Page 95 of Charmed By Destiny

One of the things that sucked about being Richard’s secret was that Luke had to march to the car without his soulmate. It was usually only mildly annoying to Luke, but this evening was different. Douglas had shut himself in Richard’s office, and Luke’s desk allowed him the advantage of seeing for himself that the inspirit had sailed out with color high on his cheeks and temper making his gait stiff.

Now Luke was sitting in a limousine, waiting to find out what had happened between Douglas and Richard. The door opened, and Clark climbed in. Gabe was with him, as always, and Luke greeted the men distractedly.

Clark glanced up from his phone. “Everything okay, Lucas?”

“Yeah, I’m eager to talk to Richard. He and Douglas had a private conference in his office right before I left. Douglas appeared pissed off as he walked out.”

“Interesting. Douglas texted me. He’d like to meet with me in the morning.”

“The question is, why did he send me a text too?” Gabe asked. “No one wants to meet with me except my own staff.”

“You’ll join us so I don’t have to fill you in later,” Clark replied. “Maybe if you worked on being more personable, people would want to meet with you. My assistant swears you didn’t learn his name until you discovered Eric was your soulmate. The man nearly died of shock when you asked him about his holidays last year.”

“I knew his name, I just never used it,” Gabe grumbled.

“No one believes me if I tell them you’re nice,” Luke told Gabe.

“That’s because if it doesn’t involve Marwood security or our wonderful Eric, Gabriel is oblivious to it,” Clark said.

The car door opened. It took a single look at Richard for Luke to know the man was pissed. If he had any doubt, it was banished by the way Richard grabbed Luke’s face and kissed him passionately. Normally, Richard was happy to allow Luke to take the lead, but not today. His tongue was aggressive, and it was so hot, Luke nearly forgot Clark and Gabriel existed.

As suddenly as the caress had started, Richard pulled away again, then snuggled close to Luke on the long seat.

“Sorry, needed to do something with all this excess energy,” Richard said, grabbing Luke’s hand and wrapping it between his own.

Trying to grab his scattered wits and calm his dick down, Luke nodded dumbly as the car pulled away from the curb.

“What happened with you and Douglas?” Clark asked. “And why does he want to meet with me and Gabriel in the morning?”

“I’m happy to answer, but I have a question for my soulmate first,” Richard replied. “It was pointed out to me today that I’m an entitled wealthy man without a clear perspective of how other people live. Would you prefer if I called you Luke instead of Lucas?”

“What?” Luke asked.

“I call you Lucas. Every Marwood does. Did any of us ask if that was okay with you?”

“Wait, I’m stuck on the first part. Who said that to you?” Luke asked.

“Given the context clues, I’m guessing Douglas,” Gabe remarked.

“Excellent deduction,” Clark commented. “I can’t remember, did I ask you if it was okay to call you Gabriel instead of Gabe?”

Gabe offered Clark a ghost of a smile. “The day I met you, I mentioned that everyone calls me Gabe. Rosalind told me the archangel Gabriel was a protector and a defender. It was something she learned despite necromancers having no faith in human religions. Somehow, she thought I had something in common with the archangel Gabriel, and she liked the sound of my name. It’s impossible to forget any part of that conversation. It changed my life.”

“As usual, my soulmate was right,” Clark responded. “You were destined to be a protector and a defender of one of my most precious treasures, Gabriel.”

Luke’s gaze widened. “I’m never calling you Gabe again. That’s beautiful.”

“Stop embarrassing Gabriel, but do call him that,” Clark said with a grin. “You’re a Marwood like he is, and that’s what our family calls him.”

It was amusing that Gabe—no,Gabriel—had color in his cheeks, but Luke didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so he returned to the important matter of why his own soulmate was fuming.

“To answer your question, Dragonfly, no one called me Lucas until I met the Marwoods. I wasn’t going to correct you, Clark, because I was intimidated. After I settled down, I thought it was neat that the Marwoods decided I was Lucas.”

“Except for Gabriel, because he can’t help but defy tradition,” Richard grumbled.

“If anyone wants to know, Lucas meansbringer of light,” Clark said. “An apt name for an inspirit.”

Richard’s mouth dropped open. “I didn’t know that. What a perfect name for you, Lucas.”

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