“Yes, I know, I know. It seems I am quite the capable gardener, doesn’t it? Despite me not being a success with slicing salami.”
He tried to scowl. “There’s you with that sassy mouth again. You should be a more convincing kidnap victim, you know. Maybe then I’d take pity on you and let you go.”
I found my bitchy tone at that. “Screw you and your pity. I’ll never bathe in pity, no matter how rough it gets. I’m no pet for anyone. Not outside of the bedroom anyway.”
We were both staring at each other, and the Morelli-Constantine hate should have been bristling as strongly as ever. He should have been dragging me inside and telling me I’d missed my escape chances and more fool me, and I should be cursing myself for ever considering staying in this damn place, but we weren’t doing any of it, just damn well staring.
“I left the door unlocked, I’m guessing?” he asked me. “That’s what happens when you sneak into my bed overnight and fuck my alarm over. Maybe you should try it more often.”
“I didn’t fuck your alarm over. You were sleeping so deep you didn’t get up in time.”
“Regardless. I rushed out and left the door unlocked, did I?”
I shrugged like it was no big deal. “I noticed it on my way to get some breakfast. I’ve had plenty of time to get the hell away from here.”
“Yes,” he said. “You have. So why didn’t you?”
I didn’t really have an answer for that. Not one that made sense. I couldn’t tell him that the thought of leaving him and this place gave me a sick pang in my stomach and nothing but a sense of dread at walking away. I could hardly say that I’d stayed wrapped up in his bed covers for hours after he’d gone this morning, just to smell him. I couldn’t admit that I’d fantasized about making this place into a dream home that I could dance around for the rest of my life.
“Really, Elaine,” he pushed. “Why didn’t you run?”
We stared at each other some more, and I couldn’t fight the flutters in my belly. Something was happening between us…even under the hate and the craziness and the utter carnage in our world, something was happening…
“I don’t know,” I lied, then realized I had a question of my own. “Why are you back so soon? You can’t have been in the city more than a couple of hours.”
“You’re asking for it, you know that?”
“I’m asking you to fuck me, you know that? Even if it’s in the grass here, just get your cock out and fuck me, please.”
We stared again, and my mind was churning, thinking. Why the hell was Lucian Morelli in a garden in the middle of nowhere while his empire was moving at full speed in the city? It didn’t make any sense. None of this made any sense in the goddamn slightest.
“You are crazy, Elaine. You could have been back anywhere else in Bishop’s Landing by now. You could have had me imprisoned. It would have been my mistake for leaving the fucking door unlocked.”
“Could have been, but I’m not,” I said. “I guess I really am crazy, aren’t I? Or maybe you left it open on purpose. Maybe this was a test. Am I passing?”
Lucian Morelli grabbed me up from my knees and slammed me into the wall at the side of his crappy house. I thought he would hurt me, finally…
I thought he would tear me apart, this time for good…
But he didn’t. Oh fuck, he didn’t.
Lucian Morelli slammed me into the wall at the side of his crappy house and kissed me like he meant it. He kissed me until I moaned into his mouth and kissed him back.
Chapter Thirty
Lucian
I couldn’t fight it any longer. The truth was too strong in my mind. Elaine was too good a temptress, and I couldn’t resist her anymore. I pressed her up tight to the outside wall, and I kissed her, only this time it wasn’t laced with hate or spite or the need to tear her to pieces. This time it was about something I’d never felt before, something as alien to me as pain.
I was in love with her.
I was in love with a Constantine.
Both the Constantines and the Morellis would kill me for my crime, and I wouldn’t blame them. I’d kill myself for my crime if I didn’t love myself too damn much.
There was as much truth and need in the way she kissed me back. We were frantic, desperate beyond belief as we made our way along the wall toward the front porch. I backed her in through the front door with my mouth still hungry on hers, and it didn’t matter which direction we were headed in, just as long as her body was next to mine. I was confused and split apart by conflicting desires. I wanted to save her from her past and savage her in her future both at once. I craved her pain and her tears and her cries of my name, only this time it wasn’t power and punishment driving me, it was more than that. It was fascination for her body and her desires and her needs, because she needed it like I did. Elaine was a masochist to my sadist, the yin to my yang, the light to my dark, the blonde to my black.
Elaine was the Constantine to my Morelli.
She mumbled against my mouth. “Hurt me, Lucian. Make me yours.”
I growled and bit her bottom lip, shunting her toward the living room. “You’re already mine. Your pussy will be the jewel in my crown.”
“It’s given, not stolen.” Her words gave me another chill of a thrill. She wasn’t stolen, she was given. I’d never wanted anything I’d been given before. I’d always claimed or bought it, taking everything on my own terms.
Strangely enough, I didn’t want to take the jewel in the crown—not so quickly or frantically. I wanted to enjoy every second of holding back.
Elaine was wearing so much of my crap against the cold. I tugged my sweater up and over her head and cast it away. I tore my shirt apart so hard the buttons sprang off, and there she was, beautiful in her bra. I tugged my pants off her, oversized and hanging, and she wasn’t wearing any panties underneath. She was naked perfection as I unclipped her bra and thrust her through the living room doorway.
I held her wrists over her head against the living room wall, pinning her firmly enough that she let out a moan. She rubbed against me, that sassy smile of hers so pretty it sent me wild. I ground my hips against hers, then forced her legs open with my thigh, and we were right back there, in the bathroom at Tinsley Constantine’s ball. If I would’ve believed in fate, I would’ve believed in it in that moment. If there was such a thing as destiny this would be ours, star-crossed lovers whose paths belonged as one, no matter how much it would cost them.
“Keep your hands above your head,” I growled at her, and she nodded. “Good girl.”
My fingers slipped down her throat and along her collarbone. My mouth was back on hers as I took hold of her tits and squeezed hard enough that she moaned against my lips. I squeezed harder, twisted, made her moan louder. My thigh rubbed against her pussy with a force that made her cry out, but still she squirmed against me. Yes, Elaine was a masochist. She wanted this.
I was as desperate as she was as I dropped to my knees before her. I, Lucian Morelli, dropped to my knees in front of a Constantine with the sole desire to pleasure her. The very thought was insanity. My mouth was hungry for her pussy, my tongue was a snake against her clit, around and around in a rhythm that had her hands in my hair.