Steal My Breath (Elixir #1) (31 page)

F
amily
.

I never realised what I was missing out on until I became part of Luke’s family. Sitting around the table over dinner, with this family, I feel so much love and acceptance that my heart could actually burst.

Sean crawls onto my lap and rests his head against my chest while wrapping his arms around me. He’s been my shadow all afternoon, which is cool, because if he wasn’t mine, I’d certainly be his.

Luke smiles at us as he reaches for my hand. Since we’ve spent all afternoon with the family, we haven’t had a chance to talk about what’s happening between us. I’m okay with that, though, because I think we’re on the same page now.

“So,” Estelle says with a clap of her hands. She’s so happy to be here with us all. Her glow burns bright. “Sailing is booked for eight tomorrow morning.” Looking at Avery, she asks, “What have you decided, darling?” I smile at the relationship they’ve formed. Estelle has become the mother to her she hasn’t had for most of her life.

Tyler answers for Avery. “She’s not going. I’ll stay here with her.”

Avery scowls at him before looking at Estelle. “I’ve decided not to go. But Tyler will go with you. I’m going to check into the day spa instead.”

Tyler opens his mouth to respond, but I cut him off. “I’ll stay with Avery. We can have a girls’ day.”

She hits me with a grateful smile.

Sean shifts so he can look up at me. “No, I want you to come sailing,” he grumbles.

I take hold of his face with both my hands. “We can go sailing another time.”

“When?”

“When we get home from this trip we’ll organise a day. How does that sound?”

His face lights up with a smile, and he nods. “That sounds good.”

My eyes meet Luke’s.

No words are exchanged, but I know what’s behind the expression on his face. He’s wondering what I mean by ‘when we get home’.

Estelle continues, “You girls will have breakfast with us?”

“Yes, I will,” I reply.

Avery agrees also and Estelle beams. “Good. I need my girls at breakfast.”

My girls.

Family.

A
fter dinner
, we all take a walk along the beach, laughing the whole time. Even Avery and Tyler put aside their bickering and have some fun. When they let their issues go, they are something else to watch. Her eyes sparkle and his body language screams out how much he wants her. I always knew they had something; I just hope they can find their way to it.

As we stroll back towards the resort, Luke’s arm slides over my shoulders and he pulls me close. We slow down while everyone keeps moving forward. “You know what I’m looking forward to?” he says.

I glance up at him. “What?”

“Sailing with you.”

I snake my arm around his waist and sink into his love. “Me too.” I know he’s not talking about sailing.

“So this is really happening?”

I stop and turn to face him. Looking up into eyes that beg me to give him the one word he wants to hear, I smile. “Yes. We’re really going sailing.”

His chest rises as he inhales a long breath. He then returns my smile. It’s not a smile I’ve ever seen. This is so much more. “I’ve been wanting to go sailing with you for far too long, baby.”

“I know,” I whisper. “Me, too.”

He steps close and catches my lips with his. Goosebumps flood my skin as he kisses me like a man starved for kisses. I wrap my arms around him and twine one leg around his. I could spend eternity kissing this man.

When he finally lets me go, I say, “I love that we don’t do quick kisses, ever.”

His eyes fill with a burning intensity. “Callie, I won’t let you go again. Are you sure this is what you want?”

My heart thumps in my chest as I nod. Just the thought of saying no fills me with fear. “Yes.”

“What about your work?”

“I hate my job, and I can work anywhere with the job I’m going to pursue now. I want to publish books, and I can do that from a sailboat if I have internet. I can live anywhere, Luke, and I choose to live with you and Sean.”

His eyes search mine.

When he doesn’t say anything, I place my hand against his chest. “Besides, I already have my flight booked home to Brisbane. And I’m sitting right next to you on that flight.”

He frowns, clearly confused. “What?”

