AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is Jinga. A jaguar that lost her mate to a hunter wanting nothing but a trophy for his library. She ripped the hunter’s jugular out but not before taking a bullet to the hindquarters. When she was brought to me she was almost dead. My doctors nearly lost the fight to save her life.” As he speaks, he rubs the animal from head to tail and I swear I’ve never heard a cat purr louder.
“She wanted blood for blood.”
He nods. “And got it. It is the law of their world as it is for ours.”
Lucas holds my gaze and the longer we stay like this the more I feel the pain he’s lived with every day for the past three years.
“What do you see when you look at me? I must represent your worst nightmare.” I keep my voice low. I don’t know if I am scared of spooking Jinga or of his answer more. Either way, I can’t seem to find it in me to speak higher than a whisper.
With Jinga asleep after her petting, Lucas takes my hand. “There’s no way you could ever be anyone’s nightmare. I meant it when I said you are an unexpected dilemma. But never a nightmare.”
He ushers us out of Jinga’s enclosure and back to the main room where the large aquarium is. I’m in awe not only by its size but how this place could be a large attraction. Guests would pay to come out here to see this. But I have a feeling this is a sanctuary for him as much as it is for the animals.
I walk up to the huge glass wall and he takes up the space behind me, wrapping his arms around me. I lay my head back and moan when his hands come up to tease over my nipples, but nothing more. As if he just needs to touch me.
“When I was in high school I wanted to be an oceanographer. I studied all I could about sharks, whales, and bioluminescence. All kinds of ecosystems. Anything I could get my hands on. My father was...busy a lot and my mother always had one luncheon with the ladies or another. Trying to keep the family’s name clean I guess now that I think about it. When I shared my dream with them they only laughed and then my father made sure to remind me I was a Kingston. That one day I would follow in his steps. Back then I didn’t understand what that meant.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know. What if I can reverse the harm he’s done? Shouldn’t I at least try?”
Lucas places a kiss on my forehead. “I kidnapped you as payment for a crime committed against my father, but the mass of his sins are not for your shoulders to carry.”
I turn in his arms. “I remember seeing you on the news. When your father died. It was all over the news and I had an idea my father had something to do with it. But I couldn’t face that. I didn’t want to think he was capable of that.”
Lucas grows quiet for a long moment. “No daughter should ever be forced to see the demon their father is. There was nothing for you to do anyway.”
“He wasn’t...always that way. I don’t think so at least.” My hands curl around his and I silently beg him to hear my words. “Or at least not to me. Never to me. I don’t know the monster you speak of. Maybe...I don’t know.” I look away from him for a second, fighting for how to say this next part. But there is no easy way I see so I say it like it is. “Maybe what happened between our fathers should stay between them. Maybe we don’t know the whole truth and this revenge you seek is pointless?”
“Your innocence is a beautiful treasure.” Lucas strokes a finger down my cheek. “And for the fact you were treated like the queen you are by your father I will kill him fast.”
My grip tightens in his. “Please, no. Please don’t. He’s all my mother and I have.”
For a moment I see the man emerge from his grief to see the pain his words cause another.
“I can’t promise anything, princess. Not when blood is needed for blood.”
“What if I stay here with you? My life for my father’s”
A wicked glint sparks across his gaze and I know I’ve found the devil inside him willing to strike a deal. He spins me around and presses me against the side of the aquarium wall. He lifts me and I so easily wrap my legs around his waist.
“Your life for his, huh?”
“Yes.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
LUCAS
We both groan when I take her mouth in a hard kiss. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yes!” she cries out and it’s all I need to hear.
I should have given her another sheet to wear instead of these damn jean shorts. They’ll be impossible to peel off. I tear away from her and slide her down my body. Dropping to a knee.
Water starts to pelt against the sides of the building and fall through the open skylights.
“The storm. It’s here.”
