Free Decode (Luke Series, #7) by Cassia Leo Page A

you serious?”
    I slide my phone out of
my purse and answer the call without acknowledging Luke’s question.
Just seeing Violet’s name on my phone has made me even more
annoyed.
    “What happened?” I bark
into the phone.
    “I’m so sorry, Br—Mrs.
Maxwell. I totally forgot that I’m supposed to meet Liam’s sister
for dinner tonight. I have to leave in an hour.”
    Violet is our new
twenty-three-year-old nanny who replaced Myrna four months ago when
Myrna decided she needed to spend more time with her grandchildren.
I’m sure her decision had nothing to do with the fact that Luke had
given her a healthy bonus the week before she quit. Sometimes Luke
is too generous for his own good.
    Luke is the one who
insists Violet calls me Mrs. Maxwell. The fact that Violet almost
calls me Brina at least once a day only makes me trust her even
less. As much as I don’t want to play the role of the jealous wife,
Violet brings it out in me. She’s eleven years younger than Luke
and six years younger than I; the same age I was when Luke and I
met. If she weren’t the best damn nanny I interviewed, I’d have
fired her months ago.
    “We’ll be there in an
hour,” I reply.
    I don’t want Violet’s
relationship with her fiancé to be strained because she forgot
about a dinner date with his sister. We’ve only met Liam once, but
he seems like a nice guy. Though, I must admit, I did not catch
Violet ogling Liam once during that meeting, the way I catch her
ogling Luke almost every day.
    I stuff the phone back
into my purse and turn around. Luke is glaring at me as he buttons
his jeans. I don’t want to be the jealous wife, but Luke knows. He
always knows.
    “Is it
really
an emergency?” he asks.
    Reaching for my T-shirt,
I pull it on without bothering to put on my bra. “Yes. She has an
important thing with Liam’s sister.”
    Luke lets out a derisive
chuckle as he reaches for the handle on the dressing room door.
“I’ll be outside.”
    It only takes a few
seconds before I realize what I need to do to fix this. I finish
getting dressed before I open the dressing room door, but I don’t
step outside. Luke stares at me, waiting for me to join him.
    “You go ahead,” I say. “I
still have a lot of shopping to do for the trip. I know that’s not
your thing, so… you’re excused.”
    He smiles at my attempt
to display my trust in him. “Are you sure? You’re not going to
punish me for this later?”
    “Punish you for
what
? Just go before I change my
mind.”
    He steps toward me and
takes my face in his hands as he plants a soft kiss on my lips.
“I’ll finish you off later.”
    “Yes, you will… a few
times.”
    He laughs as he walks
away. The dread builds inside me with every step he takes, twisting
my stomach into knots. Why do I feel like I just made a huge
mistake?

    I rush through the
shops as Perry, my part-time bodyguard, hauls the bulk of my bounty
in his bulky arms. By the time Perry pulls the Bentley into the
driveway, my mouth is bone dry from the non-stop shopping and the
anxiety. Upon entering the house, I head straight for the kitchen
to grab a glass of water. It’s eight p.m. Luke is probably upstairs
putting the kids to sleep.
    I guzzle a glass of water
and quickly make my way upstairs to say goodnight to the kids. My
stomach clenches when I see Violet standing just outside Lucas’s
bedroom, peeking through the crack in the door with her lips curled
into a smile that oozes unadulterated adoration.
    Her blonde hair falls
down her back in loose waves, which I taught her how to do when I
got tired of her complimenting my hair three times a day. She’s
wearing a soft blue dress and I can’t help but remember when Luke
told me last week how good I looked in the new dress I’d bought.
Violet was standing right next to me when he said it.
    She turns toward me when
she hears my footsteps and the frightened look on her face fills me
with anger. “I thought you had a dinner tonight.”
    “She