Her hands are smoothing over her body, appraising every sensual inch of her. The sight of her hands gliding over her perfect body is so fucking sexy. But she gives her body disapproving looks. Her eyes go down her long legs and she steps out of her heels. She looks away from the mirror, her sexy lips frowning with her mouth downturned in a pout. Lucy hightails away from the bathroom and rushes to the bed, crawling under the covers. She's shivering, but I suspect that these tears have more to do with her suffering than any temperature. I can't have this. I have to go to her now.
I flick off all the cameras and rush out from the panel, not caring if my exit is less than conspicuous. She's not up to anything and I've taken care of everything. I don't want Lucy crying. The tears streaking her cheeks, her knees pulled against her chest, her head resting there. Fuck. I can't have that. I want to make her feel better, even though I know that I'm why she feels this way.
Fuck, that stab makes me want to go step out of the elevator and just let her be up there, all alone, all night. I could be alone around all the people in my casino. I could ... but I told her I would be up there and if I don't come up there soon, that's just more time for her to fear my arrival. What if I try to be kind and leave her alone all night, and the anticipation just destroys her?
That's definitely a possibility … and there's the fact that if I don't put my hands on her soon, I'll lose my own goddamn mind with a very different kind of anticipation bubbling inside of me.
So I keep going, allowing the elevator ride to bring the surge to my stomach that the spiced rum I like to drink would do for me. I want to taste her, and not the burn of alcohol right now. I don't think I want another drink ever again. I don't want the haze that it keeps me in. I want to be clear-headed.
I'm destroying Lucy's life, sure, but I don't want to be some drunk asshole doing it. I can at least be a sober one.
Zander appears when the elevator opens on a floor just before my level. "Sir, there's an issue--"
"I can handle it in the morning," I cut him off. I want to get to Lucy now, there's unlikely to really be something so goddamn pressing that it can't wait.
"Well," Zander swallows. "Your wife," he says in a lowered voice, and pauses. "The morning, yes. I'll take care of it from here." There's something that passes over his eyes. Zander is the one who's been watching Tara's descent. If he wants to get caught up with her, that's a hell of a move. I don't fuck her. Not after what she tried to do to me. I don't care if anyone else fucks her. But I'm not sure if he knows that, and yet here he is, quite possibly taking that risk. Damn. Well, he said he was going to take care of it. That's a problem for later.
I walk past Zander and he waits a beat and comes after me. "Luke Gravos. He's going to be a problem tomorrow, too."
I turn on my heel and look at Zander. I see the frustration on his face. I don't blame him. "And how do you know that?"
"Seems before you'd made your decision about Tommy, well, he'd made one too. So he's going to be more interested than you'd like. I'm on it," Zander says, straightening his jacket. I get it. He's gotta tell me, but he doesn't want to be in the position of delivering shitty news. But he's gotta let me know.
I nod and start to walk away. I don't look back to his face when I deliver the next line. "If you're fucking Tara, that's your problem. If you wanna go there, that's your mistake to make. I won't be chopping your dick off or anything, though."
I don't have to look. I knew when I saw that face that he was planning to do something more than just make sure Tara didn't cause more problems. When he took an interest in her, I could see this shit coming from a mile away. That's his bed of snakes to lie in, I've got shit to do. Luke fucking Gravos better not do a goddamn thing to Tommy or demand way more than he's worth for any of this. That said if it's written all over my face that I'm all wrapped up in Tommy's sister, that's the kind of shit Gravos would use. Fuck all this shit. She's up there in tears and I just want to make them go away. If I really cared about her, I'd help her with everything in my reach and I'd ask for nothing in return. I wouldn't make her give me her virginity, and especially now when I know she's so fragile.
Except, I'm cinder and ash in my soul. My heart is charred and soaked in the alcohol I drown every day in. I'm not about to do anything out of the kindness of my heart. Really, I'm not so different from Luke Gravos. He's just trashy no matter how nice his suit is. He'll be biker trash no matter how many legitimate and illegitimate businesses drown him in cash. I just happen to be able to get my riches in legal ways and I don't fuck skanks. Not anymore. Not ever again.
But my cock? About to be buried in heaven while I drag dear Lucy right down to hell.
Goodness of my heart. Is that some kind of joke that my brain even considers that? I never do anything without getting something in return. Several somethings. I manipulate and deal my way into everything I want.
6
Gian
I'm at the door and I step in, taking care not to bust in and scare her half to death, but I wouldn't exactly knock on my own door, would I?
"Mr. Sandoval," Lucy says, hastily wiping her eyes on the back of her hands and then pulling the sheets up over her body.
"Giancarlo," I tell her. She doesn't need to call me Mister. Though it does sound fucking sexy rolling off her cherry lips. But what wouldn't? "Come over here and let me see that gorgeous body," I say, licking my lower lip as she steps up.
Her hands are shaky and she wants to cover herself.
I capture her wrists. I'm not going to just take her. I'll make her want me. It won't be hard, because she's afraid about what's to come, but I also arouse her. I saw that behind the hate in her eyes before, and I can see it in the fear in her eyes now.
"You're not gonna cover yourself in front of me, ever, Lucy," I say. That's just the way it's going to have to be. I can't have her hiding herself from me. I have to have her beautiful body open for me. I want her to want it to be open for me.
She shivers when I say her name, so slightly, and then looks down at her own body. "I ... I just don't feel comfortable in this." I listen to her tentative words. I want her to talk instead of being frozen in fear. It doesn't matter what she talks about as long as she speaks instead of shivers. Anything is better than seeing her fall apart like she was, crying in my bed earlier.
I suck in a breath. But this is what I chose to talk to her about and I can't avoid this. I don't want to. I need to see the fragile parts of her. Lucy doesn't know that wanting her makes me vulnerable in a way that I never am. "How do you feel?" I know that I should be getting to the part where I fuck her, because I'm going to fuck her. Despite myself, though, I want her to talk. I want to know what she's thinking. I can't have her sad like she was earlier. I don't want to fuck a sad Lucy; I want to bury myself inside a woman who's beautifully bare before me and knows that she wants me in her body.
Lucy licks her lips and parts them slowly before she finally answers. "Stupid." She admits the truth about how she feels.
I can tell by the way she tears the word from her lips that she's telling the truth, which I can appreciate. But Lucy's dead wrong. "What you did for your brother is brave," I say, wanting her to know the truth. I don't want her to be frightened, but I'm practically growling with the raw power building inside me at the need to let her know that she's not some stupid girl. I want to defend her, from herself it seems. I don't know why I react so strongly to Lucy. But I can't let her think this. "Not stupid."
Lucy leans closer to me, still in my hold, but her eyes are cast downward. Her body wants to be closer to me, but her mind is still so fragile. Still, she's not closing up and she's talking to me. "No." Lucy shakes her head. "I feel stupid because I look ridiculous. I tried to pick something sexy but --"
I can't let her finish that sentence; I'm so shocked by it. "You don't look stupid." I force myself to stay still. I want her to hear my words and know that I mean them. Not touching her more, but keeping my hands over her has its own kind of power, and that's the kind of power I need for my words to hit home for her. "You're so damn sexy and you don't even know it. You figure I fuck all sorts of skanks who throw themselves at me all the time?" I run my thumbs over the soft skin of the underside of her wrists.
I see her breath catch in her throat. Lucy is afraid of me, afraid of what's happening, what's going to happen. But she can feel the bolts of electricity connecting us now. Her body responds to mine the way mine does to hers.
"Well ... yeah ..." she runs her teeth over her lower lip, "but I don't know how to be that."