CIAO!!
*Italian emojis with pasta*
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The next few days rolled by slow as molasses. After yet another week of harrowing online classes, TGIF had never felt this good.
With no new texts from Lucius, I'd been easier to push any memory of that kiss from my brain.
I anxiously awaited the grand reunion with me and my besties tonight. The girls felt terrible that I couldn't make it to Bora Bora and planned some silly tropical themed slumber party. Since I'd hardly exchanged two sentences with my father the entire week, I didn't think he'd mind me going out clubbing with them, either.
Since he'd left to drop Mia off at my aunts, that gave me time to grab a garment back I kept in our laundry room for my dress so it wouldn't get anything on it in my bag.
As I slipped on my robe over my pajamas, my phone chimed on my desk. I practically growled as I read the contact's name on my screen. And the text made me even more feral.
Lucifer: Miss me?
I shook my head at my phone. "Not at all, idiot."
Right as I clicked off my screen, my phone vibrated in my palm.
Lucifer: It was terrible for me too.
He was talking about the kiss in his car. I paced my carpeted bedroom a few times, chewing on my nail, before deciding to text him back.
Me: Little bit of a delayed reaction. Too many punches to the face in prison?
Lucifer: Never been to prison, but I'll take your assumption as a compliment. I like the idea that I intimidate you.
Me: Whatever inflates your ego.
Lucifer: Is this you and your grandmother in the photo by the stairs? Cute.
Frowning, I set my phone down, my head turning toward my bedroom door. Tightening my robe, I threw open my door and went out into the hallway, my heart picking up a notch. Lucius was standing at the bottom of the stairs, eating one of my banana muffins. I'd made them from scratch a few days ago and now he was munching on one of the last ones.
"Lucius, what are the fuck are you doing in my house? And that's my muffin!"
"Oops." As if concerned I'd take the muffin away, he polished off the rest in one bite, before sliding up the sleeve of his suit jacket and checking his watch. "Your father was supposed to meet me, but I got stuck in traffic and haven't been able to reach his cell. Any idea where he is?"
"You just missed him. He went out with Mia and our nanny, Gemma, but I don't know where they went or when they're coming back."
"Sounds like you're real close with your family," Lucius said sarcastically.
"No thanks to you." The truth was, my father and I hadn't been close for a while. Not since Mom left. But he didn't have to know that and I'd take any opportunity to make him feel guilty.
"Alright, well I guess I'll wait around for him. Get the grade back yet?"
"Why do you keep bringing my grade up? It's not like you actually give a shit."
Lucius' body language and the fact that he'd smuggled a banana muffin with his thieving hands told me he'd already made himself at home. "It's not that deep, Korinna."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Well, I got an A."
"Ah, bravo! Congratulations."
I would have thanked him, if I didn't loathe him and question his intentions every second of the day. Not to mention, if I had failed, it would have been his fault, and the reason why I'd hardly slept and studied harder than ever before was because of his constant interruptions.
"How did you even get in my house?" I demanded.
Lucius' sighed, his large hand gripped the intricate design at the bottom of the staircase railing as he leaned casually against it. "Security let me in through the gates. And the front door was open..." He looked over my robe, his hazel eyes eventually lingering on my feet. "I like the nail polish on your toes."
I realized I still had my toe separators on and quickly took them off, stuffing them into my robe pocket.
"Foot fetish?" I baited him.
"Nah. Why, do you want me to suck on your toes?" He had such a confident, smooth way of rolling with my jabs and deflecting them back at me. I loathed it.
"That's the last thing I want."
His eyebrow arched. "What's the first?"
"To never see your face again."
"Always so sweet to me." Lucius smirked and pointed at the photo on the wall next to the stairs. "This you?"
I slowly descended a few more stairs, daring to get closer to him as I gazed at the photo of me and my Nonna. "Unfortunately."
"I like the chubby cheeks," he decided. "Korinna, bambina."
If I didn't despise this guy, I would have smiled a little. My grandmother called me 'Korinna, bambina' in the same sing-song way that he had. I missed her a lot and looked forward to seeing her for Thanksgiving. She was leaving Italy next week to stay with us through Christmas.
Lucius' phone went off in his pocket, so he slid it out. As he read a text, his dark brown hair, which had a somewhat wet look to it from product and water and therefore looked black, fell a little bit over his forehead and into his eyes. This hairstyle style gave him a sleek and messy look that despite my stubbornness was stupid hot. I took in his atypical get-up of just a plain black dress shirt with a few buttons undone at the neck and black slacks.
