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CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
“THIS PLACE IS like a castle…in acloud.”
Dom lifted his head from the back of the chair to see Luca lying flat on his back on the couch.
“Such a fucking lightweight,” he said, swirling the contents of his glass. “I thought you were a college boy.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“College is one big excuse to party every night and make bad decisions.”
Luca lifted his head, a lopsided grin on his face. “Is that what you did?”
“No,” Dom said, looking away. Between school and the family “business,” there hadn’t been time for messing around. Not that he cared…much. He’d been brought up with such an intense focus that it felt like his classmates were wasting their time when they could’ve been building empires.
“Yeah, me either.” Luca sat up and put a pillow behind his head. “Silas is always at a pub or out drinking someplace, but not me. I just stay in my room and study. Study, study, study, all the time.”
“But look at you now. You’re in a cloud.” Dom’s lips twitched as he took a sip. Day drinking had definitely been a good idea. He was already feeling more relaxed than he had in what felt like years, pushing everything out of control to the back of his mind as much as he could. What the hell else could he do? Defy his father’s orders? That would only result in a harsher punishment than his current situation.
No, he’d sit here and drink until he couldn’t feel anything, and he’d make Luca do the same. Wouldn’t do well to have him clearheaded, and it hadn’t taken him much to get plastered off his ass.
“Also, what do you have against TVs?” Luca said. “How can you have a great big place without a TV? We could be watching something instead of each other.”
“You don’t like to watch me?” Dom grunted. “That’s not how I remember it. You couldn’t take your eyes off me in the shower.”
“You werenaked.”
“All the more reason to look away.”
Luca shrugged and stared out the window. “You did it to get a reaction out of me. To humiliate or degrade me, whatever. Guess that backfired on you, didn’t it? You’re hot and I’m gay. Stupid too, apparently. Get over it.”
Dom fell silent. Luca’s casual statement had touched something that he usually kept buried in the far recesses of his being. Luca’s freedom to just announce his sexual orientation was a liberty Dom had never been afforded for fear of repercussions, so to hear him talk so openly about it made Dom wary.
What had he been thinking touching this kid? Or more importantly, letting Luca touch him? If anyone found out… If he told anyone…
What? He’d have to kill Luca? Not like that wasn’t already in the cards.
Dom looked at the young man again, his eyes trailing over Luca’s long legs, flat, tight abs under one of the designer shirts he’d finally put on, and the strong jaw line that seemed to be growing stronger and bolder the longer he was here.
He was fucking gorgeous, there was no way to ignore that, and for the first time in his life, Dom felt a twinge of regret. What would it be like to be so open about who you were and what you wanted? It was something he’d never been able to show, not to anyone. In his world, his family, being gay was almost as bad as being a Fiore. Being gay and lusting after a Fiore? He might as well put a bullet through his head and end it now.
Pissed off and restless, Dom got to his feet and began to pace. He’d thought drinking would bring him some relief, that it would numb the irritation at being locked up and let him forget for a minute who he was. Instead, it had magnified his one weakness.
“You hate being trapped up here too, don’t you?” Luca said.
Dom walked over to the windows, opting for any view other than the one of his tempting cell mate, who was too drunk to know when to shut his mouth. “I’m not trapped.”
“No?”
“No. Unlike you, I can leave whenever I want. I’m here because my father wishes it, that’s all.”
“Really? Because it sounded to me like someone wanted to kill you, and since you kind of want to do the same to me, logic dictates you’re as trapped as I am. Plus, you have this whole trapped-animal vibe going on. Tense, silent, moody…”
Dom glanced over his shoulder. “Guess we have something in common, then.”
“I’m not tense.”
“Or silent,” Dom said.
