“You done here?” she asked, smiling as he looked at Luca’s attire. “That’s gorgeous.”
Luca looked at Alexei for confirmation.
The man smiled. “We are done. I worked my magic, and he looks like a prince.”
“Excellent. Let’s get your makeup done.”
We started after Luca and Willa, but Alexei halted us with a hand on my arm.
“Take care of him. He is special.”
I nodded solemnly. “We promise.”
“Good.” He wiped his eyes, then continued, “Once he is done with the dog and pony show downstairs, he will need to change back to his other clothes. So if things get too much, you can always come here to hide with me. Oh, and the suits… they will not like his new… accessories.” He gestured at his mouth.
“Thank you for the heads up.” Ben squeezed Alexei’s arm.
We caught up with Luca and Willa at the doors to the hair and makeup department, or whatever it was called.
This time, there were three women fussing over Luca. They made sure his face wouldn’t look shiny and that all makeup would look perfect for his new skin tone. They also gave him black eyeliner and some shimmery silver stuff to highlight his eyelids and his cheekbones.
The hair people were sad and missing his longer hair, but then he chatted with them while another person brought over some silver jewelry and accessories.
He looked stunning by the time they were done with him.
When the time came to get back onto the elevator and down a few floors, Luca wasn’t our Luca anymore. He was the man I’d seen online in interviews and music videos. He was effortlessly charismatic and sensual in a way that made him the rockstar he’d been.
He was everything I’d thought I’d wanted for years before I even met him. But he wasn’tmyLuca, and I couldn’t wait to getmyversion back.
“Okay, here we go,” he said on an exhale when the elevator ticked down another floor. “These people are assholes. Don’t take it personally.”
Willa, who stood in front of us, chuckled, then held her fist to the side for Luca to bump.
Okay, I liked her even more now.
The doors opened, and a couple of suit types were waiting for us.
“Luca! It’s so good to see you!” The older one said, immediately grabbing Luca’s hand to shake it.
“Thorne,” Luca said in a frosty tone, then looked at the other man. “Walt.” He nodded in greeting and shook his hand, too. “Can we get this all over with?”
“Yes, of course. This way.” Thorne gestured with a hint of something frantic in his expression and body language.
“They’re going to try to get him to stay,” Ben murmured to me as we walked several steps behind everyone else.
Shit.Of course they would try to pull something like that.
Before I had time to think about it more, we were at the conference room door. Thorne stopped and opened it, then seemed to realize Ben and I were there.
“Oh… uh….”
“These are my partners,” Luca said in a tone that was still cold as hell. “They are coming in with us.”
“But—”
“Theycouldsit outside, but frankly, they’re werewolves, which means they’d hear everything anyway,” he said in such a deadpan tone that I almost snickered. He wasn’t wrong.
Thorne got even more flustered, and part of it was clearly speciesism. I could see that ever familiar glint in his droopy eyes. “Oh… oh right. Let’s all go in, then.”
