Flesh: Part Nine (The Flesh Series Book 9) (2 page)

He screws his face
as he rubs out the sting. Then he glances up at me wickedly. “I'm
going to make you pay for that.”

“
Lucian,
no.” I hold up my hands in surrender.

The word no has
never stopped him before though, and it doesn't work this time
either. He descends on me mercilessly, wrapping me in his powerful
arms so that I can't escape and giving me a noogie that makes my head
burn.

“
Lucian,
Goddammit, you're even with me. You're even with me!” I
struggle out of his grip and rub my scalp. An eye for an eye with
this one.

“
Come
on, let's go to bed.” He motions towards the bedroom,
chuckling.

I glare at him,
still rubbing the top of my head as I watch him toss his towel onto
the bathroom counter and walk out of the room.
That ass.
If I
wasn't so mad at him, I might want to make grabby hands at it.

Grumbling, I follow
him, waiting to see which side of the bed he crawls in on before I
climb onto the other side.

“
You're
not actually mad at me, are you?” he asks when he notices that
I'm still scowling. “You hurt me pretty bad, you know.”
Lucian points at the spot on his thigh where a big, red welt has
formed. I immediately forget about being upset with him and lean down
to kiss it better.

As I kiss him, a
familiar hunger wells up inside of me. I'm acutely aware that his
dick is only a few inches away from my face. It's soft now, but I'm
sure I could bring it back to life with a little bit of coaxing. Then
again, my pussy is kind of sore, and I'm not sure I could handle the
backlash from turning him on again. No doubt, there would be sexual
consequences. Maybe some other time.

I gently pat the
spot on his thigh before shimmying under the covers. Part of me still
can't believe that I'm actually going to spend the night in his bed,
but I don't want to over-think it. I just want to enjoy the moment—be
happy that I finally cracked his hard exterior.

Lucian turns off his
bedside table lamp and then scooches over until I can feel the covers
between us part to make space for his body to settle against mine.
His hand slides over my side, and I curl my fingers around it,
drawing it up to my chest. He's so warm. So comfortable. Far more
comfortable than I thought he would be, to be honest. My soft curves
complement his hard muscles, molding us together perfectly.

I sigh contentedly,
listening to his breathing in the darkness, still amazed at
everything that has gone on. We had sex twice tonight, both times
were incredible, but the first time seemed to have changed everything
between us. His words echo in my head about being afraid. Does that
mean he's finally opening his heart to me—that it's not all
about sex anymore? I hope so, but only time will tell.

CHAPTER TWO

Lucian is like a
ninja, sneaking out of bed early in the morning without disturbing
me. I don't know how he does it. Usually, I'm a light sleeper, but
this is the second time that I've fallen asleep in a bed with him
only to wake up alone.

So much for waking
up in his arms.

There's a familiar
scent of food wafting in from the kitchen. I lazily pull myself out
of bed, not wanting to get dressed but feeling like I have no other
choice. My self-confidence faded with the rising sun, and I'm not
about to walk into the kitchen naked.

I soak in the
delicious soreness between my legs and the smell of Lucian all over
me as I dress. The scent of his bodywash clings to my skin, making me
feel oddly comforted. Maybe everything we did last night wasn't a
dream. Perhaps he really is a changed man. That's wishful thinking
though. The best I can hope for is a happy middle-ground. I can take
the kink—the blindfolds and restraints—if he'll just stop
trying to dominate me completely and then push me away afterward.

I make the bed after
I finish getting dressed, a small token to show my affection for him,
then I go into the bathroom to brush the tangles out of my hair
before finally following my nose to the kitchen. Lucian isn't in the
kitchen though. He's in the living room watching the news.

“
Hi,”
I greet him as I walk into the room.

“
Hey.”
He beams at me, looking as attractive as always in nothing but black
sweatpants. “I made breakfast.”

“
I
know you did.”

He stands to lead me
into the dining room where he seats me before going to retrieve our
food. Eggs Benedict is on the menu this morning. It looks fabulous
and tastes twice as good as it looks. The man can definitely cook.

“
A
woman could fall in love with your cooking,” I moan after
taking a bite.

“
Hopefully,
a woman could fall in love with more than that.” He grins at me
over his fork, which causes me to blush and avert my eyes. Does he
actually want me to fall in love with him? He's sure making it sound
like it.

“
I
need to go after this. I need to get back to my apartment and change
for work,” I sigh, wishing it was the weekend so that I could
stay with him. We both have work though. It's best if I leave as soon
as possible so that I don't interrupt his morning routine too much.

“
Tell
them you're coming in late.” He gestures at me with his fork
before picking up his glass of orange juice and gulping it down.

“
Don't
you have to work today?” I raise an eyebrow.

“
Today
is a rare day.” His eyes widen for effect. “My first
patient isn't scheduled for surgery until 11am.”

I smirk. Somehow, I
always seem to forget that he's a famous plastic surgeon. He pretty
much never talks about work.

