The Escape

by Alice Ward

  Ava opened her mouth to say something, but I pressed a finger to her lips. She nodded, letting me know she could wait.

  “Questioning who I was,” I went on, stroking my fingers through her hair. “Who you were. Questioning you with Mason. Uncle knew what he was doing when he set up the competition. He was exactly the man I was becoming, and he wanted to make sure I became something else before it was too late. It all started to dawn on me at the chalet — that’s why he pitted Mason and me against one another. It was to make sure we’d become better men than he was.”

  Ava closed her eyes, and a stab of panic went through me. It was classic Ava to smile through anything, and her lips had barely flickered since I’d arrived. Stress bubbled up, almost unbearable.

  I forced my mouth open, forced myself to talk. “I know my penchant for the dark things, coupled with my behavior, may have ruined this, what we have.” I leaned into her, buried my nose in her hair and inhaled lavender and sugar. “But Ava,” I looked into her eyes that were watching me carefully now, praying I had the strength to say the words. “I love you. I realize I’ve been a complete ass to Mason for a very long time, and closed myself off to anything good in my life that didn’t turn a profit, but I—”

  “Lucas.”

  I wasn’t ready to hear her beautiful voice say the words I knew were coming. The ones that would send me back out her door for good. I couldn’t imagine ever being able to drink her in with my eyes, never feel the silkiness of her skin beneath my fingertips. So I didn’t let her speak.

  “I love the way you smile.” She smiled that lazy way she had every day after I’d ravaged her body at the chalet. “I love your body. I love how brave you are. I love how talented you are. I love that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I’d love it if our child had your eyes one day.”

  Tears brimmed in her eyes as I spoke, and her words came out in a rush. “I love you too, Lucas. It’s just, we’ve known each such a short time. You don’t know me outside the chalet, in my real life. Our lives are and have always been so different. I think a slow integration would be best.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and smiled as she gazed into my eyes.

  “I just don’t want to lose you,” I said, unable to keep a note of sadness from my voice.

  “Letting me be who I am isn’t losing me, I promise.” She laid a tender kiss on my lips as I rolled her onto the couch beneath me.

  “You promise, we’ll have this chance?” I held her tightly as I listened carefully for her answer before I lost myself to the call of her bare skin.

  “Yes.” She brushed her hands over my chest as I shed my pants and slid inside her and into the perfect rhythm that was just us.

  I’d spend every minute of every day if necessary falling in sync with her, letting time show her that the gap between our lives didn’t matter at all. That this would work.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Ava

  We’d had a great deal of couple’s time at the chalet, and we’d been together every night since he showed up at my apartment. So, for Valentine’s Day, Lucas and I decided to do the family thing instead. I’d flown my sister in for the weekend, and she was staying with me. Lillie was so grown up now, and so excited to hit the big city for dinner.

  I loaned her one of the cocktail dresses I’d designed, and we met our group at the Rainbow Room and were seated at a table with a fabulous view of the city skyline.

  Lucy was dressed in a chic new suit, looking stern when Harvey made eyes at my sister. I had no idea how she’d forgiven him for the heart attack sham, but she seemed to have him on a short chain, and he looked pretty damn happy about it.

  Harvey’s reading glasses dangled on his nose as he looked at the menu then shot a glance at Sylvia, who was practically dancing in her chair. “Is there something you’d like to discuss?” He was a billionaire businessman through and through, the one with too much to do and too little time for another person’s feelings at first glance. But underneath, he was all teddy bear. I could see now where Lucas got his outlook on life, but Lucas, with his extreme personality, had just let his life circumstances take his lifestyle too far.

  At that moment, nothing seemed more wonderful or ideal than being here, surrounded by these people. When I’d left the hospital the night of Harvey’s fake heart attack, I thought maybe this whole thing was meant to jump start my engine, get me to appreciate what I had. I was ready to start my own boutique and hoped that I might even find someone just like Lucas one day, without Evil Lucas lurking in the shadows.

