Off Limits (15 page)

“Thank you,” and
then Luke strode from the room, no doubt to go and pace in peace. I doubted his
anger would have calmed at all by the time his father came back.

“What’s going on?”
It was my dad who asked the question again, but Phoebe’s wide eyes demanded to
know the answer as well.

“It’s his dad,” I
explained, not wanting to give away quite how much Luke had told me about it. “Luke
hates him, he was… not very nice,” I avoided swearing in front of my dad.

Phoebe stood up,
“I’m going to see if I can calm him down.”

I hesitated,
tugging on the ends of my hair. “He might rather be left alone.”

“No. I need to go
and make sure he’s okay.” The cold edge to her voice let me know the anger she
was feeling, towards both of us. Luke had confided in me and not her.

It was only going
to get worse.

 I retook my seat
on the sofa, wanting to go and comfort Luke myself. I wouldn’t make him feel
any better, but perhaps I could distract him a little bit whilst he waited for
his dad to arrive. My dad fixed me with an anxious look. “What’s he going to
do?”

“I have no idea.”

“If he’s going to
hurt-”

“If he’s going to
hurt him then there’s nothing any of us can do about it,” I muttered, casting
my own gaze out of the window as raised voices came from the next room. Phoebe
hadn’t been successful, then

“Carmen,” my dad
began, pausing with knitted eyebrows. “Is there anything I can do? I had no
idea, obviously.”

“The guy you’re
living with is an arsehole,” was what I settled on. Luke had said he was into
drugs, so the story about my dad just running into him was sounding unlikely. I
bet he’d met him at his old accommodation. “That’s pretty much all there is to
it. Just let Luke do what he’s got to do.”

Phoebe stuck her
head back into the room with tears shining in her eyes. “Go and make him feel
better,” she muttered, before striding off upstairs.

That was what
really tore at me. Phoebe cared for Luke, she
really
cared for him and
I’d ruined that. “I’m going to go and see him,” I told my dad, sticking my head
into the first door and coming across a pacing Luke. He sent the harshest of
glares my way, but when he saw it was me rather than Phoebe it softened.

“Sorry,” he
muttered, coming to a standstill for a moment before shaking his head and
pacing again.

“When was the last
time you saw him?”

“A year ago.”

I swallowed. There
was far too much pent up anger here. Part of me knew I was wrong for finding Luke
attractive right now, but the fire in his eyes and the way his taught body
strode with purpose around the room did leave me a little bit hot under the
collar.

Standing up, I
intercepted his walking to wrap my arms around his middle. I didn’t really
expect him to return the hug, just to give me a quick squeeze and continue his
pacing, but I needed him to know I was here and that I cared.

I was surprised
when he wrapped his arms around me for a good few minutes. His breathing was
rapid and his heart beat so fast I began to worry. Could adrenaline last a full
half an hour? His hands were warm and hard on my back and my cheek smushed into
his chest.

There was nothing
I could say. The wrong thing would have probably come out of my mouth if I’d
attempted to speak, but just holding him sent the right message.

The door cracked
open and my dad stuck his head through. “He’s back.”

Luke dropped his
arms from me immediately and I could only tell him, “don’t do anything stupid,”
before chasing after his large strides onto the driveway. Phoebe and my dad
were right behind me.

Luke ripped open
the doorway and the smaller man on the other side jumped backwards, eyes
quickly widening. I had no idea where Luke got his height from, his dad
couldn’t have been more than six foot and his mum was tiny.

I got the slimy
vibe from his father right away as he rang his hands together and hastily
retreated from Luke. I exited the house so I could see everything that
happened.

“What is this?” Luke
demanded, continuing to make his father back up until his back was against the
wall of a shed on the right of the driveway.

His father didn’t
answer, just held up his hands in a defensive plea.

“How dare you have
pictures of my mother?” Luke spat every word, the hand holding the photo
trembling with rage.

“He’s going to
kill him,” Phoebe whispered, eyes wide and terrified.

I watched the
scene play out. “He won’t hurt him,” I assured her.

Luke’s dad stayed
silent still, waiting for Luke to make the first move. We all jumped when he
through the frame onto the ground and the glass smashed. “Answer me, you piece
of shit.”

“I’m sorry,” there
was fear, but not sincerity in the shorter man’s apology.

Luke just shook
his head. “Just as pathetic as I remember. You’re not even worth it. We’re
better on our own, even after what you left us with.” Turning around, Luke took
a deep breath and unclenched his fists. “We’re leaving.”

