voice sounds from the radio.
“…isn’t just done from the bedroom. Wooing starts from the very first moment you speak to your omega. Remember to?—”
Luka’s cheeks turn crimson as he hurries to turn down the volume dial.
“I forgot that was on.”
Some of the nerves in my belly fizzle away.
“Were you listening to?—?”
“No,” Luka says quickly. Too quickly. “My younger brother borrowed my car last.”
“You have a younger brother?” I swivel slightly in the seat to stare at him, one of my eyebrows arched.
There’s a beat of silence, then Luka says, “No.”
Laughter bubbles in my chest, and I swear the lingering tension diminishes.
“So do you lie to all the girls or just me?” I tease.
He groans and throws his head back against the seat as he steers us out of the parking lot. “Can we just start over? Please?”
“You sure?”
“Very.”
“Okay. If you insist…” I reach for the radio dial and turn the volume back up.
“If you can’t love your omega outside of the bedroom, how are you supposed to love her inside of it?”the speaker says, his soft baritone filling the car.
“What are you doing?” Luka demands, quickly reaching to mute the radio once more.
“You’re the one who said you wanted to start over. And if you remember correctly, when I first entered your car, the podcast was on…”
Luka’s lips twitch. “Evil minx.” He then sighs and runs a hand through his artfully styled hair. “This isn’t how I wanted our first date to start.”
“This isn’t a date,” I blurt out automatically. When he glances at me out of his periphery, one eyebrow quirked, I say, “It’s a cashew.”
Silence.
Complete and utter silence.
Then Luka throws his head back and laughs so hard that I actually jump in my seat. Tears stream down his face, and he uses one hand to brush them away while keeping the other on the steering wheel.
A smile tugs up my own lips, even as I say, “Oh my god. Stop crying or you’ll make us crash.”
“Cashew? Really?” Luka snorts. “That was the dorkiest joke I ever heard in my life. And besides…dates aren’t nuts but fruits.”
I shake my head adamantly. “They arenotfruits.”
