Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Luc’s tongue demanded, took, and teased until Mia’s resistance blurred into trembling awareness. God. Was this a kiss… or was this what it meant to be kissed by him?
Heat swept through her, hazing her rational mind with an unknown, compelling sensation that drove her to clutch his shoulders, desperate to answer him with the little knowledge she had.
Her mouth moved beneath his, awkward at first, then bolder as she tried to mimic the sweep of his tongue.
It felt as though fire had dropped into her belly and rushed down low, curling hot between her thighs.
Then his hand slid lower, anchoring her as his knee forced its way between her legs, sliding her dress up her thighs.
He pushed upward, the pressure against her most secret place making her gasp into his mouth.
Pleasure struck sharp and bright, like fireworks exploding deep in her belly.
Her body betrayed her, arching, pressing closer, needing more.
The kiss shifted—still hard, still claiming, but softening too, coaxing instead of just taking. His lips brushed, lingered, explored as if tasting every breath she had. The tenderness unraveled her even more than his roughness had, leaving her reeling, dizzy with sensations she’d never imagined.
A desperate sound tore from Mia’s throat, and before she could stop herself, she bit down on his lip. And then, with a cruel edge of restraint, his teeth closed on her lower lip, biting hard before he tore himself away.
Mia pressed trembling fingers to her mouth, heart hammering, lips throbbing where his had claimed hers.
“Now I know you won’t fuck me like a nun,” he said, his gaze holding something unfathomable.
Heat seared Mia’s cheeks, but she only jutted her chin, at a loss for any comeback.
“We’re leaving. Now. Take what you want or nothing at all.”
It took a lot to defy him when he looked so dangerous, but Mia said, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Luc ignored her, retrieved his phone and dialed a number. It picked up on the second ring. “Boss.”
The other person on the end of the line’s voice came over clearly.
“Sal, you’re at the airstrip?”
“Ten minutes early,” the man replied. “Jet’s fueled. Crew’s in position.”
Luc hung up without another word, then closed his fingers around Mia’s hand. His grip was iron, dragging her toward the door. It felt like being tethered to a mountain—unyielding, inescapable.
“Wait, please!” she cried, digging in her heels.
He stopped, turning to her with a look that promised no patience. “What?”
Her heart thudded painfully. “At least let me pack… something. Please.”
Luc studied her for a long, cold moment. Then his jaw tightened. “Five minutes.”
Relief and panic warred in her chest as he released her hand.
She rushed back to her small room, surrounded by the meager belongings of her life.
Clothes, shoes, trinkets—none of it mattered.
He would provide those things. What she chose instead were her books.
Dog-eared paperbacks, the crime dramas she devoured late at night, the romances that whispered of impossible love.
They were the only things that felt truly hers.
Her mother’s necklace rested against her throat, and her father’s watch lay hidden in the pocket of her skirt.
She never parted with them; they were always on her, always carried close.
As she slid the worn spines into a bag, defeat pressed down on her chest. Yet along with it came a fragile thread of relief—no more running, no more glancing over her shoulder, no more wondering if every shadow meant he had caught up to her.
The inevitability of him was terrifying, but at least it was final.
When her time was up, Luc was waiting. He took her hand again, his grip firm as chains, and led her from the apartment.
Outside, a tinted SUV idled, its engine humming low.
The night air struck her face, sharp and cool, but it couldn’t cut through the weight in her chest. With every step toward the vehicle, Mia clutched her books tighter, knowing she wasn’t just leaving perceived safety behind. She was walking into his cage.
A man opened the door, and Mia entered the car.
Luc slid into the back seat beside her just as the door shut, sealing the two of them off from the rest of the world.
The car eased into motion, the small town bleeding away in streaks of streetlight and blurred glass.
Mia didn’t look at Luc. Her body was wound tight, hands clenched in her lap like she could hold herself together by force alone.
The watch burned inside her pocket, and she wondered if it could be the key to her freedom.
She turned to him slowly. “You don’t have to do this.” Her voice was quiet but clear. “I just want to go back to my normal life. Whatever arrangement my father made, I didn’t agree to it. This isn’t a marriage. It’s kidnapping.”