  The trouble was, I didn’t want to find someone just like Lucas. I wanted him.

  In the past week, we’d spent a lot of time together, and we were so in tune, naturally, like at the beginning. Every day we became closer.

  Tears filled my eyes when Sylvia, her hair now a more natural color of dark brown, clinked her fork against her wine glass after our orders were taken. “I want to offer my sincere gratitude to all of you. I’ve known Ava since the day I started school here in New York, and have done my best to try to crack her open enough to let some fun seep into her life. I signed her up for your contest,” she gave a head nod to Harvey, “to do just that, and force her out of her element. I’m happy to report she’s met the challenge and is in a good place.” She waggled her eyebrows. “A very good place, if you know what I mean.”

  Everyone around the table snickered as my cheeks got hot. It was amazing that I could still blush after my time in the chalet.

  After that, Lucas made a toast to Uncle Harv, thanking him for all he’d given him. Then he turned to Mason. “Thank you, cousin, for giving me another chance when what you should have done was sucker punch me the minute I let my guard down.”

  “Nah,” Mason returned, putting his arm around Isabella. “I leave the dirty moves to you.”

  “You learned much earlier in life than I did, son.” Harv gently took Lucy’s hand into his own. “I’m just grateful for that. The whole competition was way beyond my expectations. Mason and Lucas, I commend you for the growth and determination you’ve shown. Isabella and Ava, you ladies are my heroes. I have such a deep and everlasting respect for both of you strong, independent, and incredible women.”

  Lucy leaned forward, never one to be put out of the spotlight for long. “I wouldn’t say your work with Lucas is over just yet, but I do think the two of you are off to a nice start.” I loved Lucy and her fiery ways and hoped to be able to spend more time with her.

  “What about you and Harv? Do you think you two will get married one day?” I’d asked an innocent question, but it made her laugh.

  “Oh sweetie.” She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “We’ve been married for years. We just choose to keep it a secret, so as not to spoil Harv’s nefarious reputation with the ladies. We’re both older now, though, and we’re happy to just be old together.”

  Lucas knocked over his drink and the glass shattered against my plate, a pool of red wine soaking into the tablecloth in the shape of a heart. “What? You’re married? How long have you been married? And why haven’t you told us?”

  Harvey turned a shade of purple. His lips moved, but nothing came out.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Unc lose the ability to speak,” Mason said. “Leave it to him to withhold the fact that we have a grandmother.” He raised his glass and grinned. “Welcome to the family, Granny!”

  Lucy frowned but slowly lifted her glass with the rest of the table as we toasted her.

  “I hope I have a relationship like yours when I grow up.” I laughed, happier than I’d been in a long time.

  “What’s the difference between a prostitute and a wife?” Harv grinned, looking around the table, but no one dared answer. “A wife accepts credit cards!” Lucy elbowed him as he burst into raucous laughter.

  “You sure I should leave you here tomorrow with this crazy bunch, sis?” Lillie raised her eyebrows in mock horror, but I could tell from the gleam in her eyes she was enjoyin
g the spectacle.

  I leaned to my left and embraced my sister, sorry she was going back to school tomorrow. But now that I had the funds, I could see her whenever I wanted. And I had work to do to get my design shop up and running.

  “It takes a lot of courage and strength to be in love, but I’m sure you two will do just fine.” Lucas kept a serious face, but everyone caught on to the humor of him imparting this knowledge, and there were smiles around the table.

  I looked over to Mason as his and Lucas’s eyes met. My heart warmed as I witnessed this new solidarity and hoped they could continue to put the past behind them and forge a new relationship. Lucas needed him as a friend and a cousin. As family.

  I didn’t know Isabella very well but wanted to know her better. I wanted to be able to claim this family seated before me as mine more than I could express. I’d held back with Lucas because of the short time we’d known each other, but I was sure we had a future together.

  And we had time. There was no rush.

  *

  Later, at my place, it was time to give Lucas the Valentine gift I’d worked so hard on.

