Fatal Attraction

Aurora sat in the parking lot of the Meridian Hotel staring at her emergency credit card. She'd been saving it for a real emergency and figured losing everything in one night qualified.

The hotel lobby was all marble and gold. Aurora walked up to the front desk trying to look like she belonged there.

"I need a room for tonight."

The desk clerk looked her up and down, taking in her wrinkled work clothes. "Do you have a reservation?"

"No, but I have this." Aurora slid the credit card across the counter.

A few minutes later she had a keycard to room 1247. The room was beautiful, bigger than her entire apartment, with a view of the city lights.

Aurora sat on the edge of the bed and tried to process what had happened. Six hours ago she'd been planning a romantic birthday dinner. Now she had nothing.

She needed a drink.

The hotel bar was dimly lit and mostly empty. Aurora ordered the most expensive whiskey they had because why not. Victoria would probably freeze her accounts tomorrow anyway.

"Celebrating something?" The bartender was young with kind eyes.

"My birthday. And my freedom."

The whiskey burned going down but it felt real. Like the first honest thing that had happened all day.

A man in an expensive suit approached after her second drink. "Can I buy you another?"

Aurora looked at him. Handsome in a generic way, probably a banker. "No thanks."

He didn't take the hint. His hand moved to her waist. "Don't be like that. I'm just being friendly."

"I said no." Aurora grabbed his wrist.

The moment she touched him his wine glass cracked straight down the middle, spilling all over his white shirt. He jerked back like she'd burned him.

"What the hell?"

Aurora stared at the broken glass. That was the third weird thing today after the dropped phone calls and the power outage.

"Sorry." She threw money on the bar and headed for the elevator.

She was drunk. Drunker than she'd been in years. The elevator numbers blurred as she tried to remember her floor. Twelve something. She pressed 12 and hoped for the best.

The hallway spun as she walked. Room 1247. But the numbers weren't making sense. 1270, 1272, 1274. She must have gotten off on the wrong floor.

She tried her keycard on 1274 and to her surprise it worked. The door opened into darkness.

"Finally," she muttered, stumbling inside. The room felt huge, bigger than hers had been. Must be a suite.

Aurora kicked off her heels and started unbuttoning her blouse as she walked toward the bedroom. Her clothes left a trail behind her. She collapsed onto the massive bed naked, finally letting herself cry. Great gulping sobs for her father who wasn't there to protect her, for Marcus who had never really loved her, for the life she'd lost.

She was so lost in her grief that she didn't hear the elevator or footsteps across the hardwood floor.

"Well this is interesting."

Aurora's head shot up. A man stood in the doorway backlit by the hall light. Tall, broad shouldered, wearing a suit that probably cost more than her car. She should have been terrified.

Instead she felt something else entirely. Something hot and dangerous.

"Are you going to throw me out or are you going to fuck me?"

The words shocked them both. Aurora had never talked like that in her life, had never been that bold or crude or desperate. But she was past caring about who she used to be.

The man stepped into the room and she got her first good look at him. Dark hair, strong jaw, eyes that seemed to see right through her. He was beautiful in a way that made her chest tight.

"That's quite an offer." His voice was deep, controlled, with just a hint of an accent she couldn't place. "From a woman whose name I don't even know."

"Aurora." She didn't move to cover herself. "And you are?"

"Luciano." He shrugged out of his jacket and loosened his tie. "And you're in my bed."

"Are you complaining?"

"Not particularly." He moved closer, predatory and smooth. "Though I'm curious how you got past my security."

Aurora couldn't explain how she'd gotten into his room because she didn't understand it herself. The keycard shouldn't have worked.

"Lucky break I guess."

"I don't believe in luck." Luciano sat on the edge of the bed. "I believe in fate."

"Then fate brought me here to you."

Aurora reached up and grabbed his tie, pulling him down toward her. "You tell me what for."

He could have resisted. Instead he let her pull him close until their faces were inches apart.

"You're drunk."

"I'm free."

"Those aren't the same thing."

"Tonight they are."

Something shifted in his expression. Something dangerous and hungry that made her pulse race. "You have no idea what you're asking for."

"Show me."

He kissed her then, hard and possessive and nothing like Marcus's careful pecks. This was claiming, consuming, the kind of kiss that branded you. Aurora kissed him back with equal desperation, pouring all her rage and pain and need into the contact.

