So why with each step did she have to fight the urge to turn and see if Luke was still there. She didn’t want to know if he’d tuned her out, when she couldn’t forget about him, which was another reason not to turn. Luke was trouble, heartache, misplaced emotions that couldn’t end well. She didn’t do relationships for a reason. They didn’t work. Yet, he made her forget caution, made her want to believe in something, she didn’t know what. Lauren and Luke’s brother Royce made her want to believe, though. They deserved happily-ever-after. They would be the exception. She believed that, but for most part, love hurt. No one knew that better than she did.
***
Luke Walker watched the only woman who’d ever rocked his world sashaying her sexy little behind towards the plane, remembering another goodbye, and wondering if she was remembering it too. It had been two years ago and he’d been headed back to active duty after a month off and in her arms. She’d taken him to the airport, even walked with him inside. They’d stopped at security and stared at one another, long seconds of silence heavy between them, and he’d been unsure what to say. Their time together had been a short-term thing. They’d both been clear about that, no strings, no tomorrows, but he didn’t want it to end. He squeezed his eyes shut, reliving the past.
Julie leaned into him, her hands on his chest, scorching his skin through his shirt. She pressed to her toes and brushed her lips over his and it was all he could do not to kiss her like it was his last kiss in this lifetime. “Don’t die, soldier,” she whispered. “The world needs more men like you, not less.”
He’d wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “And you? What do you need?”
She blinked up at him and he saw the uncertainty in her face for an instant. “One last kiss,” she said, her mouth finding his again for a feather light kiss that was over too soon. She pushed out of his arms and turned away, half-running toward the exit. Regret and disappointment filled him.
Luke scrubbed the tension at back of his neck. As time had ticked on, one thing about that day had replayed over and over in his mind. There had been no goodbye.
An announcement sounded over the intercom, snapping Luke back to the present. His flight was cancelled. The doors to Julie’s plane hadn’t closed. He had a gut feeling she wasn’t going anywhere either.
He walked to the counter and found the attendant. “Is this flight going to take off?”
She sighed. “They’re trying to get clearance but it’s not looking good.”
“If they don’t, since you put them on the plane, will you put them up in a hotel for the night?”
“We won’t pay for the room since weather is an act of God,” she said, “but we’ll get them to a reserved room if they want it.”
“Which hotel?”
“The Royal Blue,” she said. “If you’re thinking about staying there, I’m not sure that will be possible. The airline reserved a large block of rooms. You should check around quickly before everyone is sold out.”
“Understood,” Luke said. “Thank you.” He turned away and started walking. The airline wasn’t the only one with a Royal Blue contract. Airport administration and security had one as well, and he had a security clearance badge that gave him priority reservations. He was headed to the Royal Blue and he wasn’t giving Julie a chance to run away to a different hotel.
He’d see her when she arrived.
Chapter Two
An hour and a half after she’d left Luke behind in the airport, Julie was off the plane and inside a hotel, rolling her bag toward the registration desk. She wondered about Luke and where his flight and the night had taken him. She worried about both of them getting home for the wedding. The temptation to call him would have been extreme if she actually had his number, especially since she just might be needing that charter flight to get out of here quickly. But she didn’t have his number and she wasn’t going to call Lauren and Royce and freak them out about being snowed in when she might well be on an early morning flight. If not, well, she’d find her own charter if she had to, and ignore her own warning issued to Luke to be careful. She’d walk home before she’d miss Lauren’s rehearsal dinner.
Julie stopped at the roped-off area to wait in line for registration, noting that there were a good ten people in front of her, most of whom were from her flight. Thankfully, she’d caught the first shuttle to the hotel or the line would probably be longer already.
With a sigh, she leaned on her suitcase, feeling the ache of the long day, and as time ticked by without any movement, she let her lashes lower. Her mind went back to the last time she’d said goodbye to Luke. To that day in the airport when she’d dropped him off. The end of their affair had come far too soon. She told him the world needed more men like him. “What do you need?” he’d asked in response. It had been all she could do not to say, “You, Luke. I need you.”
A sudden shiver of foreboding swept down Julie’s spine with such intensity that she straightened and cast a furtive glance around the lobby. Her attention was drawn instantly to three men standing with their backs to her near the door to what looked like a restaurant or a bar. They weren’t even looking her way and yet...there was something about them.
Elizabeth Moore’s words played in her head. “He won’t kill me. He won’t kill you. But there are others who’ll kill us all if they find out what he’s hiding.” Julie rubbed her arms, inwardly shaking herself for letting her imagination get the best of her.