6. Luca

6

LUCA

T he sight of Josephine going pale with dread is easy to spot as she stands a few feet in front of some guy who has the build of an athlete, but everything about him says snake. I don't like him.

How does he know Josephine?

The way his sharp blue eyes dart around as he shakes my hand, makes me cautious of his shifty behavior.

"Good morning. I'm Luca Devlin. Sorry to interrupt?—"

He cuts me off, directing his words to Josephine. "You brought back up? What the hell did you think was going to happen, Fee?"

Fee?

"Listen Duke," Josephine's voice is so soft, I barely recognize it. "I'm meeting Luca down here to discuss a film I auditioned for."

Duke. There's nothing royal, regal, or respectable about the man in front of me. The way he looks down his nose at Josephine irritates me. His tone is ripe with disgust and I'd like nothing more than to slam his face into the wall. However, despite my misgivings about his personality, he hasn't done anything except have a relationship with Jo.

"Oh, so you're back to that nonsense? I don't know why you can't get a regular job like everyone else."

Duke shifts his gaze toward me, noticing I'm stepping around Jo so it's easier for me to grab him and defend her if necessary. I move to the same step, showing us to be around the same height, but there's no way I'd let him beat me in a fight. The way his lips move, he's testing to see how true that will be.

"As a matter of fact, Jo's taking on two lead roles for my studio. She's not like everyone else. So why would she be regular like everyone else?" My voice is calm, but my disdain for this guy is growing.

He humphs and pulls a folded manila envelope out of his back pocket, handing it to Jo. "Here's a copy of the documents I filed. They say it takes up to forty-five days to process before it's final."

"And about the lump sum you promised?" Josephine asks, her eyes wide as if she's asking for a helping of food.

"Ha! Good luck squeezing another penny out of me. I'm all paid up on child support so I don't have to give you shit. I'll see you around. Wait, no, I won't." Duke laughs obnoxiously and shoves Josephine to get past me. However, he can't leave well enough alone, as he turns, calling out to us, "Oh, and don't waste your time on her stupid business proposals. She's not an actual consultant. She thinks that because she can suck peanut butter through a straw?—"

I move swiftly, faster than either Jo or Duke expects to reach him. A mirage of me slamming his face into the large courthouse step explodes in my mind, but I keep my cool… for now.

"Think wisely before you finish that statement, Duke ." I warn him with the back of my hand pressing against the top of his arm, a gesture to stop him from moving he silently obeys.

"Ah, so he is back up." Duke forces a cheesy grin, as if he's winning this standoff.

"I'm so much more than her back up," I growl. My possessiveness over Josephine erupts out of nowhere. "You need to apologize for shoving her and for your language."

Duke's eyes hold a questioning glare. I can see the war in his eyes, glancing at the space between us and darting around to see if there are uniformed officers nearby. He's uncertain if he can get away with hitting me or if should do what I ask. It looks like I'll have to convince him the hard way. Especially after he rolls his arm to move the back of my hand off of him.

"Don't touch me," Duke snarls.

"Don't touch, Josephine," I reply with my voice barely above a whisper.

"You see, I've already touched her. She's the mother of my child, it's a shame she swallowed the—" He leers and has the balls to shove me back a step.

Rage over his blatant disrespect toward Josephine surges to the surface as my emotions fuel my actions. I grip him by the jaw, drawing a paralyzed expression of fear on his face. Despite the way I look in my clothes, I've learned enough working alongside the Marzano family to know how to take care of myself. At the very least, we have a decent lawyer on standby.

With one hand holding the bottom of his face, I use my leg to sweep behind him, causing his knee to bend. Once Duke is on the ground, I lock one of his free arms behind his back, wrenching it upward to cause an intense pain that feels like I'm going to break his elbow or tear the shoulder out of the socket.

"This is assault," Duke pants in frustration. His teeth clench from the pain, but the redness in his cheeks tells me he'll be putty in my hands soon.

"No," I growl in his ear. "This is self-defense and someone teaching you manners because you shouldn't have shoved me."

"Fuck you." He growls, stubborn to a fault.

I let out a huff of frustration, telling him. "You should also know that's not how you speak to a lady, let alone the woman who put her life on the line to bring your child into this world. Apologize to her, or I'm going to snap your elbow."

I jerk his arm up for good measure. My eyes scan our surroundings and luckily, none of the court officers walking around are paying attention. Still, I need to wrap this up.

Duke yelps out in pain. "Okay, fine, fine, fine. Don't break it. I need it to coach. I'm sorry, Josephine. I'm sorry. Get your fucking bodyguard off of me."

I release him as quickly as I subdued him.

"I'm so glad this is the last we'll deal with each other. The both of you can fuck off." Duke spews with venomous hatred. He gets to his feet, shaking his arm, and sidesteps away from me to retreat. A smart decision on his part. When I turn to Josephine, she's red in the face, on the brink of tears.

