Leda
I stared at Lucas, not believing at how he was acting. All day I had thought about doing something nice for him until I finally settled on cooking him a dish that was so near and dear to my heart. Just to show him how much I appreciated the way he was treating me.
I didn’t feel like a prisoner in this penthouse or in his arms for the last few days.
He wasn’t the enemy any longer. Somewhere the lines had blurred for me, and now I was seeing him as something far more than the man who had stolen my life from me.
I felt like someone who was cherished by him. From the way he touched me, the way he held me at night against his chest, I thought that this might have been the turning point in how we saw each other. I was starting to feel like this might actually have been a good thing happening between us.
Until now.
Clearly, Lucas had had a bad day. It was written all over his face when he had first entered the penthouse, and I just thought that I could turn it around.
He had never reacted this way before, and frankly, it pissed me off a little.
Lucas brushed past me, heading for the bar. I followed him, my arms wrapped tightly around my waist.
“Bad days suck,” I said softly. “But you know, it does feel good to talk it out.”
I wanted him to know that I was here for him, that he couldn’t shock me with anything he would say. Lucas’s business didn’t scare me, but the way he was reacting right now did.
His face was unreadable as he poured himself a glass of whiskey. “This isn’t a fucking relationship where I come home and unload all my secrets on you, Leda. I think the last few days made you forget our arrangement.”
That hurt. It wasn’t just the tone of his voice but the words he said in general.
“Why are you being like this?” I asked hesitantly.
I hadn’t tried to run, but the way he was acting, maybe I should have. Apparently, I had been too exemplary of a prisoner in these past few days.
That,a nasty little voice in my head replied.Or his true nature was starting to come out.
No. I didn’t believe it. I refused to believe it.
Ever since we had that one moment back at his house upstate, he showed me a side that I wanted to see. There were moments when he could be caring, when he was willing to open himself up. Even if for a little bit. And from that moment, all I had wanted to do for him was show him that I appreciated that. Lucas could have easily followed through with whatever plan he had the night he had bought me, but he hadn’t, and that was the side I wanted from him.
The same side that had my stupid little heart falling in love with him despite everything he had done to me.
Despite reality.
“What did I do wrong?” I asked.
Lucas didn’t even bother looking at me as he threw back the drink, and slammed the glass down on the wood hard enough to crack it.
“You? Nothing.”
I couldn’t hold back my own bitter laugh.
“That’s very hard to believe. You come home like the world owes you something and the first thing you do is insult me when I did something nice for you!”
I hated the way that my voice cracked at the words. I hated that he was affecting me more than I wanted it to. I had beenhappyto cook him a meal. Iwantedto show him that there was more to me than the label everyone threw at me. Mafia Princess. Spoiled brat. Carmine’s daughter.
I was a real person, dammit. A real person with real feelings, and he was crushing them little by little with this.
He turned then, and I tried to find some ounce of softness in his eyes, some notion that he was doing this for a reason, but found none.
Gone was the man that I had laughed with in bed last night when I had found a ticklish spot just above the elaborate tattoo on his rib cage. In his place stood the monster who bought me. A crack ran along my heart.
“Something nice?” He said coldly. “Iboughtyou, Leda. I bought you and used you. I’vebeenusing you as part of my plans. You should consider yourself fucking lucky that I haven’t tossed you to the rest of the wolves that want a piece of a D’Agostino.”