HANDLE WITH CARE
12. Dance In The Dark.
A N N I E
The elderly guests had started to leave around an hour ago, only those close to the married couple had stayed, including Luke and Annie.
They had just finished dancing to one of the last few songs before Luke made his way over to mini bar to get one of the complimentary glasses of champagne. He got one for Annie too, assuming she would want one.
She was stood next to Calum laughing about the awkwardness of his mother from a few hours ago. This lead to a conversation about Calum's family and what not, making Luke's feet move a little quicker so he could get there sooner.
"Hey," he smiled, seeing as Annie turned her attention from Calum and onto Luke, who was holding up a champagne glass in her direction, waiting for her to take it.
"Why thank you," She delicately placed her fingers round the glass, them accidentally grazing past Luke's. Neither of them thought anything of it, yet they did feel it. Calum decided to leave the two alone, considering Luke had just given him a death glare from the other side of the room moments ago.
"Sorry for dragging you along to this," Luke started, sipping his champagne as he looked down slightly at Annie.
"You have to stop apologising, I wouldn't of come if I didn't want to. I haven't been out like this in a while so it's nice, dressing all fancy." She chuckled, licking her lips as she moved her weight from foot to foot, her feet now numb to the pain of heels.
"Good, I think," Luke was finding it hard to keep his eyes off of Annie, especially as the buzz of the drinks kicked in and his mind was being a little more confident then normal.
Ashton, one of Luke's older best friends and band mates, was currently doing karaoke to some song Annie wasn't familiar with. He had a good voice and she wondered if everyone in the band was a singer.
Luke and Annie made there way over to the large circular table where everyone was sat watching Ashton sing. The only spare chairs were opposite each other, Annie didn't think much of it but as soon as she sat down next to Calum and Olivia, Luke felt his gut drop to his feet.
Luke was debating on asking Calum to swap places with him, he wanted nothing more than to sit next to Annie and his best friends at the table and having no worries at all over whether or not Calum and her were flirting.
What was even worse was Luke wasn't able to hear them over Ashton's singing and everyone chattering, so when they both got out there phones and then swapped, he could only assume it was because they were exchanging numbers.
Ashton stumbled off of the stage, reiterating how much of a light weight he has always been as he passed the microphone to Calum, nudging Luke to get up and sit in his place.
Luke happily did so, sitting next to Annie and smiling awkwardly as she beamed a smile back at him. Luke noticed that she had already finished her drink and was on another one.
"So, Uh, I saw you and Calum swap numbers, that's cool, I don't think it's weird that my best friend and therapist will be seeing each other, I mean-" Luke started, rambling as he thought about just how terrible that actually would be.
"No offence to your friend Calum, but I don't really see him that way, I mean I barely know him." She interrupted, feeling bad for doing so but wanting to stop Luke from this hill he was falling down. "And I was actually giving him my friends number, Nina, I think they'd really hit it off."
"Oh," Luke nodded his head, eyes flicking to Calum who was singing to I Want You by Kings Of Leon, a classic song Annie admittedly hadn't listened to as much as she wanted to. They both looked to Calum, laughing slightly at his failure of singing the song.
Time passed quicker than usual and the two were the only ones left in the room by 2:46am. Michael had carried Olivia to their master suit around 20 minutes ago, leaving Luke and Annie alone with the room for 15 more minutes until they had to leave.
Annie had already sang two difficult songs, especially for someone who wasn't a singer. She sounded terrible to Luke's "professional musician" ears, but to his everyday ears she sounded perfect.
She stumbled her way off of the stage, microphone still in hand as she leant forward to where Luke was watching her sat on a chair. She placed her hands on his shoulders, squinting her eyes as she tugged at his tie.
"It's your turn now," she giggled, motioning him forward with her finger as she got back up on the stage.
Luke shook his head, a small smile on his lips before taking another sip of his beer he got from the mini bar before it closed. "Nah, I don't- I don't think that'll be fun." He chuckled.
"It'll be so fun! We can do a duet!" She hummed, lifting her dress away from her feet as she got onto the stage before waving Luke over.
"Another time pretty dancer, not today." He gave her a sympathetic smile, feeling bad for making her pout but really not wanting to sing. Today had already been so overwhelming, with the wedding and the bus, that was way too much for him already.
Annie bit her lip, swaying to background music and nodding her head along. She closed her eyes, her eyelids feeling heavy at this early time and she wanted to feel as though she could do anything.
Luke swallowed, biting his bottom lip as he focused himself, wondering over to Annie as she faced the back of the hall, eyes still closed. He licked his lips once more before tentatively placing his hands on her waist.