"Thank you so much. He's never apologized to me…ever." She gazes at me with heroic appreciation and desire.

My motions are fluid as I grab her, pull her into a hug. Moving the loose wavy curl out of her face, behind her ear, the pull between us is undeniable. I kiss her. It's deeper than the passion from our kiss at her audition. This kiss nearly erases my interaction with Duke as I dip my tongue into her mouth and her body molds into mine.

Eventually, we separate, taking a beat and observing our surroundings. It doesn't look like anyone is paying attention to us. "Hey, I'm sorry about that. I hope I wasn't out of line. I'll never stand by to let the likes of that guy disrespect you, or anyone else in front of me."

"It's fine. He's such a shit, but at least we're done."

"Divorced?" I ask, my eyes dropping to the envelope in her hand.

A snort and laugh perk her up immediately. "God, no. I'm already tied to him for a lifetime. That was Jett's father. My son is about to be nine and Duke just handed me documents to terminate his parental rights."

"What a piece of shit." I spot Duke already across the street. He has too much of a bounce in his step for a guy walking away from his responsibility and an armbar hold. Assholes like that are always sore losers. I'm certain that he's up to something. This is far from over.

"That's the average opinion of him. I want to make up for having to deal with Duke this morning. Where should we grab coffee and breakfast?" she asks.

"My place," I tell her without thinking, my gaze still on Duke as I pay attention to the car he's getting into. I make a mental note of the license plate before turning to Jo who's blushing red.

"That kiss was great and all, but don't you think that's moving too fast?" she jokes, but I sense the seriousness in her tone.

"Shit. I should have said more words. “The tentative script is at my house along with all of the production reports. I was working on the contracts last night, but in my rush to get down here this morning, I forgot them at home. We can swing by my place to collect them and head wherever you want after."

"Oh." Relief sighs from her pouty lips. "I guess I can follow you? Did you drive down here? Where did you park?"

I glance up at the skyscraper not too far from us. She turns to see where my line of sight is traveling.

"Impressive." She grins. “I guess I’ll be going with you, then.”

That's the exact reaction I want as I escort her to the top of the Nuvola Scura highrise. The pilot's waiting for us as we hustle under the powerful whirring blades of the helicopter.

White leather seats with gold and wood accents give the interior of the machine a sense of clean comfort. Josephine leans back, relaxing and letting the sound of us fly off to my house on a cliff fill the silence between us.

It lands on the roof of my three-story home. Josephine's face lights up as she stares out at the sea. The drop off isn't steep, but it's a jagged slope; a rough two miles down to a private beach.

"This is gorgeous. It's funny, you know? I drive across the Golden Gate Bridge all the time and see the houses on this cliff side. I can't believe I'm actually standing on one."

"Come, let me give you the tour." Josephine's hand feels small in mine as I lead her around the house. "The garage and helipad are at street level. We can take the elevator down to the two other floors."

The kitchen, office, and entertainment spaces are on the middle level. My bedroom, the guest bedroom, workout area and infinity lap pool on the lowest level. I take her into my office, which is the most impressive room in the house to me. Large windows let me watch ships and waves, while one wall of beige and red bedrock shows the ingenuity of my build team. She runs her hands over the exposed stone of the mountainside.

"How did you do this?" She asks, peeking around the edges of the exposed wall.

"The house has to be anchored into the bedrock of the mountain. Lots of dynamite, steel and an incredible team of engineers." I sort through the pages on my desk. The room's not as clean as I'd like it to be, but the clutter doesn't seem to bother Josephine.

"Is this movie really going to happen?" Josephine blurts out, ending our tour and getting right back to business. It’s a pity. I’d love to see her in my bedroom.

"It is. I think we can go over the script and tweak it to make this a short film. It can be a prequel to the Darkness at Dusk film."

"That's the role I read for yesterday, right? How can the Starlight movie be a prequel if I'm in both films?"

"I've been thinking about that. The premise of Starlight is a siren's revenge on men. Darkness is a story about a zombie uprising. We can say that the men drowned by the siren are the zombies attacking everyone in the movie you read for. Your role as Amber will be to see the aftermath of her drowned victims and inevitably fall victim to her own prejudice and judgment."

"So, no love story?" She frowns but shrugs her shoulders. "That's fine. It's going to be a great movie. Where do I sign up?"

"I thought you'd have more questions. I have Gina, my sister, working on the daycare angle. We have a few people on staff who can use something like that on the studio lot."

"Your sister?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, the Brisco in the company’s name is for Gina Devlin-Brisco. She manages the administrative side of the studio while I oversee the production of our projects. Here's the script. Now, I warn you, it's very rough."

She smiles, taking the pages from me, thumbing through a few, and snickering at others. "This is rough. Who wrote this? Your death will be as sweet as your desire to hurt me. What on earth is that?"

