“Where have you been?” he growled the second he caught sight of me. “You can’t just leave without telling me where you are going.”
“I told you I might go exploring,” I defended.
“When?” he shouted.
Although he might have reasons to be irritated with me, I wouldn’t accept irrational anger. “On the terrace. When I was leaving you to talk to your mother.”
It took him a few seconds to remember, but when he did, some of his frustrations deflated. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh. And besides, Cassio saw me leaving with Fiametta in the garden. Didn’t he tell you?” I asked.
He stopped in his tracks and slipped his hands inside his pockets. “No, he did not.”
Maybe Luke’s friend hadn’t seen me leave with Fia, only that she came out to the garden to speak with me. Either way, I was surprised that he hadn’t told Luke something with my fiancé fuming about me.
“Is there anything else you would like to share with me? Something that might have happened in the garden?” he pushed.
I took another step closer and held up my hands. “Before you say anything, let me just apologize. What I did was foolish, and even though Amara provoked me, I should not have taken her bait.”
Luke frowned. “What could Amara have done to justify you threatening her with your magic?”
“What?” I shrieked, mortified at the false accusation. “Please tell me that’s not what that…woman said. Or that you even spent a second believing that lie.”
My fiancé cast his eyes down at the floor, unwilling to return my gaze. “It’s what everybody believes. That you threatened her with your powers.”
“And did you not push to find out how much truth there might be behind her story? Or ask your friend Cassio, who was there by the way, what really happened?” I shouted, my heartache matching the pain throbbing in my entire body from the car incident.
I waited for him to say anything in my defense, but only offending silence followed. “So, you did believe the worst of me.”
He sighed. “Not really, no. I didn’t think you did as she described.” Approaching me, he tried to touch my arm, but I pulled out of his reach.
“Amara insulted me from the moment she saw me. Comments about my appearance or about how I didn’t deserve you. Bringing up that you are both vampire and I’m not.” Her words still stung. “I just wanted to show her that I had advantages she didn’t. So, I may have displayed a little of my fire magic out of spite. To shut her up.”
“She did the exact opposite of that,” Luke scoffed, respecting me by giving me space. “I will have a talk to Cassio about not divulging the truth if he truly witnessed it, although I don’t know where he ran off to this afternoon.”
I explained in detail exactly what happened in the garden, and after my full recount, he apologized in full to me.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have believed anything that Amara said.” He paced again. “And I understand why you reacted the way that you did, but it has caused the little bridge of peace I have been building with my parents to crumble.”
“Is your mother terribly upset?” I asked, a little more remorseful.
Luke scowled. “I think it makes her even more wary of you than before. She sees your actions as a lack of respect to her.”
I sank down on the edge of the bed. “Great. Just the opposite of how I wanted her to feel about me.”
With slow steps, my fiancé proceeded towards me. He sat next to me and risked putting his arm around my shoulders. “I don’t think my mother is a hopeless case. My father, on the other hand…”
I snorted. “He hates me, doesn’t he?”
Luke chose his words carefully. “He…refuses to get to know you so that he might change his mind. And he is trying to push Amara at me. As if that foul beast ever had a chance.”
“Are you trying to get me to light this whole place up out of jealousy?” I asked, only half kidding.
My fiancé hugged me closer to him, and I groaned in pain. The longer time passed after our car accident, the more my muscles complained about being whipped around.
Luke frowned. “You’re hurt?”
Collapsing against him despite my body aches, I told him everything about going to Fia’s house, reading through Isabella’s letters, and then being run off the road. A guttural roll of a growl rumbled in Luke’s chest like the thunder from before, but he kept his arm wrapped around me.
After listening to me, his chest rose and sank with a long sigh. “Do you think we could start our day over again? Today has not been exactly great.”
“Neither was last night,” I reminded him. “But sure, as long as you can forgive me my stupid act of magic.”
“No, cara. Forgive me for forgetting my duty first to you.” He let out another loud exhale. “Before we came here, it was just you and me. Now that I’ve returned, I fear that I have fallen back into the life of Luca de Rossi. And I’m not so sure I like him very much. I much prefer being Luke Manson.”
“But you are both of those people,” I defended, looking up at him. “You will have to figure out how much of each you can reconcile with and move on from there.”
“Wise words from someone I yelled at.” He kissed the tip of my nose.
Even that brief gesture of care hurt, and I couldn’t stop the groan from escaping me. Luke released me from his hold and stood.
“For now, I just want to be Ruby Mae’s man who takes care of her. Let me draw you a hot bath to soothe your muscles. Perhaps I should have a doctor called in,” he wondered out loud.
I waved him off. “I don’t think anything’s broken or truly hurt.
