“Well,” Leda remarked, chopsticks in hand. “This is a complete surprise, Lucas. Thank you.”
“I was going to take you somewhere else,” I told her.
“No need,” she answered, her eyes sparkling in the low light of the restaurant. “This is better.”
I didn’t want to go into that with her right now. I wanted to—hell, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but it would be with Leda. That I was sure of. “Eat,” I said, picking up my own chopsticks. “We can talk later.”
To my surprise, Leda reached across the table and laid her hand on my thigh. “I saw what you did. That was really nice of you. You’re a better person than you think, Lucas.”
I didn’t respond, and shoved a piece of broccoli in my mouth instead. She still thought I was worth saving.
I was a bastard and a monster, one that Leda should stay far away from.
The problem was, every time I was around her, I just wanted to keep pulling her in even closer.
Chapter 43
Leda
I pushed the plate away and groaned, rubbing my completely full stomach. “I’m going to be sick if I keep eating.”
Lucas chuckled lightly as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes on me. “You liked it?”
I winced. “Far too much, I’m afraid. You might have to roll me out of here.”
“I don’t know, I think they might ask you to stay,” he replied, standing. “I’m going to go and settle the bill.”
I watched Lucas walk away, my heart sighing in contentment. Never would I have thought he would be like this. He seemed to genuinely care for this old couple, and the way they had interacted with him—with their own pet name for him—told me that they reciprocated the way he felt.
Which meant he couldn’t be this heartless Don with a chip on his shoulder all the time.
Tonight, I saw a side of Lucas that probably wasn’t brought out much, if ever. It was a side that I wanted desperately to hang onto. If he could be open and sincere with the Wongs, then he could be with me as well.
Whatever this was between us could be more than just awesome hot sex.
I was alone in this restaurant, with Lucas in the kitchen talking with the Wongs, I had a clear path out. Any other person in my shoes would have already run for the door by now. But he didn’t seem worried about me leaving, and honestly, I wasn’t either.
I no longerwantedto escape. I hadn’t been lying to him on the yacht. I was—well, I felt happy, and it terrified me to be happy with someone like him.
He was going to break my heart. I already knew that. Whatever he was playing up to with his sudden and drastic change wasn’t going to last forever.
Won’t it?I asked myself.
Was he testing the waters to see if he could let down his guard around me? Maybe he thought I was some sort of spy for my father, and once he realized how much I hated my father, he started to relax.
Or maybe I had punched through some sort of walls to him and earned his trust. He certainly wanted mine. He had said as much on the boat, and while I had told him I trusted him, I didn’t.
Not completely.
Not until I could figure out what drove him.
Lucas returned, but this time the couple was trailing behind him, carrying a few boxes. “Food for later,” Ruhua said, as she shoved them at me.
“Take them.” She said in English for my convenience. “Stubborn man won’t.”
I took them, mainly because she frightened me a bit, and stood up. “Thank you so much for the lovely dinner,” I told them both. “It was delicious.”
The little woman smiled and, in the same breath, socked Lucas in the arm. “Bring her back, or else you no longer eat here.”