Page 68 of Miss Understood

“I guess,” she says, and I realize how exhausted her eyes are. “I’ll be fine. I just need some coffee, and I’ll be good to go. Besides, I have too much work to do tonight to be sleepy already.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“No.” Luce smirks up at me. “Unlike you, Mr. Managing Partner, some of us have to deal with all the annoying nitty-gritty that goes into prepping a case.”

It catches me a little off guard. Have I been up the food chain so long that I’ve forgotten what it actually takes to be in this business? By the time I show up to court, things are usually sorted for me. I only attend meetings beforehand if I absolutely have to. And even if I’m working twelve-hour days, half of those hours are usually spent charming business partners or dealing with administrative bullshit.

But that’s not Luce’s life. Now that I think about it, it’s rare she’s back at the apartment before seven thirty every night, and she doesn’t meet me in bed until much later.

“Let me help,” I tell her. “You don’t need to be doing all the work yourself.”

“No, no, no,” she says, wagging a finger between us. “No special treatment. Especially for your wife. I’ll gain my battle scars just like everyone else, thank you very much.”

“How heroic of you,” I tell her.

“We all have to earn it. You did at one point, in case you forgot. No one held your hand, did they?”

I shake my head. I guess they didn’t, but that doesn’t make it easier to watch Luce carry around this giant burden.

Her arms snake up around my neck, and she gives me a heated look. “I see what you’re thinking, Mr. Davis. Stop.”

“And what is that?”

“That you want to help me.” Her eyes narrow. “Don’t do it; don’t get involved. I’ve worked too hard to get to where I am for people to think I don’t deserve what’s coming to me. It’s bad enough that people think I’m only at the firm because of my dad’s friendship with Brad. You getting involved would make it worse.”

That cuts like a knife, knowing that I was one of the people judging Luce without any real basis. I was part of the problem.

“I’m sorry—”

She places her finger over my lips. “Past is the past.”

She pulls me in and sinks her body against mine. Her slinky dress gives me all sorts of ideas for when we get home, but I push those aside for now and just hold her tighter. Swaying to the music with her in my arms. She’s the center of the universe, and I’m the planets orbiting around her.

“What are you thinking?” I ask her when I notice the smallest glimmer of a smile cross her mouth.

“Who says I’m thinking anything?”

“Going to play it that way, are you?”

I dip my head down and gently plant a kiss on her neck, where her heartbeat races.

Luce sucks in a sharp inhale at the contact. “That’s not fair.” She practically moans it.

“I never said I played fair.” I kiss her once more. “You’re lucky we’re in a room full of people, or I’d find all sorts of creative ways to drag the truth out of you.”

That makes her laugh.

“I’m just thinking this is all a little surprising,” Luce says carefully. “Seeing my family here, your sister, our friends. It’s a lot to process.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

My chest tightens. I’m terrified of what she might say. Sometimes you find everything you ever wanted in unexpected places, and even if I never thought I wanted it, I need her.

Luce examines my face, drawing her hand up to smooth over the wrinkle between my eyes. She sees everything I don’t want her to, but I can’t bring myself to hide it anymore.

“No, not a bad thing. I’m happy,” she says. “I just don’t know where we go from here. The logistics of it… We’re legally married, but we’re just now starting to date.”

I can hear the lawyer in her starting to come out.

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