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Chapter 52
Lucas
I stared at myself in the mirror, noting the claw marks on my shoulders from Leda’s fingernails. The marks didn’t hurt, of course, but what did was that there was some rift between us after last night.
I fucking hated it.
Splashing water on my face, I wiped the droplets off with a hand towel. Last night had gotten out of hand, and while normally I didn’t have any regrets after my sexual encounters, I had a shitload with that one.
I loved Leda. I loved everything about her, including that she could trust me in the bedroom. I just didn’t feel like she had trusted me at all this time. Actually, I thought that she had wanted to squeeze the fucking life out of me instead.
Not that I blamed her. I had attempted to do exactly what she had been putting up with her entire life, forcing her into a corner and telling her what I thought she needed to do. That wasn’t what Leda wanted or needed.
She needed to be free to make her own decisions, including the ones that I didn’t agree with.
Sighing, I shrugged on a shirt before I exited the bathroom, finding the bedroom empty. When I had climbed out of bed, Leda had been still cozied under the covers, and something in my soul had wanted nothing more than to sit and watch her sleep. In her dreams, she wasn’t in this shitty world I had brought her into. She was safe and secure, hopefully dreaming of whatever future she had concocted for us.
In the light of the day, we were both screwed.
I moved into the living room and found Leda standing in the sun, her face tipped to the window that was allowing the sun’s rays to filter through. Fuck, she was gorgeous, even dressed in my clothing, her long hair trailing down her back. From her stance, I could see the gentle swell of her stomach, and my throat closed. If nothing else, we needed to fight for the baby that we had created. I wanted to be there when he or she was born.
I wanted to be there for my child’s first steps, to watch it morph into the little human being that would have a father with a shitty past but who would love it all the same.
My heart clenched in my chest, so I closed the distance between us, carefully placing my arms around Leda and pulling her back against my chest.
“You know, I still remember the night I first laid eyes on you,” I started, needing to bring her back to what mattered between us. “I thought that you were the bravest fucking woman to ever step on that auction block.”
“It wasn’t by choice,” she said, not pulling away from my touch.
I sighed into her hair, content with holding her in the sun like this. “Of all the things I’ve done in my lifetime, stepping up to purchase you was the best thing I could have done.” It wasn’t something I could sugarcoat, how we got together, but I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.
It was Leda’s turn to sigh. “I would think that you would regret it by now.”
Chuckling, I turned her in my arms so she could see the earnest look on my face. “I don’t regret much in my life,” I told her, brushing the hair out of her eyes gently. “But I regret last night.”
Her eyes flickered to my neck, where there was the faintest sign of a bruise. “I regret it too. I never meant to hurt you.”
It wasn’t in her nature to do so, but I hadn’t taken it personally. What I hated about it was that I had been too rough with her, trying to prove a point that really didn’t mean shit in the light of day. We enjoyed rough sex, but that hadn’t been what we had dealt with last night, and I never wanted that sort of detachment between us again.
Life was too fucking short right now. “You didn’t hurt me,” I said as her fingers touched my neck.
“Maybe not physically,” she murmured with a sigh.
If anything, I should be apologizing to her.
My cell phone buzzed, and I was forced to step away from Leda in order to take it, knowing that it could be information about her family.
It wasn’t. It was a text from a familiar number, and I felt a chill run through me as I called it, afraid of what I might hear on the other end.
“Valentino.”
“Adrian,” I replied evenly. “What do you want?”
“I want to talk,” he stated. “But first, someone else would like to tell you hello.”
Expecting Nico, I steeled myself against the voice. “This is Lucas.”
“Xiao Lu!”
