Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder
Chapter 44
Leda
I walked into the elevator and watched as he swiped the card again, leaving his guards watching us. I could see the tension radiating off his body as we ascended, and every fiber in my being wanted to comfort him.
Still, I refrained. Trust him. I couldn’t trust him, could I? Lucas should be my enemy for what he had done to me, not my lover, and certainly not my friend.
Yet I wanted him to be so much more.
The doors opened, and Lucas stepped out, waiting for me to follow. A blast of cool night air greeted me as I realized the elevator opened directly into the penthouse shrouded in darkness. My feet were rooted to the floor as Lucas walked over to a table and switched on a lamp.
Light flooded the space. There was no one waiting for us, just the faint hum of the fridge in the nearby kitchen. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said softly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Unless you’re scared of stainless steel. And if you are, well that’s something you’ll just have to learn to deal with.”
I burst into laughter at his attempt to lighten the mood, some of my worry sliding away.
“And gray, apparently.”
Gray was everywhere, on the walls, the furniture, clearly a man’s domain. A wall of nothing but glass peered out over the cityscape. Beyond it I could see the dim glow of the lights that illuminated the private hot tub built into the granite terrace.
To my right was a dazzling open staircase that led up to the second level, and I longed to go for a tour. This was far more than what Nico and I had in our own places, and clearly Lucas had spent a pretty penny on it.
“It’s gorgeous,” I said softly.
He held out his hand. “Would you like to see the terrace?”
I nodded and took it, surprised when he wrapped his fingers around mine. For a moment we gazed at each other, my pulse slowing to a dull thud, and I had the sudden urge to kiss him.
Instead he pulled his gaze away and led me to a door off the kitchen, opening it to the cool night. The balcony stretched the entire length of the penthouse.
“This is ridiculous,” I said as I dipped my fingers into the hot tub.
Lucas leaned against the glass railing, watching me. “It’s home. Safest place in the city.”
I smirked, standing. “Are you sure about that? I mean, a good rock climber could get in here in a heartbeat.”
He looked at me for a moment before he threw his head back and laughed, catching me completely off guard.
For the first time I saw the true Lucas, how the hardness of his face softened, and he looked younger, happier.
“Well, I will have to let my security team know about that,” he said, wiping his face. “Because I’m sure that never crossed their minds.”
I joined him at the railing and gazed out over the city. “I sometimes forget how it looks at night.” The city was always my favorite, and many a night I had sat out on my own balcony, just watching the lights dance in the night.
“I miss it sometimes,” Lucas admitted.
“So,” I said after a moment. “The Wongs.” I was dying to know how he knew them and why they meant so much to him. Would he tell me?
Lucas let out a breath, not meeting my eyes. “The Wongs’ restaurant was a place for me to get cheap food and not be bothered. I started hanging out there to get away, and Ruhua started to teach me Cantonese in her spare time.”
A brief smile flickered over his face before he let it drop. “One night, this asshole walked in and tried to rob the place. Scared Ruhua with a gun, but he never saw me sitting in the corner. I beat him within an inch of his life.”
His words stole my breath. Sometimes I forgot how vicious Lucas could be, not having seen his violent side.
Yet.
“I was young and angry then,” he continued. “And didn’t realize at the time that the lowlife I beat belonged to a rival Mafia. I nearly started a turf war that night, but Cosimo saw something in me and pulled me out of my old role and put me onto enforcer training.”
“What was your old role?” I pressed, curious. If there was any night he’d tell me, it would be tonight.
Lucas stiffened. From the dark look that crossed his eyes, I knew I had gone too far too quickly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” I said quickly, a twinge of hurt crossing my chest as I saw the dark look on his face. He wanted me to trust him, yet he wasn’t willing to share those details with me.
Why should he? Maybe that was my answer about a future with him.
Maybe I was wrong to fall in love with Lucas.
Wait, did I just say I was in love with Lucas Valentino? Where had that come from?
“Let’s go inside,” he stated after a moment, turning around and walking inside without waiting for me to follow.
I caught onto his angered state, and my heart sank, forcing me to turn back to the city I missed so much.
Had I really fallen in love with my captor?
Somewhere along the lines of him treating me like a real person and not his prisoner, I had allowed Lucas into my heart.
I choked back the tears that threatened to well up in my eyes. There was no use crying over it now. It wasn’t like I would be able to change what my heart was feeling.
But the real question was: did I want this?
I thought I did.
I wanted to be Lucas’s sunshine, but in order for that to happen, he had to let me in.
And tonight, he’d given me just a glimpse before slamming that door in my face again.