Luke’s dad had the
nerve to smirk when Luke had turned around, sensing the victory and my own
anger grew. I strode past Luke and gave him the hardest slap I could manage. It
hurt my own hand more, I was sure, but the shock on Luke’s dad’s face was worth
it. I prayed I left a bruise.

“You little
bitch,” when he went to grab my arm, Luke socked him right in the face.

It was so hard Luke’s
dad’s head cracked against the shed all, too. Luckily it was wood and not
concrete. He held his bleeding nose and I realised Luke had dragged me behind
him, fingers biting into my arm so hard they’d leave bruises. “Don’t touch
her,” he spat, practically dragging me away from the scene and back to the car.
I sent my dad an apologetic look before opening the passenger seat door and
slipping in.

Luke’s hands gripped
the wheel so hard they turned white. Phoebe had taken one of the back seats and
I didn’t want to know what she was thinking right now. “You okay?” I asked him.

“I will be. I’m
glad he gave me an excuse to hit him.”

It wasn’t a smile
exactly that touched my lips, but I just nodded once and Luke started driving.
It didn’t take us long to recognise the blue Ford that tailed us, but for today
it wasn’t on our minds. Hopefully by tomorrow he’d be in prison, or at least
with a restraining order.

Phoebe sat in
silence until we were nearly back at her house. “You told her everything,” she
accused, voice wobbling. “And you refused to tell me.”

Luke considered
his response with a guilty expression that Phoebe couldn’t see from the back of
the car. “I did,” he answered carefully. “Because Carmen had just been through
the same thing. She could relate. It was different.”

“I don’t have to
be able to relate, I’m your girlfriend. You’re supposed to just tell me so that
I can make you feel better. You’re supposed to just tell me because you trust
me. I tell you everything, good or bad.”

The tension
between Luke and I grew. “I’m sorry.” Was all he could say, guilt weighing on
both our consciences.

Phoebe just made
an unattractive noise of disbelief. “I don’t want to see either of you for a
few days. Being betrayed hurts, you know?”

She lapsed back
into silence until we pulled up outside Phoebe’s house and I cringed when she
slammed the door. Luke looked guilty, but altogether not too concerned. He’d
never been planning on telling Phoebe about any of this. “I’ll break up with
her when she agrees to speak to me again,” he muttered.

I couldn’t even
manage a small smile. “I hope she’s going to be okay.”

“Thing kind of
thing happens to people all the time,” Luke sounded more convinced than I knew
he must be. Sure, people lost best friends and boyfriends all the time, but not
in rapid succession. “She has her other friends, she’ll be going to university
soon. It’ll all work out okay.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I
hope so.”

Luke grasped my
hand and gave it a tight squeeze. “Thank you, for earlier. The fact you were
there really helped.”

My lips quirked.
“It’s no problem. I’m glad I was there. I should get going home, though, and
I’m sure you want to tell your mum about what happened.”

“That I do. I’m
not even sure how she’s going to react. I’d kiss you, but we’re parked in a bit
of an awkward place for that.”

I nodded and
grinned. “Telling me makes me feel good anyway.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed,
my grin suddenly widening to obscene proportions. “If we’re both breaking up
with Phoebe and my dad has moved house, then we can tell the police about our
stalker.”

Luke blinked,
taking a moment to take in what I’d said. “You’re right,” his own lips
broadened. “You’re right.” Then his eyebrows quirked. “Surely it isn’t that
simple? We can’t just, turn him after all this, can we?”

I beamed. “Yes, we
can.”

Luke didn’t care
about whether Phoebe was watching and embraced me in a tight hug. “I thought
that might have been something that would break us in the end, if it persisted,
but you’re right. We can just tell the police and they’ll get rid of him.” He
let of a relieved breath. “You’re always good at cheering me up.”

When we pulled
back, our faces hovered for just a second, but we didn’t give in and kiss. We
didn’t need to, because in a few days we’d be able to kiss whenever we wanted.

“I really do have
to go,” I remembered, grinning once more and leaving Luke’s car.

My own mood was
lifted, too. Everything had fallen into place.

Chapter Thirteen

The knock on my
door sent a small wave of panic through me. It was eleven o’clock in the
evening and I was home alone. A true stalker would know I was here alone and Luke
and I hadn’t been able to turn him in just yet. Phoebe hadn’t let up in her vow
of silence for Luke to get a look in and so everything was still up in the air.

If he somehow knew
Phoebe and Luke were going to break up then maybe he was making his final stand
before the police could take him away.

Swallowing, I
wished we had a peephole.

Upon opening the
door, I was faced with a distraught looking Luke. I blinked, allowing him entry
and feeling my own worry grow. “What’s wrong? Did you break up with her?”

