Page 30 of It's Only Make Believe

“Damned right you are,” he says.

He closes his eyes, and I want to let my eyes close too and just stay here but I remind myself of why I have to leave and it’s too important to risk falling asleep and not doing it, so I sit up.

“Where are you going?” Luke mumbles sleepily from beside me.

“Home,” I say.

“You don’t have to go home,” he says. “Just stay here.”

I shake my head.

“No, I want to go home,” I say.

“It’s been a long week and you’ve worn me out completely. I don’t think I have the energy to drive you home,” Luke says.

“You don’t have to,” I say. I lean down and kiss him. “I’ll get a cab.”

Chapter

Twenty-Two

LUKE

Obviously, I’m not about to let Louisa get a cab home. Don’t get me wrong, I am kind of tired and I would be happy to stay here and drift off to sleep, but I only really said that to try and talk her into staying the night. I’m not about to beg her to stay though, and I sit up and push the comforter back.

“I’m serious,” Louisa says. “I really don’t mind getting a cab.”

I love that she really is serious, and I feel like if I said ‘ok then’ she wouldn’t hold it against me like some girls would. Knowing that makes me even less likely to let it happen though.

“I know you don’t mind, but I would mind,” I say, and she stops arguing with me and continues putting her clothes on. I watch for a moment and although I much prefer them coming off, it’s still a nice enough show. When she’s dressed, I get up and go to my wardrobe and pull on a pair of jeans and a t shirt. I don’t bother with underwear or socks or anything. It’s not like I’m going to need them.

“Ready?” I ask and Louisa nods her head.

She has all of her clothes back on and she’s got her purse and her laptop bag in her hand. I lead her to the door and stop to grab my keys and then we step out into the hallway, and I lock my front door. We go down the stairs and out the back door into the attached parking lot. I wait a moment to make sure the door engages and then we walk to my car. I unlock the car, and we get in and Louisa gives me her address which I put in my GPS. It’s not a long drive to her place. It’s not one of the nicer areas of the city, but it’s far from being one of the worst and when I pull up outside of her building, I see it looks fairly new and clean and nice.

“Thanks,” Louisa says as I kill the engine.

“I’ll walk you up,” I say.

She nods her head, and we get out of the car. She unlocks the door, and we go up a single flight of stairs and then to her apartment.

“This is me,” she says, stopping outside of a door marked with a number five.

I lean down and kiss her, and she moves closer against me. My body responds to her kiss, and I can’t help but deepen my kiss. Louisa gently pulls back, and I think she is going to say this was a mistake again. I won’t let her do that this time. I warned her that if we fucked, she was mine and we fucked. She doesn’t say we’re a mistake though.

“Why don’t you come in?” she says, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she looks at me. Her skin is flushed, and she looks like a porcelain doll. “You know for coffee?”

I give a breathy laugh at the last part and nod. Louisa turns in my arms and unlocks her apartment door with the key she still has out. I release her and we go inside, and she puts her keys on a small hook beside the door, followed by her laptop bag, herpurse and her jacket which all go on larger hooks beside a couple of other coats.

“Do you have a roommate?” I ask, nodding towards the coats.

“No, they’re mine,” Louisa replies.

She kicks her shoes off and leads me to the living room.

“Sit down while I put the coffee on,” she says.

“I think we both know it’s not coffee I came in for,” I say, and she flushes again and nods.

---