Never Letting Go

Chapter 14

I slip my phone into my bag as I approach Starbucks that sits on the corner of Avery Row on Grosvenor Street. People are sitting outside enjoying their lunch in the sunshine, while others walk by or come and go from the shop itself.

I'm just about to slide my sunglasses up to sit on my head when I spot Luca getting out the back of a car that's parked up directly outside the shop. It's not the Jaguar like it was this morning. It's an Audi and I stop walking, gazing at him as he walks to me with two takeaway cups in either hand.

"Flat white with two and a half sugar," he says, handing me a cup.

I take the offered cup. "How do you know I don't take less or more sugar in my coffee?"

He raises a brow. "I know you don't. It doesn't matter what coffee you take, it's

always two and a half sugar apart from when you have tea."

We begin to walk back in the direction of my office. The car he got out of drives away, the engine roaring loudly as it goes.

"And how do I take my tea?" I ask.

"One sugar and a dash of milk," he answers confidently.

"And let me guess your order: tea, black, no sugar."

"I'm sweet enough without the sugar."

"More like cocky enough without it," I grumble while taking a sip of coffee.

"I heard that," he says, nudging into me lightly.

"You were supposed to."

He smiles and I can't help but smile a little, too.

The times we can have a laugh and joke together are good days. Other times when he suddenly turns into a dick, I want to strangle him. Those days are bad days and I can guarantee you that he'll be trying to make up for it the next day because he's realised what he's done. Not every man is capable of doing that, but he is.

"I said earlier that we needed to talk," he says, getting to the point as to why we're currently together on mutual terms.

My smile fades away and I clear my throat. I take a quick sip of coffee. "About last night?"

"I wanted to apologise for the way things went," he begins. I nod in agreement and wait for him to go on. "I know me turning up and just expecting you to drop everything for me is wrong."

"I have my own life away from work which doesn't revolve around someone telling me I have to do something when it suits them." My words have a bite to them that has Luca nodding away. I hope it gets drummed into his head that I can't drop everything for him. I never did and I never will.

"And I get that. I really do. I'm just . . . I know this isn't much of an excuse but I've gotten so use to getting my own way since I began making money. And when it comes to women, it's been pretty much the same way."

Women? As in more than one? So much for serious relationships. I remember the days where he always said that he was a one-woman man. I know he said he had one serious relationship since he left but I just thought that his work took priority over trying to bed as many women as he can.

"Let me rephrase what I just said," he corrects straightaway. I roll my eyes and wait for him to go on. "Women throw themselves at me when I go out."

I take a deep breath and swallow a big gulp of coffee.

"I . . ." Luca huffs. "I'm making matters worse."

I look at him out the corner of my eye. He's silently cursing himself and shaking his head at the same time. I laugh to myself at how much of a babbling idiot he's being. It's not like him and it's a funny thing to see when you've not seen it from him before.