About that Night

by Keane, Hunter J.

  Luke had second thoughts when we reached the destination. The establishment was small, designed to hold a few small groups after work. Instead, about forty people were crammed shoulder to shoulder, drunkenly singing along with the current performer.

  “Didn’t you say karaoke could ruin any night?” he asked skeptically.

  “You insisted.” I pointed to the bar. “Drinks are on me. Find us a good spot near the stage.”

  It took nearly ten minutes to work my way up to the bar and then another ten minutes to get back to Luke.

  “How’d you manage to get a table?” I asked, sliding ice cold beer cans onto the table.

  “I can’t reveal all of my secret skills so early in our relationship,” he said with an irresistible smile, which I was fairly certain was exactly how he had gotten the table.

  With the stage in front of us, we had to stand on the same side of the table. My arm brushed against his as I reached for my beer.

  “You’re not a snobby beer drinker, are you?” I tapped the can with one fingernail. “It’s okay if you are. This one is a blue ribbon winner.”

  “Only the finest, I see.” He gave me a curious look. “Pretty, smart, funny, and drinks cheap beer without complaining? You might be too good to be true, Kasey Maxwell.”

  It was the perfect set up for one of my witty replies, but I made the mistake of looking into his eyes for just a second. When I saw that he wasn’t kidding, I lost the ability to banter. My cheeks flushed.

  “If you were smart, you’d leave right now,” I said, being completely honest.

  “I’m not scared of this, Kasey.” He put his hand on my arm, my skin tingling beneath his touch. “I think you’re pretty awesome and I’ve enjoyed every second of our night.”

  “So far,” I said. As the karaoke moderator took the mic to announce the next performer, I gave Luke my best apologetic look. “I really hope what is about to happen doesn’t change your mind.”

  His face darkened. “What did you do?”

  “Ladies and gentlemen. Put your hands together for the one, the only, Luke Donovan!”

  Luke’s eyes widened and he took a step back. “No way.”

  “Don’t be lame, Luke.”

  “Fine.” He slammed the rest of his beer and started toward the stage. I stared in surprise; I hadn’t actually expected him to give in.

  I watched as Luke said something to the moderator who then began scanning the music list in front of him. When he found what he wanted, he gave Luke a thumbs up.

  “This is a duet,” Luke said into the mic, looking directly at me. “I need my partner to join me.”

  All heads swiveled in my direction. I shook my head, but Luke wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  “Kasey Maxwell, it’s your time to shine.”

  Begrudgingly, I stepped onto the stage. “You’ll pay for this,” I told him, keeping an overly-sweet smile on my face.

  “Don’t forget, this whole thing was your idea.” He gave the music man a thumbs up and I looked to the screen to see what song Luke had chosen.

  “Really?” I groaned.

  Luke belted out the lyrics about islands and streams and I begrudgingly joined in. He was surprisingly good, and I wasn’t completely tone deaf. Together, we sounded half-decent and because we were singing a well-known classic, everyone joined us for the refrain. We reached the end and bowed dramatically.

  “I’m in charge for the rest of the night,” Luke said through a clenched smile as he put his arm around my shoulders.

  “We don’t have much time left,” I said, glancing at the vintage clock on the wall.

  “Why is that, Cinderella? Do you turn into a pumpkin at midnight?” When he looked down at me, it was like we were the only two people in the room.

  “Something like that,” I replied.

  He thought for a second. “We better get going then.”

  I yelped in surprise as he jumped from the stage and pulled me with him. He ushered me through the crowd with his usual confidence.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, slightly out of breath as I hurried to catch up with him outside. He was already hailing a cab.

  “You like good views of the city, right?” He opened the taxi door for me.

  “Let me guess. Your place has a great view?” My heart skipped a beat when he placed his hand against my lower back, guiding me into the cab.

  “I have better game than that, Kasey Maxwell,” he scolded me.

  When he told the driver our destination, I was surprised. If my choices had been predictable, his was downright mundane. But I wasn’t going to complain. Despite my initial reluctance, I found that I was quite enjoying my evening with Luke Donovan.

  “I’m pretty sure the observation deck will be closed,” I said as we pulled over in front of the Willis Tower.

  “I had a different view in mind.” Luke finished paying and climbed out. He offered his hand to help me and I took it gladly. There really was no good way to emerge from a cab while wearing a dress.

  “This isn’t the visitor’s entrance,” I said, confused as we stepped through the revolving door. Aside from building security, we were the only people in the cavernous lobby.

  “Mr. Donovan.” The doorman greeted Luke with a warm smile. “Working late this evening?”

  “Actually, David, I’m hoping to impress this beautiful lady with one of the best views in the city,” Luke said, following David to the registration desk.

  In a matter of minutes, I had a visitor’s pass in hand as I moved through security. Two elevators and an escalator ride later, we stood in front of a glass door.

  “Donovan and Kramer?” The firm name was etched in big block letter across the glass. “You brought me to your office?”

  “I thought it would be presumptuous to bring you back to my condo.” He flashed me a playful smile. “Was I wrong?”

  “Show me this amazing view,” I said, choosing to ignore his question.

