Chapter 20

WHEN they reached the house, Alyssa hopped from the car before he could get her door or say a word. She was hiding something. Luc was beginning to understand her . . . yet there was a whole chunk of her he didn’t grasp at all. It shouldn’t matter. He wasn’t staying, and he couldn’t again be her lover—even temporarily.

Then why did he feel a driving urge to figure her out?

The pain. That note in her voice, the tightening of her sultry features. The past, her mother—something beyond normal grief—hurt her. Pride hit a note in there, too. Despite her pole-dancing ways, she’d taken the time to thoroughly educate herself. She helped others with the drive to do the same.

What the fuck did it say about him that, in this moment, he wanted to slay her proverbial dragons for her?

Luc stormed in the house, just a few steps behind her. The conversation should be done . . . but he wasn’t ready to end it yet. He had more to decipher.

But the phone in his pocket vibrated, and