  I was nervous.

  “It was hard thinking of what to get a man who has everything and can easily get anything he doesn’t have, but I hope you like this as much as I loved making it for you.” With him standing expectantly in my living room, his eyes blindfolded, I gripped the black garment bag. My heart raced, and I had butterflies in my stomach. “Okay, you can take it off.”

  Lucas’s surprised and excited expression was all the encouragement I needed to zip open the bag. He stepped closer and touched the deep blue material of the suit jacket reverently. I was also working on a line of casual menswear that was bright, fun, and yet also sophisticated.

  “Ava.” Lucas’s brilliant gray-blue eyes danced with pleasure. “You designed this for me? You’ve captured my style perfectly.” He slipped the jacket off its hanger, gingerly touching the tag that read Lucas Huffman Collection by Ava. “This is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.”

  I practically beamed at him. “I’m happy you like it.”

  He draped it over the back of the couch, his excitement palpable. “Come sit. I’m so excited to give you your gift. You deserve it more than anyone I know. It took me a while to find you the perfect gift, but I think I’ve done it. At least I hope I have.” He handed me a green manila envelope as I sat, giving me a sweet kiss.

  With unsteady fingers, I tore it open, finding an official document inside. “You…” Tears gathered in my eyes, and I looked up at him, speechless.

  “Do you like it?”

  I had a hard time getting the words out, but with some effort spoke past the pressure gathering in my throat. “You bought me my own fashion boutique on Fifth Avenue? Lucas!” The tears brimmed and fell as he gathered me into his arms.

  “I hope those are happy tears. Are they, love?” He actually sounded worried. How could he sound worried?

  All I could do was nod and clutch the deed to my dream boutique to my heart as I absorbed the love I felt in Lucas’s arms. This felt so right, spending Valentine’s Day together, him holding me, our future hopeful, bright and beautiful.

  EPILOGUE

  Lucas still behaved like he was commander and chief of everything, but he was sensitive and open to deeper feelings and experiences. I was truly in love with him. We’d been dating a whole year, and he was taking me out on some fancy secret date tonight, Valentine’s Day — one year from the day he’d proven to me he didn’t need to tie me up to have me in his life.

  He’d given himself over to being present and in tune with me as his partner, friend, and lover. We had deep philosophical discussions and disagreed on a lot of things passionately and often. Late at night, we made love and explored our boundaries, playing with fuzzy or spiked things that didn’t hurt too much. We’d created space for each other in our lives.

  But not for a baby.

  When I skipped my always regular period, I thought it was from the excitement and stress of my first runway show. Or even the heart attack I almost had when one of the models in Gentlemen’s Review began a photo striptease wearing one of my creations — one of the prototypes Harv’d had custom-made at the chalet. I’d had to explain to my mom about the magazine before someone back home clued her in.

  It couldn’t be a baby.

  In the bathroom, I ripped open the pregnancy test box.

  Lucas and I hadn’t talked about our future much. He’d mentioned it, but not in a I-want-six-kids kind of way. What if he thought I only wanted to get him to marry me? He was a billionaire, after all, and plenty of women had pursued him in the past for his money. Even though I had my own now, my bank account was a drop in the bucket compared to his.

  I read the directions and hoped I had the mental capacity at the moment to pee on a damn stick correctly. The directions sounded pretty complicated. Could I pee on it wrong and get the wrong results? I’d never done this before.

  When I’d soaked the sucker as much as I possibly could, I set it on a tissue on the counter then set my phone timer for three minutes. I paced the bathroom, taking deep breaths, trying to remember the mantra my grandmother had repeated when she was really upset about something. But my mind was suddenly mush that could only concentrate on the stick on the counter that had one pink line.

  One. That was good, right? My stomach plummeted, and I was shocked to realize I was disappointed.

  But wait. It hadn’t been three minutes yet.

  I resumed my pacing, stopping to straighten the hand towel, then flick a piece of lint off the counter.

  Was that a second faint line?

