Won: For the Billionaire's Pleasure - Luke & Claire, #3

By Evelyn Adams

From USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Evelyn Adams, Won is the final part of Luke and Claire's story.

Emotionally constipated billionaire developer, Luke Masters might finally be learning to love. His strong sexy electrical contractor, Claire English has blown down his barriers and claimed his heart. Just because he’s decided to give this relationship thing a try, doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing. Old habits die hard and Luke’s had a lifetime to pick up the bad ones. 

Claire’s battled desperately to keep her heart safe from the selfish billionaire who owns her body and wants her soul, but against her better judgment, she’s fallen in love. Luke has promised her the world and more importantly his heart. She’s not sure whether to believe him, but she’s already lost. It’s too late to turn back now. 

With something far more sinister than a broken heart threatening to rip them apart can they find their way back to each other and the love they’re just learning to trust or will they lose everything? 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evelyn Adams
• Release date: Jul 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513045092

Book preview

LUKE MASTERS FELT THE BITE of the cold concrete through the fabric of his custom-made slacks and decided he didn’t give flying fuck. He’d kneel on broken glass if it got him closer to Claire. For weeks, it was like he’d been living under water, trying to push an impossible weight through his day, barely making it from morning to night. Missing her was an aching, gaping hole in his heart, and he’d do anything, including saying the words he’d never said to anyone before, to get her to come home with him.

I love you, Claire. I know I fucked up, and I will again, he said, reaching for the woman who’d become his life. I’ve never loved anyone before, but I love you. I can’t lose you. I’ll do whatever it takes.

The tears spilling from her eyes killed him. He couldn’t stand being the one to make her cry, but this close to her – to everything he’d ever wanted and hadn’t been willing to admit to himself – he couldn’t make himself let go. He needed her like he needed air to breathe. More. And he’d do whatever it took to show her she could trust him again. That he could be the man she deserved.

I can’t, said Claire as the tears streamed down her beautiful face, her mascara leaving dark tracks against her pale skin. It almost killed me to walk away from you, Luke. I can’t fall back into the ways things were. I won’t survive it.

She told him no, but she didn’t pull away from him. He gripped her hips with his hands and let his forehead rest against the soft mound of her belly, pausing for a moment to breathe in the familiar, spicy floral scent that had invaded his dreams and worked its way into every corner of his life. Her slender fingers tangled in his hair, holding him to her, and he took a deep breath, feeling parts of his world slip into alignment again.

She let out a sob, tugging at him to stand. He got to his feet, but instead of stepping away he moved closer, pulling her into his arms, feeling her body shake with her sobs.

Shh, sweetheart, he crooned. Don’t cry. Please don’t cry, baby. I don’t want to make you hurt, but I can’t let you go.

He stroked his hands down her back, feeling the warmth of her skin through the thin silk of her blouse. He knew her curves, knew every inch of her body better than he knew his own, and there was no way he’d walk away from her now. He’d just have to find a way to convince her that things were different. He was different. He loved her, and the reality of that still blew him away. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he told her he’d never said the words before, but God, he did love her.

We don’t have to go home. He bit back the yet, determined not to spook her now that he had her in his arms. His love-addled brain grasped for a solution that would give her space and still keep her with him. Coffee, he said, seizing on an idea. Let’s go to the coffee shop around the corner to talk.

I can’t. I’m supposed to go talk to the police, she said, but she didn’t say no or pull out of his arms. He felt the flicker of hope bloom in his battered heart. He’d take his victory in baby steps if it kept her body curled against his.

Mason and Jackson are in with them now. They’ll take care of everything and call me afterwards, he said, looking down into her tear-stained face. Don’t worry. If the police still need to talk to you after they’re finished, I’ll bring you right back. Please, it’s just around the corner. We can be back here in minutes if we need to. He cradled her face in his hands, brushing away her tears with the pads of his thumbs. The urge to kiss her was overwhelming, but he forced himself to hold back. He wouldn’t risk pushing her.

She gave a small nod, and it was the only permission he needed. Keeping his arm wrapped around her so she stayed tucked tight against his body, he led her to the elevator that would take them to the street level.

