A Rainy Day [COMPLETE]

Chapter 17

Rise and Shine Beautiful

I roll my eyes at the note and drop it beside me, mesmerized by the tray of breakfast at the edge of my bed. A long breath leaves my lungs before I catch the morning sky. London is still able to shine its light no matter what time of day it is. I gape back down at the note in my hand. 

An itchy feeling scratches the back of my mind. So much that I open the door and a million thoughts come dashing in to leave me in an upset state of mind. I imagine the rain cloud hanging over my head, gradually drizzling raindrops onto my mood.

"What's wrong?" a husky voice disembogues the room. I look up and see Luke amble in, catching me staring at the note. My hands fidget to the straps of my clothes, fixing the nightgown. By the time I've ventured around the bed, we're a foot apart from each other.

"This," I gesture between the two of us, "doesn't feel right. What am I doing? I can't date you." I wander over to the wall-sized window, encompassing the city of London. Luke stays quiet and follows behind. My toes curl in the carpet, anxious to hear his side. Overwrought by the things he's thinking. Who he thinks I am. I cross my arms and look out, waiting for the sun to rise above the horizon.

I can't take it anymore. The silence. It's killing me. The fear grazing at the walls of my skull as it pulls me apart from the inside out. "You were probably tipsy and I was emotionally unstable—"

"I still stand by everything I said last night," he interrupts. A sensation of his eyes lurking over my body dwells in the atmosphere as I keep my chest facing the window.

"I do too, but what were we thinking...really." My voice goes quiet. "It's unprofessional for an employer to date his employee and if I lose my job—"

"Danni." My muscles loosen at the sound of his voice. I rearrange my perception behind me to find Luke with a bold, red tie in his hands. He lingers closer now with a shadow of kindness in his eyes. "Who would see it as unprofessional?" He places the tie around my neck and I go along with him.

"Employees at the company and maybe even people outside of the company," I answer as he begins tying the fabric. My eyes don't leave his for the slightest second. His beautiful, brown eyes are the only things I need to keep me awake, day and night. The outline of his frame catches me in a daze as I try to focus on the conversation.

"And exactly who runs the company?" he inquires, directing his sight away from the tie to acknowledge me.

I catch on to his words of manipulation. They spin around my head like a merry-go-round. "You do, but people—"

"Danni, I've learned a lot from the few years I've run this company, and do you know what was one of the most important things that kept me going?" I stare at him ready to answer, being as patient as can be.

"People will give you their strange looks, opinions, and judge you every hour of every day," he says. "Don't get me wrong, some judgment is good. We need the negative to build us up into strong and confident people. But don't ever let people get to you, because when you start caring about them, suddenly, you see yourself fall apart." I listen to his words like stories of painful experiences. His sentences cloud his eyes ever so slightly as I look up into them.

His fingers slide under the tie and touch my neck. Little sparks flicker around my collarbone after he pulls away. "And you, love, are talking to the CEO of Blake Industries." Luke finally knots off the tie and adjusts it to my neck, then immediately drags me toward him until I'm barely five inches from his face. "So I'm going to do whatever the hell I want," Luke whispers with a devilishly handsome smile, reels me in by the tie once more, and smashes his lips into mine.