His Lover to Protect - Katee Robert Page 0,61

bartender, Tristina, bloomed into full-out self-loathing. If he’d been honest with Alexis from the beginning—Flannery be damned—then he could have avoided hurting her like this. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if they wouldn’t have progressed in a similar way even if she knew why he was in Europe to begin with. It wasn’t like they’d been best friends from the start.

He could have experienced those same things with her without the layer of lies between them. He could have been next to her while she discovered her inner strength without hobbling her along the way.

Because he had been telling the truth. She stood on her own two feet, even when he wasn’t completely honest with her. Watching that confidence crumble was almost worse than knowing he’d fucked this up beyond all reason.

Not to mention he had to call and report in—something he’d avoided up to this point, mostly because he didn’t want to face Flannery’s wrath. If the man didn’t know what happened between them—and that was doubtful at this point—Luke hadn’t wanted to be the one to tell him.

Which was cowardly as fuck.

If he couldn’t deal with confronting Flannery, then how the hell was he supposed to prove to Alexis that he was serious about her? Steeling himself, Luke dropped onto the bed in his hotel room and dug out his satellite phone.

It barely rang once. “I wondered when I’d hear from you.”

There was nothing in Flannery’s voice to tell him which way the wind was blowing. But the lack of panic told him all he needed to know. “You’ve talked to her?” She was okay. That was all that mattered.

“You have some serious balls to call me and demand to know a damn thing about her. Why don’t we talk about the fact that you abused the hell out of my instructions? What part of ‘protect Alexis’ translated into ‘fuck her’?”

“Don’t talk about her like that.” He shoved to his feet and paced around the bed and back again. “I didn’t plan on things playing out this way, but I’m not going to apologize for it. I care about her and, yeah, I fucked up, but I’m going to find a way to make this right. I’m not letting her go without a fight.”

He expected Flannery to lay into him, or at least rip him a new one. But the man just hissed out a breath. “What makes you think she wants anything to do with you?”

“She probably doesn’t. And if she tells me that after I pour out my heart”—did he actually just say that shit?—“then I won’t bother her again. But I have to try. I can’t let things stand as they are.”

“You’re serious.”

“As a fucking heart attack. She got to me, man. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I’m a goner where she’s concerned.”

Another pause, longer this time. “Even if she decides to give you a second chance, that doesn’t let you off the hook with me—or Avery and Drew.”

He didn’t give a flying fuck what they thought of him. Alexis was the only one who mattered. “Just tell me where she is. Give me a chance to at least try to fix this.” He didn’t have the first clue how he was supposed to do it, but he couldn’t walk away now any more than he could before.

Then it hit him. He didn’t need Flannery to tell him where she was going, because he already knew. “She’s going to Verona, isn’t she?” If she was feeling half the heartbreak he was at this point, she’d want that reassurance that love wasn’t all a shit show. Hell, he’d like a little reassurance right now, too.

“Yeah.” Flannery hesitated. “Good luck.”

Luke hung up, his mind already on his destination. Verona. Juliet’s Wall. He had to admit there was something that hit him right in the chest at the thought of never seeing her again. He wasn’t the type to write love letters to a woman who would never receive them, but after the last few days, he understood the urge. At this point, he’d do that and more to make her sit still long enough to listen to what he had to say.

First, he needed a fucking train ticket.

Alexis sat on one of the benches in the little courtyard and stared at the wall peppered with more letters than she could begin to count. Thousands of lovers pouring out their hearts to Juliet. She wasn’t sure if it was romantic