Chapter 23: PROTECTING HER FROM MYSELF
Chapter 22
Ren
I rounded the final corner, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps, and saw the small wooden sign of the shop ahead. A bell jingled loudly as I burst through the door, nearly knocking over a display stand.
The elderly man behind the counter jumped, looking at me with wide eyes. I must have looked like a maniac—huge, soaking wet, with a bleeding, bandaged hand and a fierce look on my face.
"We are closing, sir," the old man said carefully, reaching for the lock on the door.
"Please," I panted, wiping the rain from my eyes. "I just need one thing. It’s a gift. A specific sketchbook. The heavy charcoal one with the woven cover."
The man looked at me for a long moment, seeing the sheer desperation in my face. Slowly, the tight look on his face softened.
He nodded, walking into the back room. When he came out, he was holding a beautiful, thick sketchbook with a dark, woven binding, along with a tin case of professional charcoal pencils.
"For someone special?" the old man asked as I pulled out my wallet.
"The best person I know," I muttered, handing him the cash without even counting it. "Keep the change."
I took the package, wrapping it carefully inside my coat to keep it perfectly dry, and walked back out into the rain.
The journey back was just as brutal. The trains were packed with grumpy, wet commuters, and I had to stand the entire way, shielding the package with my body so nobody would bump into it.
My muscles were aching, my hand was throbbing, and I was shivering by the time I finally made it back to our hotel corridor. I was completely exhausted, but as I stood outside her room, a feeling of nervous excitement chased away the fatigue.
I knocked softly on the wood. "Lumi. It’s me."
A second later, the lock clicked, and the door swung open.
Lumi stood there, wearing a soft, oversized sweater she used for sleeping. She took one look at me and her jaw dropped.
"Ren! Oh my god, you’re soaked. What happened to you?"
I walked into the room, leaving a small puddle of water on the floor, but I couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at my lips. I reached inside my heavy jacket and pulled out the perfectly dry, wrapped package.
"I went to get you this," I said, my voice a bit rough from the cold air. I held it out to her.
She stared at the package, then looked up at my wet face, completely confused. Slowly, she took it from my hands and tore away the paper.
When she saw the woven cover of the sketchbook and the tin of charcoal pencils, she froze. Her breath hitched, and her fingers traced the texture of the book.
"You... you went across the city for this?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "In the rain? How did you even find it?"
"You mentioned it a few days ago," I said simply, rubbing the back of my neck with my uninjured hand. "You said drawing made your mind quiet. I figured... after today, you could use a little bit of quiet."
She stared down at the book, and for a long moment, she didn’t say anything. I started to worry that I had done the wrong thing, that maybe it was too much, or that she didn’t want it.
But then, she looked up at me. Her eyes were completely full of tears, but a beautiful, radiant smile broke across her face, the first real, genuine smile I had seen on her since we met.
It lit up her whole face, making my chest swell with a feeling so intense it nearly knocked me off my feet.
"Thank you, Ren," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. She stepped forward, not caring that my jacket was soaking wet, and wrapped her arms tightly around my waist, burying her face in my chest.
"Nobody has ever... nobody has ever listened to me like you do." I wrapped my big, damp arms around her, holding her close in the quiet room.
As she held onto me, her warmth soaking right through my wet clothes, my heart started beating like crazy against my ribs. I looked down at the top of her head, and then my eyes dropped to her face.
Her lips were parted slightly, wet from a stray tear, and they looked so incredibly soft in the dim light of the hotel room.
For one split second, the air inside the room changed completely.
Everything else in the world just faded away. The anger at Callum, the court case, the rain outside, it all vanished.
All I could think about was leaning down and pressing my mouth against hers. I wanted to kiss her so badly it felt like a physical ache in my throat.
I wanted to taste her, to hold her so tight she forgot every bad thing that had ever happened to her.
Then, like a splash of freezing water, reality hit me right in the face.
What the hell are you doing? I yelled at myself inside my head.
I froze, forcing my neck to go completely stiff. A cold sweat broke out across my back as I realized just how close I had come to doing something incredibly stupid. I was completely out of line.
Lumi was going through absolute hell right now. Her entire life was turned upside down, her husband had just torn her apart with cruel words, and she was crying and fighting to get her little boy back.
She didn’t need me trying to take advantage of her weakness. She didn’t need me confusing her or adding more drama to her life. She needed a safe place, a protector, a true friend she could trust completely.
She would never forgive or trust me if she realise the kind of thought I had for her.
She would looked at me with fear or disgust, thinking I was just like every other man who wanted to take something from her when she was down.
I would ruin the one clean, safe relationship she had left.
And my sister... god, Neve would absolutely skin me alive. Neve had trusted me to protect her best friend, to keep her safe and help her get back on her feet in London.
If she found out I was using this time to hit on Lumi while she was vulnerable, Neve would never look at me the same way again.
Besides, I needed to face the hard truth: Lumi didn’t look at me that way.
To her, I was just Neve’s younger brother. I was the guy who picked up heavy boxes, drove the car, and stood around to look intimidating when her ex-husband showed up.
She saw me as family, as a helping hand, nothing more. Trying to force a kiss on her would have smashed that trust into a million pieces.
I forced a hard breath down my throat, slowly and carefully loosening my grip around her waist.
I didn’t pull away too fast to make it awkward, but I made sure there was a respectable amount of space between our bodies again.
Stop looking at her lips, I told myself, turning my eyes firmly toward the wall behind her. Don’t you dare look down there again. Don’t even think about it.
I had to keep my head straight. I couldn’t do anything stupid to jeopardize this relationship.
What we had right now—this trust, this deal to get Theo back—was too important to ruin over a moment of weakness. I had to be the rock she needed, not a fool who couldn’t control his own impulses.
"You should get some rest," I said, my voice coming out a little rougher and deeper than usual as I tried to clear my head. I stepped back completely, giving her a small, polite nod.
"You’ve had a really long day, Lumi. Take the book and try to get some sleep. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow with Eleanor."
Lumi looked up at me, blinking her long eyelashes, completely unaware of the massive storm that had just passed through my head. She smiled softly, tucking the woven sketchbook tightly against her chest.
"I will," she whispered, her voice sweet and entirely trusting. "Goodnight, Ren."
"Goodnight," I muttered.
I turned around and headed to my room, not letting my eyes wander back to her for even a second.
All the exhaustion, the cold rain, and the pain in my hand came rushing back, but my mind was completely locked down now. Callum and Sienna would lose everything, slowly and painfully, until they had nothing left. I would make sure of it.
But right here, in this room, Lumi was safe. And as long as I had breath in my body, I was going to keep it that way, even if it meant protecting her from myself.