I grin. “I asked Estelle to book me a flight home to Brisbane rather than to LA. I was so unhappy over there. Thank God for Avery talking some sense into me, convincing me it’s okay to take a step back if you make a bad choice in life. I packed up my apartment and shipped what I wanted to keep home and sold the rest. And I quit my job. The last couple of weeks have been very busy to say the least.”

His hand slides around the nape of my neck. “We’re really doing this.”

I reach up and place my hand on his arm. “Yes, we are. You’re stuck with me now.”

“Baby, there ain’t anywhere else I’d rather be or anyone else I’d rather be with.”

Our lips meet again, and it’s like sunshine on a rainy day, when all the doom that’s been cast your way during the pounding rain finally clears, and you see those first rays of a rainbow mixed with glints of sun.

So many shades of colour.

That’s what Luke’s love gives me.

F
amily
.

I never imagined it could feel like this.

My family is my everything.

They’re my centre.

My heart.

I watch my wife as she moves effortlessly through the crowd of our loved ones on her way to me. She stops and laughs with Mum and Avery, her head falling back as laughter floats out of her mouth and her eyes close in happiness for a beat. They exchange words and then Mum kisses her on the cheek before letting her go.

She takes the last few steps towards me, her lips curling up into a sexy smile. I hold my arm out, and she glides into my embrace, her lips coming straight to mine.

No quick kisses.

Ever.

She blesses me with a slow, deep kiss that tells me everything a man needs to know.

My woman can’t get enough of me.

I move my hand lower until it slides over her ass. When she finishes kissing me, I murmur against her ear, “You have way too much material covering your ass. I can hardly feel it through this dress.”

My ears fill with the sound of her sharp intake of breath. “You love my wedding dress.”

I smile. “I do, but I’m gonna love taking it off you even more.”

She tilts her head. “Why are you at the bar, baby?”

I find her eyes. “That would be because my wife has been busy dancing. I figured she would eventually need a drink, so I waited here for her.”

She grins. “You are such a smart man.”

I nod, tightening my hold on her. “That, I am.”

Quirking a brow, she says, “Oh, so cocky.”

“I can afford to be because I know I’m right.”

Running her hands over my chest, she says, “Please tell me how you are so sure.”

“Nailing you made me the smartest man on this planet.”

She laughs and shakes her head in amusement. “Nailing me, huh? So romantic.”

“I never professed to being romantic.”

“But you
can
cook, so there is that.”

“True.”

She moves a little closer. “And you bring me coffee in the morning.”

“I do.”

“And listen to my country music even though you hate it.”

“I don’t hate it.”

She scrunches up her face. “You do. A lot.”

I concede defeat. “Okay. I do.”

“You also sit through documentary after documentary with me when you’d rather be in the garden or—”

“—In you.”

“Yes, well I was going to say something else, but there is that, too.”

I pull her hard up against my body. “You give me more.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You gave me back my work.”

She pulls a face as if what she gave me was nothing when it was everything. “I just helped you shuffle your staff around and took on a few shifts myself so you could take that job on, that’s all.”

“That job just happens to be the second best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”

“Drawing buildings is your happy place. I would do anything to give you your happy place. We both got lucky with our work.” Publishing books looks good on Callie.

“You love my son as much as I do. You gave him a stable family.” I eye Sean dancing with Mum. Now that he has both Callie and his mother back in his life he’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him. The fact he gets to spend time each day with his mother is the icing on the cake. Thank God she won her appeal.

Her lips brush across mine. “He’s easy to love,” she murmurs and then adds with a wicked glint in her eyes, “Maybe more so than you some days.”

I press my lips to her ear. “You bring your A-Game more than I deserve.”

Her hand grips my chin and angles my face so our eyes lock. “That’s because I love your cock so damn much.”

I groan. “I should have known your dirty mouth wasn’t far away.”

She grins. “It never is. And
that’s
one of your favourite things about me.”

I grip her ass harder. “I don’t have favourite things about you, baby. I love everything equally.”