Luciano's hands found her skin and she arched into his touch. He was gentle but demanding, patient but hungry. Everything Marcus had never been.

"Tell me to stop," he murmured against her throat.

"Don't you dare."

They moved together like they'd done this dance before, like their bodies recognized each other even if their minds were strangers. Aurora had never felt anything like it.

When she came apart in his arms the lights in the room flickered. The digital clock on the nightstand went dark for a moment before blazing back to life. Luciano noticed but said nothing, just held her tighter.

Afterward they lay tangled in expensive sheets. Aurora traced patterns on his chest, following the lines of scars she could feel under her fingers.

"What happened here?" She touched a particularly nasty one near his heart.

"Business."

"What kind of business leaves scars like that?"

"The dangerous kind."

Aurora should have been worried but she found she didn't care. Nothing about this night made sense anyway.

"I'm not usually like this," she said quietly.

"Like what?"

"Bold. Reckless. Sleeping with strangers in hotel rooms."

"What are you usually like?"

"Boring. Responsible. The kind of girl who plans ahead and follows rules and gets stepped on by everyone around her."

Luciano's hand found her hair. "And what changed?"

"Everything. I lost everything today. My job, my family, my boyfriend. Found out it was all lies anyway."

"Their loss."

"You don't even know me."

"I know enough." His voice was certain. "I know you're stronger than you think. I know you taste like whiskey and courage. I know you're not half as fragile as you pretend to be."

Aurora lifted her head to look at him. In the dim light he looked like something out of a dream. Too beautiful to be real, too good to last.

"What happens now?"

"Now you sleep. Tomorrow you figure out who you want to become."

Aurora closed her eyes and let herself drift, feeling safer than she had in years wrapped in the arms of a complete stranger.

When she woke up the room was empty. Bright morning sun streamed through floor to ceiling windows. For a moment she wondered if she'd dreamed the whole thing.

Then she saw the dress laid out on the chair. Elegant, expensive, definitely not hers. Next to it was a hotel keycard and a note written in strong masculine handwriting.

"Use this whenever you need sanctuary. L"

Aurora held the keycard up to the light. It was different from regular hotel cards, heavier, with what looked like a chip embedded in it. This wasn't just access to a room. This was access to him.

She should leave it behind. Should get dressed in her wrinkled work clothes and walk away and never think about Luciano again.

Instead she slipped the card into her purse.

By the time she made it to Maria's apartment she was second guessing everything. Maria took one look at her and dragged her inside.

"Aurora, what happened? You look like hell."

Aurora collapsed onto Maria's couch and told her everything. About Marcus and Elena, about Victoria and the will, about the hotel and the mysterious man.

Maria listened until Aurora got to the part about Luciano.

"Wait, what did you say his name was?"

"Luciano. Why?"

Maria's face went pale. "Aurora, please tell me you didn't sleep with Luciano Romano."

"How do you know his last name?"

"Because everyone in this city knows that name." Maria grabbed Aurora's hands. "Aurora, Luciano Romano runs the most powerful crime family on the east coast. He's not just dangerous, he's lethal. People who cross him disappear."

Aurora felt the blood drain from her face. "That's impossible."

"Is it? Think about it. The penthouse suite, the expensive clothes, the scars. Aurora, you slept with the most dangerous man in the city."

Aurora's phone rang. Marcus's name flashed on the screen.

"Don't answer it," Maria said quickly.

But Aurora was already swiping to accept. "What do you want?"

"Aurora, we need to talk. There are things you don't understand, things I need to explain."

"I understand plenty."

"Meet me tonight. The parking garage on Fifth Street, level B2. Eight o'clock. Come alone and we can work this out."

"Work what out exactly?"

"Just come, Aurora. Please. If what we had ever meant anything to you, just give me this one chance to explain."

The line went dead.

Maria was staring at her with wide eyes. "Please tell me you're not actually considering meeting him."

Aurora looked at her reflection in Maria's bathroom mirror. She looked different somehow. Sharper. More alive. Like something fundamental had shifted during the night.

For just a moment her eyes flashed gold in the mirror before returning to their normal brown.

"What the hell is happening to me?"

But even as she asked the question, Aurora knew she was going to that parking garage. Whatever Marcus wanted to say, whatever trap he might be setting, she needed to face it. The old Aurora would have hidden and hoped it went away.

The new Aurora was done hiding.