Chapter 2 Is He Your Boyfriend? #2
“Who is Shane? Why is he at your house? And why is there a list of his favorite dishes on your fridge?” His expression darkened. “Is he your boyfriend?”
The question carried more tension this time.
Lucius kept his eyes on her, his jaw tightening as he waited for an answer.
Stella let out a frustrated breath.
“None of your business.”
She bent down and grabbed one of his shirts from the floor.
Without bothering to button it, she pulled it over her shoulders and let the fabric fall loosely around her body.
Then she gathered her own clothes from the floor, clutching them in her hands as she turned toward the bathroom across the room.
Lucius’s expression hardened when she continued to ignore him.
Stella turned and began walking away, but his voice stopped her.
“I know that three months after our breakup, you married someone else.”
Her steps faltered.
For a brief moment, something flickered across her eyes before anger quickly replaced it. She turned around, her face going cold as she carefully guarded whatever emotion threatened to surface.
“Last night was a mistake,” she said. “It will never happen again. I was drunk, and I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
Lucius said nothing. He simply stared at her, his gaze fixed on her face.
“I want you to honor your rule,” she continued, her voice steady despite the tension in her expression. “Don’t ever contact me again. Forget that this night ever happened.”
She turned away before he could respond and walked into the bathroom.
The door slammed shut behind her.
Lucius’s jaw tightened as he stared at the closed door. The anger on his face was clear, but he kept it carefully contained, refusing to let Stella see how deeply her words had affected him.
Then something caught the light on the bed.
His gaze shifted.
He reached down and picked it up.
A necklace lay across his palm.
The moment he recognized it, memories came rushing back.
Stella had bought it on their first anniversary.
He still remembered the way she had stormed into his office without bothering to ask whether he was busy. She had marched straight toward his desk, thrust the small box into his hands, and smiled at him.
Lucius had stared at her in confusion.
Then she had pretended to be surprised.
“Oh, thank you,” she had said, as though he had just given her the gift himself. “Our first anniversary gift.”
He had been completely caught off guard.
But her ridiculous little act had amused him. There had been something so loving and spontaneous about her that a smile had immediately tugged at his lips.
Before he could say anything, Stella had happily asked him to put the necklace on her.
He still remembered lifting her onto the edge of his desk and stepping between her knees as he fastened the delicate chain around her neck.
It had suited her perfectly.
She had looked exactly as beautiful as he had imagined she would.
Lucius’s eyes darkened as the memory faded.
His fingers tightened around the necklace, and a dull ache settled in his chest.
After a moment, he climbed out of bed and reached for his trousers lying on the floor. He pulled them on just as the bathroom door opened.
Stella stepped out.
Her eyes immediately landed on the necklace in his hand.
She hurried toward him and reached for it, but Lucius lifted it out of her grasp before she could take it.
His other hand closed around her waist.
He stepped forward, forcing her backward until her shoulders met the wall. Then his lowered his head, his towering frame closing the space between them.
At six-foot-five, he made her feel impossibly small, even though Stella was far from short. There was something unsettling about the way his body seemed to surround hers, leaving her nowhere to retreat.
Her breath caught.
She lifted her hands and reached for the necklace again, but Lucius held it just beyond her fingertips. His arm remained locked around her waist, keeping her against the wall as he raised the necklace slightly higher.
His expression hardened.
“If you don’t want anything to do with me, and you want us to remain strangers, then why are you still wearing my gift around your neck?”
Her eyes flashed with irritation as she looked at him.
“It’s something I bought for myself. It wasn’t a gift from you.”
Lucius raised an eyebrow, his expression almost incredulous.
“I transferred one million dollars into your account that day as our anniversary gift. You used that money to buy this. So technically, you bought it with my money. Which means it’s my gift.”
Her anger only grew.
“You’re being unreasonable. Do you really think that makes sense? I purchased it before you—”
She didn’t get to finish.
Lucius leaned in and captured her mouth with his.
Stella immediately tried to push him away, but instead of releasing her, he held her more firmly.
His mouth moved against hers again and again, refusing to let her pull away.
One of his hands remained around her waist while the other moved along her back, keeping her close as he kissed her repeatedly.
His kiss was insistent, leaving her with no control over what she wanted or what he was giving her. She found herself completely beneath his control as his mouth continued moving over hers, the kiss shifting between tenderness and rough intensity.
He didn’t let her break away.
Even when he finally lifted his mouth from hers, he wasn’t truly satisfied. He remained close, pressing small kisses around her lips one after another, as though he simply couldn’t bring himself to let them go.
Finally, he stopped.
Stella stared at him, anger burning in her eyes. She struggled to keep her voice steady, but the bitterness in her words gave her away.
“What surprises me is that after all these years apart, you still haven’t gotten any better at kissing, Mr. Frost. Didn’t you have enough women to practice on?”
Lucius’s expression shifted. He lowered his gaze to her lips for a fleeting moment before meeting her eyes again.
“Miss Gibson, how many men have you practiced with?” His voice was low, edged with quiet menace. “You climbed into my bed last night so easily that you didn’t even bother to find out whether it was your ex-boyfriend you were sleeping with or someone else.”
His words struck harder than she expected.
Her eyes flashed with anger. She pushed against his chest. This time, Lucius let her go, his arms falling back to his sides.
Stella took a breath, her face still flushed with anger.
“Sleeping with me isn’t such a terrible thing, is it?” she snapped, her eyes flashing with anger. “If you’re so damn hurt by what happened, don’t worry. I’ll let you sleep with me once, and then we’ll call it even.”
Lucius’s face darkened instantly.
The way she spoke to him, as though what had happened between them meant nothing, only fueled his anger.
But before he could say a word, Stella shoved past him and stormed out of the room.
***
A Mercedes waited outside Bristen hospital, parked in the shadows far enough from the main entrance to remain unnoticed, yet close enough to give a clear view of the building.