My gaze narrowed. “Why the fuck does it have to be tomorrow?” I was dying to be inside her right now.
Leda’s eyes flickered to the front of my trousers, licking her lips as she did so. “I mean the surprise can wait until tomorrow, but clearly you can’t, Lucas.”
I growled and she squealed, taking off toward the house, leaving me laughing on the sidewalk. What the fuck was happening to me?
Chapter 36
Leda
I shook the match out and dropped it into the trash before surveying the scene. Tonight was the night I was going to properly thank Lucas for letting my brother come here and for being willing to talk to him.
Honestly, I was already wet thinking about it. He had been busy all day, which had given me a lot of time to prepare the meal that I was going to serve him, happy to be in the kitchen for once. Cooking was a passion of mine, though the dishes tended to be more pasta-based than anything, but hey, it was food, and it tasted really good.
I also tried not to dwell on the last time I had cooked for Lucas. That night he had been ugly, and at the end, I had ended up on the auction block.
This time, I didn’t think I would meet the same fate. After all, something had shifted with us. Ever since he had told me about his past and the day out in the woods, he had been far more attentive than ever in bed. I felt his caresses, unhurried and sometimes far too tender.
I felt him reach out for me in the middle of the night, pressing a kiss to my bare shoulder when he thought I was asleep.
More importantly, we were spending time together outside the bedroom. Lucas was a great storyteller, talking about the land around us more than anything, but I could curl up in his lap and listen to him talk about it all day long.
He also was more open than he had been in the past, holding my hand around the grounds when we walked in the evening, not bothering to hide the fact that we were together.
It was enough to make my heart swoon. Rory had asked a million questions during her time here, from how I had ended up here to what Lucas was like in bed, and I had answered them as truthfully as I could without painting him in a bad light. After all, it wasn’t. All the things we had done, I had consented to and would readily do with him again. He had awoken something in me, something that craved to see what he would come up with next for us to try.
At the end of her questioning, Rory had reached over and placed her hand on mine. “You love him, don’t you?”
Of course, I had told her the truth. I did love Lucas, but in the same breath, I had begged her not to say anything to my brother just yet. “He desperately needs Nico’s help,” I told her. “I don’t want to ruin that.”
She had promised not to say anything, but anybody that looked at me could tell that I was in love.
I loved Lucas.
Lucas hadn’t given me any indication that the conversation between him and my brother had been bad at all, and I felt like he seemed pleased with whatever Nico had told him about his ability to help. I was glad that they had gotten along. My brother meant everything to me, and his family was the one thing I had clung to as being real in this world as we had dealt with our father.
Now I had Lucas, for whatever time I could keep him. A small part of me wanted to hold onto him forever, but we hadn’t had those conversations at all.
Heck, I didn’t even know if he still loved me or if what he felt truly was love.
I just knew I loved him.
Hence tonight. The pasta was warming in the dish in the middle of the table, the room illuminated by candlelight. I had a nice Italian salad to accompany it and a platter of cheese to start us off.
All I needed was him.
I glanced up at the clock and realized that he was due any moment, my palms starting to sweat. The sheer nightrobe from his collection did nothing to hide the fact that I wasn’t wearing anything underneath, and the moment he walked in, he would realize my intent.
I doubted we would ever make it to the food, but it had been fun to make, if nothing else.
This was what he had done to me. I was nothing more than a sexual wanton at this point.
The door opened, and my breath caught as Nico walked in, his eyes on mine. He was wearing his usual attire, the dress shirt clinging to his torso and those pants leaving nothing to the imagination. His hair was wet, but his eyes followed my every movement. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, pushing the door closed.
“You are right on time,” I murmured, coming before him. “Surprise.”
His eyes never left mine. “You cooked.”
“Four courses,” I said sweetly, placing my hand on his chest. His heart was pounding in tune with mine, and my excitement ratcheted up to a thousand.