He was making a joke. A stupid joke that made me want to both laugh and cry. I held him tighter. “Don’t make fun. My heart can’t take it.”
“I’m not,” he whispered near my ear. “I’m making things right. I promise I’ll make things right for us again, angioletto.”
I closed my eyes and pressed my lips against his throat, knowing he would. And for the first time in weeks, I actually believed we might finally be okay.
I wasn’t sure what I expected. I knew Edinburgh was a city rich with history and ancient buildings. But I expected this doctor’s office to be in a modern high-rise. Or, at the very least, a medical park with other legitimate, licensed doctors.
“It looks like a church,” I whispered to Luc as we moved up the front steps of the old stone building.
He tightened his fingers around my hand and reached for the right side of the heavy arched red door. “It is. Fourteenth century, I think. A lot of churches in Europe are being converted for other uses.”
“Why?”
“Because we live in a self-obsessed society where religion isn’t important to people anymore.”
I chewed on that thought as I followed him into the building. I’d never been a particularly religious person, but I did consider myself spiritual, and I knew Luc did as well. It had been important to him we be married by a priest—both times. Though, thinking back, I wasn’t sure if that was because of Salvatici House rules regarding the legality of marriage in his country, or if he actually believed in the sacraments. We’d never had that discussion.
Those thoughts came to a spinning stop as we moved into the central space. It was enormous. Soaring ceilings, giant columns, a balcony three stories above that ran all the way around the rectangular room, and arching stained-glass windows that splashed warm light over everything.
My gaze drifted down, to the clusters of couches and chairs and a multitude of small tables in the middle of the room, the bustle of people, and the long coffee counter to the right, where patrons were waiting in line for their lattes and cappuccinos.
“It’s a coffeehouse.”
“Partly.” He pulled me with him through the busy space. “This building’s multi-purpose.” He pointed up, and when my gaze followed, I realized there were doors lining the balcony beneath those giant arched windows. “Offices above, café below.”
“Are they all medical offices?”
“Some are. Some aren’t.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but as he drew me to the back of the massive space, I spotted an enormous curved staircase carved from shiny dark wood that rose to the upper level.
“Wow.” I couldn’t help from sliding my hand over the smooth railing as we ascended the steps. “It’s amazing.”
“Most of these old buildings are. Some have been converted into bars, reception halls, even residential houses. I saw one they transformed into a spa. Cut out the main floor of the sanctuary and turned it into a giant pool.”
It was sad in a way. All this history, things people used to believe in, gone.
The hustle and bustle of the café could still be heard as we reached the upper level, but instead of turning right and heading down one side of the balcony that overlooked the main space below, Luc moved to the left, deeper into the old church, away from the noise and people.
We moved into a corridor. Arched windows still rose above, but the ceiling was lower, and the columns here were built into the stone walls. We passed several closed doors on both sides, but Luc didn’t slow his steps. Not until we came to a heavy carved wooden door at the end of the hallway.
He didn’t knock, just reached for the handle and turned. We moved into a small reception area lined with couches and comfortable chairs. An arched doorway was closed ahead. The walls were a dark wood paneling, the décor filled with deep greens and burgundy furnishings. A young blonde woman seated at a desk to our right looked up as we entered.
“Ah,” she said with a smile, “Mr. Salvatici. You’re just in time. Please, have a seat. Ms. Stanton will see you in a few moments.”
“Thanks.”
Luc nodded toward the seating area. Letting go of his hand, I moved toward the couch under the arched window, as far from the receptionist as I could get. Nerves rattling, I sat and was thankful when Luc sat next to me and closed his warm fingers over mine again.
I don’t know why I’d expected the doctor to be a man, but the fact it was a woman set me on edge. Aside from the fact we were in a church, this didn’t feel like a doctor’s office. The receptionist hadn’t given Luc any forms to fill out or any health questionnaires to answer.
I glanced toward the blonde at the desk as she pushed back and rose, moving papers around as if we weren’t even there. She seemed busy, but she didn’t look like a medical receptionist. At least not one I’d ever seen in the States.
She was pretty, probably midtwenties, with perfectly styled hair and flawless makeup. She was also slim, wearing a skin-tight dress that was too sexy for an office. And as I watched her, my mind immediately shot back to that weird medical exam I’d had in New York just after I’d been hired at Covet. The one that had been in an old building not much different from this, with receptionists and doctors who looked just like this girl.
Sickness swirled in my stomach. A sickness I didn’t like. I leaned toward Luc. “How did Felicity find this doctor?”
Luc opened his mouth to answer, but the receptionist glanced our way just as he was about to, almost as if she’d been eavesdropping. “Mr. Salvatici? I’ll need you to come with me for a few moments to run through a few things.”
“Okay.” Luc squeezed my hand and stood.
I started to follow, but the receptionist rounded her desk with a clipboard and said, “Oh, not you, madam. Wait here.”
Luc leaned down and pressed a kiss to my cheek with a whispered “I’ll be right back,” but I could tell he was nervous. And I didn’t like letting him go anywhere without me. He’d asked me to come with him, and some protective urge inside me was desperate to keep him in my sight.
“Are you sure?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He straightened and smiled at the receptionist.
She held out her arm toward a door to the right of her desk. “This way, sir.”
Sir. My stomach felt as if it dropped like a stone.
The women at that clinic back in New York had used that word. All of the women at Covet, the fashion magazine where Luc had worked when I’d met him, had called both Luc and his brother Gio sir. Many of them, I knew now, had been sexual submissives trained by their depraved House.
Luc disappeared through the doorway with the blonde, and the door closed behind them with a clap that sounded like a gunshot in my ears.
Drawing in a breath, I closed my eyes and told myself Felicity would not have sent us to a place like that, with women whose only purpose was to sexually serve the men around them.
But even as I reassured myself of that fact, I remembered that box of sex toys Felicity had given me. And I heard her words by the car. “Until he can regain control of his sexuality, he can’t heal. And if he can’t heal, he can’t get past what they did to him. And we need him to get past it. The future is perched on a ledge, waiting for Luc to become the man he was always supposed to be.”