Chapter 33 My Nata
Natalie blinked her eyes suddenly and her
Natalie suddenly blinked her eyes and her heart missed a beat when she heard Luke's words.
What touched her most was exactly the word, "Future".
It sounded so intimate when a man told a woman about the future between them, as if they secretly had a thing for each other, but not telling each other.
Like the coming dawn, both man and woman hid their love in the night until the sun rose. Everything was exposed.
Natalie could feel that she couldn't help but look forward to the future Luke said with excitement.
Natalie who had never warmed to actual love was aware that she was warming now, with a throbbing heart.
Anyway, Natalie never had that feeling when she was with Forrest. She felt that she was now like a teenage girl who had never fallen in love.
"I don't..." Natalie lowered her head to hide her blushes.
"What?" Luke asked patiently.
Natalie pouted and deliberately spoke contrary in a very low voice, "I don't need you to accompany me."
Luke then acted like he was heartbroken.
Fourteen was now sitting down next to Natalie, looking very perky like Natalie's guardian. Luke sighed a breath, squatted down, and gave Fourteen a gentle push. "I'm gonna send you back tomorrow!" He threatened with jealousy.
Natalie thought Luke was serious. She immediately hugged Fourteen and stared at Luke while saying, "No way!"
Luke looked at Natalie and then, he looked at Fourteen. He suddenly felt a bit hurt that Natalie didn't even hug him so tightly like that.
"I don't know who was afraid of Fourteen so much before!" He complained as he pulled the dropped blanket up to Natalie's shoulders.
Luke just smoke a cigarette and the smell of smoke still clung to his clothes. While Luke bent forward, his lips were close to Natalie's head and his breath tickled her ear.
Natalie suddenly dared not to move at all and her breathing became slow and heavy.
There were so many men smoking in the world. The boys in college always smoke to make them look more manly while bragging or telling dirty jokes in front of the girls. Natalie just thought them so childish.
For this reason, Natalie never liked a smoking guy. Now thinking back on why she had a crush on Forrest before, it was perhaps because Forrest never smoke.
After all, it was a hard thing for a man to not smoke.
Luke was probably the only exception for Natalie. He was a typical smoking guy, but Natalie never took a dislike to him. Instead, she even liked the way he smells.
Especially at night, Luke drew heavily on his cigarette and puffed out a cloud of smoke. Then, he turned his head and looked straightly at Natalie. At that moment, Natalie felt that there were only Luke and her in the whole world.
Natalie suddenly blinked her eyes and her heart missed a beat when Luke smiled. She didn't know why but she could feel that she was longing for something.
At that moment, Natalie finally realized why women always fell in love with bad guys. She also loved a man she shouldn't love now.
Natalie gave a glance at Luke and stood up with the blanket in her hands. She didn't say anything and just walked into the room.
The sound of the door closing came behind her.
Natalie was surprised a bit when she realized that Luke had also come into the room.
"There's no sofa for you to sleep in my room," Natalie stammered. She stood upright and her body rigid.
"No problem! There is a bed!"
Hearing what Luke said, Natalie immediately blushed with embarrassment and glared at him.
Luke walked closer to her and said, "I mean you can sleep on the bed."
Natalie looked at Luke with confusion and didn't know what he was going to do.
Luke slowly said like know what she thought, "I will leave after you sleep."
"Really?" Natalie asked doubtfully.
Luke pretended to think for a moment with a serious look and said, "Don't worry. I can control myself."
Natalie continued to ask, "Really?"
In her eyes, there was a trace of suspicion. Luke frowned and said with uncertainty, "I don't know."
Natalie miffed. She kicked Luke gently.
Looking at Natalie's blushed look, Luke smiled. He gently patted Natalie's head and said, "Don't be afraid! You've been living here for many days and I did nothing."
Natalie knew that Luke was comforting her.
But Natalie didn't know when it started and she always could be easily conciliated by Luke. Therefore, hearing Luke's words, she, for some reason, agreed with Luke to stay tonight. After all, it was true that Luke did nothing during the period she lived here.
Natalie hesitated for a while. Then, she put the blanket on the bedside table, burrowing it into her heap of covers, with the bear toy beside her.
The ceiling lamp was turned off and the night lantern glowed softly in the darkness.
Luke sat cross-legged on the floor and rest his chin on the bedside near Natalie's legs.
Natalie secretly reached out, grabbed the blanket, and gave it to Luke. Then, she immediately slid between the sheets.
Luke turned his head and looked at Natalie. Natalie was now lying on her side with her eyes gleaming in the dim light.
"What does it mean?" Luke asked, with the blanket in his hands, knowing full well what she meant.
Natalie hemmed and hawed, but finally murmured, "I'm afraid that you may feel cold when sitting on the floor."
Luke smiled. "Give me your hand."
"Why?"
"Just give me your hand."
Subconsciously, Natalie slowly reached her hand out until her fingers exposed the quilt.
Luke paused for a second and smiled. He put his hand in the quilt and held Natalie's hand.
