Chapter 11
Eleven
LUKA
“ W hat time is it?” Amara asked.
I wasn’t sure how long our morning post-sex nap had lasted.
“I’m not sure. Early? Who the hell knows?” I wanted to pounce on her again. I felt giddy like I was seventeen. Like before I was trained to be Bratva. Before I taught men how to maim and kill. I was never going to get enough of her. I knew now it wasn’t possible.
She pushed forward. “I need to check my voicemails. I had messages last night I ignored. I have a legal meeting today. I can’t stay in bed. Barbara’s expecting me.” Her hair was a mess. She looked gorgeous. She hugged the sheet to her naked body.
“What kind of legal meetings?” I pried.
“It’s about a casino I’m building. I’ve run into legislative issues.”
The giddy feeling sank into a pit. Fuck. I wasn’t going to admit what I had done. It was business. I had to rebuild everything my father lost. I had to restore the fortune. Reclaim our name. We were New Orleans royalty. Everything I did for the organization was to protect the Novikov legacy. For now, that secret was safe. I was sorry that she wasn’t going to get what she wanted this time. I couldn’t let the Crescent Towers project happen. The land was too valuable. She had the Vieux Carre—that was enough.
It was a hard call I had made with Viktor.
“Let’s skip everything we planned. Order room service. Drive to the beach. Whatever we can do to ignore real life,” I suggested.
She laughed. “Funny. I run a multi-billion-dollar organization. I don’t have days off. Hand me my phone? If I don’t check in with Ciro in the next few minutes he will freak out and show up with a gun pointed at your face.”
“He always points a gun at my face. Starting to wonder if he has a poster of me in his room for target practice.”
She shrugged. “True. It’s his job.”
“Are you going to tell me why out of all the security options you kept that guy around?”
“I’m still alive.” Her stare was hard. “That should be enough for you to know. Ciro keeps me safe.”
“Fair enough.” I didn’t want to press her for answers I already knew. I wanted to admit Ciro wasn’t the only one who devoted himself to her safety, but the confession would create an irreversible domino effect. I would never destroy us again.
I strolled to the foyer table and walked back through the suite with her phone in my hand.
“We are going to have breakfast.” I eyed her, holding her phone just out of reach.
“I need my phone,” she requested with an edge to her voice.
“Breakfast?” I countered.
She sighed. “Yes, breakfast.” She smiled slyly.
I handed her the phone.
“Should I also call the desk and extend your stay?” she inquired.
“No need,” I answered. “If I didn’t make it clear last night this is where I’m staying until I buy a new place in New Orleans.”
Her green eyes sparked with interest or was it apprehension?
“Here? I thought you had the room only for the night.”
I looked around the room. “It has everything I need. Beautiful accommodations. Room for me to work. Room for me to play.” My palm skimmed along her shoulder.
She shivered, whimpering at the way my fingers pried the sheet from her breasts. I groaned, taking her in.
She turned her lips upward. “Will it always be like this?”
I made a lazy circle with my thumb around her nipple. “Yes.”
“Is it a good idea for you to live here, Luka?” I straddled her hips, my legs pressing on the outside of her thighs. I had her locked into place. There was nowhere for her to go. No way to move.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I dragged the sheet all the way to her navel.
Her lips parted with breathy pants as I strummed her tits. “Because we are walking a dangerous line.”
“I’m comfortable with danger. Are you?”
“The families will talk,” she whispered.
“Let them.”
She fell back on the pillow. I had her worked up. Flushed. Willing. Eager.
I shoved off the bed. “Make your calls.”
“Ugh,” she groaned, throwing a pillow in my direction. It hit the wall and fell to the carpet.
I chuckled, ducking into the bathroom while she checked in with her bodyguard. I brushed my teeth and started the shower.
I cracked the door. “Join me.”
She nodded. The phone was pressed to her ear. “Just a few more minutes,” she mouthed.
“I’ll start without you.” I winked, closing the door so the steam could collect inside.
I stepped inside the shower. The water felt good. So did the bath last night. We had talked for hours. Had tub sex. More sex. Talked again until we fell asleep.
I lathered the soap between my palms. I kept watching the door, waiting for Amara. I thought I heard the outside door slam. I turned off the water and grabbed a towel.
I stepped from the glass enclosure and wrapped the towel around my waist. “Amara, what’s taking so long?”
I opened the bathroom door. I stared at the bed. It was empty. I wandered to the kitchen. She wasn’t in the suite. I spotted the brass key on the table by the front door. Next to it was the necklace. I lifted it in the air. The diamonds sparkled around the pearl. Why had she left it? What the fuck was going on?
There was a note scribbled on the Vieux Carre stationery, pinned to the hotel latch on the door. What the hell had happened while I was in the shower? I yanked it off the lock.
I know it’s you. I know what you’ve done.
T hat was all it said. I clasped the pearl in my hand. Shit.
The water from the shower puddled at my feet. I closed my eyes. She wasn’t coming back to the suite. That note might as well have been a death threat. She was going to come after me with everything she had.
I had to be ready.
Only, I didn’t know which sin of mine she had uncovered. I had to prepare for her to unleash all the power she had against me.