An Echo in the Mafia (Echo Reid, Reid Family Book #1)

Luke

Bonus chapters: I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I am busy with work and I am moving into my very first house. (New Homeowner Dance Party) That was lame right? Anyway, before I continue with Vera's story, I want to finish up with the move so I can focus on it and write it well. I'll be making major updates this weekend. 

To everyone asking for Smut: I suck at that type of thing, this is the best I can do... don't judge me. This is literally as smutty as I can do without passing out. 

To Everyone: Thank you for the support. Sorry I can't keep up with all the messages and comments. But thank you for being patient and the encouragement. Enjoy these while I get Vera back up and running.

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He'd always known she was special, he just didn't recognize it at first. Did that make sense? No? Well, nothing in Luke's world made sense anymore after meeting Echo. It was necessarily that she had flipped his world upside down, it was that she fit into his life so perfectly that everything he'd done and lived before her was suddenly... senseless. He'd wondered often enough since meeting her how he ever made due before?

Luke was the perfectionist. Luke the most demanding, Luke the boss, Luke the controlling, Luke the obsessive... Luke who didn't compromise in any way was suddenly questioning everything he did. She did it. He knew it was her.

When he met her, all he'd seen was a plain and poorly dressed woman with little to no social skills. Not at all the type of woman he pictured fitting into the world he had so meticulously and carefully built. Echo was just not that woman but he couldn't help it, she amused him. It wasn't a 'haha' laugh at her type of amusement, or a 'something to do' type of distraction, it was more of a 'she makes me feel' type of mood. Echo made him feel unburdened by the things that had weighed heavily on his shoulders for years.

Maybe that was the wrong reason to insist, but it was the reason he did at first.  In the beginning, he found her eccentric personality, her unique traits and complexity, amusing and that was in itself, so very shocking. He couldn't believe how much he wanted her around. Sure, she was smart and he had to admit that she had the prettiest lips he'd seen, but she was so complicated. Luke was not the type of man to invite chaos and complications into the part of his life he could control, he had enough of that at work.

But what could he do? He found himself acting and saying and responding without thinking or planning. He found himself doing things he didn't usually do and in his effort to try to control a situation that he couldn't, he insisted on things that now were not even important. Things that might seem petty or shallow or manipulative, because they were, but were also the things he could count on. Echo had her anxiety, Luke has security issues. Yes, the ever arrogant, ever confident, ever assertive, Luke Farina was insecure, maybe not about himself or his own abilities, but about life in general. His life, even in its most safe and secure moments, was never going to be completely constant or guarded. Controlling the things he could was his own way of keeping himself, of giving himself a sense of security. In just the blink of an eye, he's lost his parents and his world had changed. Luke lacked security. Ironic, a man with as many escorts and guards at him lacked security.

He had learned a lot from Echo- and the book he took upon himself to read when he learned about her anxiety. The more odd and more complex Echo proved to be, the more he just naturally wanted her. He hadn't minded reading the book, he loved to read but by the time he figured out just how complex the situation was he was already much more invested than he wanted to admit.

In the beginning, he told himself he wouldn't budge. She would have to fit into his world. She would have to accept the rules, have to dress how he wanted and be ready when he wanted. He chuckled at the thought. His own arrogance had blinded him to the idea that a woman might resist or reject him. She told him no so many times and he ignored it because he just couldn't understand that she didn't want him... not when he wanted her so much. Every time she said no, every time she pushed back, his own selfish and spoiled nature kept him from seeing the reality that maybe she really did want nothing to do with him.