Relentless (Starcrossed Lovers Trilogy 3)

His thumb brushed my cheek as he stepped up close, and my body was alive with the scent of him, the touch of him, the heat of him. “That wouldn’t matter,” I whispered. “Saying my holy goodbyes, I’d still be happy that I’d spent the last of them with you. With you inside me. Loving me.”

That’s when the beautiful monster surprised me more than ever. “It’s not just your body I want to be inside. I want to be inside your mind, your hopes, your fears. Your quirks and your laughter. Your whole fucking soul.”

It slammed me, right in my heart. I felt like a little girl again, begging our lord above that I’d be good enough for someone to really love me one day.

Maybe, finally, our lord had answered me.

We were kissing when his cell started up again.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he cursed, finally pulling away far enough to take hold of the phone. When he saw the name on screen, he stiffened, visibly shocked.

“Is it okay?” I asked him. “Is it something bad? Are they really coming for us? Now?”

“Sure fucking looks like it,” he said, and swiped to accept the call.

2

Lucian

My father never called me. Not unless it was something serious.

I knew when I took the call that things weren’t looking good for me or Elaine. Not in the slightest. The days were counting down to hours, to minutes. All of them leading to our doom.

“Good morning,” I said, knowing full well that it would be anything but a good morning where my Morelli world was concerned.

“You need to get yourself the fuck in here,” he told me, and his voice was laced with the simmering rage I’d come to recognize in him so well. “I mean it, Lucian, get your ass in here, right fucking now.”

It was sinister. His ocean of assistants usually ordered and instructed everything on his behalf. For him to reach out in person told me more than words could ever say.

“Yes. Okay. I’m on my way,” I replied, and my guts were twisting as I ended the call.

“What is it?” Elaine asked, and her beautiful eyes were open wide.

Even in that moment of horror I couldn’t stop the flood of adoration I felt for the stunning creature before me.

Her blonde curls were messy in the most gorgeous of ways, framing her perfect face like a halo. She was a goddess. The most divine angel in creation.

I’ve never been a man to share anything with anyone. I never talked about any of my business, any of my personal associations, any of my actions, but with her it flowed naturally.

“That was my father. I have to go into Holdings. Now.”

Her fingers were jittery as they twiddled in front of her.

“It’ll be okay, won’t it? He wants to talk about work, right?”

“No,” I said honestly. “I want you to lock the front door when I’ve gone, and if I’m not back by dusk, I want you to head back into the city and do whatever it takes to stay safe.”

Her mouth dropped open, scared. “Then don’t go,” she whispered. “Please, Lucian, just don’t go. We could run now. We could run…”

I took her hands in mine. “We wouldn’t get very far, sweetheart. Not like this. We don’t have the network in place to get out of here without getting caught. If people are talking about us. If people know anything about us, then we are absolutely fucked.”

“Please…” she started, but I squeezed her fingers.

“We pray, Elaine. We pray that the tentacles are just twitching out there, and nobody has any concrete truth. I’ll do what I can to divert the attention. That’s the only reason I’m going in right now. The only reason I’d leave you alone for even a minute.”

She didn’t argue because there would be no point and she knew it.

My mind was already set.

I headed right on upstairs and jumped in the shower, nothing but a few minutes of hot steam to set me up for the day before I toweled myself down and got myself suited up and ready.

Elaine’s eyes were fixed on me every move I made.

“Surely your father can’t know all that much?” she asked as we headed back downstairs. “I mean, there’s so much that my family needs to work through with the Power Brothers before anyone asks any other questions.”

“I hope it’s only the beginnings of whispers,” I told her. “I’ll do everything I can to divert the smoke from the fire, but the fire is there, Elaine, and it’s burning bright.”

She wrapped her arms around me like a blanket before I walked out of the front door, pressing so tight to me that I could feel her thumping heart.

“I’m serious,” I whispered, right in her ear. “If I’m not back here by dusk, you head back into the city. You stay the fuck alive. Promise.”