Off Limits (17 page)

He sauntered past Luke
with a manic grin and when he reached out as though he was going to touch me, Luke
wrenched me backwards with such tight grip that it was going to bruise my upper
arms.

Luke’s dad only
laughed and walked back around the corner to return to his job.

Luke punched the
wall, so hard that I worried he might have broken something. When he brought
his arm back to do it again, I jumped between him and the bricks and encircled
his increasingly bloody hand. “Don’t do that,” I chastised, resting my cheek
against his chest and hugging him tightly with my free hand.

A sob wracked
through his body and tears gathered in my own eyes. “I can’t do this anymore,”
he cried, breaking his hand free from mine and hugging me so tightly it hurt.
“I can’t let him hurt you, I
can’t
. I can’t believe I’ve put you in this
situation.”

I shushed him as
best as I could, hugging him back just as tightly. “It was just an empty
threat. He just saw us and wanted to make us feel bad. He’s not going to do
anything.”

“But what if he
does? If he hurts you I won’t be able to live with myself.”

Tears escaped my
eyes, but didn’t get far before they were captured by Luke’s shirt. “He won’t
hurt me. It was just an empty threat, I’m sure,” I repeated, wanting to believe
it was true myself.

“I can’t do this,”
he repeated. “I’ve got to protect you, but try not to love you and I’ve got to
be with Phoebe when I don’t love her or her baby. I don’t know how to deal with
this.”

“You cared for
Phoebe once, when I’m out of the way you’ll care about her again. Your dad… he
won’t do anything, I’m sure of it. If he did something you’d just tell the
police and he’d be arrested. It wouldn’t be worth it. You’ll be okay.” I wanted
to believe that he’d be okay. I wanted Luke to be happy more than I wanted to
be happy. Luke deserved it.

He pulled back,
cupping my face. “I won’t let him lay a finger on you.”

I managed a tiny
smile. “I know.”

Our kiss was
tender. Desirous, as always, but filled with something much sweeter. It broke
my heart.

“Come on,” Luke
whispered, lacing his fingers through mine and starting to walk. “Let’s go.”

In the car, I
pulled Luke’s hand onto my lap. They were only grazes, but the wall had been
pebble dashed and so they were deep enough to have bled quite a bit. Retrieving
some tissues and water from the glove box, I tried to clean them up.

“Thank you,” Luke
said when I was finished, observing my handiwork.

“No problem,” I
replied, my voice just as robotic.

The rest of the
car ride was silent. We were lost in our own thoughts, about each other and our
stupid situation. We were in some kind of state of shock and words weren’t
going to help anything.

So it was a tense
silence, instead.

The hour of
watching unfamiliar scenery whizz past the window went quicker than I thought
it would.

Neither of us felt
much better when we pulled up outside the hotel. It was small, but exclusive
and I didn’t feel right here. This was Phoebe’s world, not mine. She had other
friends for this kind of thing.

Phoebe jumped down
the steps from where she’d obviously been waiting for us in the lobby. When we
stepped out of the car, his smile died. “What happened?”

“My dad was at the
service station we stopped at,” he paused, emotionless transforming into a dark
grimace. “He threatened Carmen. I punched the wall, hence the blood.” I hadn’t
noticed the stain on his shirt until now.

“Why your blood?”
Phoebe was staring at my face and I frowned, not understanding what she meant.

“Oh,” when Luke
had caressed my face. “I went a bit insane, Luke had to try and calm me down.”

“Are you both
okay?” Phoebe was nervous as she observed our broken faces.

I was finding it
easier to pull myself together than Luke, so I nodded and managed a smile. “It
was nothing, just an empty threat. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Why did he
threaten you?” Phoebe turned all her attention to me, glad for some semblance
of normality in my actions. Luke was practically a zombie and Phoebe was too
intimidated by him to know what to do.

“Because I hit
him.” There was no point in explaining that Luke’s dad thought I was his
girlfriend and not her. She’d probably take it the wrong way.

“Oh, I see.”

Luke blinked,
taking in our conversation from a few moments ago. “Sorry, I should have
cleaned your face. I didn’t think, I was too angry.”

“It’s fine,” I
assured him.

Phoebe held out
two key cards. “We’ve checked in and everything. Here are the keys to yours and
Luke’s rooms. I’m going to go and find my parents and tell them what’s going
on, if that’s okay?”

“It’s fine,” I assured
her, glad to be rid of her presence so we could calm down by ourselves.

Luke grabbed our
suitcases from the book and started walking towards the hotel. “I can get it,”
I took my case from his injured hand and we got into the lift together. Luke
was in a trance and I was beginning to seriously worry about him. I was just as
useless as Phoebe when it came down to it.

When I entered my
room, Luke followed and deposited his case. “I’ll move into my own room later.
I want to clean your face first.”

I nodded, entering
my bathroom and picking up the novelty sized shampoos and conditioners. “I
always loved staying in hotels. We did it so rarely that it was always a
massive treat. I don’t like it here, though, it’s too posh. I always liked the
family run B&Bs where the owners make a fuss over the fact you’re there.” I
hoped that just talking to Luke would make him feel better.

