Chapter 18
Emma
L uke didn’t stall any further. He showered and got dressed, and I mostly kept my back turned to give him privacy. In the span of hours, so much was changing between us. I met his mom, I saw his dick. Those two events were important once in any “normal” relationship, but that was the one thing I couldn’t have with him.
Set out with Krista to have fun and lose my virginity if I could. Luke fit the bill on the latter. Every time we kissed, I felt that much closer to ripping off my clothes and spreading my legs wide. This man could push me so thrillingly near an orgasm that I struggled to keep up. Hell, a mere look from him got my heart racing and my stomach tightening with a deep, inner ache of need.
Even now, in the car again as he drove to the address I put into the navigation, his presence overwhelmed me. The heat from his body, the smell of soap on his skin, the dampness of his thick black hair that I wanted to run my fingers through. Every bit of him called to me.
From the moment we met, I wanted him. With the little samples he dared to give me, he slowly hooked me to follow him and wish for more.
We were playing with fire, tiptoeing to each other in this tense dance of desire and longing.
But it couldn’t end where I wanted it to.
With...love.
“Whose house is she at?”
I blinked, tearing my gaze from the passenger window. Since we left the fighting location, I’d been quiet.
“Krista?”
“Yes.” He rolled his eyes. “Unless the plans have changed and you have another friend who needs to be picked up?”
I huffed. “I don’t have any friends.”
“They can be overrated.”
I raised my brows. “My, aren’t you the charmer.”
“I never set out to charm anyone.” At a light, he faced me and gave me another one of those heated once-overs. Like maybe he was aware of charming me while not intending to.
“She’s at the house of a friend. A friend of a friend.”
“That’s not vague,” he replied sarcastically.
It most definitely was vague. I had to keep all my answers vague to the many questions he peppered me with as we drove. He wasn’t prying for personal information, but giving him better replies about the what, where, why, how, and when about Krista being passed out in a place I didn’t feel safe enough to go to myself would reveal personal information about me.
I didn’t want to tell him that I was a mafia girl. The second he knew who I belonged to, that I was a mafia princess more or less engaged to another, his view of me would be changed. He wouldn’t fight smiles at me or give me those hot looks. If he was smart, he’d throw his hands up in surrender and walk away. No one wanted to interfere with mafia drama. He said I was trouble, and well, I was big trouble, expected to be owned by a prominent man in a rival family.
It was greedy of me. I was selfish. But I couldn’t stop this with Luke. Every minute until the end of the summer counted, and since I never anticipated meeting Luke or letting him matter, I wanted to cling to all the chances that remained with him.
Sooner or later, I would have to give him up and leave the Tropican, and the very thought of that cracked my heart.
“Here?” he asked several minutes later when he parked near the party house quite a few men in all the mafia families met up at. It was more like a neutral meeting place on common ground. A retired movie star owned the place, so it wasn’t like we were walking onto another family’s territory, where rules would be expected to be followed.
I nodded. “Yeah. Here.” This was where that short video had been sent from, and I was confident I wasn’t being duped. No, I was. Having that video taken of Krista was a ploy. The Marcheses were in there. Antonio might be as well instead of letting his men handle all of the tricks of getting me to come.
I doubted that they would have moved Krista from here to another place to make it that much harder for me to locate her though. Almost as if they knew I’d come running for my best friend.
I bet they might not have counted on me bringing backup.
“Just...” I glanced at Luke staring at the house. Music traveled all the way to the street, the bass a faint hum where it’d be throbbing vibrations the nearer we came to the house. Shouts, laughter, and the general chorus of people partying hard reached us.
“Just stick with me.”
“That was the whole point, wasn’t it?” he growled, looking at me. I noticed the skepticism in his eyes and I hated that I could erase it. “Who do you have connections with here?”
The mafia. “Other people.”
He groaned, getting out of the car.
This house was notorious for its guests. If I stalled any longer, he could piece the clues together.
Just get in there, find her, and get out. Antonio didn’t own me yet. And if he tried to keep me here longer than I wanted to, Luke would help me get out.
He walked alongside me, scoping the place out. While he wasn’t obvious and checking his surroundings, I could tell what he was doing. And I appreciated it.