At that moment, Natalie could feel her face reddening with shyness.
"Do you think I may feel cold now?" Luke asked with a smile.
Natalie shook her head slowly. Luke's hand was very warm, giving out a male fervidity. Compared to Luke's hand, her hand was colder.
The room was unnaturally silent.
Natalie was waiting for Luke to let go of her hand, but Luke didn't.
"Is he going to hold my hand all night?" Natalie thought.
It seemed to be a warm night tonight.
The warmth from Luke's hand set Natalie's mind at rest. Natalie wanted to tell Luke that he could sleep on the bed, but she felt too shy to say that. In the end, Natalie slowly fell asleep.
The next morning, Natalie woke up and there was only her in the room.
Luke indeed left after Natalie slept.
Recently, Luke was busy dealing with the thing that Bretton Pharmaceutical sold fake commodities, so Natalie thought that Luke had left to work.
After she had finished washing, Natalie walked to the balcony and combed her hair. She looked down at the courtyard and unexpectedly saw Luke.
Luke was now sitting on the wooden chair in the courtyard. He bent down with his hands resting on his knees. After a long running of 20,000 meters, he was panting for breath. His short dark hair was damp with sweat and sticked on his forehead. Luke looked at the floor as sweat dripped down.
Luke's vigorous look even made the surroundings come alive.
Natalie paused and quietly looked at Luke from the second floor.
Every girl had once thought about her future lover. Some of them admired handsome young boys while some of them liked mature men with a strong desire to conquer.
Natalie now realized that she preferred the latter.
At this time, Luke suddenly raised his head and met Natalie's gaze. Natalie froze. For a moment, she thought that Luke had seen through her.
Luke sat up and leaned against the back of a chair. He wheezed with a smile in a relaxed tone, "How's your sleep last night?"
Natalie was too shy to think back to what happened last night.
"Not bad," Natalie said vaguely in a low voice. Then, she continued to comb her hair. After a short while, she began to think about whether Luke heard her answer just now.
She couldn't help but slow down her movements by combing her hair and looking at Luke.
The next second, she met Luke's gaze.
Luke was still looking at her with a smile as if he was enjoying a beautiful painting of a woman combing her hair.
He looked at Natalie fixedly and very explicitly.
Natalie felt a bit embarrassed. She bit her lip, turned around, and walked into the room.
Men always did faster than women on washing and dressing.
After Natalie smoothed her hair and did some skincare, Luke had already taken a shower. When Natalie was going to walk out of the room, she met Luke at the door.
Luke said nothing and just leaned against the door, waiting for Natalie to speak first.
Something between them had changed now and Natalie could hardly look straight at Luke calmly. Every time she saw Luke, Natalie felt that she was like a prey watched by a lion.
Natalie felt the need to lighten the embarrassing atmosphere.
With half of her body behind the door, Natalie gave a quiet cough and said, "Are you not going to work today?"
Natalie took hold of the door handle while grabbing the door as if she was going to close the door at any time.
Luke gave an equivocal answer, "Maybe."
"Then, why are you still here?"
Luke smiled gently and looked at Natalie narrowly. Then, he asked smilingly, "What are you guarding against? Me?"
Natalie made no reply.
"Well then, don't forget to lock the door of the balcony."
Natalie was speechless.
She couldn't help but complain in her heart that why Luke directly spoke out about what she was thinking.
Therefore, to prove that she didn't mean that, Natalie walked out of the room and closed the door.
Standing in front of Luke, Natalie look into Luke's eyes and said, "I'm not!"
Luke smiled and didn't tease Natalie anymore. "Alright, then let's go downstairs now." Natalie then followed Luke to get downstairs.
"Did you go for a run?" Natalie said casually, trying to rescue herself from the embarrassing situation just now.
"Yeah."
"How far did you run?"
"20,000 meters."
Luke's answer obviously shocked Natalie. She opened her eyes widely and asked, "Really?"
"With weights," Luke calmly added.
Natalie was shocked again. She couldn't help but murmur, "Were you not tried?"
After getting down the last step, Luke suddenly turned around and looked at Natalie who was behind him. On the step, Natalie was about to get down but she was blocked by Luke.
Standing higher, Natalie didn't need to raise her head when looking at Luke's eyes.
Luke asked smilingly and calmly, "You don't like the man with good physical strength?"
Natalie swallowed hard while thinking that there must something wrong with her.
Whatever Luke said would cause her bad thoughts.
"You... You block my way..." Natalie murmured. Then, she walked sideways past Luke and ran away.
With a smile, Luke followed behind her.
At the table, Natalie and Luke had breakfast quietly.
Natalie was now having a sandwich. She ate her meal slowly, savoring every mouthful. When Luke had finished his breakfast, Natalie only ate half of hers.
Sitting on the seat, Luke waited for Natalie patiently.
"You can go if you have something to deal with..." Natalie said gently. "You don't need to wait for me here."
Luke looked at her and said, "I'm thinking of taking you with me."
Natalie could tell from Luke's serious look that he was not kidding now.