“You don’t know what your father did,” he said. “What you’re worth to the wrong men.”
Mia lifted her chin. “I’m not worth anything to people who do not know me.”
Luc’s smile was cold. “Every girl says that until someone sells her.”
She flinched. But he was right. Her father had indeed sold her.
“I don’t know how to be a mafia don’s wife,” Mia whispered, her eyes flicking to him before darting away. “I don’t know how to pl… please someone like you.” Her voice cracked around the last part, and her cheeks flushed red.
“You’ll learn. Your life depends on your adaptability.”
Oh God. Mia inched back, spine stiffening against the car door. There truly was no way to appeal to a soft side to this man. She could not imagine marrying him, sharing a bed, and a life.
“Your father sold you off like a pawn. If it weren’t me, you’d already be in someone else’s basement.”
Someone worse. “What do you mean?” Mia asked, her chest feeling tight.
He ignored her, and the sick feeling inside her grew. “Please be honest with me,” she entreated, hoping he would bend.
Several beats passed before he said, “Your father decided to hedge his bet with more than one family. He left instructions behind and made the same deal he made with my father with two other families. I was simply the one who reached you first.”
The words struck like knives, each syllable cutting deeper until Mia could scarcely breathe. Her father hadn’t just bartered her away once; he had scattered her fate like dice across a table, gambling her future with whichever monster reached her first.
Oh God. Why, Papa? Did you love me so little?
Mia’s chest tightened even more, heat rushing to her eyes.
Shame, betrayal, grief tangled inside her until she thought she might choke.
She had always told herself her father’s choices were meant to protect her, that there had been love buried beneath his secrets.
But now, hearing the truth fall from Valachi’s lips, it all curdled into a lie.
And then there was him. Luc’s expression was cool, almost mocking, his mouth curved in a smile that did not reach his eyes as he watched her struggle to contain her pain.
He spoke of her life as though it were nothing more than a business transaction, a prize he had claimed.
That detachment, that elegant cruelty, hollowed her out.
Hopelessness settled over Mia like a shroud.
She was trapped. Powerless. The convent walls, her books, and her small comforts were truly gone.
Every path forward ended in him. And as much as she wanted to scream, to claw her way free, his gaze held her fast, reminding her with devastating clarity: she was caught, and there was no escape.
“There’s no need to look so frightened. Arranged marriages have existed for centuries and continue to endure. I’m not here to hurt you, Mia. I’m the one who will make sure you survive and live well.”
His words were smooth, honeyed, the kind of promise meant to settle a scared person.
She heard the crooning comfort and almost wanted to believe it.
It would have been an easy thing to latch onto—a warm hand reaching out in the dark.
His eyes, calm and uncaring, caught hers, and something cold glinted there.
The ease of his smile did not reach those eyes.
She turned away and pressed her temple to the glass.
Her chest felt hollowed out, torn between the comfort his tone offered and the terror his look confirmed.
Mia had nothing inside to even cry. There was a slow, terrible understanding that whatever kindness his voice promised, the man behind it would never be kind.
And I must never forget it.
Minutes passed. By the time they turned down the airstrip access road, the town was long gone.
The silence in the car wasn’t tense anymore, it was something heavier, like mourning.
Luc thought it unwise to offer more comfort.
He barely understood the gentleness he wanted to show her.
Gentleness wasn’t bred into men like him.
In his world, softness invited ruin, and weakness was always preyed upon.
Yet as he looked at her, torn and fragile, something inside him ached to soothe her.
Another part, darker and truer, wanted to break that fragility apart and forge her anew—strong, unyielding, a woman who could never again be prey for anyone.
As the SUV rolled to a stop by the waiting jet, Luc took her arm, felt the tremor under her skin.
The SUV door opened to a symphony of sight and sounds—jet fuel and cold asphalt, shouts from the hangar, the chilled wind hinting of an impending storm.
Mia stiffened, that animal awareness flashing through her posture.
Luc’s hand found the small of her back, fingers splaying in silent warning against her spine.
“This isn’t what I want,” she rasped against the wind. “I hate this.”
“It’s done,” he said, and guided her up the steps, almost amused that she moved like a lamb to slaughter.