“
Being
a surgeon must be interesting.”

“
It
is.” He nods. “Sometimes.”

“
I
bet you see a lot of crazy things.”

“
None
that I can talk about. Patient confidentiality and all.” His
expression suggests that he'd like to talk about some of it.

“
Well,
I, unfortunately, don't have the luxury of only coming in whenever we
have clients.” I screw my face.

“
I'm
a client.”

“
Yeah,
so?”

“
Just
tell them I asked you to come over. They'll understand. After all,
I'm a big deal for your company, right?” He looks utterly
mischievous, and I can't help but smile.

“
I
suppose so,” I let out a short laugh before digging in my purse
for my phone to leave Tyra a voice-mail. When I'm done, I drop my
phone back into my purse and glance up at Lucian. “You're going
to have to call her and let her know too. While she trusts me, I
doubt she'll take my word alone.”

“
Give
me your phone.” He rests his arm on the table and opens his
hand.

“
Call
her on your own phone.” I purse my lips.

“
What,
you don't want her to think we're sleeping together?” he
teases.

The answer is no.
I'm not sure what Tyra would think if she knew that I was having sex
with Lucian. Maybe she wouldn't care. After all, she did want me to
do whatever it took to land him as a client. I did that. Then my life
became a mess. Hopefully, things are smoothing out now.

“
Call
her on your own phone.” I squint and quirk my head to the side,
showing him that I'm not feeling very playful.

“
Fine.”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “After we eat, though.”

“
Of
course.” I nod, scrapping up my last bite of Eggs Benedict with
my fork.

“
You
wanted to know about this house.” Lucian's gaze dances over the
walls.

It's a strange thing
for him to bring up right now, but I am curious. “Yeah.”

“
I
think I told you it belonged to my parents.”

“
You
did.”

“
I
inherited it from them after they died.”

I cock my head back,
not wanting to ask the obvious question. He's too young for both of
his parents to be dead.

“
They
died in a car crash. As luck would have it, they died the same year
that my wife and son died. Only two months after.” He stabs at
the broken yolk left on his plate as if he can actually take a bite
of it.

“
That's
horrible.” My expression instantly turns sympathetic. I'm not
sure why he's sharing this with me, but I'm glad that he is. It makes
me feel closer to him.

“
I
moved in here last year.” Lucian sets his fork down and looks
everywhere but at my face. I can hear the emotion in his voice, like
he's trying desperately to push it back. “I haven't had the
heart to change anything in here until now.”

“
That's
understandable. You went through a lot of traumas. I can't even
imagine what it must have been like.” I want to reach across
the table and touch his hand, but he looks far too breakable. The air
in the room is thick and heavy. I'm not really sure what to say or do
to make things better for him.

“
Be
glad. It's hard losing everyone you love in short proximity.”
He furrows his brow at his plate as if it's the enemy.

“
I
really,” I stutter. “I really wish there was something I
could do to help.

He wipes his mouth
with his napkin before resting it on his lap and turning to look into
the house. “There's nothing that anyone can do. No mortal
action can bring them back. That's the thing about death. Once it
happens, it happens. You don't get to come back, and everyone that's
left behind...Well, they have to deal with it.” He stands and
grabs our plates to take them to the kitchen. I think about
following, but don't. Maybe he just needs a moment alone to regroup
himself.

While he's away, I
stand and push my chair in before walking around the house to look at
everything that I once thought was just random clutter and junk.
These are all his parents' things. It's almost heart-wrenching to
think that he's surrounded himself with them for so long, refusing to
change anything inside the house, even though it seems to be in
disarray.

“
What
are you doing in here?” Lucian asks when he catches me walking
around the office.

I smile softly at
him, my hand tracing a ballerina trinket on one of the bookshelves.
It's the first time I've taken notice that every room in the house
has a woman's touch to it, even rooms like this that typically
wouldn't. “I was just trying to get a better feel for who your
parents were.”

This seems to please
him though I can't help but feel like he doesn't trust me, especially
after I turned over the pictures in his bedroom.

“
Come
on. Let's go watch the news.” He nods towards the living room.

“
The
news?” I wrinkle my nose at him. It's definitely not the most
entertaining thing, and honestly not how I pictured us spending the
morning together.

“
Amy.”
He grins. “It's important to know what's going on in the world.
It's especially important to know what's going on locally.”

“
If
you say so.” I pout, following him out of the room.

For the remainder of
the morning, we sit together cuddled up on the couch watching
television. It's strangely normal. I think I spend more time looking
at Lucian out of my peripheral vision than actually paying attention
to what's on the dumb tube, though I have been able to gather from
his channel preferences that he's very much into the news, the
weather, and history.

By the time he has
to start getting ready for work, we're finishing up a documentary on
the Pyramids of Giza. I hadn't realized I was starting to fall asleep
again until he pulls his arm from around my shoulder. Lazily, I
stretch and watch him turn the television off.

“
Well,
it's about that time,” he says with a sigh.