“I was the same-
am, the same,” He turned on the tap and fetched some toilet paper to wipe the
blood away from my face. “Are you okay?” He suddenly asked, not pausing in the dabbing
of toilet roll on my face. “I don’t think I ever asked I was feeling too down
on myself. You’re the one he threatened, after all.”

“I’m fine,” I
assured him. I had to be fine because Luke was so clearly not okay. “Are you
going to be okay?”

He shrugged,
checking every angle to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “I will be,
eventually. I just, I don’t know. Nothing’s ever going to be the same again and
I was liking where it was going before all this baby stuff.”

I didn’t know what
else to do but to embrace him in a hug. My knees dug into his legs, but opening
them so he could stand between didn’t seem like a good idea. I rested my clean
cheek against his chest and hoped this did something to help.

“I’m scared,
Carmen.”

I hugged him
tighter, tears glistening in my eyes. Luke didn’t deserve any of this. It
turned out he was one of the best people I’d ever met, despite all the drama
we’d been through before German tutelage. “It’ll be okay,” I whispered, not
sure if it had even been loud enough to hear.

After a few
minutes the door cracked open and Phoebe stuck her head in, nervousness written
all over her face. Luke stepped back instantly and we both wiped our eyes. “I
didn’t think I’d ever see the day.”  

I managed a small
smile, but Luke’s attempt was more of a grimace. “What time are we planning on
eating?”

“Not for a while,
you have time for a shower if you want one.”

I didn’t feel like
doing much more than getting into bed and trying to forget today, but perhaps a
shower would wake me up a bit. “Okay.”

“I’m going to have
a shower, too,” Luke told Phoebe. “I need to get my stuff into our room.”

Phoebe nodded,
glad to hear some normal words coming from his mouth. “Okay, cool!” His relief
was painfully obvious. “I used the spare key to let myself in here, but I left
it on your bedside table.”

“Cool, thanks.”

They exited the
room and I was left to my own thoughts for the first time.

Luke’s dad wanted
to hurt me. I was in danger, no matter how much I tried to convince Luke it was
an empty threat.

I really didn’t
want to become so paranoid that I never let the house again. Sighing and
stripping off my clothes, I got into the achingly hot shower and hoped it
helped. Expensive hotels at least meant really good showers and I welcomed the
rough jets pounding on my back.

Luke was right, it
was all becoming a bit too much and I was scared too. Scared for myself, both
physically and mentally.

Shrugging on some
jeans and a hoody, I went through to knock on Phoebe’s room which was the one
beside mine. Luke answered and let me in, going and collapsing on his bed.
“Phoebe’s gone to talk to her family.”

I rolled my eyes.
As if she thought it was okay to just leave Luke when he was in such a state.
“Well, I’m here. You can come and sit in my room if you want, I don’t mind.”

Phoebe re-entered
before he could answer. “We’re just walking down to the front to get fish and
chips tonight, if that’s all right?”

I nodded and
Phoebe took in my wet hair and make-up-less face. “I might take a bit of
getting ready, though. You guys can set off and I’ll catch up if you want.”

“No, that’s okay,”
Phoebe still hovered around the open doorway. “I’ll just go let them know we’ll
be setting off in a bit.”

I waited a few
minutes to check whether she was coming back before gesturing to Luke. “Come
on, you can come dry my hair. It’s therapeutic, I promise.”

Luke hesitated
briefly before nodding and plodding after me. Sitting on my bed with cross
legs, I took a seat before him and handed him the hair dryer. “Thanks,” I knew
he wasn’t just referring to me passing him the dryer.

“It’s no problem.”

Luke drying my
hair was therapeutic, at least for me. His fingers weaved through my hair
gently as the hot air buffeted it and I sat with a lazy smile on my face. After
it was dry, I just wanted to lean back against Luke. He could have wrapped his
arms around me and we’d just sit in silence, until that became uncomfortable.
Then we’d lay down and drift into sleep with entangled limbs.

Instead, we he
finished and I sat with hunched shoulders and lamented having to get up and
plug my straighteners.

“Don’t bother with
the straighteners,” Luke read my mind. “I like it wavy.”

I tilted my head
backwards, hair falling into his lap and gaze meeting his. “Are you sure you
aren’t making me look like a fool so you can look at me and have something to
laugh about all dinner.”

Luke chuckled, his
hand going back to my hair and running his fingers through it. “No. You just
look pretty, I promise.”

I flushed against
grinned, getting up and retrieving my make-up bag. “Thank you. But, whatever
you say, I definitely require some mascara.”

My make-up didn’t
take long and Luke watched me from the bed with a calmer expression. “Okay, I’m
sorted. Let’s get going.”

Luke made a
discontented noise and dragged himself from my bed. “I wish we didn’t have to.”

“I know. I was
hoping they’d accept my offer to get going and we could have just done our own
thing, but I guess no one will want to talk to us anyway. We’re just the weird outcasts
at this point.”

“Thank God,” Luke
grumbled, pulling on the coat he’d brought through with him and waiting for me
to do the same.