  I dove in to look closer, and my heart jumped into my mouth.

  Oh my god. Oh my god.

  The second pink line was turning darker, looking more like its twin by the second.

  I was pregnant.

  My knees wouldn’t hold me, and I sank down on the toilet, picked up the stick, and burst into tears.

  That was how Lucas found me, bawling like the baby we would soon have and that he hadn’t asked for, hadn’t wanted.

  “Ava? Honey, what’s wrong?” He was on his knees in front of me, his gorgeous eyes going over my body, looking for some injury he couldn’t see.

  I blubbered something even I couldn’t understand, and his eyebrows came together in a frown.

  I was going to have Lucas’s baby. And maybe he or she would have blue-gray eyes like his that reminded me of silver clouds going over the moon when he was happy, and hard, cold steel when he’d been wronged.

  I watched them go to the pregnancy test box, hold, and widen. They shot back to mine. Tears flooded my eyes again and spilled over my lids in a flood. I waved the stick, the precious, two-pink-lines stick in my hand.

  I was going to have Lucas’s baby. Joy ripped through my chest so great that for a second I thought he would be able to actually see my heart in the gap it left.

  Lucas’s warm hand caught my cold one, held it up as he focused on the stick.

  “I’m pregnant,” I said, the word ending on a sob.

  “You’re… you’re pregnant. With a baby.” His dazed eyes left the stick and clashed with mine.

  “Your baby.”

  A breath whooshed out of him, and he leaped up laughing and threw his arms wide. “We’re pregnant?”

  I could only gape as he fell to his knees again, a single tear making a wet track down his cheekbone.

  “I was going to do this later.” He laughed and looked around. “And somewhere romantic, not here. But now, this is the perfect place. This is so perfect.”

  I frowned, trying to catch on to what he was talking about, but my brain was too fuzzy with elation and fear and shock that he was reacting like I’d just handed him a prize.

  I was going to have his baby, and he was happy.

  Lucas reached into his suit pocket and pulled something out, holding it in his fist. When he opened it, he revealed a little red velvet box that was tied
together with a white ribbon. My heart lurched then danced. He pulled the ribbon loose, opened the box and held up a glittering diamond engagement ring. “Ava, will you marry me?”

  “Here?” was all I could think to say. He was asking me to marry him… here? In the bathroom.

  He laughed again, and another tear followed the first. “Not marry me here, although I’d marry you right here in this bathroom if you said yes. Will you marry me, have my babies?” His gaze fell to my still flat belly. “Baby. I was going to ask you tonight, with the city skyline as a backdrop, but you’re so perfect sitting there, crying because you think I’ll be upset. I want this. This is perfect. You’re perfect. Ava, will you marry me?”

  I covered my mouth with my hands as more tears cascaded down my face, and I stared at the diamond in disbelief until it blurred into a bright, shiny star.

  When I met him, Lucas had dominated everything in his life. Over the past year, he’d mellowed… mostly. He was still a wolf in the sheets, but he had his softer moments too. He was also softer with the people around him, becoming more involved in their lives.

  Even though I’d insisted I could do it myself, he’d set my sister up in college and was taking care of all her expenses. He’d created a college and medical fund for the children of those he employed. He mentioned that with every good deed he did, it made a new pocket of his heart open up that he hadn’t known was there.

  “Ava?”

  I realized I hadn’t said anything. “Yes!”

  He let out a whoosh of a breath, and his arms came around me. “Where do you want to get married?”

  “Not on the toilet.” We both laughed, and he drew back, the look on his face one of amazement. “My Valentine’s gift for you isn’t as grand as this.”

  His hand came to rest on my belly. “The Valentine you’ve given me is better than any I could have dreamed of.”

  I knew he dreamed of a big family — one with siblings and cousins who romped noisily with each other — and regretted the years he’d held such a grudge against Mason. They were making up for it now though. Lucas and Mason had grown closer, taking to heart the reality check their uncle had thrown at them with his fake heart attack.