When my cock slid into her warmth, I pressed my forehead to her shoulder, breathing out a sigh of relief. This was where I felt whole, where I knew that Leda wasn’t judging me for what I could do to her body.
“Lucas,” she breathed as she wrapped her arms and legs around me, hanging on for dear life as I plunged into her repeatedly. “Oh God, yes.”
It didn’t matter what she didn’t know. It didn’t matter what we said to each other. This was when I could make it right between us, where we were just Lucas and Leda, not anyone else.
I let myself go then, bringing her to a fast and hard climax before I shuddered inside her, not caring that her name escaped my lips.
Hell, she was the only name on my lips, and I hungered for it.
Afterward, I carried her inside my bedroom and laid her on the bed, stripping off my clothes to join her under the covers. The moment I hit the mattress, she slid in next to me, throwing one arm over my stomach to hold me there. My fingers delved into her thick tresses, brushing through them to slow my breathing.
“Lucas.”
“Yes, Leda?”
“You know you can ask for my help,” she said drowsily. “You know I want to help.”
I didn’t respond, but my arm tightened on her just a little, letting her know that I had heard her at least. Despite everything I had done, everything that I had put her through, she still wanted to stand beside me.
She wanted to help me.
So why was I continuing to reject her offer?
Chapter 27
Leda
I waited until Lucas’s breathing became slow and steady before I eased away from him and climbed out of bed, taking care of my business in his bathroom before deciding not to crawl back into bed with him.
Not yet.
Still, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at his handsome face, at how the sheet rode low on his waist and put his taut abdomen on display. He reminded me of a sleeping Greek god, his face relaxed and showing just how young he was when he didn’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders.
My throat tightened and I turned away, stepping out through the open doors of the balcony for some fresh air. It was lightly raining, the small overhang giving me enough coverage so that I wouldn’t get wet. I leaned up against the same wall we had made love against earlier, my cheeks heating as I thought about how he had seemed to be a man starving, something breaking free after our dinner conversation that turned him feral with need.
In truth, I couldn’t believe he had admitted that I was right. I could see the difficult time he had in doing so written all over his face, knowing that Lucas wasn’t a man who liked to admit when someone lesser than him was right.
It wasn’t anything that I would take offense to. After all, I had grown up in a household with a man who always thought he was right, and he would never have taken a step like Lucas had and admitted that someone else had a better idea. It was a sign of weakness for my father, but for Lucas, I imagined it was more of a call for help.
He was worried and had every right to be.
Which didn’t bode well for me at all. If Lucas couldn’t get back into control of things, I could easily be taken away, and my future would then be sold to the highest bidder.
I just couldn’t understand why Lucas was so bad at being a don. My questions had been innocent enough tonight, but he hadn’t wanted to answer them, which meant he was hiding something from me, something pretty big, I would wager.
Did it have to do with how he became Don? I had tried not to immerse myself in anything Mafia outside my own family while I was free, so I didn’t know the complete story of Don Valentino or if the title had been handed down by blood relation. But if one was to be don, the training was extensive. In the rare cases that the predecessor was killed along with the don, then I could understand Lucas’s lack of training.
Or maybe it had just come easily for my father and for Nico. Despite the disdain and overall hatred Nico had for our family name, he had still known how to maintain his leadership as a don when the time came, something that had been ingrained in him from the time he was born.
It was clear that Lucas didn’t have the same ability.
I watched the rain fall gently, thinking past Lucas’s issues and to my own. I hadn’t lied about what my father had said to me when I was thirteen or how shocked I had been that he would have such a lack of regard for his own daughter to sell me off. It had been one of the worst days of my life.
***
“And in regard to Capo Tellman, he got us one hell of a smuggling route upstate. I want him promoted quickly.”
“Yes, Don.”