“You wanted that, did you?” he said. “You wanted that worthless piece of shit?”
He took hold of my neck and shoved me toward the body. I was whimpering, trembling, scared, and I couldn’t speak. “I’m asking you again,” he said, and his voice was an evil rasp. Evil and…
Hurt.
Lucian Morelli was hurt. By me. He was hurt by me. He was hurt by me being here with that man on the floor.
And I shouldn’t understand it. I shouldn’t want to understand it. But I did.
I did understand it.
I was feeling it too. That connection. That crazy connection between us. A forbidden want that made no sense, that had no place in this world.
He turned me to face him, and he dropped the knife on the floor, onto the blood-soaked carpet as he took my arms and shook me. He shook me so hard my legs were nothing but Jell-O.
“What the fuck did you want?” he asked, and he was scary. His voice was scary, and harsh, and angry, and beautiful. Lucian’s voice was beautiful. So beautiful he set my heart on fire.
My eyes were on his. Crying. Crying so hard I could barely see.
“You!” I cried. “I wanted you!”
He stopped at that. He stopped shaking me and stared, and those dark eyes of his flashed with something raw.
It took a few long moments before he spoke again.
“How the fuck would he ever be a substitute for me?”
I didn’t have an answer for that because there wasn’t one. Stephen could never have been a substitute for the monster in front of me. Lucian Morelli was the leader of my heaven and my hell both at once. His touch was gold and sin, both at once.
He was my love and hate, both at once.
He let go of me, and I sank to my knees with another round of tears.
I tried to catch my breath, watching Lucian pace up and down alongside the body without even casting it a glance. He didn’t give a fuck about it. Didn’t give a shit about committing murder.
Of course he didn’t give a shit about committing murder…no doubt he’d done it before.
But why here? Why now? How did he even know where I was?
I closed my eyes and forced myself into some kind of rational thought, just to speak out loud.
“What the fuck did you want?” I asked him. “What the fuck did you want here?”
The hate in his stare was still there when it met with mine, and he didn’t answer, just kept on pacing.
“Tell me,” I said. “What the fuck did you want, Lucian? Why the hell are you here, saving me?”
“I wasn’t here to save you,” he told me. “I was here to save your pussy.”
“That’s why you’re here, is it?” I pushed. “For my pussy?”
He sighed, his limited patience wearing out. “I can’t believe you thought he’d be anything like me. You don’t know the first goddamn thing about sex, do you?”
I was still a virgin. Still a virgin with the darkest Morelli in the world.
“You just killed a man,” I said, like I wasn’t stating the obvious. “A celebrity. They’ll know you killed him. They would have seen you…at the party…”
“A celebrity.” His sarcasm left me cold. “Hardly.”
My gaze was pulled to the body so close to me. I’d never seen a dead body before, let alone seen someone stabbed and taking their last breaths. I let out another sob and put my hands to my face, and that’s when I heard Lucian sighing again.
“Don’t play the fucking innocent, Little Miss Constantine,” he said. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it? The white knight coming to the rescue? Now you’ve got it.”
He must have seen the blankness on my face.
He smiled at me, even in that room with the stench of death and blood on the air, he smiled at me. “Well, well. Now what are you going to do to show your gratitude?”
Deep inside me, even amongst the shadows, and the violations, and the loss I felt in my soul, I still believed in good things. I didn’t want to see anyone die. Hell, that was the reason I was in so much shit with the Power brothers after all…I didn’t want to see anyone die…
Lucian was busy tapping on his phone when I finally dragged myself together enough to get to my feet. I was shaky on my heels, barely able to bend down steadily enough to grab my clutch. Even that was blood-soaked; stained forever.
It was when I was standing there, eyes open wide and lip still trembling, that Lucian stopped looking at his phone and turned to me. We stood there, in silence, so much unspoken between us that it made my heart thump to a whole other tune.
It was a stupid thing to say, but I couldn’t help it. “Thank you,” I said in a whisper. “Thank you for saving me.”
My thanks was genuine. Even though it was weak and ridiculous in a room where a man had just killed another, I truly meant it. Lucian Morelli really had saved me.
He didn’t respond in words, just tipped his head.
I was stumbling toward the door when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him. My body responded quicker than my brain, turning into him and pressing up tight. He slammed me into the wall, and even though it was the same spot I’d been fighting another man, I did anything but fight the monster before me. I was desperate for the beast I’d just seen murder someone.
His breaths were rasps, hot on my lips. I smelled the metallic hint of blood. Underneath the red iron scent he smelled of him. Musk, and sex, and power.
It was me who kissed him this time.
It was my mouth that pressed to his first and opened wide.
His tongue was a serpent god, owning mine. His hands were heavy, grabbing me tight as mine snaked up around his shoulders.
It was frantic, just how hard I kissed him. He was my destroyer and savior both at once, and I wanted it that way. I wanted to feel both the love and the hate on his hands. I wanted him to take me to hell then raise me from the depths again.
“You’re mine now,” he said against my lips. “I’m never letting you go again.”
I wanted to stay in his arms for all damn time, so help me God.
He took hold of my neck and pinned me even harder as his mouth conquered me to a whole new level. My tongue was nothing against his, and I didn’t want it to be. I wanted to be under his command.
My thighs spread as wide as they would go under my dress as I offered myself to him. I moaned as he ground against me, rubbing myself against his knee.
It should have been revolting and shameful, offering my body to the Morelli heir with a dead body at our feet. But it wasn’t. It was anything but revolting, and it didn’t feel shameful.
It felt right.
Being with the monster felt right.
“Take me,” I whispered. “Please, Lucian. Please take me, because we’ll never get the chance again…not after tonight…”
Even the thought of being without my nemesis was enough to feel the pain in my heart, and that’s when it struck me, just how futile this connection was.
It didn’t matter how much I wanted Lucian Morelli. Nobody would ever let me have him. Not anyone in our world.
His eyes were the beautiful burning ashes of hell I was falling in love with. Because that was the truth of it. I was falling in love with the demon who wanted to destroy me.
Lucian tugged my bra down. His mouth was fierce and painful as he dipped his head to my chest, and I couldn’t hold back the smile, arching myself for more as he bit down on my nipple and sucked it into his hot mouth.