The Devil I Crave (Devil's Knights 2)

“I won’t stop until I have eliminated the threat.” He tapped his fingers on my leg to the beat of the song on the radio. “The Knights are working around the clock to ensure your safety. We won’t let anyone hurt you, Drea. I promise.”

“I know you will protect me, but I’m still scared.”

“It’s okay, baby.” He smoothed a hand over my thigh. “We will get through this together. You have the Knights at your disposal, which means you have an army of men willing to die for you.”

“I don’t want anyone to die for me.”

“Knights defend their Queen at all costs. It’s one of our most sacred laws.”

“Luca, you’re not dying for me. I can’t lose you.”

He gave me one of his sly grins that made my heart race. “You saying you’d miss me, baby?”

I licked my lips, my focus on his delicious mouth I wanted to kiss. “Of course I would.”

“We’re at war,” he said with zero emotion. “Anything can happen to me. I accepted my fate a long time ago. If I have to die protecting you, I will. You are all I care about, Drea.”

I could hardly catch my breath as I said, “Luca, please be careful. After what we just went through with Marcello, it would break me. You think I’m crazy now. There wouldn’t be a single trace of me left if you died fighting for me.”

He patted my hand on his thigh before he switched gears. “I know, baby. And I’m sorry about what I said after the shooting. I was jealous about you and Marcello, and I shouldn’t have acted that way.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

“I was angry about Marcello almost dying,” he continued. “I wanted to kill those fuckers for waltzing onto my estate and trying to steal you away. I should have seen them coming. I’m always ten steps ahead of my opponents.”

“You’re human, Luca.”

He shook his head. “No, don’t make excuses for me. I failed you and the Knights.”

“Your quick thinking got me away from those psychos,” I pointed out.

“They climbed right up your balcony, past the guards. It never even occurred to me to have a guard on your balcony. I should have thought of that. My life doesn’t matter without yours.”

“Luca,” I groaned. “Don’t say things like that.”

“It’s true.” He grabbed my hand and pressed a soft kiss to my skin. “If you die, I’m going with you, baby.”

“No one is dying,” I said with tears in my eyes. “Stop talking about death. It’s making my stomach hurt.”

“Before you lost your memories, you were close to the Knights.”

“I remember what happened that night,” I confessed.

“You wanted to know what Legare would be like,” he told me with a severity to his tone. “I wanted to make you happy.”

“Yeah, I got that much from the flashbacks.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder and sighed. “I hate forgetting shit. Fill in the gaps for me.”

“If anything happens to me, you will marry Marcello. I have always known that. So has Marcello. You belong to the Knights as much as me. I knew I had to let go.”

I sank into the leather seat and stared out the window, taking in the scenery as we blew past the other cars at ninety miles per hour. “I feel like we’re finally getting somewhere, Luca.”

He stared at me out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah?”

“I need honesty from you. If I’m ever going to be your person, we can’t have secrets.”

“You are my person,” he said in that deep, sexy voice that rolled over me in waves. “One day, you will be my wife, the mother of my children, my queen.”

“We should talk about my mom and what she did to yours. You haven’t spoken about it since my grandfather told me the truth.”

Luca shook his head. “No, that’s in the past.”

“Not for me,” I challenged.

He floored the gas and drove onto the property. “I stopped blaming you for your mother’s actions a long time ago.”

“But I feel horrible about what she did. If you had told me, I would have understood why you were so cruel.”

“I tried to hate you.” He parked in front of the massive garage that housed a fleet of cars. “You made it so hard for me. But don’t worry, baby. Your mother will get what’s coming to her,” he promised with a sinister expression on his face.

Luca slid out of the car and opened my door. Without another word, he ushered me into the house with his hand on my back. Marcello joined us a few seconds later.

My handsome Devil’s eyes raked over my face, and my heart crashed into my chest. After our heart to heart, I hoped for more intimacy from Luca. But as usual, he did the opposite of what I expected.

“Take her upstairs,” Luca said to Marcello before he took off down the hallway. “Don’t let her out of her room.”