  He used his security badge to unlock the door and held it open for me. “After you.”

  The empty office space echoed our footsteps on the hard tile floor as I followed Luke down a long hallway. He stopped in front of a frosted glass door that had his name prominently displayed across the center.

  “You should know that I’ve never brought a girl back to my office,” he said with a teasing smile as he pulled open the door.

  “Your first time?” I stepped through.

  “Something like that.” He gestured to the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. “What do you think?”

  My eyes widened at the sight of so many twinkling lights. “Impressive.”

  It wasn’t until I was right up against the glass that I saw just how truly impressive the view actually was. From our vantage point, it felt like we could see the entire city below us.

  “Alright, you win.” I happily admitted defeat. “The view is better. But at least at my place we were able to have drinks.”

  “Who said we can’t have drinks here?” From the depths of a bookcase, Luke retrieved a bottle of liquor. He explained, “Expensive scotch from a wealthy client.”

  Two crystal glasses followed and it wasn’t long before we were seated in comfortable chairs in front of the window, sipping and chatting the night away. It was strange how easy it was to be with Luke. We floated smoothly from one topic to another, and in the rare moments of silence, it wasn’t strained or awkward.

  “What kind of law do you actually practice?” I asked. Holly had said that his appearance in our court room had been a fluke. Judging by the swanking office space, Luke’s firm was successful at whatever law it specialized in.

  “Corporate law mostly. But I pick up a lot of random cases as well. It can get boring focusing on the same thing every day. I like to dabble in different areas whenever possible.”

  “Like family law?” I asked. Luke’s answer had surprised me. He didn’t sound like a man that was happy with his chosen profession.

  “My buddy asked me
to help out with his divorce. His wife’s family has a lot of money and my friend is a high school math teacher. He couldn’t afford to spend a lot of money on a lawyer. Besides,” he shrugged, “us divorced guys have to stick together.”

  He said it so casually that I almost didn’t process the seriousness of what he had just confessed. “Divorced?”

  “Did I fail to mention that earlier?” he asked with a guilty grimace. “Been a divorcé for just shy of a year now.”

  “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I wanted to know more details, but I wasn’t sure I had the right to ask. We had only known each other for a few hours, after all.

  “That’s a loaded question.” He eyed his nearly empty scotch glass. “I’ve spent a lot of nights in the last year drinking from this glass and thinking about that very question and I’m still not sure I can answer it. The only thing I do know is that I don’t regret my decision.”

  “So it was your decision?” I don’t know why, but that mattered to me.

  He forced a pained smile and reached for the half-empty bottle of scotch. “It’s a long story. Can I offer you a refill?”

  “Always.” I held out my glass while he poured an inch of liquid into it.

  “Her name was Lauren and we met a couple years ago through mutual friends,” Luke explained, pouring himself two inches of scotch. “This may be surprising, but I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic. We were only together six months when I proposed.”

  ‘That’s quick,” I said quietly.

  He nodded. “Quick and stupid. I barely knew anything about her. Then a few months later, we had this ridiculously extravagant wedding, per her insistence. Two months after that, I found out she was cheating on me with three other guys.”

  “Whoa.” My eyes widened. “That’s terrible.”

  “I got what I deserved,” he said with a casual shrug of his shoulders. “I think I was just so caught up in the idea of being in love with her that I never gave myself time to actually fall in love with her. It’s no wonder that I ended up disappointed.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, feeling a tightness in my chest when I saw the pain in his eyes. “You’re a decent guy. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

  Luke stared at me thoughtfully. “We all have our scars.”

  He was doing more than just turning my own phrase against me. He was making a point. He and I were similar in an important way. We both had experienced terrible heartache. We were both broken souls that had every reason to give up looking for love. And yet somehow we had found each other.

  It occurred to me that I didn’t care if Luke was a divorcé on the rebound. I didn’t care that I had only known him for a few hours. The only thing I cared about was how good it felt to be around him and how when he smiled at me, I couldn’t help but smile back.

  “How long are we doing to stay here?” I asked, my heart starting to race.

  “As long as it takes,” came his easy reply.

  “To do what?”

  Luke didn’t answer for a long time. His unblinking eyes stared into mine as he contemplated the answer. “To convince you to come back to my place tonight.”

  His words were so bold that I was caught off guard. I sucked in a breath and my hand tightened around my scotch glass. As surprised as I was by his invitation, I was even more surprised when I said, “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I would like to start by saying that I am not a one-night stand type of girl. I wasn’t even like that in college when it was still at least mildly acceptable to be that type of girl. So when I agreed to go home with Luke, it was completely against my nature. As I waited in the lobby while Luke chatted with the doorman, I felt anxious and self-conscious. But I also felt completely liberated.

  “What was that about?” I asked when he returned. He put his hand on my back and steered me toward the elevators.

  “Just asking about his kids.” Luke led me past the main bank of elevators and turned the corner. I stared suspiciously at the single elevator door in front of me. He noticed my doubt as he used his key card to call the elevator. He said, “This elevator leads directly to my condo.”

