“You’re tickling me.” I lift my head and place a kiss on his chest and reach up and fiddle with his chest hair.
“I can feel the cogs in your head turning, Luce.”
I roll off him and sit up, the covers dropping from me. His eyes drop to my chest. “I should come with you—”
He’s shaking his head before I’ve even finished the sentence.
“No, we’ve been over this.”
“You’ve been over this; we haven’t been over this at all. In fact, I don’t think there was even a discussion, you’d already decided. What aren’t you telling me?” I cock my head as he sits up against the headboard.
“Since when do you want to have a conversation about stuff?”
I grab a pillow and whack him with it. “Stop deflecting, Mr Politician. It’s safer if I come.”
“For me, yes. But not for you. Look, the press are having a field day over you. Can’t you see I want to protect you as much as you want to protect me?”
“They won’t find anything,” I say, adamant. “Andrews took care of that years ago.”
He shakes his head. “Come on, Cookie. Don’t be naïve. Andrews put you on this case because of our past.”
“Correct. But I can’t work out why the fuck Luca sent you to Apex in the first place.”
At that point, Owen looks away towards the window, where the heavy, dark grey curtains are closed hiding the view of Westminster in the distance. “But you know why,” I push.
He sighs and looks back to me. “I told him about us, about our childhood.”
“Idiot.”
“Why does that make me an idiot?” he asks, frowning.
“You told someone you shared a prison cell with your past. Do you have any idea the power that gives someone? Especially someone like Luca, as soon as you show a weakness, people exploit it.”
“What makes you think he exploited it?”
“Erm, he sent you a hard drive with evidence to shake up the government. He sent you to Apex, where Luca knew very well I worked.”
“Did you ever think he was maybe doing us a favour?”
I snort.
“Did you ever think that maybe he was trying to reunite us? I know you don’t like Luca, for what reason I don’t think I will ever truly understand, but he isn’t a bad person.”
I shake my head.
“I don’t want to argue.” Owen reaches out and grabs my pinkie, wrapping his finger around it. “I don’t want to go back over old ground. I want to move forward, Luce, with you.”
“Then why won’t you let me come tomorrow?”
“Because I want to, no,haveto do this alone. This is my burden.” He tugs me towards him and I crawl closer as he lifts his arm, allowing me to snuggle back into him.
“I don’t want to talk anymore,” he says, kissing my head. “I just want to be in this moment with you.”
I look up at him through my lashes, his lips dropping to my forehead, and I nod. Because I want that, too.
My head tilts and take his mouth gently in mine, his lips a soft caress. I straddle him, but I don’t take it further than just the kiss that has my heart thundering.
His hands wrap around my arse, his tongue pushing into my mouth, while I tug at the roots of his hair.
