Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder

Chapter 36

Lucas

 

I woke up to the feeling of a body pressed against mine. My hand felt soft skin underneath. For a moment, I felt a quick burst of panic race through my body before the events of last night came flooding back. I remained still, barely breathing as I felt Leda’s body—soft and warm—against mine.

 

I’ve never slept with a woman through the night before. It always felt too intimate and too personal to share a bed with someone like that.

 

Yet I did it with Leda.

 

I didn’t know what had possessed me to want her to stay. But in the moment, it felt right.

 

It still did.

 

She murmured in her sleep, and I instinctively pulled her closer, feeling lightness around my tortured soul for the first time in my entire life. Last night was different. We didn’t just fuck. We did something else, something that I was afraid of putting a name to.

 

That bothered me the most.

 

Drawing in a slow breath, I allowed myself to bury my face in her hair, breathing in Leda’s scent. She was ruining me.

 

Somehow, Leda D’Agostino sank her claws deep inside me. By all means, I should be pushing her away, putting some distance between us so that I could get my shit together. I should be finding each and every excuse on earth to get out of bed.

 

Instead, a smile was breaking over my face. And no matter how hard I tried to erase it, it kept coming back.

 

What if I didn’t want to have my shit together? What if I was tired of being alone? What if Leda had touched something deep inside of me last night, something that I thought I’d locked away for good?

 

It disturbed me how much I wanted this.

 

Not just having her cry out my name as I filled her pussy. Not just having her beg me for more. But this – this moment right here: her body against mine as dawn opened the sky with rosy tips.

 

Companionship.

 

If I were a man who was looking at a future with a woman, Leda would be the woman I would picture.

 

Fuck, I sounded like a teenager with his first girlfriend. I had known Leda all of what? Four, five days? She shouldn’t be affecting me like this. How the hell did she get past my walls that quickly?

 

But now that she was here, I didn’t want to let her go.

 

Emil’s words returned again, echoing in my head. Might be best to put her back on the auction block.

 

But I didn’t want to.

 

I wanted it all. I wanted Leda, and I wanted control over what should be my Mafia.

 

Nothing else would make me happy. I nearly let out a snort, holding it back at the last minute so as to not disturb Leda.

 

Happy? There was no happiness in my dark world. I wasn’t born for happiness. That feeling didn’t sit right with me. Hell, I didn’t even know how to be happy.

 

But maybe with Leda, I could figure it out.

 

I toyed with the idea. Was that even a possibility? Could I even trust her with my secrets? To be happy with her meant that I would have to tell her everything.

 

I would have to tell her about my past, and all the sordid details that came with it.

 

She would find out soon enough anyway. I had her holed up in this house for now, away from others. But at the first opportunity, I was sure that she would start prying, start peeping into things that she had no right to.

 

I couldn’t change my past any more than I could change the sun rising in the east every morning. I couldn’t hide from it either. All my life since becoming Cosimo’s enforcer, I pushed through it, using my anger to make myself stronger.

 

I thought I made myself damn near invincible.

 

And then Leda was about to shatter all of that with just her touch, her presence. I bought her. I was supposed to break her. But now, I wasn’t sure who was on the verge of being broken.

 

I hated it.

 

And I hated the fact that she made me think that there might be the hope of a life beyond being a Don. A life beyond the Mafia.

 

Leda shifted again, and I let my hand roam higher until my thumb brushed the underside of her breast. My cock stirred to life, and I steadied my breath, thinking about how fucking well I had slept last night. It was because I felt like—hell, like I could trust her.

 

She didn’t just pleasure my body. She shed light onto my pitch-black soul.

 

My choice was clear: I wasn’t going to give her up. Not for Adrian. Not for Carmine. Not for anyone, and it was time I proved that to her.

 

I wanted her to trust me, to know that there was more I wanted from her than what was between her legs.

 

A thought came to me, and I grinned as a plan formed in my mind. A perfect way for me and Leda to get out, but not where our enemies could touch her. I would flaunt her eventually, but I wanted my trusted guards to ensure that I wasn’t walking into a trap first.

 

Carmine wasn’t about to let go of the fact that I stole his princess and ruined his plans. But first, I wanted—no, needed—to bury myself in her warmth to start my day.

 

I kissed Leda’s shoulder as my hand squeezed her naked breast lightly. Her nipple hardened in response to the touch and a slight whimper of sleepy pleasure escaped from her lips. I slid my hand down body, slipping between her legs, and found her already wet.

 

Had she been dreaming about me?

 

“Lucas,” she moaned as I slipped my finger between her folds, massaging against her swollen clit.

 

“I’m right here,” I whispered in her ear as I dipped a finger inside.

 

She whimpered and arched into my touch, urging me on. My cock pressed insistently against her ass, and I continued to roll her clit until she was flooding my hand with her orgasm. Only after her cheeks were flushed with lust did I place my cock at her slick entrance.

 

She turned slightly and I caught sight of her half-lidded gaze. Want glimmered in her eyes.

 

“This is how I like to wake,” I told her as I slid into her. She arched her perfect ass to meet me, and I groaned as I pushed deep into her wetness.

 

I pressed my face into her shoulder. “You feel like fucking heaven.”

 

“Lucas,” Leda gasped, her hand reaching back to pull me closer, and I drank in her scent.

 

I started to move, and soon we were rocking the bed, my thrusts rapid as I brought her back to the peak of her pleasure. My free hand found her mouth, and she sucked on my fingers greedily as a shudder tore through her body.

 

Fuck, I couldn’t hold on any longer. With a groan, I poured into her, my other hand tight on her hips as I took a shuddering gasp from my own release.

 

Leda turned around, propped herself up with one elbow, and kissed me gently. “Good morning to you too.”

 

I wiped a hand over my face, my body relaxed to a point that I could just go back to sleep. “Sleep well?”

 

“Surprisingly, yes,” she answered. “And you?”

 

“Well enough,” I replied, turning on my side to stare at her. Leda in the morning was fucking gorgeous. Her long dark hair fell over her bare shoulder. Her cheeks were pink and red from our morning bout.

 

She gave me a little smile, and I found it difficult to not return it.

 

“I’ve got somewhere I want to take you,” I said.

 

Her smile dropped, and then dimmed.

 

“Oh,” she stated, looking away. “All right.”

 

Fuck. She looked worried, and I knew immediately where her mind had gone. She thought I was going to take her to her next destination now that I had gotten what I wanted.

 

What Leda didn’t know was that I was nowhere near done with her.

 

Reaching out, I brushed the hair off her shoulder. “You will like it, I promise you.”

 

“I, um, okay,” Leda said after a minute. “But unless it’s a lingerie party, I’m going to need some clothes.”

 

“As much as I would like to keep you fucking naked in my bed,” I replied, watching as a blush stole across her cheeks, “I believe you are right. I will have some sent over immediately.”

 

Leda pulled the covers over her naked body. “Thank you, Lucas. That’s nice of you.”

 

Nice? I wasn’t nice. Throwing back the covers, I climbed out of bed, conflicted on my feelings of why I wanted to do this for her and what I genuinely wanted from her.

 

Hell, I didn’t know what I wanted from Leda, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to give her up.