But she didn't know why Luke suddenly said that. She blinked confusingly.
Luke smiled and began to tell Natalie what happened recently.
According to the law, producing and selling fake commodities would be sentenced to at least three years imprisonment. But Noah's lawyer was very experienced and Noah was rich, so his lawyer would definitely try his best to extenuate Noah's crime.
However, if anyone was dead because of the fake commodities, Noah would even probably be condemned to death.
A few days ago, Luke sent someone to check the products of Bretton Pharmaceutical. As he expected, some of the products were not qualified but also not harmful to people.
However, there were some exceptions.
The kid, who suffered an asthmatic attack in the Sanctum Garden that day, would definitely die of the ineffective drugs if things had been worse.
Two days ago, Luke learned about a similar event. In a remote town in the outer suburbs of Alcomara, a middle-aged man suffered an asthmatic attack when he was building the house. His family was working on the farm at that time and didn't send him to the hospital in time. In the end, that man died.
When he died, there was a bottle of salbutamol produced by Bretton Pharmaceutical.
In order not to alert Noah, Luke didn't use the power of the Benningtons to find out this matter. Baildie helped Luke a lot. The information was reliable.
However, Noah had already shut those people's mouths in private with a lot of money and a house downtown to smooth the thing over. Therefore, the people of that family chose to keep silent now.
That was the end of it.
After all, as the only support of that family, the husband of the middle-aged woman was dead, but her kids were still in need of money to receive an education. Nothing was gonna change that even though she denounced Bretton Pharmaceutical. At least, money and a house could let them have a better life in the future.
Luke sent someone to have a talk with the people of that family, but they were not willing to give evidence in court, and meanwhile, they didn't want to get into trouble. In their eyes, justice couldn't bring the dead back to life. In the end, they didn't even open the door when Luke sent someone to visit them.
Natalie silenced for a while in surprise after hearing Luke's words.
She was very surprised that Luke not only tried to put his brother into jail but also wanted him to pay a great price for what he had done.
But soon, Natalie understood Luke. Moreover, she subconsciously thought that whatever Luke did was right.
Then, Natalie began to feel worried. "As you said, I don't think I can help. After all, they won't even open the door when someone comes."
With a confident smile, Luke said, "Don't worry. You're just a girl as well as a kind doctor. I believe that they will like to talk to you. You know, I'm not good at communication."
Natalie suddenly thought of what Luke said in the supermarket. She couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Natalie wiped the salad sauce on the corner of her mouth and nodded as she told Luke that she would help him.
The house that Noah gave to that family was in Syphrett Garden. There was a place inhabited principally by wealthy people. Most of the buildings there were villas and the housing price there was at least a million dollars.
After they arrived at Syphrett Garden by car, Natalie was surprised. "They live here now?"
Luke parked the car before the gate and looked at Natalie intriguingly. "Do you know anyone who lives here too?"
Natalie made no answer.
She didn't know why Luke suddenly said that.
Natalie was going to tell Luke that Forrest had a house here. But after hearing Luke's words, Natalie changed her mind and said, "No! I mean... the house here is very expensive."
Luke smiled. Then, he let Natalie get out of the car first and wait for him for a moment, since the parking lot was a bit far from here.
It was quite safe in such an exclusive housing estate like Syphrett Garden.
Natalie stood before the security room and waited for Luke quietly. "Will I meet Forrest here?" She thought with a worried look.
But soon, she thought it was impossible.
However, sometimes things went exactly against one's wishes.
While Natalie was hoping not to meet Forrest here, a black car came over and Forrest, who sat in the driver's seat, saw Natalie.
Immediately, Natalie recognized the car.
Natalie was startled. As she was about to turn around, Forrest rolled down his car window and called her name.
Natalie stood still and made no response.
Natalie thought that she did nothing wrong and there was no need for her to hide. Besides, she didn't want to make Forrest feel that she didn't move on.
Forrest got out of the car and walked to Natalie. "What are you doing here?"
Natalie felt weird at Forrest's gentle attitude. His gentle manner reminded Natalie of the time when they were still in love. "Is this also men's natural to treat their girlfriends kindly only when they broke up?"
However, the memories that they were together before were not enough to let Natalie love Forrest again. She said gently, "I'm waiting for my friend here."
Forrest ignored the coldness in her tone and asked directly, "Do you really date Luke?"
Forrest's cold voice made Natalie feel very uncomfortable.
She frowned and was going to tell Forrest that it was none of his business.
But Forrest continued to say, "Look! I told you that he just played with your emotions. You're such a fool."
Natalie now got angry. When she was about to say something, Luke's voice sounded.
"Even so, she still doesn't like you. You must be very angry!"
Natalie turned around and saw Luke who walked over with his hand in his pocket. His voice sounded casually but was very powerful.
Beside Forrest, Natalie suddenly felt nervous when saw Luke.
Luke raised his hand and put his arm around Natalie's shoulders.
With a smile, he lowered his head and whispered near Natalie's ear.
"Is this my Nata's ex-boyfriend?"