Lucca (Made Men #4)(30)

"Darlin'?"

"I-I'm sorry I-I bothered you." She turned abruptly to leave.

"Chloe." His voice was commanding, stopping her in her place. "Come to me."

Turning back around, she held herself tighter as she obeyed him, moving around the desk to stand beside him.

Studying her, he became worried. "What's wrong?"

"I-I-I don't know," she nervously confessed. It was impossible to explain. The nightmare hadn't been like her others.

"Darlin'  … " His face softened. Taking her hand, he pulled her closer, telling her in his commanding tone, "Come here. Sit with me."

Her body fell into his lap, not knowing if it craved his touch or if it was because he had given her a command. It was all very strange to her-trying to deal with this new version of herself who could only be touched by Lucca.

Lucca turned her to the side on his lap so she could rest her head on his chest. He rested one hand at her back while he rested his other hand on her thigh.

It was the first time she had ever been held by a man. She felt stiff at first, but her body didn't let her for long, needing his embrace to soothe the nightmares. She could feel herself melting into him the longer she sat there.

"Was it a nightmare?" His voice was quiet, soft, yet strong. Just like his touch.

I'm coming for you, little girl  …

She could only nod her head, remembering what the devil had said to her in her dream.

Lucca removed his hand from her thigh, touching his fingertips to her face, where he lightly traced her scar. "Was it about the man who gave you these?"

There was no more pretending that she had gotten them from a car crash, not from Lucca. He had known the second he saw her for the first time that they had been caused by a knife. "Y-Yes."

"The scars on your face aren't the only ones he gave you, are they?"

A cold chill coming over her body had her looking up at him, staring into his haunting blue-green eyes. She slowly shook her head.

He had hinted at their second meeting when she had been wearing long sleeves in the summer that he knew, but she had never confirmed it. Or maybe I did.

"Show me," he ordered.

Biting her lip, her hands shaking, she slowly pushed up her right and then her left sleeve as far as they could go, revealing several scars on each arm. Her marks spread out from right above her wrist to the top of her shoulders.

She hadn't shown anyone besides Elle. And no one had ever suspected her of having more scars than the ones that marked her face. 

Taking his time, Lucca touched each revealed scar on her arms, tracing, studying how thick they were and how deep the bastard must have gone based upon how high they were raised. Each mark almost glowed against her pale skin.

"Is this all of them?" he asked with a hint of doubt in his voice, seeming to know it wasn't.

She swallowed hard. Don't make me tell you.

"Tell me where the rest of them are."

"A-Are you going to make me show you?"

"Not today, I won't," he assured her, still lightly touching each scar.

She whispered the place not even Elle knew about, "M-My s-stomach."

He didn't respond, continuing to look, touch, and memorize the scars on her arms before pulling the sleeves of her sweater down to cover her cold arms back up.

"T-They're hideous, aren't they?" she asked while confessing how she had felt about them ever since first looking at herself in the mirror.

Lucca grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him. "Don't you ever speak those words again. Do you understand?"

She tried nodding her head in his grip. "Y-Yes."

Loosening his hold, he moved a finger to her full lips, caressing over the scar he hadn't yet touched that went an inch above and below her lips. "You and your scars are the most beautiful things I have ever seen."

Her breathing hitched as he moved his face closer to hers while moving his finger from her lips to position her for the taking.

"Don't you ever think they're not," he whispered, his breath teasing her lips.

She closed her eyes as he pressed his lips against hers.

This kiss was slower than the first and not as demanding. Just him leisurely tasting her bottom lip.

The last time, he had tasted of cool mint. This time, she could still taste the cool mint, but it had a smokiness to it from his cigarette. The two opposite flavors mixed, tasting of fire and ice and making her lips and body tingle.

Lucca biting her bottom lip caused a noise of pleasure to escape her throat, like it had the last time. He smiled against her lips before he smoothed his tongue over the pressure he had caused, soothing it just for a moment before he pulled away.