She paused momentarily, her movement stuttering before she slowly began to move again. Luke let out a deep breath, relieved that Annie hadn't stopped or moved away.
He leaned closer, his body pressed against hers as they moved. He intentionally rubbed his nose against her neck, breathing in the perfume she put on her neck, loosely placing his lips there shortly after.
Annie leant her head to the side, giving Luke more room for his lips.
"Excuse me, this room has to be set up for the next event and your times out, sorry." One of the hotel staff commented, the guy awkwardly scratching the back of his neck as he waited for the two to leave.
Annie apologises, clicking her way out of the hall as Luke trailed behind her, sending a death glare to the working boy.
Annie grabbed her phone and searched for the taxi service phone number she had saved in her contacts. "I was going to just stay here the night, buy a room, if you wanted to as well?"
Annie peered up from her phone, raising an eyebrow at him and smiling. "I have work tomorrow... I guess I could get up earlier." She mumbled to herself, nodding as she made her way to the front desk.
"Can we get, uh, two double bed rooms?" Annie breathed, resting her head on the high desk as she watched the worker gather they're keys.
It's not that Luke was disappointed with her buying two rooms, he wasn't expecting her to share one with him but there was a slither of hope that maybe they would.
Annie passed him back his key, then wondered over to the elevator with Luke close behind her. Their rooms were right next to each other, on the 10th floor which was the same floor as everyone else from the wedding.
Once the doors closed behind them in the elevator, Annie slipped of her shoes and held them in her hands, biting her bottom lip as she looked to Luke from the side of her eyes.
"Are you tired?" Luke asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he rocked back and forth on his heels.
"Ummm..." Annie dragged out, tapping her foot up and down as she pouted out her bottom lip, "no, well, a little bit. I'm hungry." She giggled, walking out of the elevator as she dragged Luke behind her, linking their fingers together.
She didn't seemed too fazed by it primarily because she was way more drunk than she had been in a long time. Luke, on the other hand, had managed to handle his booze in a professional way and he wasn't such a lightweight like Annie.
Luke squeezed her hand slightly as she unlocked her room, dropping her heels on the floor and falling down on the bed. Luke chuckled as he toed off his shoes, sitting next to her on the bed and picking up the phone to call room service for some food for her.
Annie was looking at the menu, pointing at everything she wanted to eat, drink, taste and everything in between as Luke ordered it all, wanting to spend every last penny on this girl, even if it dried his wallets to the last drop.
In all honesty, she didn't order anything too extravagant for Luke's wealth, it barely even caused a dip, but he knew he shouldn't really be throwing his money at this pretty woman, lying in front of him.
She laughed when he hung up, rolling herself in the duvet before patting the empty space next to her. Luke took of his blazer, draping it over Annie's lying body and resting himself on his side next to her, smiling as he watched her pull his blazer to her chin. In all fairness, her dress didn't seem to be the type that'd keep you warm, but she did look exquisite in it.
"Luke?" She questioned, eyes flicking up to his own as she ran her finger along the hills in the duvet. He nodded, unsure if he could really speak when someone so breath taking was right in front of him. "Did I make you uncomfortable when I asked you to sing? I didn't mean to."
Luke raised an eyebrow, not even thinking about her previous question as he was way too enchanted by her features of beauty. He shook his head, swallowing before finally being able to speak, "No, I just, I didn't really want to get back into that just yet. We've already been on a bus today and seen my old friends, that was a lot and I just wanted to take it slow, y'know?"
Annie nodded, "I should of remembered, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset," she pouted, rubbing her face as she felt so terrible for pushing Luke like that.
"I'm not upset, don't worry, really, I don't mind." He smiled, rubbing her arm soothingly, his fingers sliding to her cheek and swiping a loose hair behind her ear.
"Can I ask you something?" Annie whispered, her head leaning against his hand as she waited for a response. He nodded, humming lightly as he waited, the alcohol in his veins starting to fade. "what was it like to be famous?"
Luke took in a deep breath, swallowing thickly before speaking, "it was more than a dream come true... it was something I could of never imagined... it was unbelievable." he smiled, thinking about all of the magnificent, memories he had from his previous life.
"wow... I wish I could of gone to one of your concerts, I bet they were amazing." She mumbled, noticing the passion on his face when the memories of his came rushing back.
"They were, you would of loved them." He whispered, his thumb slowly, unnoticeably rubbing her cheek.
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I'm so sorry this took forever to come out, I've been so so busy lately and my life's only going to be getting busier sadly :( my updates might have to be once a week instead of twice, sorry but I will try.
thank you so much for reading this and seeing blind that's my most read book and I'm so happy you all love it! thank you for the support!!
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