Lucius (Acquisition Series #4) - Celia Aaron Page 0,49

frightened and probably in some sort of shock, but still …”

“Did anyone give you anything at the party? I was watching you most of the time and didn’t see anything like that.” He looks down at me with those light blue eyes, the ones that shouldn’t belong to a devil like him. But the part that makes me come undone is the worry in them. Worry for me.

“Wait. I had some champagne. Not much though. Beau gave it to me.” An image of him with blood pouring from his throat flashes in my mind.

“He must’ve drugged you. Something to make you more pliable? I don’t know.” He reaches across me and grabs his phone from the nightstand.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling our family doctor. I want him to check you.”

“I’m fine.” I put my hand on his.

“But we have no idea what he gave you.”

“Lucius.” I take his phone and return it to the nightstand. “I’m fine.” When I look back at him, his eyes have gone to where the sheet is draped across my breasts.

That one look seems to set my skin ablaze, sparks rippling and eddying to that one electric spot between my thighs.

I clear my throat. “So I was drugged. That makes sense. At least it made my foot stop hurting.” I wiggle my toes.

“I’m afraid that one’s on me. I cleaned up the wound again and gave you a few shots of Novocain every few hours while you slept. Made you comfortable.”

“You just have random Novocain on hand?”

He shrugs. “I had the doc swing by and deliver the little syringes. No big deal.”

“You called your private doctor in the middle of the night to bring you Novocain syringes so I could sleep more comfortably?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Evie, I can’t stop myself when it comes to you. I even brushed your teeth while you were out. No easy feat, but you know I’m not a quitter. Honestly, I’d do anything for you.”

I glance down at the bruise on his chest. “Except die.”

“I might do that too, if circumstances permit.” He takes my hand and places it on his chest. “I’ve never wanted to protect anyone the way I want to protect you.” He gives me a half-smile. “But given the way you just cracked my nose, I get the feeling you’re pretty good at protecting yourself.”

“I’ve worked on not being a victim ever again.” I sigh. “But I guess I need to take more self-defense classes. I just … Charles came up behind me and grabbed me, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t save myself. You have no idea how frustrating that is.”

“He’s twice your size, Evie, and he had the element of surprise.”

“I hate …” I shouldn’t be telling him any of this. But with the morning sun filtering through his wide windows and draping across his body like a warm blanket, I feel so open. Vulnerable. No one has ever known me, but that’s by design. I couldn’t let anyone get close. My life has far too many secrets, too many dark corners, and absolutely too many ghosts.

“What’s going on in here?” He runs his fingertips along my forehead.

I meet his gaze, the way he looks at me melting me from the inside. “I was just saying I hate to feel helpless. The last time I felt that way …” I can’t finish the thought out loud. It means too much and carries too much weight. Because Lucius is part of the reason I’ve never been able to open up to anyone. Not just because of what he did to Red, but because I’d wanted him so badly in my extravagant teenage fantasies. He’d colored every aspect of my early life, and then he’d destroyed everything. Blasted away the parts of me that kept me bound to this place, to these people, to the horrors of the Acquisition.

“I get it. The last time you felt helpless was when I killed your—”

I lean up and kiss him, taking the sting of that statement away before he can complete it.

He answers, pressing me down onto the pillow as his mouth takes mine in a vehement kiss, one that blurs the lines between lust and love. Because in this moment I realize, I do love him in a way that’s as confusing as it is real. It’s desire, it’s nostalgia, it’s longing, it’s so many emotions wrapped in a tight bundle. He’s been at the center of that bundle all along. In my nightmares and wildest