Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder
Chapter 48
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 been happy to cook him a meal. I wanted to 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. “I bought you, Leda. I bought you and used you. I’ve been using 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.”
His eyes raked over my body, and a smirk appeared on his lips. “Even if they are used goods.”
If his cruel rejection of my cooking when he walked in was a hammer pounding at my heart. Those last words were the final blow that shattered them.
To think that I woke up this morning ready tell him that I loved him. That thought had come out of the blue, and I was stupid enough to think that he actually cared about me. I was so stupid, so stupid to believe every one of his lies. A boat ride, some Chinese food, and then a couple of night in his penthouse, and I was ready to believe that he actually gave a shit about me.
I had been duped again. All because of the last name I carried, the fucking father who had ruined my life.
Lucas shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe that I had fallen for this. “Did you really think that I cared about you?”
I stumbled back as if he had slapped me. I almost wished he had. At least that would hurt less.
“Shut up,” I hurled back at him. “Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked, when what I wanted to ask was: why are you breaking my heart?
A cold smile crossed his lips. “Because I am a fucking monster, Leda! You of all people should understand that.”
He wasn’t wrong. Most of the Dons didn’t care about anything but their business, how much money they could bring in, and who they could take over in the process. I had seen my father do just that repeatedly.
I thought Lucas would be different. Until now.
“You say that,” I forced out, perilously close to tears. “But I’ve seen your actions, Lucas. You’re not a monster! Not to me.”
He growled and moved away, and grabbed the glass.
“Well then you’re wrong!”
I couldn’t fight back the tears anymore. My vision blurred and I took a shuddering breath.
“Then why am I still fucking you every night? Why do you even bother putting me in your bed, Lucas? Tell me why you kiss me, why you hold me!” I stopped there, not wanting to divulge to him that I thought he was falling in love with me.
Had I been wrong about him all along? It didn’t feel like Lucas had been putting on an act at all.
When his cold eyes met mine, I knew he could see the tears streaming down my cheeks. I hated to show him that weakness, but he was ripping my heart apart and making me wonder what I had gotten myself into in the first place.
“I don’t think you are cold-hearted,” I continued. “I’ve seen the worst of the worst, Lucas, and you aren’t it. Please. Please don’t do this.”
Lucas pushed away from the bar suddenly, and I found myself backing up as he advanced on me, his face hard as stone. No matter what I did, what I said, it wasn’t getting through to him, and for the first time since meeting Lucas, I felt real fear race through my veins.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew what he was capable of. I just never thought it would be something I would see.
His eyes were soulless, devoid of emotion, and I swallowed.
“What are you going to do to me?” I challenged, refusing to back down. “Hit me? Choke me? Isn’t that what you Dons do? Push your weight around and wait for the rest of us to bend to your will?”
Lucas paused, and for the first time, I saw his jaw clench, the barest hint of emotion that he had shown from the very second he had walked into his penthouse tonight and decided to give me the third degree.
I had done nothing to deserve any of this, and I was tired of being a doormat to all things Mafia, my father and Lucas included.
“Get out.” I sobbed, not bothering to wipe away the tears on my cheeks. “Just get out!”
I was about half a second away from losing it.
“It’s my fucking house!” he yelled, and reached for me.
I cringed as his hand hovered around my throat, and knew that I had pushed him too far.
What did it matter anyway? He had already told me that he didn’t care about me, and the moment he turned me out on the street, I would just get picked up by some other Don trying to make a name for himself. I was never going to have the life I wanted or see my nephew, my brother, or anyone else ever again.
Lucas shook his head and dropped his hand. “No, this isn’t worth it.”
His words were barely a whisper, but I heard them anyway, watching as he walked away from me, his broad shoulders tense under his coat. It wasn’t until the door slammed behind him that I let my legs give out, sliding against the island that had been holding me up and to the cold tile floor.
What had just happened? Where had this all gone south?
A sob wracked me, and I threw my arms around my knees, drawing them up against my chest and letting the tears come.
I had been stupid, so stupid to think that he actually cared about me. That he might return the feelings I had.
What was I going to do now? I was still his prisoner. Lucas had made that abundantly clear. I had nowhere to go, and the moment I did actually escape, my father would be hauling me off to the husband he had picked out for me. It would be the death of my happiness.
I wiped my eyes. Happiness. That seemed like such a foreign word now. I had dared to hope that Lucas could be my happiness, that we might have built something together.
Instead, all he had done was prove to me just how much he could crush my heart, along with any hopes of a future. From the way I was hurting, I might as well do him a favor and jump off the terrace so he wouldn’t have to clean up his mess when he returned.
But he didn’t return that night. I didn’t bother to clean up the food in the kitchen, and sat there watching the door warily for hours until I realized that he wasn’t coming back.
He left me in this prison, alone and confused, but mostly devastated at the way he had flung his careless words in my face. All he had done was remind me that I had been an utter fool to trust my heart with a Don and not expect to be burned as a result.
I wanted to hate him.
Instead, I curled up in his bed, between the sheets that still smelled of Lucas, and cried myself to sleep.