I also noticed a few tattoos crawling up neck that I hadn't noticed before with his collar normally buttoned, and how his beard was shaped shorter, making his jawline look sharper.
Shit. Was he getting hotter or was I getting dumber?
Lucius picked his head up from his phone, his finger raking his hair off his forehead, and I quickly stopped gawping at him.
"You can wait in my dad's office," I said, scraping my dignity off the floor with an imaginary snow shovel. "I, um, have to get my laundry." Descending the rest of the stairs quickly, I went to brush past Lucius, but he blocked my way.
His bright hazel eyes scanned my face. "Plans tonight?"
It was none of his damn business. But since he had a history of spontaneously asking me to do things, I told him the truth to get him off my case. "I'm sleeping over my friend's."
"You're wearing a lot of makeup for just a sleepover."
He had a piece of gum in his mouth and the mint on his breath was distracting. So was that cocky expression on his face. It had bad news written all over it.
"What are you hiding underneath that robe, anyway?"
I shoved him to the side. "Get out of my way, stronzo."
I could hear his snickering from behind me as I cut through the kitchen toward the laundry room. "Does your father know, Korinna?"
The way he made his accent purr over my name made my stomach flutter.
"Know what?" I asked, still determined to walk walking away from him.
"That you're sneaking out like a bad girl."
The patronizing tone in his voice made my ears feel hot. "Hey, Lucifer?" I called over my shoulder before turning into the laundry room. "Mind your own damn business."
I went to slam the laundry door closed behind me and lock it, but he was closer behind me than I thought, and his foot shot out to jam the door. He easily shoved me off the door, strode inside, and shut it behind him, his temper visibly flaring by his lethal expression.
"Get the fuck out," I said.
"Two rules we're going to have?" He rolled back his shoulders and motioned between us, his temper flaring through his normally calm façade. I noticed there were cuts on his tanned knuckles. "You don't slam a fucking door in my face. And when I ask you where you're going, you don't lie to me. Understand?"
I opened my drier tub and started putting my clothes into a hamper to carry them to my room. "I don't have to tell you shit."
"Actually, you do," Lucius said, and I stiffened as I saw him step toward me in my peripheral. "You're going to be my fiancé. Or did you forget our little deal in the car?"
"Fuck your deal."
"Fuck my deal, huh?" He had a way to make everything sound sinful with his deep, slightly rough voice. "Are you saying you're not keeping your end of the bargain?"
I slammed the drier shut. "There was no bargain. It was just a kiss."
He leaned a hand on the washer machine and licked his lips. "Really."
"Yes, really," I mocked his deep voice.
"You felt nothing then?" Lucius' fingertips lazily dragged across the washer machine to the dryer as he strode closer. "No heat..." I watched his hand reach out, brushing the sleeve of my robe. "No sharp tingles?"
I flinched away from him. "Touch me again, and you'll be the one getting a sharp tingles, when my knee slams into your balls."
Lucius stepped into me, and I felt every inch of my body become aware of him. "Korinna, fiorellina innocente," he whispered. Korinna, you innocent flower. "You're all talk. As for our deal, you will shut that pretty mouth and play along. Or else a little kiss will be the least of your worries. Fidati, potrei trasformare la tua vita in un inferno vivente." Trust me, I could make your live a living hell.
I just stood there, fuming in my spot for a handful of raging seconds.
I stepped up to him, and his head tilted down to look at me. "Ci vuolo un piccolo uomo per fare minacce a una donna," I seethed. It takes a small man to make threats to a woman.
"Tu non sei una donna normale," Lucius hissed back into my face. You are no ordinary woman. "Sei un diavolo, proprio come me." You're a devil, just like me.
His words landed like led in my stomach, my body shaking with an emotion I didn't quite understand.
"O sei il mio angelo travestitio?" Lucius asked in a whisper, his left hand lifting to grasp my chin, his thumb brushing my bottom lip. Or are you my angel in disguise?"
I stepped away from him, but the grin curving his mouth alone was like a sin onto me. The washer machine chimed, letting me know the load was done. Lucius stepped back and motioned for me to continue my laundry. And with bated breath, I took Mia's clothes out of the washer machine and stuck them into the dryer with a dryer sheet.
"What club are you going to tonight?" Lucius asked.
"Club None Ya Business," I said, setting the dryer to a normal setting. 'Don't bother inserting yourself into my night, I'll be busy with someone else."
