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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.
Chapter 49
Lucas
It took two bottles of whiskey before I admitted to myself that I made a mistake with Leda.
Rocco was the one who dragged me out of the bar I had forced him to take me to, muttering the entire time about lovesick fools and Dons that were too stubborn for their own good.
Somehow we ended in his apartment on the Lower East Side, a fucking hole in the wall since he spent most of his time watching after me.
“Here you go,” he said as he dumped me on the sofa. “Something tells me she doesn’t want you back in your own fucking house tonight.”
I rubbed a hand over my face wearily. The liquor dulled my senses to the point where I couldn’t see straight. Normally I wasn’t one to be out of control like this, but fuck, the pain that I had felt lying to Leda hadn’t gone away like it was supposed to.
In fact, it had only intensified the longer I was away from her. I had hurt her, hurt her for no fucking reason at all.
Well, not no reason. I had hurt her because I couldn’t stand to look at myself in the mirror and know that she had made me fall in love with her.
“Fuck,” I growled, leaning back against the sofa.
Rocco chuckled as he lowered himself into the leather recliner, clasping his hands loosely between his legs. “So, you figured it out.”
I eyed him. “What?”
“That you care for her.”
“This wasn’t the plan,” I said after a few minutes, closing my eyes so I didn’t have to see the truth slapping me in the face. “She wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to be a spoiled princess that I could just throw away once I was done with her. This shit is not fair.”
“Well,” Rocco decided. “You could just stay away for a few days. I can have the guys take care of her.”
“Don’t fucking touch her,” I interrupted, my voice laced with steel. I would rip their heads off if they laid one finger on Leda. She was mine.
“Look, I’m just trying to help,” Rocco snorted. “But if you don’t want her gone, then why the hell are you sitting here in my fucking living room, drunk off your ass instead of back home apologizing?”
Because I was an asshole and a monster.Because I thought I could destroy her and keep my fucking heart safe from being hurt.
Because she had gotten too close for comfort for me. Leda had broken down the walls. Seeing her in my penthouse tonight, being domestic as fuck, had started to make me want other things for my future. Things that didn’t involve the Mafia.
