Wheeler (Seattle Sharks 8)

“I know,” I said, hating the crack in my voice.

I’d gotten so used to having Harper and Sawyer as my constant companions, my source of support in any given situation. It was hard to imagine not having messy breakfasts and midnight snacks with them anymore.

But there would be new kinds of midnight snacks, new mornings, new, new, new.

And I should be a little terrified, never having lived with a man before—not one I loved, one that had branded himself on my soul.

“How much longer are you two going to do this?” Sawyer’s voice cut through our hug. “Because I’m ready to turn your room into my personal gym,” he teased.

Harper released me and smacked him on the shoulder. “Not before I turn it into my home-lab,” she said, and I gaped at them both.

“I’m not even in my car yet!”

“And why aren’t you?” Harper asked, a hand on her hip.

I smiled, hugged both of them one last time, and slipped behind the wheel of my car.

As I drove toward Lukas’s—or my house, too now I supposed—the heaviness from the morning grew less and less until I was this buzzing ball of bliss. Once parked, I hefted a box out of my car as I headed toward his massive front porch. After propping the front door open, I took a few trips and managed to get all but one box stacked inside his entryway.

Lukas came around the hallway. “I was in the shower and didn’t hear you,” he said. “I would’ve helped.” He eyed the Tetris-like way I’d piled the boxes. “You are always so efficient.”

I grinned at him. “And earlier you said I was dragging my feet.”

He shrugged. “Is it all right if I put these in the second bedroom, Älskling? You can go through them later and pick and choose what you’d like in our bedroom.”

Our bedroom.

How did I get so lucky?

I smiled at him. “Yes, thank you,” I said, and enjoyed the searing yet soft kisses he planted on my lips as he hauled a box inside. I followed him with another. When we were almost finished, I let the door close behind me and slid my arms around his neck for a quick break.

He hauled me against him, his tongue sliding between my lips, exploring the edges of my teeth, flicking the roof of my mouth.

Consuming.

Powerful.

Love.

“Älskling,” he sighed against my mouth, devouring it like we hadn’t seen each other in weeks.

I fisted his shirt, needing the motion to ground me because my head was spinning. “I love you, too,” I whispered, the freedom in speaking those words only adding to the rush.

“Of course you do,” he said, that wolfish grin on his lips as he stared down at me through hooded eyes.

I playfully smacked his chest, wriggling free of his grasp.

“Oh,” he said, cocking a brow at me as I backed up toward the door. “Would you like me to bend the knee right here? Because I’m more than happy to oblige that fantasy.”

I bit down on my lip, telling my thighs to unclench.

“She blushes,” he said, trailing me and smoothing his knuckles over my heated cheek. “Why?”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Just thinking of all the things I want to do with you,” I said, pausing with my hand on the doorknob. “Lukas…”

“What is it?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For…” I shook my head, not even sure what I was trying to say. All the emotions building up inside me swelled like a tidal wave. “For loving me the way you do. For letting me into your world. For being my friend first, and then my…”

He squeezed my hand. “Your what?”

I cracked the door open. “My king,” I teased and gave him a little mock bow.

“I think I’ll make a new line next year,” he said. “All royally inspired. Just so I can watch you watch me try on each piece.”

“Wicked, wicked king,” I said, but loved the idea.

“You. Stay,” I ordered while I stepped a foot outside.

“Why?”

“Because I only have one box left to bring in, and we both know if you touch me any longer I’ll never get the box.”

He gently gripped my wrist. “You don’t need that box.”

“I do,” I said, eyeing his hand. “It has some of my favorite books in it.”

“Oh?” He perked up at that. “We can add them to the shelves.”

I smiled, the motion genuine and free. “I’d love that.” He released me, and I breathed out a long, slow breath as I walked down the immaculate drive to my car.

Holy hell, this was my life now. Days and nights and weeks and months and years…with Lukas. How did I end up here?

The blissful haze coated my eyes with stardust the entire walk to my car and back, so much in my own head that I didn’t notice the extra car parked on the other side of the drive—or the blond bombshell who stepped out of it. And with surprising grace, seeing as she was in five-inch stilettos and had to be about five months pregnant, if the bump was any indicator.

“Hi,” I said, but it almost sounded like a question. I shifted the box on my hip, the woman arching a perfectly shaded brow at me. Maybe she was a Nordstrom rep? “Do you have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Vestergaard?” I asked, easily slipping into my old personal assistant role. Sure, I wasn’t his assistant anymore, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be professional when he had client meetings. Still, I thought he’d cleared his day for the move-in.

“Yes,” she said, her voice sickly-sweet. She barely cast me a glance as she hurried toward Lukas’s front door, her stilettos clicking loudly on the smooth sidewalk. She flipped her long waves over her shoulder, and stared at the door for a few seconds.

“Would you like me to get him for you?” I asked, my arms starting to ache from holding the box for so long.

“Sure,” she said, her tone sharp, her eyes razors as she surveyed me—my cut-up jeans, Chucks, the thin T-shirt I wore, the box on my hip. A sour smile shaped her red-coated lips. “You must be the housekeeper,” she said, shifting her purse and pulling out a rolled-up magazine.

“I’m actually—”

She smacked the magazine against her palm, the sound cutting me off. “This is just typical of him. Allowing the help all the access she wants but not giving me the time of day. Especially when I’m carrying his—”

The door opened, and Lukas’s previously smiling, seductive face, turned to outright shock as he took in the woman next to me.

She stomped her way inside his home, swinging the magazine at him. It unrolled, but I didn’t need to see the picture of the two of them on the cover to know what she’d been about to say moments before.

Especially when I’m carrying his child.

“You can’t deny it anymore, Lukas,” she snapped before pointing at her belly. “You can’t pay off every tabloid in the country to keep me quiet. I’m five months past waiting for you to acknowledge me.”

Five months.

It didn’t take my brain long to do the math.

May.

My first month on the job—where he’d flirted with me, whispered sweet promises in my ear, ensuring me I was all he wanted until I’d finally succumbed to my love for him two months later…my love for the man who’d been my boss but had quickly become my best friend. He’d promised me there hadn’t been anyone else…not even before the masquerade ball.

He’d lied.

“How the hell did you find me?” Lukas snapped.

The bombshell flashed her eyes to mine before shrugging. “It doesn’t matter how I found you.”

I dropped the box, the loud thunk against the hardwood floors jolting the pregnant woman.

Tall, blonde, gorgeous. Just like his type used to be.

Before me.

“Faith,” he said, stepping toward me.

“Yes,” the woman said. “She should go. The help doesn’t need to hear this. She may try to sell all the details.”

I glared at the woman, then at Lukas. My body froze when my heart screamed at me to run. Run so far away this reality didn’t exist. Couldn’t exist.

I glanced over his shoulder like if I didn’t look in those glacial blue eyes, I might regain my strength and turn around and leave. Walk through the door, get in my car, and leave.

Because this…I couldn’t take this.

I loved him.

And he’d lied to me.

But more than that…some other woman was carrying his child, and he’d hidden it from me.

“This,” I said, suddenly seeing clearly. “This is why you were off when we came home. Isn’t it?”

“Faith—”

“Isn’t it?”

“Yes,” he said, his shoulders dropping. “But it’s not what you think—”

“Like hell it isn’t,” the woman said. “You think I climbed on top of myself and got—”

“Shut your mouth,” I snapped. Maybe it wasn’t her fault. Maybe I should be more sympathetic to her situation, but she’d already treated me like trash, and I needed her to not be real.

I needed to go back in time and stop myself from falling in love with someone who would hide something this big from me.

The girl scoffed but sealed her lips.