Page 89 of Worth the Risk
“Is that your subtle way of suggesting you don’t actually own the house?” I tease.
Luca laughs. “No, I own it. But it’s technically right at the county line, and it doesn’t fall in Eternity Springs city limits. The address is pretty vague, and people will assume it’s a vacation home further in the mountains.”
“Did you change the address or something?”
“Sort of. The information online only has a PO Box. The physical address is a county address. Eventually, someone will figure it out. But for now, it’s our little escape. Oh, and I added a massive gate and fence around the entire property. None of these fuckers are getting in,” he says wickedly.
“Are you even allowed to change addresses on things like that?” I wonder.
“We didn’t really change the address. My siblings and I are co-owners of a corporation that is headquartered in Boulder. Any property we have is listed through the corporation to keep our family name out of it. The fucking gossip site does enough damage anyway.”
I choke out a laugh. “A gossip site?”
“Yeah. I’ll show you later. I’m pretty sure you’ve already been on it. Whoever runs it probably guessed which of us you’d end up with.”
“What?”
“The gossip site really likes to focus on my family. Don’t tell my sisters, but I read it. Most of it is pretty comical. It covers some typical newsworthy things like vandalism, or petty crime, but mostly it’s all about the love lives of the residents. So when you have six out of seven kids still single in a well-known family, we get a lot of publicity.”
“What’s the name of it?” I murmur as I whip out my phone.
“The Eagle Has Landed.”
Within a minute, I have the site pulled up. “I can’t believe I still have coverage up here — LUCA! They have my college sorority picture in here!”
“No way! Lemme see,” Luca says as he yanks my phone away. “Damn, baby, you were hot even back then.”
“I was seventeen in that picture, you creep,” I mutter.
“How were you in a sorority then?”
“I skipped a grade.”
“I would have only been nineteen then. Am I still a creep?” he asks hopefully, giving me that signature Luca lopsided smile.
I sigh. “I guess not.”
“Good. Cuz thirty-year-old Luca is really wanting to do some nasty things to twenty-eight-year-old Hannah when we get home,” he says with a gaudy wink.
“I don’t think I ever said I’d move in with you, Luca,” I chastise him.
“I know, Pix. But I also know you’ll come around to it once you see it. Because this house? It’s ours, baby. Not mine. Ours.”
My heart skips a beat when he refers to it as ‘home.’ Our home. Together.
One tour of the mostly empty but breathtaking house later, and I’m officially in love with what Luca purchased. “Why don’t you have any furniture yet?”
“I wanted us to pick it out together. I mean, I have a mattress. That’s it. Not even a bed frame. And Arianna wanted to pick out more furniture, but I said no. I wanted us to choose what would be our first pieces together. Know what I mean?”
“I thought you just bought this a few months ago?” I ask, puzzled.
A slight wave of pink crests across Luca’s neck as he gives me a lopsided smile. “I knew I wanted to get a house near home. As soon as I saw this one, I kept thinking about you. If you would like it. How would you decorate. What kinds of traditions we could create here. You were barely a blip on the radar, but I subconsciously knew you were different.”
“Luca,” I whisper. Overcome with emotion, I wrap my arms around his waist and bury my head in his chest. I feel his lips ghost across my hair as he squeezes me close.
“Without realizing it, I imprinted you all over this house, Pixie. And if you had decided you didn’t want to be with me, I had every intention of selling it. I had too many dreams about what life could be like with you here. If that wasn’t going to happen, I wanted no part of the house.”
“What dreams did you have?” I ask, captivated by how Luca’s eyes sparkle with love, yet his voice delivers a gritty and deep conviction I’ve never heard before.