"I think you like being bit, darlin'."

A flush appeared on her cheeks as she blushed at his words and her body's betrayal.

"It's not a bad thing." He smiled before placing a light kiss on her lips.

Her belly became warm at the quick kiss. It was sweet, something she wasn't very used to from the possessive man.

Unconsciously licking her lips, she noticed she still tasted of him-the mint with the hint of smoke. Tasting exactly how he smelled.

That made her ask, "Why did you put your cigarette out when I came in?" She realized then that she hadn't smelled smoke on him much lately, which surprised her.

"Because I don't like smoking around you if we're not outside."

"It doesn't bother me," she told him, not wanting him to not smoke on her account. The smell had strangely never bothered her.

"I know, darlin', but I don't want you inhaling it," he told her, revealing that it had to do with her health and not with the fact she might not like it.

Thinking deeper about it, this was the only room in the house where she could smell smoke.

She clasped her hands together when his hand moved higher up the outside of her thigh. "I-Is this the only room you smoke in?"

His eyes didn't waiver from her face as she looked down at her hands. "Now it is, yes. I have to be able to smoke while I'm working."



       
         
       
        

"Now it is?" she questioned.

"I quit smoking everywhere else in the house once I knew you were coming here."

"Oh." Chloe didn't really know what to think of that. It seemed like he had done a lot of things for her since he had first met her. I don't think I'll ever know everything he has done.

"What is it?" he asked, twirling a strand of her hair between his fingers.

"W-When did you start sleeping in Leo's room?" She had a feeling she knew why, and she also thought she knew when.

He twirled and then un-twirled her strand of hair before he answered with sadness in his voice, "The first time you had your nightmare, it took me too long to get to you. I started sleeping in Leo's room after that because, no matter how fast I ran, it still took too long to get to you."

A little piece of Chloe's heart broke at hearing him say those words. She could feel the pain behind them, like there was more to it than she knew or even could understand.

She wanted him to know something, something that had been hard for her to admit to herself at first.

"Y-You've helped ease the nightmares."

He stopped the motion of twirling her hair as he focused on her eyes. "Is that so?"

"Y-Yes. I've noticed that, when you're around, they seem to go away."

"I'm happy to hear that, darlin'." Beginning the motion of twirling her hair again, he asked, "Are you feeling better now?"

She nodded.

Even though a part of her still felt it strange to be held by him, her body and mind felt immensely better being around him. Something about Lucca called to her body. It needed it, craved it, which had only amplified after the horrible nightmare.

"Would you like me to take the day off? I could go make us something to eat, and then we could watch a movie if you wanted." He paused for a moment. "Or I could call Maria and ask her to come over."

Smiling up at him, she felt appreciation that he would do that for her, although he was still unhappy with his sister. "That depends. What would you fix me to eat?"

He smiled back, pleased that she was choosing to spend the day with him. "Whatever you want, darlin'."

She didn't even have to think about it. "Chocolate pancakes."

"Then chocolate pancakes it is."

Getting up from his lap, she saw something gold flash out of the corner of her eye. It had her looking at his desk to see what it was. And when she did, her smiling face slowly changed into a look of fear as she reached out, wanting to see if it was real or if she was imagining it.

The second her fingertip touched the ring, she knew it wasn't just an illusion, and her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out. 

I'm coming for you, little girl  …

Lucca touched her shoulder, the worry back in his voice. "Darlin'?"

I've missed you.

When she continued staring at the ring, he turned her to face him. Then, holding both of her shoulders, he lightly shook her. "Chloe. Chloe!"

Staring at Lucca now, the devil's voice disappeared and she began to unfreeze. Now she was trying desperately to get away from him, away from his touch. Trying her best to fight him.

"Stop it!" Lucca commanded. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Why do you have it!" she screamed. "Why do you have the ring?" Ghost tears tried to fall down her face as she struggled against him, not wanting to believe he could have had something to do with what had happened to her.