Page 50 of Lukas

Chapter Twenty

Reina hadno idea how much longer the spanking went on for. For the first time in her life, her brain turned completely off. All she could do was feel. Float. Be free.

When it finally turned back on, she was straddling Lukas on his lap in the chair, her head on his shoulder, her legs draped on either side of his hips. His fingers ran gently through her hair and up and down her spine.

“I-I’m not sure what just happened.”

“It’s most commonly called sub-space, and you were fucking beautiful. That’s what happened.”

He sat there holding her for the longest time, stroking her, gentling her. There was nothing sexual about it. Just the two of them, together.

“Do you really want more distance, sweetheart?” he finally murmured. “If that’s what you want, I’ll find the strength to give it to you. Somehow.”

She knew she should sit up, look him in the eyes, but her muscles still weren’t working correctly. “I thought that was what you wanted. That it was why we hadn’t seen each other for three days.”

“I had work. I told you that. Thought you understood.”

“I did. I do.” She threw a hand out towards the newspaper on the table. “But what about the woman at the gala? The one in the red dress?”

He forced her up so they were face to face. “I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret, but how did you know?”

She still avoided his eyes. “It was in the paper which was on the table when I walked out here.”

He pulled her back down so she was on his shoulder again, her face pressed up to his neck this time. “So, let me guess. You saw the paper and decided that when I said work, what I actually meant was dating and sleeping with other women. You then decided that, in order to keep things on equal footing, you would announce you needed distance and space.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted.” She still wasn’t completely sure that wasn’t.

“And if I told you I haven’t even so much as looked at another woman sexually since the moment I saw you wandering around in Deeper Threat? Have had absolutely no interest in being near someone else who isn’t you?”

Now her muscles finally worked. Reina sat up and glared at him. It was too late to hold back now. “You seemed pretty damn interested in being with the blonde in the red dress!”

“Alisha means absolutely nothing to me.”

“Yet she was the one you chose to stand by your side at an important public function. I get it, okay Lukas? She’s the type of person you need for your public image. The type you want on the society page picture with you. I’m not. As a matter of fact, we’ve never gone out in public at all.” Crap. She was screwing this up. “Not that I need you to take me out on elaborate dates or anything. That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Reina—”

She held a hand up to stop him. His eyebrow raised but he quieted as she continued. “I’ll admit, I’m not particularly relationship savvy, so yes, when we couldn’t get together for three days, I thought maybe you were done with us and were just letting me down gently. I don’t know.”

She thought about what Peter said. How everyone knew Lukas had someone he didn’t take out in public. And it hurt. It shouldn’t—Lukas had never promised her anything, particularly not wine, roses and romance—but it did.

She cleared her throat. “I’m just learning the rules as I go and that’s hard for me. But I get it. I’m not the woman you want to be seen in public with. What we have is… private.”

All her old insecurities came crawling back. Who could blame him for not wanting to take her out in public? In the last twelve, hours he’d had her naked in the building lobby, gasping and obscenely sprawled in the elevator, fucked in the ass over his dining room table, and spanked out on the balcony where anyone could hear… and she’d liked so much she’d literally floated out of her own mind. So, no. Not someone you would want to take to a charity event.

The little slut on the side that he never takes out in public.

“I have to go.”

She tried to get up, but his arms immediately wrapped around her hips, anchoring her in place. “No. I get my say now. And you’re lucky your ass is already blistered, or you’d be getting another spanking.”

She sighed. “Look, I’m not trying to make this all dramatic. I just need some time to process—”

Now he held his hand up to stop her. “For the past few weeks, my family has had some trouble with a group—a gang, to be more precise—in Baton Rouge. My brothers and I have a lot of power, and with that comes a lot of enemies. Dominic and Roman both haven’t let their wives out of their sights for weeks, so no going on dates, nothing in public. Because they know that the surest way for their enemies to hurt them would be through the women they love.”

“I understand.”

“There was no way I was starting a splashy new public relationship with you when I knew that would make you a target. That, and only that, is the reason I haven’t taken you out in public. Alisha is a business associate—nothing more—who has a full-time security team that watches out for her.”

---