“No,” he breathed,
scrubbing at his eyes. I could see he’d been crying now he was in the light of
my hallway and my heart dropped. Grabbing his hands, I encouraged him to tell
me what on earth had happened. “I couldn’t. She’s… she’s pregnant. She rang me
up to say she wanted to speak to me and that’s what she said.” His voice
caught, sobs already working their way through his body, but I was too cold to
do anything straight away. I just let him stand there and cry for a good few
moments before tentatively wrapping my arms around his shaking body.

“I don’t believe
it,” was all I could manage to mumble against his chest as tears gathered in my
own eyes. “I don’t-” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. There was no point in
saying anything. I just gripped Luke harder and revelled in what was quite
clearly going to be the last contact between us.

Luke was a good
guy and Luke definitely wouldn’t leave Phoebe when she was carrying his child.

Eventually my sobs
stopped. I sniffled pathetically, unballing the fists that had been wrapped in
the back of Luke’s shirt and looking up at his face. He hastily wiped his eyes,
but we were both too wretched to be embarrassed about and crying. “Come on, we
should go and sit down,” I began walking into the living room, hastily turning
off the romcom I’d been watching. “Do you want a glass of water or anything?”

Luke nodded and I
disappeared into the kitchen, trying desperately to gather myself. Phoebe was
pregnant. My best friend was going to have a baby. My best friend, who I’d
betrayed, was going to have a baby with Luke, the guy I was head over heels
for.

I couldn’t deal
with that.

I got myself a
glass of water and lamented my lack of vodka.

On the sofa, Luke
stared at the TV with unseeing eyes and a forlorn expression. I sat beside him,
so close that the sides of our bodies pressed against each other, and handed
him his drink. “What are you going to do?” I didn’t want to know exactly what
Phoebe had said to him. I could already picture her smiling face as she
revealed the news.

Phoebe had always
wanted kids. Not now, necessarily, but being a family was her ultimate goal. It
might have been a shock and it might mess up a few of her plans, but I knew
she’d be over the moon. There was no chance of her having an abortion, that was
for certain.

“What can I do?
I’m going to stay with her, of course. I’ll make up for lost time and be the
best partner and dad I can be. That’s what I have to do.”

I nodded. It was
what I’d expected. Still, I was selfish enough to argue against it. “You don’t
have to do that at all. You can still be a good dad without being with her.”

Luke shook his
head in a singular motion, his tone and face having lost all emotion. “We both
know that having divorced parents hasn’t been good.”

“We both know that
having parents who didn’t like each other hasn’t been good. If they’d never
been together then a divorce wouldn’t have happened.”

“I don’t even want
kids,” Luke muttered, gaze lowered to his lap. “I’ve never wanted kids.”

I blinked back
tears again and rested my head on Luke’s shoulder, discarding my glass of water
onto the floor. “I’m so sorry.”

Luke put down his
own glass and embraced me properly. I pulled down the blanket from the back of
the sofa and wrapped us up, me practically on his laps and our arms entangled.
If it was going to be the last night, we could afford to accept some mutual
comfort from each other.

“What are we going
to do about our stalker?” I suddenly remembered. Our plans to turn him into the
police were suddenly rendered useless.

Luke tightened his
grip on me. “I don’t know. I guess… I guess you should just go to the police
and risk him showing Phoebe the picture. It’s not fair that you get to live in
fear because of something stupid I did.”

I shook my head, knowing
that wasn’t going to be the way things went. “No, we’ll just wait it out and
see what he wants. He’ll get bought and give us the ultimatum eventually.”

Luke nodded, the
stalker already being put to the back of our minds. He hadn’t been harassing us
lately, whereas Phoebe’s pregnancy was happening right now and all my attention
was focused on it.

After fifteen
minutes of us just hugging in silence, ruminating on the misery of our new
situation, Luke brought his hand to the bottom of my chin and directed my face
upwards.

His lips were
desperate; hard and insistent on mine as he dragged my body, if possible,
closer to him. We didn’t want to wait around and enjoy each other’s bodies, we
wanted the instant gratification of being with each other so intensely that
everything else was forgotten.

My hands gripped
his hair so tight it must have hurt and his nails were painful as they held my
hips. The pain and the pleasure mixing together didn’t leave any room to think
about Phoebe. There was just us. Luke and I. Together. Like we’d thought it was
meant to be.

In my bedroom,
afterwards, Luke held me close and pressed soft kisses to my face. “I’m so
sorry this didn’t work out.”

I turned and met
his lips, holding onto his face tightly and never wanting to let go. “Me too.”