“And you said you weren’t romantic. You, Mr Hardy, are a big softie underneath all this moody bullshit.”

“And you, Mrs Hardy, are a pushover under all this argumentative bullshit.”

She sighs. “That’s only because I finally found a man worth letting boss me around.” She kisses me long and deep again, before giving me everything. “I finally found the man who stole my breath, and I will always let him boss me around.”

“
N
o
, Chelsea!” I quickly reach for her hand, pushing it out of the way. Kissing her chubby cheek, I say, “You are a real handful. Did you know that?” Babysitting Avery’s baby girl has exhausted me today, physically as well as mentally. I’m fairly sure I just saved myself from the wrath of her father. She was about to knock a glass of water off the table; I can imagine what Tyler would have to say about that if he knew. The man has become completely too much since the birth of his precious daughter. Any little incident becomes a huge thing he needs to know about.

“Well, look at you,” Paris says when she enters the lounge room. “Auntie Callie practicing for when she becomes a mummy.”

I shake my head. “God, no. That is not happening anytime soon. I don’t have the energy for this job.”

She laughs and sits next to us on the couch. Reaching her arms out, she says, “Come here, baby girl.”

Chelsea grins and flaps her arms in the air. These two adore each other.

After I hand Chelsea over, I stand. “I’ll be back.”

Paris frowns at me. “Where are you going? I just got here. I’ve got shit to tell you.”

I hold my finger up. “One minute. I promise I’ll be back.” Without waiting for her response, I head out of the lounge room in search of Luke.

My husband is in the office and glances up from the paperwork he’s been doing for the last couple of hours. Throwing his pen down, he leans back in his chair and says, “Thank fuck. I need a break.”

I nod in the direction of the lounge room. “Paris is home.”

Pushing his chair back, he stands and comes to me. “You’ve got it?”

“It’s in the kitchen. I’ll grab it and meet you there.”

I collect the envelope from the kitchen and make my way back to the lounge room where Luke is now holding Chelsea. I slow my pace. “And people don’t think you’re a pushover,” I say softly. “They haven’t met Uncle Luke.”

His gaze meets mine. “They also haven’t met my wife. That woman has a way of getting me to agree to all sorts of things.”

I move to him. “There are still some things you refuse to budge on. We should work on that.”

He drops his lips to mine and kisses me.

Luke’s kisses are still my favourite thing in the world.

“Right you two,” Paris interrupts. “I’ve got something to discuss with you both.”

I drag my mouth from Luke’s and smile at her. “We’ve got something to discuss with you, too.”

Luke and I settle on the couch. Chelsea happily bounces in his arms while he speaks. “We’re going first,” he starts. “The last few years have been tough and I couldn’t have done them without you, Paris. You’ve been there every step of the way while I worked through everything and you put up with a lot of shit from me—”

“You weren’t too bad,” she says, her eyes soft with affection.

He nods, “Yes, I was. You took on so much around here, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to find a way that expresses my gratitude.”

I hold out the envelope to her. “We hope this is a start.”

She frowns as she takes the envelope from me. “What is this?”

“Open it,” Luke bosses her and I lean against him. We’ve been talking about doing this for a few months now and I’m excited for it to finally happen.

Her hand flies to her mouth when she sees what’s in the envelope and her eyes widen in surprise. Looking up at us, she exclaims, “Oh, my God! You guys shouldn’t have.”

“Yeah, we should have,” Luke says and I nod in agreement. “I’m just sorry it took me so long to do. Dealing with Jolene’s appeal and Alanis’s arrest took up all my time, but I really should have made the effort before now.”

“Oh, did you see the news today?” Paris asks. “Apparently Alanis has admitted to the murder.”

Luke shakes his head. “No, I haven’t heard that, but thank fuck.” I watch as he takes that knowledge in. I know this has been weighing on his mind.

“I wonder why she did it,” I murmur.

Paris shrugs. “We’ll probably never know. She’s a psycho bitch?”

