Chapter 5

Lucas's POV

There was a woman in our bathroom…naked.

 At first, my instincts screamed that it was a trap especially since she had practically led us in here with her trail of clothes at the door.

The steam from her bath hung heavy in the air, she was curled up naked in the tub, her skin flushed from the water.

While her dark hair clung to her shoulders, I followed the droplets down the curve of her neck, over the swell of her breasts.

Was this fate testing us?

What are the chances that a woman survived that crash and escaped the wolves before finding warmth here?

A frown appeared on my face as I saw her round belly.

“What the hell?” I heard Draven bark at the sight. “Why the fuck is there a woman in our bath?”

I rolled my eyes at his rhetorical question… 

“Who was supposed to lock the doors and activate the alarm system?” he asked and chuckling, Mateo guiltily entered the room leaving Draven frozen at the door… that explained why she could enter.

Just like I did, his eyes narrowed as he scanned her form. 

I could see the conflict etched on his face and the desire that danced around with caution.

Five years without a woman’s touch? It turns you into something feral, something that forgets any sense of reason the second soft curves enter the picture.

Mateo, the impulsive bastard, didn’t hesitate. 

“If I had locked it, this… wouldn’t have entered, we’d have probably met her frozen stature at the door.”

Not giving a damn if she was bait sent by our old man or some other enemy lurking in the shadows. 

I don’t blame him, unlike us, Mateo had never experienced a woman hence the hunger with no restraint.

His hands greedily reached out and groped the fullness of her breast before sliding down to her hip. 

A groan escaped his lips, like he’d been punched in the gut. 

“She’s real,” he muttered, his voice rough with disbelief and need… that same need soared through I and Draven.

 His thumb brushed over her nipple, watching it pebble under his touch, and I swear the air in the room thickened.

I could feel my dick stirring in my pants. Watching Mateo touch her like that… it was torture and temptation wrapped in one. 

Her body arched slightly in her sleep as a soft sigh slipped from her lips.

Draven shifted at the door, his broad frame blocking the exit like he was guarding us from our own stupidity. 

But I knew Draven better, despite the frown on his face, I saw it… the way his gaze lingered on her now opened thighs, the subtle clench of his jaw as he swallowed the thoughts… the bulge slowly formed in his jeans. 

“We can’t,” he growled, but it sounded half-hearted, like he was trying to convince himself more than us.

 His eyes met mine, seeing as Mateo ignored him, leaning in closer, his breath fanning over her skin as he traced the curve of her belly with surprising gentleness.

 “Don’t tell me you aren’t seeing what I’m seeing?” he whispered, his dark eyes over her thighs, another sigh escaped her lips as she slowly parted her legs.

“Perhaps this is our present… after all this time.” His hand dipped lower, and her lashes fluttering as a small whimper escaped her, sending a jolt straight to my groin.

Seeing as she stirred more, Mateo took a step back and smiled down at her as she adjusted her eyes to the audience she had attracted.

“Oh, look like the raging blizzard had forced goldielicks into the wolves cabin.”

She should run but it almost seemed like she relaxed, almost as though whatever was out there was worse than the three of us… three sex starved ruthless men?

I laughed, shaking my head as my eyes stalked the door where Draven had her locked up.

She seemed too comfortable and had been quiet for hours.

She went mute… heaven knows how much I anticipated her talking that way I could teach her a lesson.

“You are thinking of her too?” Draven asked and judging from the scowl on his face, he must have seen Mateo unable to sit his butt down.

Following my gaze, he shut the door, “We can’t send out a pregnant woman…?” It felt more like he was asking me than telling me.

When did we become this soft?

The thought that she could still be a spy wasn’t zero or perhaps it was all sexual attraction… 

I didn’t realize how sex deprived I was until now.

“It seems like I’m the only one thinking from my head here.” He said, suddenly pulling me out of my thoughts.

“I mean what are the odds? Our shipment comes in tomorrow and she arrives in a crash as the only one alive?”

I shut my eyes and she immediately came to view, she wasn’t cut out as a spy for real but in our line of job, we are taught not to underestimate even a child.

“Tomorrow we’d send her out to return with the plane shipment, winter is coming soon and being locked up in this house with her doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

It definitely is a good idea.

As soon as he opened the door, Mateo was there with a frown, “She is ours to keep… don’t you see?”

Their voices blurred out in the distance leaving me to my crazy thoughts.

Draven was right and I hated that I somewhat agreed that Mateo had a point.

It had taken us losing everyone we loved in order to escape our father yet with all the connections and money, we were here perhaps it is the trauma.

That man just has a way of getting under someone’s skin.

Twenty years under him was enough to inflict mental damage.

It didn’t matter how well we cleaned up our trails or how deep we buried our past…blood had a way of calling unwanted attention. And attention was the one thing we couldn’t afford. 

We hadn’t built this place on luck.

The house, the airstrip, the private generators humming beneath the floors… none of it belonged to us on paper. 

The shipments came in quietly and our planes bypassed custom procedures without passenger manifests.

Everything moved through ports we controlled, borders manned by officials who owed us favors till they died.

 We didn’t bribe politicians anymore… as everyone we needed were placed on their seats by us… for us.

The city thrived because we allowed it to and if we fell, we would fall with judges, senators, generals… men who smiled on camera and trembled on their knees to us in private, would be dragged down with us.

 That was why this crash was a problem, one we were supposed to deal with quietly.

She was just one woman… It shouldn't be hard.

A plane going down meant questions. 

Questions meant investigations and investigations always attracted the wrong kind of attention… the kind our father would be pleased in.

Five years wasn’t enough to erase him and build something new… our own ’Ndrangheta, stripped of family names and tied.

We weren’t as loud as he was yet we had somehow buried his empire while in the shadows making these men cower with fear as it traveled faster than bullets and lingered longer.

And now there was her.

She could either be a liability Or worse… bait.

Winter was closing in, the routes would soon be buried, and the mountains would lock us in with her. 

Keeping her meant risk while letting her go was out of the question.

She, just like us, seemed to be running from something or someone…

Which made her presence far more dangerous than a spy ever could be.