20. Lucas
LUCAS
I was in love with this woman. In fact, I was pretty sure I’d known since she sat down at our conference table in her white outfit and marinara sauce stain. She’d consumed every thought since that day.
I laid next to the object of my obsession, watching her sleep. Moonlight filtered through the windows, playing across her bare skin, illuminating it like the sun filtering through sea water.
“You really are an angel.” I whispered as I lightly ran my hand over her hip.
Now that I had her, I doubted I could give her up. Watching her chest rise and fall under the moonlight was making mine squeeze in a terrifying way.
I’d fought this thing with Olivia for months, thinking it could harm Alessi Construction.
I spent so much time focusing on my fears that it would jeopardize a large project and affect our employees and investors.
As I watched her breaths fill her lungs and realized how invested I truly was, another fear took center stage.
One Max had tried to pry out of me, but I kept buried.
Olivia was magnetic. She pulled people in with her beauty and charm, but she could back it up with true talent and skill. She was destined for greatness. If I pulled her into my orbit, that’s where she would stay. I wouldn’t be able to let her go.
I’d loved my mother and our life with her, but as an adult looking back, I often wondered what she gave up to raise us.
She had that same magnetism I saw in Olivia.
She could have done amazing things with her life, but she’d met my dad and settled down in a home on a lake.
Did she regret it? Did she wish she’d accomplished more?
Olivia stirred next to me, her eyes fluttering open slowly as a sleepy smile spread across her gorgeous face.
“Were you watching me sleep?”
“Mhm.”
“You’re not supposed to admit that, Lucas.”
“Why not? I enjoy looking at you.”
She smiled at me and placed her hand on my chest, scratching her fingers up and down.
“Then why do you look stressed? What were you thinking about?”
“Nothing. Just my mother. Some of the things she’s missing.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but I couldn’t tell Olivia what was on my mind. She had no idea how special she was. She would tell me I was being crazy.
She laughed. “No offense Lucas, but I think it’s best she not see what happened in this room…”
I grinned and pinched her hip. “Not that. Just life. ”
She sobered. “I’m sorry. It must be hard to not have her around. It’s obvious how much your family loved her.”
“She was pretty incredible,” I smiled sadly. “What’s the deal with your mom?”
“Oh, Lucas.” She let out a single sarcastic chuckle.
“That is a loaded question. My mother is…well, I guess she would rather not be a mother, but it took becoming one for her to realize it. I don’t have any hard feelings anymore, but we don’t really speak.
She doesn’t ask about my life, and I stopped offering details on my own a long time ago. ”
“That sounds pretty lonely. With your dad gone, who do you have? Where do you go for holidays?”
“Depends. Friends. Or I hang on my own. That’s actually how I got so close with Maria and Tony.
I’ve spent a few holidays with them, just going in when I had no other plans.
They claim they’ve always kept the place open on holidays, but I have my doubts about that.
Anyway, I don’t mind being on my own. I’m used to it. ”
I took a moment to digest that this beautiful creature was wading through life essentially alone.
The concept was so foreign to me, my family being such a huge part of my life.
A thick knot formed in my throat. I swallowed around it and searched her face for the sadness I was feeling.
But she seemed resigned to the situation. Somehow that bothered me more.
“Don’t feel bad for me, Lucas. I’m perfectly happy. And who knows? Maybe I’ll have it one day. A family like yours. One that you can feel the love flowing through, even after people are gone.”
I squeezed my hand on her hip and pulled her closer .
“You will Angel.” I kissed her cheek.
“You’ll have anything you want.” The other cheek.
She smiled, but her slightly glossy eyes gave her away.
She wasn’t as fine with her solitude as she wanted me to believe.
Suddenly, a primal need to make her understand how wanted and desired she was overcame me.
To make her understand I needed her in a deep and real way.
I framed her face with my hand and touched my lips to hers.
Against them I whispered, “You’re incredible, Angel. You can create anything you desire.”
I delved in for a deeper kiss. Using my tongue to show her just how impressed I was with everything about her.
“So beautiful I can barely look at you sometimes.”
Another kiss.
“Unbelievably talented.”
Another kiss.
“Strong.”
Kiss.
“And kind.”
Kiss.
A wobbly sound escaped her as she ground her hips into mine. “Lucas…”
“Yes, Angel?”
Her response was a muffled, soft moan.
Normally I would make her use her words and ask for what she wanted, instead I responded by rolling on my back and pulling her on top of me, hands gripping her hips.
I lined her up to me and pulled her down in one motion.
The noise that escaped her was part shocked gasp and part moan.
I wanted to record it and listen to it every day.
If I wasn't absolutely positive I wanted no other man hearing that sound escape her lips, I might consider making it my ringtone.
I groaned, keeping still and letting her adjust before lifting her and pushing her back down onto me. I loved having her on top of me like this, but controlling all her movements.
My bruising grip allowed me to move her body exactly where I wanted. A small part of me recognized I wasn’t heartbroken about potentially leaving my mark on her perfect skin. The image of my handprints on her hips only served as illicit fodder, spurring me on.
I slipped her body up and down my length over and over, while voicing the thoughts that tumbled through my brain.
How impossibly gorgeous she was.
How she fit me like we were made for each other.
How she had the perfect little pussy.
How I was going to hit just the right spot inside her over and over until she came.
That one had done it and she went stiff, then limp in my arms as she waded through her orgasm. I flipped her on her back and fucked her through her orgasmic haze until my own release snapped and drained the last of any energy I had.
After I cleaned her up, I gathered her in my arms and we fell asleep as I tried to think of every reason it made sense for me to keep her.
We spent the rest of the weekend in bed, except when we briefly left the room for the big dinner. It was weird to be able to hold Liv’s hand in public, to walk with her by my side.
The weekend had created a bubble for us to pretend this was our life. We didn’t talk about what would happen when we left that bubble.
I had my concerns. Worries about Olivia’s potential and what she might sacrifice if I became her life, became her family. But a bigger part of me wanted her too much. An even bigger part knew I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t watch her build that with someone else.
To me, she was already mine in every way. I just needed to convince the more honorable parts of my conscience to allow me to keep her.