Chapter 0320

After a moment Luca starts to laugh with me before he takes a deep breath and nods. "Fucking fight," he murmurs, running an anxious hand through his hair. "I have so much to do."

"I know," I say, resting my head on his shoulder. "But I don't want your mind on me at all, okay? Put all of this out of your head and concentrate on what you have to do. I'll be there, tonight, in the box. Just like I promised."

"Are you sure?" he asks, tentative - because he knows that there will be eyes on me now that this article is out - way more than there were before.

"Royal box," I whisper. "Dead center. I'll be right there, nowhere else."

"You're not just saying that you're not mad so that I won't worry about it?" He whispers, and I grin at him, shaking my head a little because he's overthinking it.

"You didn't do anything bad to me, Luc," I say, pressing another kiss to his mouth. "So, I've got nothing to be mad about. We're good. You just concentrate on the fight - bring me home a pretty new belt to add to my accessories."

Luca laughs and then kisses me, swift and passionate, sending a great flood of love and gratitude and something very close to reverence down the bond. And I kiss him back for a good long time, not letting my own emotions travel to him, because I'm still mad as hell at his uncle and frankly a little sorry for Luca. And he doesn't need to know that right now.

Luca - he's so brash, and brave, and funny and charming and charismatic. But he's had someone behind him controlling a great deal of his life, hasn't he? And every part of me can see how a teenage Luca - so angry, so driven by his emotions - needed that control. Bruce and Luca - there's a great deal of love in their relationship, but also some condescension I'm not sure I can forgive.

No, I'm not sure I can countenance at all a man who has told his nephew that his only worth is in his ability to get into a ring and beat the tar out of other boys. I'm not sure I'm going to stand for that at all.

But... that's something Luca and I can talk about later. There's plenty of time for that.

"Okay," I say, laughing a little and breaking our kiss, running my fingers through his hair slightly. "I'm going to go. You have to concentrate."

"No," he mutters, bringing his face back to mine, "five more minutes

"Luca!" I laugh, pulling away.

"Two!"

CC

But when I laugh harder he does too, and holds me tight for a second before letting me go. Luca stands with me, walking me to the door, and we kiss one last time before I leave him there and hop cheerfully down the stairs. He sends a warm pulse of affection after me, and I send it right back, along with a great deal of assurance.

When I get to the ground floor and peek into the living room, I grin to see that basically all the cake has been eaten, and that Jesse and Gran are looking together at a photograph of the entire royal family that she's taken down from the wall.

"That's me!" Jesse says, pointing at his image insistently. "Duke Jesse! Me!"

A little dubious, Gran looks between him and the picture. "Duchessa Cora?" she asks, hesitant, pointing to Aunt Cora in the picture.

"That's my mom!" Jesse exclaims, throwing out an eager hand. Gran grimaces, staring at him like that can't possibly be true and making Rafe laugh.noveldrama

Linda stands and comes over to me, slipping an arm around my shoulders. "She knows who he is, she figured it out ages ago," she whispers in my ear. "She's just messing with him now." I look at Linda in shock and then burst out laughing. Jesse and Rafe turn my way, Rafe getting to his feet.

"All good?" he asks, hesitant. I look to Linda, seeing the same question in her eyes.

"All good," I say, nodding around to everyone. "Luca and I are fine." I look up at Linda again. "We'll see you at the fight tonight? Would you like to come and sit in our box? You'd be more than welcome."