Chapter 3

Elena's POV

“Lucien…”

“Enough of this,” he said as he looked at his phone which was buzzing, distracting us from our conversation. “We will continue this when I get back. I’m not done with you yet.”

He stared at me for a moment, not wanting to let me go. I wondered what was going through his head.

With a slow sigh leaving his lips, he walked away leaving me alone in the room.

***

One moment Lucien's threat was still hanging in the air between us. The next, I was sitting on the cold floor of the employee bathroom, my back against the wall, his jacket still wrapped around my shoulders like a stupid habit I couldn't break.

Tomorrow at midnight.

I closed my eyes.

For one second I remembered a sliver of the past. I remembered his uncle's cologne. Wine I never asked for. Lucien's face crumbling in a doorway, like I had reached into his chest and torn something out with my bare hands.

“I love him. I was only using you.”

I had said those words to save my life and a third life nobody in that room even knew existed yet.

He had believed every word.

I opened my eyes before the memory could pull me any further down. I didn't have time to fall apart tonight. I never did.

A sharp knock on the bathroom door pulled me back to the present so hard it hurt.

"Coco?" Mara's voice came off in a careful tone. "There's a man named Lucien in the red lounge waiting for you. Mr Brandon says he paid a huge price for you and that you should attend to him before he fires you."

My blood went cold. Why was he back? Why couldn’t he leave me alone? Why was he still torturing me?

“What does he want?” I muttered. “He should be gone by now.”

"Well," Mara said quietly through the door, "you should ask him that yourself.”

Slowly, I got to my feet then opened the door to see Mara staring at me with widened eyes.

“Were you crying?” She asked as I shook my head.

“I’m okay. Where is Mr Brandon?”

“In his office.”

I clenched my fists then walked towards the office.

“What are you doing?” Mara ran to my side, dragging my arm to keep me from doing anything stupid.

“I’m going to tell Mr Brandon to let that man go. I can’t attend to him. He should find someone else.”

“Are you insane?” Mara scoffed. “Mr Brandon collected a huge sum for you. The most he has ever collected from anyone. You think he’s going to let this go?”

“Well he better if he’s going to keep me working here.”

Mara stared at me in shock for a moment before sighing.

“Just… go out there and meet this guy. The moment you’re done with him you can then leave.”

I sighed. “I guess I have no choice.”

Then I walked to the room to meet with him.

***

I found Lucien standing at the window when I walked back in, his reflection staring at the city instead of at me.

"You came back," I said.

"Did you think I wouldn't?"

"You said midnight tomorrow."

He turned around slowly. “That is when I’m taking you out of here. For tonight, I never said I was letting you out of my sight."

"Why?"

"Because the second I walked out of this room, all I could think about was you disappearing again." His jaw tightened. "I wasn't about to give you twenty-four hours to vanish a second time. You’re staying with me until I leave this godforsaken settlement."

"I'm not going to run."

"You already did that once." His voice was low, dangerous. "Forgive me if I don't take your word for it."

I crossed my arms, hating how exposed I felt under his stare. "So what, you're going to keep me here? Lock the door and stand guard until sunrise?"

"If I have to."

"Lucien…"

"Do you know what it did to me," he said, cutting me off, "watching you tell me you loved another man? Do you have any idea what five years of hating you did to me?"

"I have some idea, yes."

"Then you understand why I'm not letting you out of my sight." He stepped closer. "Not until I have answers."

"Some answers aren't mine to give tonight."

"That's not good enough."

"It's going to have to be." My voice shook more than I wanted it to. "You don't get to demand my whole life back in one conversation, Lucien. Not after five years of thinking I was dead. Not after everything."

Something flickered across his face… frustration, maybe grief, maybe both. "Then give me something. Anything. Why did you disappear? Why fake your own death instead of just leaving? Why push me away even when I’m standing before you asking for some fucking answer?”

I opened my mouth and closed it again.

The truth sat there, heavy and dangerous, and every version of it ended the same way, with him finding out about a secret that could get someone killed.

"I can't," I said.

"Can't, or won't?"

"Does it matter?"

"It matters to me." He reached out and caught my hand before I could step back, his thumb brushing over the inside of my wrist like he was searching for a pulse he didn't trust. "You're hiding something big enough to fake your own death over, Elena. I intend to find out what it is. It would just be easier if you told me what that thing is."

"I can't."

"Can't." He repeated the word like it tasted wrong in his mouth. "Do you know how many nights I spent hating that word? Can't. You couldn't stay. You couldn't explain.”

"Lucien…"

"I watched them lower an empty box into the ground, Elena." His voice cracked on my name. "I stood there in a suit, shaking hands with people who told me I was strong for enduring it, and the entire time I wanted to tear the earth open with my bare hands because some part of me knew, knew, it wasn't really you in there."

I said nothing. There was nothing safe left to say.

He stepped closer, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to hold his eyes. His control was slipping — I could see it in the tremor along his jaw, in the way his breathing had gone rough and uneven, in the gold bleeding into the dark of his irises.

"Tell me I'm wrong to still want you," he said quietly. "Tell me, and I'll walk away right now and never come back."

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out. Because it would have been a lie, and he would have smelled it on me instantly.

"That's what I thought," he murmured.

His hand slid from my wrist to my waist, pulling me against him before I could think of a single reason to stop it. My palms landed on his chest, meaning to push him back — instead they curled into his shirt and held on.

"Lucien, this doesn't fix anything."

"I know."

"Tomorrow you'll still be angry. I'll still be lying to you about something."

"I know that too." His forehead dropped against mine, his voice ragged. "I don't care. I have spent five years being reasonable, Elena. I am done being reasonable."

"You should let me go."

"Ask me again like you mean it."

I didn't.

Without warning he kissed me like a man who had spent five years starving and had finally stopped pretending he wasn't hungry. Every ounce of restraint he'd been holding onto since he walked into that club finally gave way. My fingers found their way into his hair. His hands framed my face like he was terrified I might disappear again if he let go for even a second.

"Say you want this," he breathed against my mouth. "Say it, and I'll stop pretending I have any control left where you're concerned."

Standing here before him with my breathing ragged, I knew there was no point lying. I had missed him.

"I want this," I whispered, hating myself for it, wanting it anyway. "I want you."

That was all it took to break whatever was left of him.

He lifted me off my feet and slammed me on a table as I spread my legs letting him step into me.

Like a rehearsed play we had done multiple times, we undressed until we were both naked before each other, his lips slipping to my neck while I leaned back.

One hand gripped my neck like I belonged to him while the other slowly slipped down to my wet clit. I looked into his hungry eyes. His ravenous appetite telling me that he was going all the way.

“Lucien…” I moaned, just as he slid one big finger into me, getting a moan out of me before he slammed his lips onto mine to keep me quiet.