  “Of course. You have the penthouse?” I turned away so he wouldn’t see me rolling my eyes. I really had no room to judge considering I was contemplating having sex with him in his penthouse tonight.

  “I got a good deal.” He didn’t sound particularly defensive. “It has a great view of the lake.”

  “I’m sure it does.” The door slid open silently and Luke stepped inside. I tried to follow, but my feet didn’t want to cooperate.

  “Cold feet?” he asked with a sly smile. “I promise I won’t bite. Unless you want me to.”

  “It’s a good thing you are rich,” I said as I finally got my feet to move forward. “Your personality could use some work.”

  “Surprisingly, you’re not the first woman to tell me that.”

  The penthouse elevator was spacious, but somehow Luke and I ended up standing close enough that his arm brushed against mine. My inner bad girl thought about tackling him right then. He was rich, smug, and overly confident- exactly the type of guy I usually couldn’t stand to look at, much less go home with. But when it came to Luke Donovan, the rules didn’t seem to apply.

  “Your ego hasn’t seemed to suffer,” I commented as the doors opened and the penthouse suite was revealed. My first thought was that Luke was right- it did have an amazing view of the lake.

  “Come inside.” Luke slipped off his suit jacket and tossed it on the nearest chair. “Take a look around. The balcony is through the bedroom.” He loosened his tie as he checked his phone. “I just need to make a quick call.”

  “Sure.” As impressive as the floor to ceiling windows were in the main room, the bedroom was even better. The over-sized bed in the middle of the room was beyond inviting. I imagined the thread count of the sheets to be somewhere in the high thousands. I ran my hand over the silk comforter and listened to Luke’s faint voice in the background.

  “Make sure I have the contract on my desk first thing Monday morning. If we’re going to work with Mr. Simpson, I want all of this in writing.” Luke sounded even more confident talking business than he did flirting with women. I was sure he had plenty of experience with both.

  The air was cool when I opened the sliding glass doors that led to the balcony. The sounds of the city immediately cut through the air. I could see the dark waves of the lake lapping against the beach.

  “Beautiful,” Luke said. I hadn’t even heard him join me on the balcony, but now he was standing there holding two glasses of champagne.

  “Sorry?” Luke’s presence had instantly flustered me. His shirt was untucked and his tie hung loosely from his neck. I thought he looked even better slightly disheveled.

  “The view. It’s beautiful.” He handed me one of the glasses and our fingers grazed in the transfer. My fingers burned as if I had held them to a flame. Luke hadn’t looked at anything but me since he began talking.

  “The lake? It’s not bad.” I took a sip and knew that this was probably the most expensive champagne I had ever had.

  “Yes, the lake. And other things.” Luke was still watching me.

  His staring was making me uncomfortable so I took another drink. I felt the need to explain myself to him. “I don’t usually do this.”

  “Do what?” A smile played at the corners of his lips.

  “This.” I gestured to the two of us and then the bedroom waiting for us on the other side of the doorway. “Guys like you.”

  “You don’t even know me, Kase,” he said, the playful smile fading.

  “Exactly. This isn’t me.” But even as I said it, I knew that it was. At least for tonight.

  Luke’s eyes narrowed as he said, “I didn’t make you come here.”

  “I know.” I did know. Boy, did I know. “That’s not what I’m saying. I just don’t want you to have the wrong idea about me.”

  “Why do you
care so much? We might never see each other after tonight. Why does it bother you so much what I think about your character?’

  I thought it over and couldn’t come up with a good reason, so I shrugged. “I have no idea. But it does bother me.”

  “Well if it helps, I can tell you exactly what I think about you.” Luke waited until I nodded for him to continue. “Contrary to what you might think, this,” he gestured around us, “isn’t really me either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m a saint. I have a lot of money, and when I was younger I used that to my advantage. In business, and with women. But that was a long time ago. You might say, I’ve grown up.”

  Now it was Luke’s turn to drink. He looked out over the lake as he continued. “I don’t do this type of thing anymore. One-night stands, hook-ups, whatever you want to call it. But there’s just something about you.

  “Like I said earlier, you intrigue me.” He turned back to me. “I don’t think you’re the type of woman I used to take home at the end of the night. I think you’re smart and witty. I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in a long time, maybe ever. I think I’m lucky that you agreed to come home with me. And I want to have sex with you very badly, right now, and I think you want the same thing.” This time he didn’t offer me a smile. His bluntness made my heart flutter and I felt a warmth invade my body that had been missing for a long time. “Am I wrong?”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  Maybe he was just a charmer. One of those guys that knows the exact right thing to say to get a woman to spread her legs. It was very possible. But I didn’t care. I wanted Luke Donovan, and I wanted him right then.

  I willed my hand not to shake as I sat my glass on the balcony ledge. I took Luke’s glass and placed it next to mine. “You’re not wrong,” I said, staring directly into his eyes.

  He paused for a just a beat before pulling my body to his. Luke was tall- even with my three inch heels he was still a few inches taller than me. I lifted my head to meet his lips, reveling in their warmth and urgency. I could taste the champagne and when my head began to spin, it wasn’t from the alcohol. I was drunk on Luke after just one taste.