Page 37 of Lipstick Kiss

“Hey, yourself. What are you doing here? Another ironing lesson?”

“Absolutely not. I wanted to talk to you.”

Freya stood, shimmied down her dark grey fitted dress, and stepped away from her desk. The hand with the ring was tucked under her elbow.

Her dress was doing all kinds of things, but now wasn’t the time to concentrate on that. So Luke came forward until he was toe to toe with her. Luke cupped her cheek and grinned. He was done with her being fake engaged. Luke wanted her single.

“You’re a liar, Freya Riley,” he whispered.

She didn’t move from his touch. She stood her ground. The only indication he knew she had cottoned on to the subject was a minute flare of her nostrils.

“I’m not,” she whispered back.

“Show me your hand,” he said, taking a step back.

Freya gave him a hand that didn’t have the engagement ring on it palm up.

“The other one, Freya,” he said.

She put that hand palm up in front of him like she was holding two invisible grapefruits. He took the hand with the diamond and turned it over. He dropped his eyes to the ring and then back up to Freya’s face.

“You’re not engaged, there is no fiancé, and this ring is not yours,” he said.

She couldn’t answer without perpetuating the lie, and he knew it. So he nudged the diamond to the left and to the right, but it didn’t budge.

Freya watched him. “How did you know?”

“Lots of tiny different things. But one thing I do know, you don’t keep secrets from me. If you’d fallen in love, you would’ve shared that with me. It stung for a while that you would keep your happiness from me, but then you were acting weird and checking out the hot guys. Not to mention no one else has seen this mysterious person.”

“Fuck,” she whispered.

He held the hand with the diamond, dropped it between them, and entwined their fingers. Then he cupped hercheek with his other hand and stepped back into her space. Her fragrance was light and sweet like peaches and seemed to calm him. She’d always smelled like that, so familiar to his senses.

“It won’t come off, Luke. You gave me such a scathing look when I told you I was engaged. I was hurt that you wouldn’t think it was possible, so I lied. The truth is I tried it on, and it won’t come off.”

He loved her confession, delighted that he was free to pursue her.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

“Of course, it’s gorgeous.”

“You know it’s a Turner ring, right?”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

“Keep it, Peaches.”

“I can’t,” she said, shaking off his grasp and lifting her hand.

He noticed she didn’t move away from the hand cupping her cheek. If anything, she leaned into it as she admired the rock on her finger.

“It suits you. It’s beautiful, just like you.”

She raised her other hand to demonstrate it wouldn’t come down her finger. Luke couldn’t care less. There was more jewellery in the Turner vault none of the wives would be able to wear it all in a lifetime. Erica would have the most opportunity when she walked the red carpet, but it would stay in velvet cases for the rest of them.

“Luke,” she whispered.

“Yeah?” he whispered back.

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