He helped me back into my dress with gentle hands, and I knew full well I was marked all over by his brutality. I was buzzing from it so brightly that it felt like a crime to cover it back up with the fabric.
The crowd had already began dispersing when we climbed down from the stage and made our way back over to the bar. I must have been glowing like a beacon, flinching as I sat down on a stool next to the woman who’d introduced herself as Raven.
She laughed at me, a lovely genuine giggle that was almost like a cackle.
“Told you it won’t be your last time here,” she said, and I laughed along with her.
She was damn right on that.
We were in there a long, long time, chatting away quite happily to Raven, and her girlfriend, and James and Cat. They were amazing, treating us like any other clubgoer and not as people in the media glare all over the world. I loved it. All of it.
It was almost morning when we finally got into a cab, all set to head back to Quentin Manor and a nice, warm bed. Lucian was only glancing at his cell when he pulled a face. I was close enough to see the twenty-five missed calls, all with the same number.
A number from over in the US.
Lucian recognized it though. I could see it from his scowl.
He didn’t even get a chance to talk about it before his cell started up all over again. It was still on silent from the club, but the screen was flashing, showing it was still that same number.
He answered with a “what?” and I heard the voice at the other end, my head still on Lucian’s shoulder, close enough to hear.
The voice was seething. Nasty.
“You’ve gone way too fucking far this time, son. It’s time to say goodbye.”
Lucian was right back at him, his tone nasty to match.
“Don’t start a war,” he said. “It won’t be a pretty one.”
And then he hung up the call.
28
Lucian
I’d known the war was coming, and I knew my family would be out for the attack, just as Elaine’s would be. Still, it didn’t stop the shiver up my spine as I realized afresh what would be headed our way. At least one attempt on our lives.
I’d been busy in the background, preparing security. I was ready to fight right back, standing up for our place in the world, over here, on UK soil.
We could do this. I could do this.
Elaine looked scared as I turned in the back seat to face her. She was biting her lip, terrified.
“They are going to come after us, aren’t they?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “They are, but they aren’t going to win, sweetheart. I can promise you that. This is our world now. Ours.”
She nodded, even if there was still that bubble of fear in her below the surface. Fuck, how I wanted her. I wanted to be her blanket of protection and her lord of hope, with every single step we could take.
The cab driver barely said a word as we pulled up back at Quentin Manor. Elaine winced as I helped her out of the back seat, tenderness taking hold of her. Fuck, I’d hit her nice and hard.
I paid the driver and he sped away, leaving us to ascend the manor steps as the sky showed the first taste of dawn all around us. Hell, it was a late one.
Yet again, Elaine acknowledged my thoughts, matching just right with hers.
“Wow, it’s late. I’m so tired.”
I smirked as I opened the main door for her.
“Yes, baby. It’s very late and you must be very tired.”
She was grinning an innocent grin as we began to climb the stairs up to our wing.
“You going to snuggle me tight in bed, then?” she asked.
“Get your sweet ass up there and find out,” I pushed, and she did. She sashayed that sweet ass up there with a spring in her step despite her body undoubtedly aching from my blows.
We showered together, slowly. I soaped her nice and gently, but she was still flinching as she smiled. Her skin was a masterpiece, already darkening, brewing with bruises. She was delicious, but now wasn’t the time to feast on her.
We did snuggle up in bed together and she fell asleep in a few short minutes of me stroking her hair. It took me a lot longer to close my eyes, staring at the light of the morning glowing through the drapes.
My mind was full of the plans I’d made. The purchases I’d made. The declarations I was ready to make.
My father could lash out from overseas if he was stupid enough to think I was unprepared for that. Elaine’s family would be brewing on their own ideas to the same tune, but they could get fucked too. We had too much of a network of power over here already, and that was growing every minute.