Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Lucian

Iwas on my own from here on in. No Morelli backdrop to give me control of any situation I turned my attention to, just me, on the run with the woman I loved.

I’d never have believed I’d be in this position in a million years.

I only prayed that Wesley Dale would be brave enough and far enough outside of our social circle to hold true to our deal. Without fake IDs and plane tickets, we would be royally fucked. I didn’t have my cell anymore to contact him, either. We’d just have to turn up at the meeting point tomorrow and hope he’d make it.

Elaine let out a moan as I left her side after stroking her back for an age as she lay against me. She was wrapped up in her friend’s dressing gown when she followed me through to the living room.

It was a relief to see her bandage had held firm. Chest accepting the wound and making its roads to fix it. Still, I’d never forget it.

I’d never forget how dangerously close I’d come to losing her, and watching them hurt her beyond recovery.

I was also perfectly aware of the fact that we were only at the beginning of our travels and struggles. They’d be coming for us again, and at some point they’d find us.

At some point I’d have to win the fights all over again.

“Does your friend have a laptop or a tablet here?” I asked her, and she nodded.

“Yeah, I think so.”

She disappeared back into the bedroom with barely more than a wince and a hand on her ribs this time, then reappeared with a tablet and charger. I plugged it in, glad that it connected straight up with her internet.

My finances hadn’t been seized by my father, not yet, so I used the opportunity to transfer my current balance through three different bank accounts, obscuring it from view to anyone looking. I made sure to safeguard my personal investments and cash reserves, protecting my personal wealth as well as I possibly could, even though I was soon to be removed from the Morelli business empire.

I smashed the tablet to pieces after I’d used it, just like I’d done with my cell.

Elaine stared at the cases in front of us as I opened one of them up to check the contents. Plenty of cash, just a shame we wouldn’t be able to use the bulk of it. “We won’t be able to take that cash with us on the plane, will we?” she asked, reading my mind. “Not without people asking some serious questions.”

“No,” I said. “We won’t. Not the guns, either.”

She nodded, and then she managed to smile. “In that case, can I leave some of the cash here with a note for Jemma? I can’t even imagine how happy that would make her.”

I loved her generosity, despite the absolute insanity of what was going on around us. “Yes,” I told her. “You can leave some of the cash here with a note for Jemma. Be my guest. Maybe she’ll use it to save a bunch of whales and plant some more trees in a rainforest.”

“That’s not so much of a joke as you think it is,” she said. “She’ll likely use the whole load of it to save a bunch of whales and plant some more trees in a rainforest. She wouldn’t accept any money from me usually, but if it’s here with a note, I think she’ll take it. I mean, she can’t not, right? I’ll say I’m paying her for the clothes I’ve stolen and the tablet you just smashed up. She’ll at least likely buy some more jeans before she devotes her money to saving the planet.”

I adored the happiness in her eyes and her sweet little giggle. “Speaking of more jeans,” she added. “I’d better pack some clothes.”

She was still looking through her friend’s wardrobe once I’d finished scanning through my suitcases and headed through to join her. She was holding up clothes hangers and pressing the clothes against herself in front of the mirror in the corner. The outfits were nothing I’d expect Elaine Constantine to ever be dressed up in. Cheap twenty-buck dresses, like some eco warrior would be twirling around a campfire in. Cheap jeans and underwear which would never be seen anywhere in our world. Still, they all looked just fine against the goddess.

It was also a good thing she’d be wearing them. She would stand far less chance of being recognized in the airport with that shit on.

“I’ll tie my hair up in one of her bands,” my sweetheart told me and fastened one in her curls to demonstrate.

Yes, she looked anything like Elaine Constantine with her hair bound up messily like that.

“If we make it through, things will get a little bit easier, but it’ll still be tight,” I said to her. “It’ll still be one hell of a mission to survive this chaos, but we’ll stand a much better chance at least.”

She nodded. Smiled. “Pray to God we do. I would love to be staring out from the London Eye with you and looking at the city lights.”

The idea gave me a strange little tickle in my gut. A sappy sense of utter affection I thought I’d never feel. Part of me felt like a loved-up little wimp of a teenager, besotted with his first girlfriend or some shit like that. Although technically Elaine Constantine was my first girlfriend, I supposed. I hadn’t ever been interested in a relationship with anyone else. I hadn’t ever even considered loving anyone else the way she’d managed to snare my soul. I’d just used women and hurt women and fucked them senseless as I wanted to.

I drank water while Elaine sipped at coffee as the night carried on. The tension was palpable as we counted down the hours, even when we slipped into her friend’s bed and attempted some vague notion of sleep.

It sure as fuck didn’t come easy. I stared at the ceiling while she tossed and turned beside me, every sense on high alert. Only Trenton Alto knew I had keys to this place. I wondered if he’d conveniently forgotten about it, for now at least. Luckily, nobody came for us. The sun came up in the morning and the streets sounded out with car horns and voices, and we were still alive and breathing.

Elaine managed to climb on top to straddle me before we got out of bed. Her eyes were pools of tired beauty as she stared down at me, running her hands over my chest.

“I never thought I’d be sitting on top of Lucian Morelli in Jemma’s apartment at six a.m. in the morning.”

“Me neither,” I said.

She cast a glance over at the doorway. “Shall we turn on the TV, see what’s happening out there?”

I shook my head. “Most definitely not. Any news won’t be good news.”

“Good,” she said, lifting up on her knees and reaching for my hard cock. “My turn to fuck you.”

I couldn’t help but smile as she rode me tenderly…slowly…carefully…couldn’t help but fuck her back as she rode me. Couldn’t help squeezing her tits hard when she came. “Fuck that’s nice,” she said, my cock still spurting inside her.

“So nice,” I said, stroking her pretty face.

“You look so out of place in here,” Elaine commented when I stepped back out, and there was a pretty little smirk on her face, even through the chaos and fear. “I mean you looked pretty out of place at the house, but this is a whole other league.”

“You’re reading my mind,” I said, and that smirk stayed bright on her.

“Maybe we really are star-crossed lovers after all. Our minds and hearts, in alignment.”

I was coming close to actually believing her.