Luca With The Lid Off Novels & Stories

Leila said firmly, licking sauce on her fingers. Luca hesitated, then checked the left pocket. The key was there. He pulled the key out slowly, his expression changed from confusion to something unreadable. He looked so surprised. “This is strange,” he whispered silently to himself. “I always use the right.” I felt it then. That subtle shift in the air. My expression changed and my mind replayed what I saw earlier, Evelyn whispering to Nina, and Mara glancing toward Luca more than once. But I shook it off. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

“It’s okay. It’s kind of sad, but… expected.” He said nothing. “Look,” she continued, flipping her iPad around. “Can we at least pretend to be on the same page? These are the three final designs for the engagement dinner. Pick one. Or I will.” “I don’t care.” “Yes,” she said, stepping closer. “You do. You care so much it’s killing you.” He looked away. She smiled. “We all wear masks, Luca. The trick is not letting yours crack in public.” Later, Luca ended up in the wine cellar of the penthouse, alone.

The word cuts cleanly through the room. Sofia stops mid-sentence. Layla looks up. Luca stands in the doorway to the kitchen, jacket gone, sleeves rolled to reveal forearms dusted with dark hair. He looks younger without the suit jacket, but no less commanding. His expression is calm. His tone is not unkind. “Sorry?” Layla asks. His gaze drops briefly to her bare feet, then returns to her face. “There was glass earlier,” he says. “You didn’t see it. I did. I don’t like people getting hurt in my house.”

He was still seated, relaxed, fingers steepled, watching me like I was a curious animal that had wandered into the wrong cage. “This is the underworld,” Luca continued calmly. “My world.” A pause as he slowly put away his cigar. “So nobody leaves until I allow it.” The words settled into my chest like a weight. Slowly, I released my grip on Carla and eased back into the empty chair beside her. The bald man stepped aside but didn’t move far. Carla flopped back into her seat with a pleased hum, completely oblivious. “Good,” Luca said, nodding. “Now we can continue.”

Something I fought to control but still failed at. “I know you’re awake. You don’t have to keep pretending”, Luca states. Relief floods me and I instantly shoot up from the bed, throwing away the fact that he’d just caught me eavesdropping. It crosses my mind to apologize for my bad manners but he beat me to it. “You would eventually find out about him anyway. That’s my advisor. The underworld has seen its oddities and The Sage is one.”, Luca explains, pushing himself off the bed. His fingers work on his shirt, unbuttoning from top to bottom as he walks over to the floor to ceiling window that looks out into the horizon.

"I'm afraid that the moment I step off that plane, the girl I am right now... she's going to evaporate like none of this ever happened." Luca studied me for a long moment. He sat up, the muscles of his back flexing. He looked at me with a dangerous intensity. "You won't evaporate," he said firmly. "Because I'm not going to let you. I can make sure you never forget who you belong to." "How?" I asked. "Bruises fade, Luca. The soreness goes away." "Not bruises," he said. He stood up and walked to the desk on the far side of the room. He opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a sleek, metal case. He brought it back to the bed and set it down on the mattress.

Though he would hate to get rid of such a pretty face. "No! Well, it is more stunning than a sex tape." Luca snorted and motioned forward. Nothing gets more stunning than your partner's sex tape Opening the cardboard box Luca found one USB and a folded letter in it. He asked his assistant to bring a spare Laptop to connect to the USB, for it may be a trick of a hacker. Connecting the USB to the laptop Luca saw that it had only one video file. As the video played Luca's expression changed from passive to amused. At the end of the video he let out a sinful hearty laugh.

Like he promised Emma, Luca toned down his dressing to jeans and a t-shirt. He wore a duplicate mustache, which made Emma laugh until her stomach hurts. "You look ridiculous" Emma pointed out after she stopped laughing long enough to tell him that. Luca turned his head towards her and shook his head. They are walking down the stairs in Liquid tonic, to go to the carnival. "Really?" he asked with an amused expression. Hiding his true face is what Luca does best. No one apart from a few trusted members in Liquid Tonic only knows, how he looked. Even Tasha saw his face, but she did not know he is Luca Vitiello.

His eyes sparkled with that manic excitement, and I could only wonder what was going through his mind. “Get on all fours.” I followed his orders without question, taking deep breaths to ease the sting of my muscles. Luca smiled in contentment, and then he left the room for a bit, only to return with a large metal box. Anxiety clawed at my nerve ends as he rummaged through the box. His eyes lit up as he pulled out a leather collar and a dildo. Luca sat on the bed, his legs spread wide in invitation. “Come here.” He curled his fingers, beckoning to me, and a wave of shame washed over me as I crawled to him.

VEDA Later that night as I headed back to my room, unescorted for once, I watched him as I climbed the stairs to the second floor. He stood in the main room, talking to the other guy, the one who wore sunglasses all the time. As if he felt my attention on him, Luca suddenly stopped speaking, his head snapping up and his eyes locking on mine. His head tilted slightly to the side, and he slid his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. The other guy took up the conversation, but he may as well have been talking to the wall.