Page 23 of Forbidden Fiancé

He certainly knew them better than I did. He would know how they would react to our news. I had to trust him to do what was right for them and for us.

“Tonight, right now, as soon as possible.”

I let out a nervous laugh. “Do you think that would be wise?”

“The sooner you are permanently in my life and bed, the wiser everything will be.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works. You realize we’re going to be stuck together for the next five days on Paradise Island. Do you think it would be wise to tell them and have it be tense and awkward between us all?”

Luke leaned back and lifted an eyebrow. “What are you suggesting?”

He wasn’t immediately disagreeing with what I was saying but I could tell he didn’t like where my thought process was going either.

“We need to keep it quiet-”

“NO!”

I put my hand on his chest to reassure him. “Not forever. Just until we all get back to Florida. Ethan said this was a chance for you all to be a family again. He seemed like he wanted it. Do you?”

Luke looked away from me and frowned. “I didn’t have the best relationship with Ethan when he was younger. It would be nice to have one.”

“Telling him you’re in love and going to marry his ex-fiancé less than a day after we broke up is not the way to foster a relationship with him,” I said.

Luke turned back to look at me. His lips were thin and his eyes were strained when he said, “You might have a point. It isn’t one that I like.”

“It will only be until we get back to Florida. Once we are, you can tell them. Then, if they want to hate us, we aren’t stuck in the same boat or house together.”

“I don’t like it,” Luke said.

“Neither do I. I don’t like the idea of lying to the people you care about. That isn’t the way for us to start our life together. If I saw any other way, I would do it. Do you?”

Luke dropped onto the bed and sighed. “No.” He sat up quickly as if he just remembered something.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m not going to stay away from you for a week. I can hardly stand to be apart from you for an hour. This isn’t going to work.”

“It has to. We’ll figure it out,” I said.

“How?” Luke asked, throwing my question back at me.

“We’ll sneak off whenever we can. We can’t spend every waking moment with your family.”

“I don’t want to,” Luke muttered and I laughed.

“It might seem like a long time now, but it will only be for less than a week. It will go by quickly and when we are back, we can start our life together.”

“You will move in with me. We will get married as soon as we get back,” Luke demanded.

“Yes, to both.”

“Good girl.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to my exposed skin near my neck. “I will need you in my bed every night.” His mouth moved under the towel and towards my right breast. I let him and sighed when he kissed my nipple. “I cannot and will not sleep alone. Not now, not ever.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” I said and wrapped my arms around him and dropped onto the bed with him.

His hands went to the towel and pushed it off me. I did the same to his and squeezed his ass. He kissed my breast as he moved between my legs, I opened them for him, my body on fire with need.

The sound of a knock on the door jolted us away from each other. We both froze and stared at the door.

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