Free Luke (A Redemption Romance #1) by Anna Scott Page A

to the side, watching us, but aside from him, we were alone. I closed my eyes and absorbed the emotion. This was the most intimate moment of my life, by far.
    After several long and intense minutes, Luke pulled himself together and we walked back to where the town car was waiting. We got inside just like we had before, but once Luke scooted in behind me; he closed the door and wrapped me in his arms again. I couldn’t wait until we got home, it had been a long, and terribly painful day. The thought of home with Luke was a wonderfully blissful idea.
    Staying at the restaurant with the hoard of well-wishers for just under an hour, we politely excused ourselves, it was too much for both of us.
    Back at the house, we spent the evening talking, mostly about Nolan, quietly sharing memories, laughing and crying together. To see this big, strong man reduced to tears at the loss of my brother broke my heart. We’d changed into sweats, ordered a pizza and drank beer. It was a far cry from the elegant affair I’d arranged, but this was perfect, it was just us and just what we needed.
    We fell together into my bed, exhausted from an emotionally taxing day. We’d both turned our phones off, except for Luke’s work phone, of course, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together. We didn’t do anything more than kiss. He’d never even had his hands under my clothes, except to take them off me when he put me to bed the other night.
    Luke lay on his back, I rested my head on his shoulder, arm slung across his waist. We stayed quiet and just drifted to sleep tangled up in our own thoughts.

Chapter 9
    Luke
    I woke with a start to the sound of my cell. Rory was tucked tight into my side, her head nestled on my chest, her arm thrown over my stomach. Holding her this way was heaven to me. I could feel the dregs of the nightmare I’d been having still clinging to me as I tried to rouse my brain to wakefulness.
    I grabbed my phone from the nightstand, it was the special ringtone I had just for call-outs. I listened to the recorded message, there was a hostage situation, and one officer had been injured. I was on the SWAT team for the Dallas PD, so call outs like this weren’t uncommon, but the notification of an injured officer worried me.
    I’d been so wrapped up in Aurora, in Nolan’s funeral, in everything here, I hadn’t been back to work. I had known that I needed the time to get my head straight. There was no time like the present to get that done. I was jumping back in with both feet. There would be no easing in to work for me.
    Every part of me wanted to stay in this bed with Aurora, I wanted her to soothe the adrenaline still coursing through me from my dream. I wanted to slide into her body, to feel her warmth wrapped around me. That, however, was not going to happen tonight. I’d never leave my fellow officers short, if I could help it.
    She woke when I slid out of bed, told me to be careful and kissed me, but otherwise didn’t react to my leaving. I wondered if it bothered her.
    I hadn’t told her any details of why I was being called in, but she knew that my job was dangerous. Was she worried? Would this be her reason to erect those walls and keep me at arm’s length like she’d done with everyone else?
    I couldn’t count the number of times she’d told me that she was all right this week. I was coming to hate those words from her pretty lips. I knew that she wasn’t all right, how the fuck could she be? There was no way that she was all right, I sure as hell wasn’t all right after losing my best friend. Nolan had been like a brother to me for the past twenty-five years.
    I gathered up my stuff, I needed to wash it all anyway and I didn’t want to leave it all scattered around her house. I knew that there was some underlying reason I took everything - even Rusty - with me, but I didn’t acknowledge it at the time.
    I had to go to my house to get my uniform and figured I’d drop the dog off at the same