Marchese men noticed me at the entrance. They catcalled and tried to talk to me, but I refused to entertain them. I kept my head held high and strode inside, making sure Luke remained with me. In here, it was much louder. As soon as we set foot over the threshold, a couple of topless servers thrust drinks at us, somehow balancing trays while they tottered in tall heels and their gargantuan fake boobs threatened to topple the other glasses standing in the silver slabs they toted drinks around.
We both declined. Liquid courage might have helped. It would’ve infused me with a bravery I didn’t feel, but I didn’t want to compromise being level-headed and clear-minded.
Luke noticed. My tough shell was slipping. If he was noticing me and furrowing his brow in concern at my expressions, I was doing a shitty job of looking cool and collected. That practiced mask I had was falling too quickly. I had to be icy and aloof, but all I felt in here was dread, such a thick dose of it curdling in my stomach that this was a big mistake.
Find her, get her out, and go.
Repeating my mantra helped. I looked around the main rooms, trying to figure out which hallway out of here would lead to a room that Krista could be kept it. In the video, it looked like a guest bedroom, but this place had so many.
Where to start? How to start?
“Hey.” Luke stepped closer to me, ever observant. He comforted me in my moment of panic. “We’ll find her.”
I nodded, but the moment he moved his hand closer to mine to hold it, I shied away from his touch.
I didn’t need to borrow trouble like that. Antonio’s men were watching. I’d already done wrong in showing up here with another man, but if I tried to make it look platonic, maybe Luke would be spared. Maybe he’d be safe. After all, nothing bad happened to him after he beat that Marchese fighter in the alley, defending me. The fact that no one had looked for him set me on edge. It made it more of a waiting game, like they were keeping a close eye on him to determine what significance he had in my life, to determine if he was an obstacle they’d need to remove.
“Emma?” He reached for me again, gripping my hand as we walked further into the crowd dancing and drinking without a care in the world.
The first touch of his hot hand on mine shot tingles traveling up my arm. He grounded me. He was already a recognizable source of security and comfort. But I couldn’t lean on them now. I shook my hand free, hating having to do so. Catching the watchful eye of a couple of the Marchese guards proved that it was already too late. They were already following my every move.
“Maybe we can split up.”
He scowled, not liking that idea. “I thought you wanted me to come here in case anyone gave you trouble.”
I nodded. “Right. But there’s two of us. If we are both looking, we’ll find her faster.” I had to shout to be heard over the DJ talking and changing into an even louder song, but I didn’t want to scream my plan. “There are so many rooms to look through.”
His scowl remained in place.
“I want to get out of here as quickly as possible,” I told him.
“Hurry,” he replied, looking around. “I’ll check through here.” Before we split, he reached into my back pocket and plucked my phone out. “Unlock it.”
I did, and once the screen was accessible, he put his phone number in. “I don’t like this idea.”
“But you won’t try to tell me what to do, right?”
This wasn’t a time to wage a battle about who could be right and who had authority over whom. He respected that, letting me call the shots. Narrowing his eyes, he seemed to hold back on another line of argument, but he kept his sexy mouth shut.
“I’ll meet you back out here in ten minutes. Got it?”
I nodded, ignoring the warnings in my head that he was right. We shouldn’t split up. I asked him to be here with me for a reason, but it’d take us twice as long to search for Krista.
“Ten minutes,” I agreed.
I turned away, checking in rooms and finding most of them preoccupied with others getting it on. Orgies awaited at every turn, and I began to give up hope.
When I opened the last door at the end of a hallway, I knew all hope was lost.
The only person in this room was Antonio. Standing near a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
Fuck! Before I could back out he turned.
No guards had been stationed at his door. I’d been avoiding the rooms with protection posted outside them, so I counted on this one being either empty or hosting another fuckfest.
“Ah.”
He grinned, cocking his head to the side.
Now guards arrived. Perhaps they’d been following me through the house as I searched, only closing in after me once I reached this room.
“There you are,” he drawled, slurring those few words. That would be my ticket out of here. If he was drunk or high, he wouldn’t be as fast to literally capture me and hold me close.
“I’ve been missing you, bride .”
I held my breath and froze as he walked toward me.