Lies That Bind by Shirley Wine

Author:Shirley Wine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Brooke hurried down the hall after Luke, filled with conflicting emotions. Worry. Confusion. Lust. Anger. Indignation. Relief. She stopped in the doorway of Rose’s room. Luke was already sitting on the edge of Rose’s bed cradling the sobbing girl in his arms, his deep voice a reassuring, rumbling murmur.

He looked up and saw Brooke in the doorway. Over Rose’s head their eyes met and held in a gaze that singed her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. She sucked in a shaky breath that did little to quench the white-hot desire sizzling through her system.

It was those shared moments of intimacy, whispered an inner voice, that’s all it was. Quit lying to yourself, Brooke.

Protest had not entered her head when Luke was kissing her—rather than protest, she’d sunk into his arms and relished his kiss like a starving woman.

So what does that make me—a fool?

From their very first encounter in Cherry’s Cafe, she’d known he was one potent male, but those kisses, man oh man—Luke Calloway was more like dynamite—explosive—or a storm gust topping the Beaufort scale.

‘Rose?’

Otto’s quavering voice broke into Brooke’s turbulent thoughts. She flicked on the hall light and walked into the boy’s room, crossing to his bedside.

‘Your sister has just wakened from a bad dream,’ she said, laying a soothing hand on Otto’s shoulder.

In the dim light Otto’s eyes were dark holes in his pale face. ‘Can I go to her?’

‘Sure. Let me get your chair.’ Brooke brought the wheelchair to the edge of the bed and flicked on the brake.

As Otto swung himself from the bed to the chair in a practised move she watched with a professional eye, pleased by his progress. She walked beside him as he wheeled his chair into Rose’s room.

Luke looked up as they entered and indicated for Otto to sit on the bed beside him.

Brooke applied the brake.

Otto leaned forward and gripped Luke’s extended hand and, with his uncle’s help, pulled himself up onto the bed beside his sister. Luke wrapped his free arm around Otto and hauled the boy into a close hug.

‘I thought we were done with these nightmares,’ Luke said, meeting Brooke’s gaze over the boy’s head.

‘Ask Rose to tell you about her dream.’ Brooke ignored his harried expression and silent plea for help.

For all their sakes, Luke needed to help his niece work through these nightmares. Until they did, the healing could not begin.

‘Do you want to share?’ he asked.

Rose shook her head, the movement spreading her sweat-dampened hair against Luke’s chest.

With a tearful girl in one arm and a scared boy in the other, Luke gave Brooke another pleading look, clearly outside his comfort zone.

Moved, she turned Otto’s wheelchair, sat in it and leaned across the space to rub a hand across Rose’s back. ‘I used to have a lot of nightmares when I was young.’

Rose turned her head slightly and looked at Brooke through tear-drenched eyes. ‘You did?’

‘For sure.’ Brooke kept her voice quiet and soothing. ‘My dad always encouraged me to talk about what scared me.

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