Chapter 18
Eighteen
AMARA
H ow many times was I going to do this? How many times could I handle it? Was I going to be able to keep the plan together? The house rattled the same way my nerves did—from one corner to the other. It wasn’t the thunder. It was Luka. His eyes. The heat radiating off his body. His lips. The candles bounced our silhouettes around the room. There was darkness. Darkness in his gaze. In the air. Danger invaded everything we did. How did I forget the threat he posed? The threat of letting him walk out again. The threat that the world we knew could be washed away tonight.
Could I shut the gate in my mind between what I had to do to save my organization and the part of me that was drawn to him? Was that gate reinforced with enough steel to keep the division intact? I knew the games he played. I thought I knew them well enough to write the script for this night. So, why was I struggling with my emotions now? I had a plan in place, and it was faltering quickly. Twenty minutes ago, I was certain.
But Luka moved around my body with familiarity that no other man had. He brushed the hair from my shoulder, and I doubted just how detached I could become from the way my skin fired when he touched me.
It only took one hint. One suggestion. The slightest offer of my lips and Luka’s mouth crushed mine. His eyes had betrayed every intention he had before it happened. The impact would shatter me, but the way Luka kissed always surprised me. He kissed me like he had always loved me. As if he was trying to know me now, under layers of sadness, pain, and power. His kisses consumed me. Fed off our energy. Depleted me of resistance.
I didn’t want to feel anything. I didn’t want to accept I had lied to myself about what kind of self-control I had tonight.
I wrestled against his strong frame, but once his arms encircled me, I yielded to the firmness of his lips. The flick of his tongue. The tug of his teeth raking across my lower lip. I ran my fingers through his hair, still damp from the rain.
He moved from my mouth to my neck, kissing my throat, running his tongue over my skin.
“Luka,” I whispered.
“Hmm?” The lightning flashed. I flinched, pressing my body closer to his. “It’s okay,” he assured me. “I’ve got you.”
Our eyes met and I attempted to figure out which stage of the game this was for him. He was doing the same thing, searching my eyes, trying to read my thoughts. Who had the upper hand? Who had the power?
I shoved hard against the planes of his chest. I backed away, creating some space.
“We haven’t talked about the reason you’re here.” I turned from him to catch my breath and take another sip of vodka. I knew I didn’t have long before the storm consumed our every move. It would control our rhythm. Define our movements. We would crash as the storm did. Roll with the waves in the ocean. Fire with the lightning. Drown with the rain.
We had to talk. I had to find out what Enzo was doing having lunch with him. And why involve Katya?
“The queen summoned me, and here I am,” he taunted.
“If only it had been that easy five years ago.” I didn’t hide how angry I was.
“I’m not the one who walked out of the Vieux Carre.” His voice was suddenly icy, the words clipped. I was amazed at how quickly the heat rescinded. This was good. I needed ice and wind. I wanted to be washed over by the chill of his resentment. I needed the sharper side of Luka to remind me how vicious he could be.
“Just how did you think I would react when I found out what you had done?” I wanted the truth.
“We’re really going to talk about this? The Pac?”
“Yes.” I put a hand on my hip. “You aren’t leaving in the storm. There’s no power. What else are we supposed to do?”
His eyes traveled to the bed.
“Oh no. I’m not sleeping with you. Is that what you thought?”
He chuckled. “Isn’t that our go-to? My good girl.”
My entire body tingled. “Not anymore.”
He exhaled, lowering himself on the edge of the bed. I would have preferred if he had used the small sitting area at the end of the room. It was easier not to picture him tangled in my sheets.
“All right. Amara. You want to know about the PAC.”
“I do.” I leaned against the chaise, afraid that if I stepped any closer to him the new drop in temperature would be disrupted. “I deserve the truth. Especially from the man who swore he had waited five years to be back in my life. The man who had claimed me so many times the other night, I’d lost count.
A shutter slammed against the window. It had come loose in the storm. I hopped upright.
“Want to sit next to me?” he offered. The sexy smirk on his face should have been illegal.
“I’m fine. I’m not worried about the storm.” I pressed my lips together. “You were getting ready to tell me why you stabbed me in the back.”
Luka rubbed the side of his jaw. “Words like that hurt, you know?”
“Do they?” I eyed him.
“Shit, Amara. What happened to business and pleasure staying separate?”
I glared at him over my cocktail glass. “Business is one thing. Destroying my organization is something entirely different. Blocking the Crescent Towers deal will do exactly that. I know you’re angry about the loan your father took from me. But that’s between you and your family. He made that decision. He came to me. It wasn’t the other way around.”
“The payments are outrageous,” he argued.
