Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Elaine

I’ve always been a sneak as well as a liar.

Curious, my mother used to say, before she hated me. I would wander around the family home like a little wisp, exploring places when other people weren’t looking.

I found my sister Vivian’s diary under her bed when she was fifteen. I read about her crush on Roberto Henley from drama group and how he’d grope her after class. I read how she’d talk about naughty things with Rachel Weston at their sleepovers and how they’d plan who they would marry one day. I crept into my mom’s room once and found she had…things in her bedside table drawer. I went through Tinsley’s makeup collection and found she’d borrowed some of Mom’s secret toys.

When Lucian left for a few hours to get supplies, it was time to assuage my curiosity.

I scoped the place out a little when I was sure he’d be well on the road back into New York City. I checked the external doors first. Both locked. Then the windows. Every window had a lock on it. Of course, I could have found something to smash my way through. But I didn’t. I stared out of the window, checking out the shadows in the distance.

I felt like an invader as I made my way upstairs. I kept to the edge of the black metal staircase on tiptoes, like some kind of criminal. It didn’t make a tiny bit of sense since the owner knew full well I’d be snooping my way around.

The landing made a creak that sounded loud. My room, or my box as Lucian put it, was small and dark, even with the daylight shining in. The bathroom was nice, but also small. There were barely any toiletries in the shower unit—just an expensive body wash and shampoo. I was surprised when I opened the mirrored cupboard above the sink. One solitary toothbrush and toothpaste in the holder. It was more casual than I was expecting, propped there neatly.

It was weird to think of it being in Lucian’s mouth. It was weird to think of Lucian using it in his mouth. I couldn’t imagine it—the Morelli monster doing something so basic.

The woman in me wanted to overstep my boundaries in this space when he wasn’t looking, so I did it. I took Lucian Morelli’s toothbrush and ran my tongue over the bristles. It gave me strange shivers. Naughty. It felt a lot less naughty when I used his toothbrush for what it was intended for, then stepped into the shower. The heat was a beautiful relief.

There was a towel over the rack. I wrapped myself up in it snug then headed back out onto the landing. I knew what was waiting for me—the ultimate for a curious girl like me.

Lucian Morelli’s door was the one at the far end. Even his door felt more sinister somehow. More imposing.

It wasn’t locked.

Perhaps that made him a fool, but it wasn’t locked.

His bed was huge in the space. His wardrobe was plain wood but stocked at odds with the rest of the place. It was brimming with clothes, suits that looked insane against such a mediocre backdrop. They smelled of him. Grand. Imposing.

He had an old leather watch in his bedside drawer with some initials on the strap. His handwriting was cursive but masculine, almost calligraphic. It suited him. His pen was fountain and jet black. I scrawled a sample of the ink across my hand. I used to love writing when I was a little girl. At least the handwriting told me something about the man, because the text didn’t. They were stock abbreviations and numbers, scribbled graphs, aborted sentences. It was the shorthand of a very intelligent, very calculating mind.

I felt bizarrely at home in Lucian’s bedroom. I guess because it felt like a home, even in its sparse decor. I wondered just how much time he really spent here and whether anyone knew he ever came. I doubted that somehow.

I didn’t put my panties or my dress back on from the night before.

Instead I pulled one of Lucian’s designer shirts from the hanger. The black richness made me look pale in the mirror when I slipped it on. I liked wearing his shirt; it felt private. I felt close to him in the most mundane of ways. That felt bizarrely close—closer than I’d ever have imagined. In some ways even closer than having his cock in my ass or his breath in my face.

I wondered when I’d see him again. The thought was both terrifying and exciting, a combination I was fast becoming accustomed to. People adapt quickly, don’t they?

I helped myself to some soup, it’s far from a fancy restaurant up in Maine. I made myself a coffee and settled down to a mindless show on the sleek TV that rolled down from the ceiling. I couldn’t focus on it. I was on hyper-alert, heart racing at the thought of a car pulling up in the driveway.

When a car did pull up in the driveway, I leapt up from my seat, a wreck as the nerves ate me up alive.

The monster was silent as he stepped inside and cast his eyes on me. His eyes were as dark as I’d ever seen them. His jaw was as firm as I’d ever known. It was barely dark outside, so he must have come straight here, perhaps leaving before the customary five o’clock. Surprising. I’m sure my expression must have told him so.

“Enjoying my shirt, are you? Taking liberties already.”

I ran my hands down the fabric as he watched me. “Better than an unwashed dress, thank you very much. Some liberties are there to be taken.” I paused, holding my hands on my hips. “Did you expect me to wander around naked all day?”

His answer was simple and straight. “Yes.”

I couldn’t help but smirk. “Sure thing, right. Think this is a fairy tale?”

His smirk was right back. “Hardly. There’s no happy ever after here. More like a tragedy. You’re the innocent girl who falls victim to the monster in human form.”

“A monster who has a decent body wash in his shower at least. Thank you.”

He was on the edge of laughing. I could see it. He didn’t. He cast his jacket on the sofa and headed to the kitchen. I followed him in time to see him flick on the coffee machine. I hoped I’d get one. Manners, at least before he fucked me up for his pleasure.

I felt strangely human in his presence, which was ridiculous given that he was the greatest enemy I’d ever known, right from the day I was born.

“Show me your ass,” he told me. “I want to see the marks.”

I spun for him and lifted the shirt, and then my cheeky side found its strength some more. I shook my butt for him, shooting him a glance over my shoulder.

He was on me in seconds, arm around my throat as he slapped me hard on the ass. “There’s a very fine line between a girl who finds her voice to amuse me and one who is asking for a fucking beating, Elaine.”

I knew that. I managed to nod, and he dropped me.

My cheeky side shriveled to nothing as he returned to the coffee machine. This man was going to be the end of me, I needed to remember that. His amusement was nothing to me. He was nothing to me. Lucian Morelli was fuck all to my Constantine soul, he never would be. Not in the rest of my sorry lifetime.

“Get on your knees,” he said.