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I wake up to the feeling of warm sunlight filtering in through the gaps in my curtains. The only light source in the room besides the distant kitchen light I can see through my partially cracked open door. Out of reflex, I roll and start to stretch for the body that I expect to be lying on the other side of my bed. My body instantly protests the movement. Everything aches to the point that I might have to take something for the temporary discomfort.
Though I won’t deny that there’s also a part of me that kind of likes the reminder.
I don’t hate the idea of wearing Luca’s touch on my skin. I’m sure that when I do manage to go and shower all of this off again, I’m going to see more than one bruise or handprint on my flesh from where he touched me. Just how I like it. I swear nobody has ever been able to read my body the way that he has. Enemy or not.
Where is Luca?
I peel open one eye and gaze around the darkness for him before I start the arduous process of pushing myself upright in bed. I fumble for a long t-shirt to wear from the first drawer that I pull open and don’t bother with anything else.
Luca can’t have gotten very far, not with the number of guards that have been assigned to the pair of us. There’s an uncomfortable twist of anxiety knotting in my gut as I blink blearily against the lingering vestiges of sleep. My legs almost don’t want to support me as I wander into the living room.
I hate this feeling more than anything in the world.
I’m going to need a heck of a therapist when all of this is over and done with. I’m sure of it.
Automatically, my mind is jumping to irrational conclusions. What if he escaped? Worse, what if he’s dead? What if Alexei was right and this was just another ploy to get us to lower our guard so that Luca could further take advantage of us? It’s the same worst case scenario sort of thinking that has me jumping at sudden noises and answering every phone call that I get in caseit’s somebody else giving me even worse news about somebody else that I love being murdered.
Nothing could have happened to Luca while I was sleeping.
Right?
A clattering from my kitchen makes me jolt and half scares me to death. Rubbing my forearm for warmth in hopes that it helps wake me up, I stagger into the room that smells of something sweet. Luca is standing in my kitchen, humming and cracking eggs into a pan. I didn’t even know that I had eggs.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I turned some of those baked goods from last night into pancake filler.” Luca offers as he continues to putter around like he’s been living here his whole life.
“...you were gone.” I mutter.
Luca pauses for a moment and looks me over more thoroughly. When he speaks, he sounds annoyingly amused. “Don’t like that, do ya?”
My lips purse in irritation as I slide into a seat at the small bar attached to my kitchen island.
“If you had slept for a little while longer, I would have come back in there. I thought with how heavy you were out that you might even make it to the afternoon hours.” Luca teases.
“...sorry.” I say lamely. I don’t know what else to say. It all feels so very… domestic. A touch too normal for me to feel casual about it. Something about how comfortable this all feels has me on edge, like something bad is going to happen any second and ruin it all.
“Well, you have plenty more mornings to make it up to me, I guess.”
I smirk. “Oh, is that right?”
Luca nods. “Mmhm.”
“And you just think that’s a choice that you get to make all by yourself?” I ask.
“Why not?” Luca shrugs. “I think it works out best in favor of thebothof us. Besides, you think sex like that just comes around every day?” He brandishes the spatula in his hand in the direction of the bedroom as if that will help him further make his point. “I don’t think so.”
I have to admit that he’s right about that one.
“Sex does not mean anything,” I say.
“It absolutely does.” Luca disagrees as he starts to divide the food onto two plates. He puts one on the bar in front of me and comes around to stand beside me, leaning back against the bar.He crosses his feet at the ankles and looks down at me with a knowing smile.
He lifts my chin with a crooked finger and kisses me softly. It’s so shockingly different to any kiss that we have shared before it that I’m rendered frozen in shock for a moment.
I don’t want to admit that this might be more than just some casual hookup.
It’s not like it even has a chance if this little parlay that he’s got going with Alexei doesn’t work out. It could be doomed before it even gets the chance to get up off of the ground.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Luca says like he’s reading my damn mind. “This is going to work. It’s going to be dangerous as hell, but what else is new?”