“See? It goes back to the same thing. You’re angry that he made a bad business deal and I’m the one who bailed him out. Your ego can’t take it. This is how my Capos operate. This is how business is run on loans and interests. Rent. Shipping costs. I am profitable,” I hissed.
“Who said anything about my ego?” He stood tall. I had to stop the way my body responded to his athletic frame. It seemed as if every muscle in his arms rippled when he took a step toward me. I had nowhere to go, pinned against the chaise. I stood my ground, jutting my chin forward. I dared him to try to kiss me again.
I huffed. “Believe me. As the only woman on top in this town, I’ve dealt with plenty of male egos. Yours isn’t new.”
“You know nothing else about me? You’re going to paint me as any other Bratva family? Really?” He stopped inches from me. Close enough I could smell the cologne on his skin. Damn it. He smelled incredible. “I’m the Pakhan. When I left New Orleans I was just the Sovietnik. You remember that?”
“Why can’t you separate business from us? It seems messy for you. Why is that hard for you?” I wondered how mean I could be. How far I could tear him down. How far I could push him from me.
“Because it should be the same thing.” His hand curved against my cheek. My eyes never left his. “We should be on the same side for once. Not fighting. Not carrying on the fucked-up legacies our fathers left behind. Weren’t we supposed to be different? Weren’t we going to change everything? Couldn’t we still?”
The rain pelted the window while the broken shutter clattered against the house. The sound distracted me. My head jerked to the side. Luka slid into place, his hand snaking around my waist.
“You haven’t told me why you did it.” I stared at him, wanting this to be different so badly it hurt between my ribs. My head hurt. My body ached. He had wounded me over and over. I couldn’t believe him now, no matter what he said.
“For the tech,” he answered. “It’s all I have. The only way to rebuild the Novikov empire. It wasn’t about you. It was for me. For my family. For my name. I had to have a way to make something out of what my father destroyed. You are just the collateral damage, love.”
I blinked. “What?”
“My father invested in a small tech firm before he died. It was unorthodox for him. He never did shit like that. I started looking into it with Viktor. Do you have any idea what this tech does?”
I shook my head. It was something I’d been trying to find out. “No.” Was he going to tell me? Enzo had come up empty for days.
His thumb stroked the side of my cheek. I tried to ignore it. Cut myself off from the spark it ignited in my blood.
“It’s going to sound crazy. I thought my father had lost his damn mind, but I did the research. I had Viktor do even more. It’s a radar device used on shipwrecks.”
“Shipwrecks?” What the hell was he talking about?
“I know. Crazy, right? But, oceanographers use the developmental tech for studying reefs. Anyway, there are hundreds of sunken ships in the Gulf. Whoever uses the tech to identify what’s on the ships owes a percentage of the findings’ profit to me.”
I blinked. “Are you saying you’re in the treasure hunting business?” It sounded absurd. Like something out of an adventure book. It didn’t seem like something Luka would invest in. Why did he stand so close to me? Why was he touching me? His breath seemed even, while my pulse was erratic.
“You have a way of sounding like a non-believer.”
“Excuse my skepticism.” I raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, I’m not the one out there on dives. I just fund the production. I sign contracts and take in a hefty profit if they find anything, whether it goes to a museum or a private collection. You want to call me a treasure hunter. I’ll take that.”
I twisted my lips together. “Why did your tech investment have to block the Crescent Towers? Why take out the senators I need for my gambling license?”
“Honestly?”
“Yes. That’s what I’m looking for. An honest answer, to a dirty deal.”
He sighed. “I found out too late about where those guys were on votes. It was unrelated. But it came down to what votes I needed, versus what you needed. I needed the bill to pass that said tech had a right to discovery. It was the only way to secure the investment.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing I would have made the same decision. I would have done anything to pass my own bill, damn anyone who got in my way. Was that the truth? Could I believe him?
“Did I answer all your questions?” he asked.
Did it even matter?
“For now,” I responded.
“Good.” His eyes lit the way the lightning canvassed the room. “I’m done with business for the night.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t say I was.”
“Too bad.” He grabbed the empty glass from my hand and tossed it on the floor. “I think there are better ways to spend a tropical depression.”
I moaned the instant our lips met. I wrapped my fingers around his neck as his tongue found mine, tangling and flicking more possessively than before. I leaned against his body, knowing it by heart. I tried to forget it, but it was impossible not to remember how we aligned. How I fit against him. With him.
He kissed me harder and longer. I lost my breath.
His hands threaded through mine, drawing them from his shoulders. He maneuvered me to the bed. The plan was going off the rails. It probably had the instant Ciro showed him into my apartment.