Now I had his full attention, his brow cocking in disbelief. "You have a date?"
"Not yet. But I'll be looking for one."
"Ah, the hunt for a gentleman without a beard."
A small laugh escaped me. "Jealous?"
"Not at all." He came up to stand behind me, the heat of his body soaking into my robe and making me sweat a little. "Fuck around all you want tonight with your friends. But once you're my fiancé and my wife, you will do that shit in private. I won't have you be the reason I lose my chance at my father's empire."
"You're putting a lot of faith into my compliance."
"You're a smart woman, I believe you wouldn't do anything stupid. But nonetheless, I also offered an exchange for you cooperation. Did I not?"
I spun on him, his tall frame looming over me. "You think an exchange will make what you're doing to me any better? You're forcing me into a marriage against my will."
"It's a fake marriage, bella. I'm not looking for you to be miserable with me the next handful of months. I'm not a complete fucking monster."
"Is that what you keep telling yourself?" I asked him, getting real close to his face. "That you're trying to make this a fair exchange for me? You just want to shut me up with money so you can use me. For more ways than one, I imagine."
"I don't need you for more than one way. But if that's what's on your mind..."
I put my hand firmly on his chest, keeping him at an arm's length. "How quickly you moved from blackmailing me to appeasing my emotions. It's so predictably manipulative, you psychopath."
He glared down at my hand still on his chest, so I let my hand fall to my side. I could tell I was making him angry, his fingers lightly rapping on the counter, but his hazel eyes were steady and composed as they connected with mine.
"What's next off the checklist?" I asked. "Go on, surprise me. Are you going to try and fuck me? Keep all your old habits strong that your father has shamed you for?"
"Be very careful with your next words, Korinna." The way Lucius' eyes raged made me feel on edge of how his anger would boil over. "The first time you worked that filthy mouth on me, you ended up in an arranged marriage."
"Is your ego so big that you can't see you have nothing I want––"
His mouth crashed down onto mine, and I instantly lost any fight. The hunger in his kisses made my head spin, his fingers slipped through my hair tie and undid my bun as he walked me back. He lifted me easily at the waist and placed me onto our laundry counter, yanking my thighs close so they were snug around his hips. A small moan escaped me as I felt the hardness of him against his slacks, his hand roughly gripped the back of my head, his tongue savagely playing with mine.
The making out went on for much longer than I was proud of, and I was so dizzy with arousal that I didn't care.
Suddenly he pulled back, his full lips slightly pink and puffy, the collar of his dress shirt wrinkled from my nails. He looked me deep in the eyes, the promises of what he would do to me lingering in their wicked hazel depths, as his deft fingers quickly working the knot at my robe. He parted the fabric with an aggression that shamefully excited me.
When his hands slid into my robe around my waist, he seemed to freeze as he felt the silken fabric of my pajamas. He parted my robe with a snap of cotton and looked down at the pajama set Bianca had given me as a present. The same ones I'd worn the night we met.
I watched Lucius contemplate his next actions with a dark, greedy expression. His eyes were devious as they lifted to mine, his large hands slowly sliding up my outer thighs.
And then he stopped.
His hands fell away from my hips. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand like I disgusted him, his feet retreating a few leisure steps back before he meandered toward the door. Leaving me with the bitter, shameful awareness that I'd just made out with Lucius La Notte...again.
"Don't have anything you want," Lucius repeated my words, turning his head over his shoulder to look at me. The little smirk curving his mouth was like an evil victory. "At this rate, I'll be fucking your tight little figa whenever I please."
His harsh words snapped me from a spell. The shame of kissing him and his intentions making me so enraged that I couldn't barely keep it together.
I reached into my hamper and threw a towel at him. "You disgusting pig," I snarled out.
"Is that any way to talk to your future fiancé, dearest?" Lucius continued use of "dearest" got right under my skin, and I struggled not to cross the space between us and wipe that smug expression off his face. "Look at it this way. Holding a gun to my face could cost your family a lot more than a fake marriage. If my father ever finds out what you did, and how your father tried to cover it up with a wedding, it might cost your father's mafia another war. One we both know your father cannot afford."
My voice dripped with venom. "Threatening me again, Lucius?"
"Consider it free advice, bella," Lucius said with a wink. "You have fun tonight with your little friends. I'll be in touch."
Lucius threw open the laundry door and slammed it behind him, rattling me in more ways than one. This man was Trouble with a capital T, and I hardly knew anything about him yet, which made my future that much more concerning.
***
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