LukeThe look on Sophia’s face was priceless. She deserved more than an exclusive restaurant, but it was only my first full day with her. There was more to come, and I couldn’t wait to make some happy memories with her without my mother’s disapproving stare or the weight of Jaabir’s pressure on me.In the past, Father and Mother traveled all the time on vacations; one week wasn’t going to make the country crumble. That was what I had the council for.Our waitress poured two flutes of champagne and placed the glasses between Sophia and me. She walked away—as I’d already planned the menu—and I lifted my glass to the beautiful woman sitting across from me.“To forgiveness,” I said, clinking my glass with hers.“For what?” she asked.“You forgiving me,” I said.She shook her head. “We’ve both made mistakes. I say we toast to finding our way back to each other.”Sophia still surprised me in many ways.“To finding our way home,” I said. Sophia was my sun, stars, and moon. I would never be a

SophiaLuke dug his face into the space between my breasts. I grabbed onto his hair and squeezed, holding him in place. His hands moved over my breasts. One of them unhooked my bra, and it dropped to the bed.Stumbling across the room with my dress at my waist, the sucking and tugging of his mouth and hands over my sensitive peaks made me instantly wet. My lower lips burned for Luke.After the amazing dinner we had, and Luke nailing every minute detail, he deserved everything that I was about to give him. I didn’t have the money or title to curate elaborate and lavish evenings, but I did have something he wanted. And I planned on giving it to him as much as he wanted tonight.As we moved to the bed, he undressed me, and I pulled his shirt out from his pants and dug my hands underneath to feel his smooth skin. The tuft of curly hair near his belly button showed me the way down to the important part of his body. The part that pressed into my leg, begging to be unleashed.When Luke final

LukeEven though I cherished every single second I spent with Sophia, those seconds were moving quicker than I wanted. All the money in the world couldn’t compete with the inevitability of time. With each passing minute, the hard conversation came closer to us, threatening to split us apart again.After hearing Sophia tell me that she loved me and being with her, behaving like a normal couple, I knew I couldn’t go back to Qatar without her. I would do anything to convince her that being together was the only choice for both of us to live a happy life.I regretted our month-long breakup but concluded that it was necessary for us to realize how much we needed each other.Sophia wasn’t who Mother imagined I would be with, but she was the only choice for me. While Jaabir would fight me more, he had an expiration date for being on the council. I had the rest of my life to deal with the fallout if I broke it off with Sophia for good.The warring thoughts flew to the front of my mind as I aw

SophiaMy words echoed in my mind as Luke’s face fell. The lovely family across the way entranced me enough that I blurted my question out without thinking.Have you ever thought about starting a family?I might as well have asked him if he wanted to screw on this table and make a few babies that minute. What if he didn’t want to have children and I had backed him into a corner with that question? I didn’t even know if he wanted to be with me. Now, he probably thought I was forcing myself on him and demanding we have kids. I was still young, and nothing about our future was set in stone. I was such an idiot.“I just meant…” I trailed off, my mind scrambling to bring back the serene smile on his face instead of whatever he was thinking at that moment.He blinked and then his hand shot across the table and enveloped mine. “No, don’t take it back. I was a little surprised, is all.”“I didn’t want to imply that I—we—shit,” I said, shaking my head.He squeezed my hand. “Until you came into

LukeI never intended to be the downer of the day, but Sophia’s admission about the phone call from her possible future employer completely blindsided me. For once, I didn’t curb my reaction. It put a wrench in my plans for sure, but I should have been more reserved. I didn’t care that Sophia had moved on with her life in a month. If she never worked again, I would think something was wrong with her.The job offer itself didn’t bother me, but why did she feel she needed to lie to me? Were my intentions unclear to her? I wasn’t against her taking the job if that was what she wanted. Perhaps I had completely miscalculated the entire situation. Without being honest and forthcoming to her, she felt she needed to keep a part of her life hidden from me.If there were a way to feel more terrible than I already did, it would be caused by leaving Sophia in Dallas while I returned home empty-handed.My reaction had terrified her.I tried to make up for it by brushing it off, but I knew I came a