I squint, trying to remember what part of the story that is, when it flicks in my head. "That's the scene when Cadence and the guy…I forget his name, meet and go to a motel to hook up. She's about to put him under her spell, but there's something different inside his thoughts."

"She can read minds?"

"She can only read the mind of her victims right before she sings her death song to them. It's like a year in review for her to justify her actions. But when she reads his memories, she sees the reason behind his crimes. He's not like the others. You want to run the scene real quick? We can make notes on how to change it."

My pulse races because the siren's death song to men comes with fade-to-black sex scenes. She kills them in the middle of the act, distracting them as she uses her paranormal abilities to drown them in bed. I pull out another copy of the script, confirm the page, and look at her to start.

Josephine scans the next few pages. Her eyes widen as a seductive smirk spreads across her face. She reads the first line. "Your death will be as sweet as your desire to hurt me."

"I don't want to hurt you, Cadence." I perform the lines as if the scene's real.

"Of course you do. You want to hurt me like you've hurt all the others. I've seen you there, there in the destruction, in the aftermath of the lives you’ve shattered." Josephine hums slightly as the script calls for the death song to begin.

I step closer to her, following the direction of the scene. My arm slides around her waist, pulling her into my body and spinning her to press her back against the wall. "Whatever you're doing to me, stop it. Stop this right now, Cadence. You can't take this from me."

Josephine breaks the scene. "She's assaulting him?"

"She's also going to murder him, so it's on par for the character. Josephine, this isn't a romance. She's not the sweet innocent type who gets a happy ending. She's a serial killer who can change into a killer mermaid. I'm sorry. Is that going to be too much for you to portray on screen? We can put clauses in your contract pertaining to nudity, sexual content and perception depending on how we reshape the character."

"No, it's fine. I'm a professional. I've never had this much power over anyone let alone a man. It's hard for me to picture any guy letting me do this to them."

"Do it to me," I tell her.

She grins. "Ha, ha, very funny, Luca. The scene is fade to black, but you want me to assault you? Like now, in real life?"

"Yes. I mean, it's not going to be completely like the script because you don't have a lethal singing voice?—"

"You've never heard me in my concert shower series."

I shake my head, chuckling to myself. "Josephine, I want you to feel that power so you have a source to draw on for this role. It's going to strengthen your talent as an actress and we can stop at any point. It's up to you."

"What am I allowed to do to you?"

"Cadence is a siren, nearly a century old but she never ages. Imagine what she's been witness to as a woman observing the history of humankind. Hell, think of what you've been through, Josephine. What's something you'd like to do to me or anyone?"

"Choke you?" Her eyebrow arches.

My eyes drop to the size of her hands and I nod. She'll never get enough leverage to do any real damage with her fingers alone. I take her by the hand, leading her downstairs to my bedroom. The dark slate tile floors are perfect for withstanding the ocean air when I open the doors to my balcony. It wraps around to the pool and workout room, curving with the shape of the cliff side.

"You're in charge, Josephine. Tell me what to do."

"Take your clothes off," she commands.

I smirk, silently undoing the clasp of my watch and emptying my pockets onto the nightstand. I step out of my pants and toss my shirt onto a cream leather armchair facing the view. Standing in front of her, wearing nothing but my boxers, Josephine pads across the room.

"Can I slap you?" she asks. I can see the power waiting to burst free. She needs this and perhaps the exercise will help me get her out of my system before things go too far.

"How about this? You can slap me, scratch me, punch me, choke me, touch me anywhere on my body that you want. Take what you want. I won't let you tie me up, but if things get too intense, I'll tap you on the shoulder or say, ‘starlight’. Okay?"

"Sounds good."

"Good. Let's begin, Josephine."

She closes her eyes, but when she blinks back open, there's something different inside of her gaze. Darkness; the lust in her power over me engulfs her energy as she reaches up to stroke the side of my face. Her hand is only there briefly before sliding around to the back of my head where she pulls my hair.

I wince under the pain, but I can't stop the surge of desire coursing through my body. Josephine's into it, her pupils dilating from the high of commanding me. She yanks me by the hair to drag me onto my knees, putting me face-to-face with her crotch.

"Take my jeans off, Luca." I reach to undo them when she yanks me back, slapping me gently across the cheek, and saying, "Carefully."

I try not to show my amusement, staying in the moment. The soft scent of her arousal mixing with a delicate aroma of cherries and lavender greets me as I reveal her lace-clad pussy. My mouth waters being this close and wanting nothing more than to cover her mound with my lips.

"Stay." Josephine says with authority as she walks over to the bed, facing the view and sitting on the edge. "Crawl to me."

I do as she tells me, crawling on my hands and knees until I'm sitting in front of her like a dutiful sexual servant. Apprehension creeps into her expression. I take a moment to reassure her. "Anything you want, Josephine. I'll do anything you want."