––––––––

CLAIRE ENGLISH FELT like a hole had been ripped open in her chest and filled in just as quickly. She’d spent so many sleepless nights, so many weeks trying desperately to force all thoughts of Luke from her mind. None of it had worked. Standing here, with the long length of his body sheltering hers, she was so afraid of losing everything. She’d barely been able to resist him when he was just a thought on the other side of town. The real man walking beside her had the ability to own her if she wasn’t careful.

She’d give him everything and forget to hold back anything for herself. Then in a few months, when he was tired of playing house again or got scared of commitment, he’d bolt, and she’d be left with nothing. A shell of the woman she was meant to be.

He said he loved her. She’d loved him for so long and ached for him to say the words. Now that he had, she wasn’t sure she could trust him, but she couldn’t seem to walk away. The elevator opened onto the street level of the parking garage, and she stepped out, trying to put some distance between her and the man who could give her heaven or hell.

Luke followed, keeping his hand on the small of her back, and steered them onto the crowded street. He made a path for them through the waves of people, guiding her to the door of the coffee shop where they’d waited for Mason and Mike the last time. When he opened the door, the warm, sweet, yeasty-scented air wrapped around them, and Claire felt her stomach wake up. She thought about when she’d eaten, but she honestly couldn’t remember. Since she’d kicked Luke out of her house weeks ago, her appetite for everything had been practically nonexistent.

They waited a few moments for the server to clear the table and then settled into the booth. Luke sat opposite her, but he kept her hands caught in his much larger ones, and the warmth and weight was as reassuring as it was troubling. When the server came back for their order, Claire asked for coffee and a powdered-sugar donut. She cast a glance at Luke while he ordered, and heat and desire unfurled low in her belly. Apparently hunger for food wasn’t the only thing coming back now that she was close to him. He licked his lips, and it was as if he’d called to her, like he had her body programed to respond to his invisible cues.

She knew it was dangerous. Hell, part of her knew if she sat there with him, talking to him, wanting him, that she’d eventually give in and let him touch her. And when she did that, it would be over. He’d own her again, and she didn’t think there was anyway she’d break free the next time. It was like the rabbit held hypnotized by the snake. She knew the danger, but she couldn’t seem to move away from it.

I’ve missed you so much, Claire. His hands cradled her fingers across the table, and the warmth of his touch called to something deep inside her.

She took a deep breath. For the first time in weeks, it didn’t feel like she was trying to breathe while wearing a too-tight corset. The constriction around her chest had eased, replaced by a dull ache.

Please come home, he said, the longing clear in his voice.

It was never my home. He flinched, but she forced herself to tell him because holding it in would make the inevitable pain that much worse. I can’t go back to the way things were. But even as she was telling him no, she let her fingers uncurl like petals in the heat of his hands. She couldn’t be this close to him and not touch him. She couldn’t go back to the way things were, but she couldn’t let go of him either. She was so screwed.

The server set their coffee and donuts on the table in front of them, and Claire used the brief reprieve to try to get hold of her racing heart.

It won’t be the same. I promise. I’ll do whatever you need. I love you, Claire. I’ve never said that to anyone.

His dark eyes looked so sure, so sincere, but part of her didn’t understand how it was even possible. How could a grown man have lived his whole life without ever saying I love you? I didn’t make sense. She grew up saying I love you and hearing her parents say it every day. What kind of life could he have had where he never said it, not even to his family?

I don’t understand, she said. I can’t believe you’ve never said the words. You had to tell someone – your parents, a pet, grandparents, someone.

She’d known there were oceans of differences between them, but she’d assumed early on that it was his money that was the biggest one. That wasn’t the case. Not even close.

Loving someone – the right someone – came as easily to Claire as breathing. It was holding back that caused her pain. Curtailing her natural inclination to share herself completely with the man she loved had come close to destroying her. To her, loving someone had always meant completely, no-holds-barred, not keeping anything back or protecting herself. It made her stronger, better, able to do what needed to be done.

From the looks of it, love, if that’s what it really was, had the opposite effect on Luke. He didn’t look like a man lifted up by love. He looked like he was in pain, beaten down. If that’s what loving her was going to do to him, she didn’t want it for either one of them. He took a breath, and she felt the slight tremor in his hands. She turned her hands so she could hold his for a change, needing to give him whatever comfort she could, even as she tried to sort through this thing between them.

