“You might not approve of his line of work,” Dom said as he focused on me again. “But Lucas looks after people he cares about. You are one of those people, by the looks of it.”
I felt the blush burning my skin again and rolled my eyes, but Dom may have been more observant than I gave him credit for.
“We barely talk,” I said to him.
“But you can cut the tension with a knife,” Dom replied with a smirk. “Tell me you don’t want a piece of that ass.”
“Dom!” I must have turned a few shades darker.
“You don’t want a bad boy?” he asked me casually.
The type of bad boys I used to crush on were the ones who interrupted class and smelled of cigarette smoke. Lucas was in a completely different league. Lucas wasn’t just bad, he was dangerous.
I let out a nervous laugh and admitted, “Lucas is attractive.”
I wasn’t blind. The man looked after himself and his take no shit attitude was bound to get any woman hot under the collar. But he was also arrogant and cold. Not only that, but Lucas's work was shady and highly questionable in the eyes of the law. Not something any sane person would want to get themselves caught up in.
“You’re telling me,” Dom agreed.
“But,” I started. “There’s nothing there and there never will be.”
Because there couldn’t be. It would be ridiculous to even entertain the thought. And yet, the memory of his lips at the base of my neck blossomed vividly in my mind. Maybe it would work in a different life where we were different people under different circumstances but that wasn’t our reality.
Dom shook his head at me and looked disappointed. “You’re too quick to write him off, Mia. You should try to get to know him.”
It was already late by the time we got back to the house and Dom helped me carry the bags up to my room. It had been nice to have a small speckle of normality in the form of shopping when my life had been anything but recently.
“How about you go and try on my gifts?” Dom suggested.
“You’re finally going to let me see what you got me?”
He held the bag out and I took it from him.
“I’ll wait here,” he said, dropping onto the end of my bed. I left him there and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind me.
Pushing the cream tissue paper aside, I pulled out the gifts Dom had bought, and my jaw dropped. There was an array of lace, silk and leather. These were things I never would have chosen for myself.
“Dom! What the hell are these?!” I yelled through the door, fingers brushing over the intricate ivory lace of a bodysuit that would leave little to the imagination. I could hear him laughing from the other side. “You’re an idiot!”
“Stop being such a prude and try something on,” he called back to me.
I pull out a silk dress that would barely give me any modesty. “I’m never going to wear these!”
“Luc might appreciate them.”
I blushed at the thought. I would be mortified if Lucas ever caught me in something like this. Ifanyoneever caught me in something like this. I rummaged around for the least revealing thing I could find and started to pull it on.
Chapter Seven
Lucas
It had taken longer than I would have liked to have everything signed off, but there was a sense of satisfaction as the ink dried on the paper. A celebratory drink capped off business for the day so I could finally make my way home.
I’d never been eager to walk back into the house after a day of work, but dinner with Mia, now that we had finally been able to get through conversations without arguing, had become a highlight. The conversation didn’t flow as easily as I would have liked. She tried to ask about work but I was reluctant to let her know anything other than the bare basics. It would be a shame to have to silence her permanently, but that was a potential possibility when she didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut.
That wasn’t the only reason that conversation had been strained. Mia had found her way into my thoughts whenever there was a lull in my day. I’d found myself wondering about the mysterious ink she could not show me and longing for the warmth of her bare skin against mine. I couldn’t act on those impulses, no matter how strong they had become, because Mia was purely business.
Regardless, I found myself climbing the stairs to see her. I told her to have dinner without me, but it was a part of my routine and something felt misplaced since I hadn’t seen her this evening.
