Page 22 of Be My Traitor

As we drove home, Lucas regaled me with stories about some of the students he’d had in his Academy. I laughed at the appropriate places and made sympathetic noises when necessary, but I wasn’t really fully engaged. I kept going over what Lucas had said about taking things slow. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that slow was the last thing I wanted. It had been too long. I needed a man in my life and I wanted Lucasnow.

We pulled up outside my house.

“Thanks for a lovely evening, Lucas,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment, covering it up with a frosty tone. “We must do it again sometime.”

“Definitely.”

Lucas leaned in to kiss me, but I wasn’t in the mood and I turned my head, leading to an awkward kiss on my cheek.

“See you at work tomorrow.”

I scrambled out of the car and hurried into my house before Lucas could say anything in return. If he wanted to take things slow, I was going to show him just how slowly I could go.

Chapter 10

Lucas

I slumped back in my seat, annoyed with how quickly an incredible night had gone south. What had I said wrong? I wanted to build a future with Milly so I’d been careful not to say anything to scare her away. Didn’t all women want to hear that a man wanted to take his time with her, get to know her, lay down solid foundations so a relationship could have a long-term future?

If only she knew that I’d spent the night wondering what she looked like under that sexy dress. Motherhood suited her, making an already amazing body even more curvaceous. I wanted to run my hands all over her, make her come so many times she lost count, until she was begging for me to stop.

But I couldn’t do that to her, not yet. I needed to prove to her that I meant it when I said I was in it for the long haul. Sleeping with her on our first date would undermine everything I was trying to achieve. We had a daughter together and I was determined to give her the family I never had and that could only happen if Milly and I got serious. I’d made too many mistakes in the past to risk messing this up.

So why had she acted so weird at the end of our date?

I shook my head. I didn’t think I’d ever understand Milly, no matter how long I knew her, and that’s what intrigued me about her. I wanted to spend the rest of my life learning all about her. She was the kind of woman a man would never get bored with.

“Take me home.” I pressed the button to switch off the intercom after giving the driver his instruction. Leaning back in the seat, I closed my eyes, wondering what my next move should be. I had one chance to get this right and I was determined not to blow it.

“You have a couple of visitors, Lucas.”

Liz, my secretary, buzzed through to my office where I was working on a report for the Board about how I was going to improve the Academy’s grades. For the past couple of years, exam performance had been disappointing and one of the reasons they’d hired me was because my own Academy had consistently excellent results, even with students who weren’t naturally academic. They wanted me to emulate that success and restore King Academy to its rightful place at the top of the league tables.

I frowned, bringing up my calendar. “I don’t have any meetings booked. Who is it?”

“Ivy Archaic and Archer Knight. They say it’s important.”

I sighed. This visit wasn’t any real surprise, but I’d thought I’d maybe get a bit more time before Ivy and her gundog came to see me. “Better show them in, Liz.”

I put on my most professional face as Liz ushered in Ivy and Archer. “Would you like any coffee?” she offered.

“No thanks.” Ivy shook her head. “This won’t take long.”

“Okay. You know where I am if you need me.” Liz backed out of the room, gazing at me meaningfully. I knew she was trying to send me a psychic message that she could always call security if I needed, but that wasn’t going to happen. I’d changed since the last time I’d dealt with Archer. He wasn’t going to scare me away this time.

“I hear belated congratulations are in order,” I said. “I hear that Louis is a cute kid. If you were worried about getting him on the waiting list for our nursery, you really don’t need to be. It should be obvious that any child of yours automatically has a place with us.”

“Cut the shit, Lucas,” Archer snarled. “You know why we’re here.”

“Milly’s a big girl,” I said calmly. “I’m sure she wouldn’t thank you for interfering. Again. Did you ever tell her why I left?”

“You left because you knew full well you were playing her. All I did was make sure you didn’t have a chance to break her heart.”

Ivy reached out, putting a hand on Archer’s thigh to ground him. “That’s enough.” Her tone held an unmistakeable authority, a reminder of just whose daughter she was. She turned to me. “We didn’t come here to fight,did we,Archer?”

“No.” Archer spoke between gritted teeth.

“In fact, Archer’s got something to say to you.”

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