My mother wasn’t much more than a teenager when she met my father. He looked past her as he talked, as if he was speaking from memory, but his hands were solid and strong in hers. She was beautiful. I’ve seen pictures, he said to clarify. I don’t remember her. At least I don’t think so, but my father had her pictures all over the house. I guess she wanted a way out of the small town she grew up in, and he fell hard for her. They were married six months after they met, and I was born a year later.

He blew out a breath, and she rubbed small circles with her middle fingers over the insides of his wrists. At the touch, he looked down absentmindedly and then back up into her eyes. She saw a flash of pain and vulnerability before he shuttered his expression and went on.

My father was working class. He had a decent job, at least before he started drinking, but he was never going to be a wealthy man. A richer man came along and she left us. Both of us.

Claire sucked in her breath. Beyond an abstract kind of longing, she hadn’t thought about having children, but she couldn’t imagine what would make a mother leave her baby.

I’ve tried to think about it from her perspective. What it was like for her to be young and beautiful, stuck in a small town, saddled with a husband and kid. He shrugged but didn’t elaborate, and she stayed silent, instinctively sensing that he needed to tell her without her input along the way. She had a feeling if she showed him the heartache she was feeling for him, he’d stop talking.

When she left, my father fell apart, and he blamed me. He drank, and he took it out on me with his fists until I got big enough to fight back.

He was so matter of fact when he said the words, but she could see how much it cost him, and her heart broke for the little boy who’d been blamed for everyone’s unhappiness from the time he was born.

For a long time – almost all my life really – I thought it was because he loved her so much; he couldn’t stand it when she left, but that wasn’t it. He shifted his gaze to meet hers, the question shining in his eyes, and she shook her head.

That’s not love, she said. It’s obsession.

I have a hard time telling the difference, he said, like he was admitting something horrible. When I walked away from you, I fell apart just like he did. I honestly don’t know if I can live without you. I know I sure as hell don’t want to try, but Claire, I don’t want to hurt you either. I can’t stand being the one causing you pain. I want to make things easier for you not harder. I pray to God, you’ll give me another chance but if you really can’t, if being with me is going to hurt you... He let the words hang in the air between them, squeezing her hands so she’d meet his gaze. I don’t know how I’ll do it, but I’ll try to leave you in peace – even if it leaves me in pieces.

More than anything he’d said, more than the declaration of his love or him finally letting her inside and showing her something of his past, that one sentence was the thing that burst through the walls she’d been trying so hard to build around her heart. That he was willing to walk away if it was what she needed, made her feel like it was love he was feeling and not a twisted kind of obsession.

I don’t want that, she said, shaking her head and blinking back tears. God help her, she had no idea how she was going to navigate loving this complicated, damaged man, but she could no sooner walk away than he could.

Hope flared in his eyes, and he brought their joined hands to his lips, brushing a kiss across her knuckles. Feeling the sweet, steady press of his mouth against her skin brought her body roaring back to life. She didn’t know how to resist the man who owned her so completely already.

You’re crying again, he said, reaching up to wipe the tears from her cheek.

It happens, she said, blinking furiously.

He reached up to cup her face, freezing at the buzz of his phone.

Answer it, she insisted. It might be Mason or the police. The last thing she wanted was for the police to think she wasn’t willing to cooperate.

Pulling the phone from his pocket with his free hand, Luke thumbed it open and listened for a moment.

Good, he said. Send me your overpriced bill, and this time I will gladly pay it. I’ll tell her. He said good-bye and hung up, catching her chin with his fingertips and tipping her face to look at him.

That was Mason. Jackson got a lead on the framers. Between him and Mason, they convinced the police to turn their attention to them. At least for now, you and your crew are out of their sights. They’ll stay on top of it until they find out what happened, Claire. I’ll make sure of it.

She exhaled in relief. Worrying about when the police were going to swoop in to question her or someone on her crew had taken a toll on her nerves, and she was so grateful to have at least this part of it behind her. And maybe they’d finally get a step closer to finding out who killed Pete, her lead electrician. The more time passed, the more certain she became that his death wasn’t an accident. She wanted to find out who was responsible and then make them pay. Knowing she could trust Luke to do that, was a big thing. She wasn’t alone in this.

Thank you, she said, letting her hand rest on the side of his face for a moment.

The stubble from the start of his beard was sand-paper rough against her palm, and she was more than

Reviews for Won

[Anne Baker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best series I have read in a long time the characters were absolutely perfect for one another and not too much angst. Perfect!