I nod. “That’s the truth.” I always knew she was a bitch; I just didn’t realise she was crazy, too.

She looks down at the envelope with her travel documents in it. “An all-expenses-paid trip to London. It’s too much.”

Paris has talked non-stop about a trip her friends are taking in a month’s time, wishing she could afford to go. Luke and I decided to gift her the trip as a way of saying thank you for everything she’s done to help us.

“Paris, you are one of the kindest people I know. You go out of your way to do nice things for those you love. This is the least we can do for you,” I say.

“God, now I feel bad for what I am about to tell you,” she says, her eyes full of worry.

“The best thing you could tell us would be that you’re moving out,” Luke says, surprising me. He hasn’t mentioned anything to me about wanting her to move.

Surprise flares in Paris’s eyes also. “Really? You want me to leave?”

He nods. “Yes, I want you to start living your life for you rather than for us. You spend too many hours looking after this family when you should be looking after yourself.”

Her eyes well up with tears. “God, I thought you meant you wanted me to leave because I was annoying you or something.”

“As far as I’m concerned, and I think Callie feels the same way, you could live with us forever. But you need to be out there living your life.”

She nods. “Well, I am moving out. I’m going to share with some friends. But I was worried you’d be upset so I’ve been putting off telling you for wee—”

Sean comes flying into the room, yelling with excitement. “Grandma’s here!”

I stand, placing my hand on Luke’s shoulder. “I’ll let her in while you two finish talking.”

“Thanks, baby,” he says, his eyes firmly on mine.

Sean grabs my hand and drags me to the front door. I’m surprised to find not only Estelle and George waiting, but Avery and Tyler also.

“Darling!” Estelle bustles in with a quick kiss to my cheek. Her arms are loaded with food and drink. We’re celebrating George’s birthday tonight.

After she passes me, George pulls me close for a hug. We’ve grown much closer since mine and Luke’s wedding and I adore spending time with him. “Thank you for putting up with my wife’s crazy antics tonight,” he says quietly.

I laugh as I let him go. “Well, I do love her. Nearly as much as you do. So we let her do what she needs.” Estelle has come a long way since she married George. Even Luke has admitted that.

He pats me on the arm. “We wouldn’t have her any other way.”

Before I let him pass, I kiss his cheek. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you, Callie,” he replies before following his wife into the house.

I turn to Avery and Tyler after he leaves. Narrowing my eyes at them, I say, “What’s going on here?” The minute I saw them together, I knew there was something off. Their body language screams it. Tyler is standing way too close to her, while her body is angled away from him. And they’re not talking. After months of bickering, they finally seemed to have moved past that to a place where they communicated with some civility for their daughter. Today they seem to be back to square one.

Avery has the look in her eyes she gets when she’s trying to avoid discussing something. She doesn’t meet my gaze. “Nothing,” she mutters and pushes past me.

I watch her go for a moment before eyeing Tyler. Holding my arm to block his entry, I say, “Tell me what it is.”

He glances down at my arm and then raises a brow at me. “Really? You’re not going to let me in until I tell you?”

“Spit it out, Tyler.”

He runs his fingers through his hair. “Fuck, you’ll find out soon enough anyway. Avery tells you everything eventually.” He pauses for a moment. “We slept together again.”

My eyes widen.

Not what I was expecting.

Totally not what I was expecting.

“Jesus, Tyler. You two have just gotten to a good place after months of tension. Why did you go and fuck that all up?”

Annoyance flashes in his eyes. “Why do you assume it was me who fucked it up?”

My eyes bulge a little more. “Avery initiated this?”

“Yes. And now she’s trying to run from me again, but I’m putting my foot down this time. Seems she doesn’t like it when I do that. But, fuck, she’s mine.” He pushes past me and all I can do is stare after him.

I’ve never heard Tyler sound so bossy. I shouldn’t be surprised, though. He’s just like his brother.

I don’t think Avery knows what’s coming for her.