“I don’t see why I can’t leave on my own,” she said. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Oh, sweetheart,” I replied, eyes darkening as they trained on her. “I know you aren’t going anywhere, because I know you’re not stupid enough to put your father in danger. It’s other people I don’t trust. You know exactly what kind of business I operate.”
She’d only dealt with me and had one interaction with Dante but there was a wider implication to being a part of this world. I didn’t need her running around causing chaos when she was attached to my name, no matter how temporary that fixture was.
Mia let out a soft sigh and I leaned forward, resting my arms on my knees. In the setting sun, with the fiery spirit briefly dimmed, I was struck again by how perfect she would look in my bed. A swathe of dark hair against the sheets, hooded eyes and lips swollen from her mouth doing more than answering me back.
“Okay,” she said, putting a pin through my thoughts. “I need to meet him.”
“I’ll introduce you,” I told her, pleased that she was receptive to the compromise. I would inform Dom of where she was allowed to go and that he would be held responsible for any issues while she was with him. Maybe Dom would have more luck with keeping her sweet than I did.
“Anything else?”
“I want honesty, Mia,” I said as I straightened up again. “If I ask you something, I don’t expect to repeat myself and I don’t want to find you lying. I think that’s a pretty simple set of rules. It’ll make it easier for you while you live here if you follow them.”
She looked slightly surprised by the last rule. “Sure,” she said finally, agreeing to the terms.
I know that I’d had to clip her wings, but I was not asking for much from her. She needed to comply so that we could avoid the house becoming a battlefield on a daily basis.
“Will you introduce me to Dominic now?” Mia suggested.
I nodded and stood up from the chair. Mia followed, grabbing her book from the seat.
“Ladies first,” I said, gesturing back to the house.
Mia moved past me and stopped abruptly as the book slipped from her grasp. She jerked awkwardly in an attempt to catch it, clutching it against her chest as her shirt slipped off one shoulder, hair swinging wildly from the motion.
I clocked it before she had a chance to adjust her shirt again. My fingers brushed against the skin at the nape of her neck, where in black cursive are the words‘I was not built to break’. I felt her tense at my touch.
“You have ink.” My voice was low as my fingers traced over a few of the letters. I kept my touch light and could see the goosebumps pimple her skin. There was something about a woman who chose to permanently mark herself that made something deep in me wake up. And Mia had chosen such an interesting phrase to carry with her throughout her life. She continued to surprise me with every exchange.
“Yeah,” she breathed the word, but Mia didn’t move away from my touch.
“Do you have any more?”
She shook her head, a barely perceptible motion. “None that I can show you.”
There was a small growl from my throat at the thought of where else she had decorated her skin that she felt she couldn’t show me. The earlier thoughts rushed back into my mind and there was a hunger to inspect every inch of her body until I was satisfied that I knew every secret. I couldn’t help myself as I leaned in, lips brushing against the skin where the tattoo sat, and I could hear the way Mia’s breath hitched before she pulled away from me.
The moment was broken along with the contact and I started to walk. “Dom will probably be in the garage.”
Chapter Six
Mia
It’d been a few days since Luc came home with flowers as an apology and we hadn’t had any heated exchanges since. We’d transitioned into an awkward routine that saw us sit for breakfast and dinner together, while he worked during the day. I occupied myself during the empty hours by talking to the staff that rotated throughout the week but found myself gravitating towards Dom and Lydia, who seemed to have more permanent positions on the Foster schedule.
Even when our paths crossed, Luc kept his distance. Unlike the strange, charged moment we had when he’d spotted my tattoo out on the grounds. He had been gentle, almost tender in the way he had ghosted the skin at the nape of my neck. The vulnerable moment had left me with lingering thoughts of his lips that I batted away as soon as they formed.
“Go out with Dominic today,” Luc told me at breakfast. “Get some clothes. You can’t keep wearing the same thing.”
“I don’t exactly have the money to buy a new wardrobe,” I said to him, rolling my eyes. Moving in with Luc had required me to hand in my resignation. Any illusion I’d had of keeping some level of normality in my life had quickly been shattered by Luc’s iron fist. I was learning to choose my battles.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” he said. “I brought you here, Mia. I’ll look after the basics.” He pushed his chair away from the table and rose to his feet. “Don’t argue. Get what you need. I won’t be back until later tonight so have dinner without me.”
“Why will you be back late?” I asked, curious about what would keep him away. So far, Luc kept to a schedule that made it easier to believe that the whispers were nothing more than wild assumptions and accusations.
Lucas’s features darkened and nerves started to pulse through my system.
