“Maybe you need rest, Luca. Serenity will become your wife and stand by your side. Please.” Lucille swallowed down bitterly, her eyes shut for a beat before she reopened them. “Go to the estate, eat good, shower, and rest,” she said with finality in her tone.
“I decide what I need.”He signed sharply.“She. Will. Be. My wife.”
Lucille’s lips parted, then pressed together. She glanced over at La’Nova, then back at Luca. La’Nova’s eyes jumped from Lucille to Luca with curiosity. La’Nova could feel it in her bones that her boss and son was in some type of debate about her. She wantedno parts and secretly hoped that Luca wasn’t trying to cause her any problems, especially concerning her damn job.
“She works for me, she is not like the other women here at House of Angels?—”
“Good, she’ll be mine.”He cut Lucille off by signing immediately. His index finger pointed over at La’Nova before he signed again. La’Nova held her breath as she eyed Luca intently.
“Mine.”He mouthed the words with no sound.
La’Nova read his lips and snorted out an incredulous laugh. She thought she had to be seeing things and read his lips wrong.
“Hold up,” she said, voice laced with annoyance. “I don’t know what kind of silent power meeting this is.” She moved her fingers mockingly, which was a huge sign of disrespect. “But, I have to go. Lucille, please have a word with Roy. The complaints are piling up on my desk. He needs better self-control. These women aren’t here to stroke his shrimp dick of an ego.” She nodded her head and turned to take steps toward the door but was halted in her steps by the feel of Luca’s rough fingertips grabbing her arm.
Quickly, she snatched it away, heart beating wildly in her chest. She realized quickly that she didn’t snatch her arm away because Luca was out of line by touching her. She snatched it away because his simple soft touch did something to her immediately. It heated her core and warmed her soul. It was a feeling she never experienced, not even when she was intimate with Kentrell.
His touch held weight, it made her hands stop shaking, and her breathing became labored. He aggressively tossed his head back, making most of his dreads fall behind his rugged, handsome face. Up close, his eyes were darker than she expected.Underneath his eyes were heavy bags, darkness weighed down with burden and sleepless nights.
Luca studied her like he was recalculating something. He inhaled her breath and the rest of her body scent. She made him feel high, made him momentarily forget how he was just pissed off seconds ago from his mother’s words as he stood toe to toe with her short frame.
Slowly he signed to her and moved his lips as La’Nova’s eyes zeroed in on the deep scar right above his Adam’s apple. His scar caved in deep, and on the sides of his scar was black angel wings flared out beautifully with smoke etched behind them. At the top of the scar was a handle to a sharp blade that disappeared inside of his scar. The tip of the blade rested neatly on top of his chest where the scar stopped. La’Nova felt a strong urge to reach out and touch it but resisted. She balled her fist at her sides then focused on Luca, trying his best to sign and move his lips so she could understand each word he delivered.
“You. Will. Be My Wife.”
La’Nova read his lips and again assumed that she read them wrong. A small frown creased between her thick arched brows as she smiled nervously. She shook her head no, in case she did read his lips correctly.
I know this nigga not asking me to be his damn wife… he really is nutty.She thought to herself.
“My. Wife…” Luca cleared his throat. “You’ll be mine.” His jaw clenched tightly. His whisper came out hoarse as hell.
The sound of his voice startled her. It sounded broken, scarred to no repair but impossible to ignore. La’Nova’s stomach dropped at the same time Lucille’s dropped. She stared at herson with realization dawning on her too late. This wasn’t a suggestion nor a negotiation. Luca Bonetti just made his first move as Don.
As bad as Lucille wanted to control the narrative, she knew that she couldn’t. Her son had chosen La’Nova Reign. Without being told, she already knew that he had his father’s blood pumping through him. He would stop at nothing to make it happen. His persistence in pursuing whatever he wanted would be as strong as his will to find out what happened to his father.
Maybe La’Nova could keep him busy, mind over matter…Lucille thought.
Luca lowered his hand to La’Nova slowly and reached for her face. His fingers hovered for a brief second. He was giving her time to pull away again from him. When she didn’t, his fingertips brushed up against her scar softly. La’Nova gasped softly then sighed. Chills caused her to shake unintentionally as she looked up into his dark orbs with shock written all over her pretty round face.
The pad of Luca’s thumb traced the long, deep line from the middle of her hairline toward the bridge of her nose. His touch was warm and calloused but held so much reverence. The contact sent a shock through her chest, making her breath catch as she held it in her throat then released seconds later.
She wanted to hate it and even snap at him. But there was some truth to Luca’s touch that lodged painfully in her throat. She loved the way he touched and looked at her scar. Everybody else avoided it over the years. They’d look at her lips move as she talk so they wouldn’t focus on the imperfect part of her face. People called and labeled her ugly and deformed because they were shallow and couldn’t see the beauty in her survival like she saw.
Her scar to her, was a testament of what she had gone through and survived. Luca didn’t touch it like it was a flaw, he touched it like he adored and loved it without even knowing the story behind it. This was a first for La’Nova. Luca actually saw her scar and didn’t look past it but acknowledged it without disgust etched on his handsome, rugged face.
Her hand lifted on instinct before fear or hesitation could stop her. She reached for him. Her fingers found the center of his neck, then brushed over the thick, engraved scar that cut straight down his Adam’s apple. Her touch was lighter than his, but Luca felt it in every cell of his body ignited.
For a moment, time seemed suspended between them. La’Nova felt the overwhelming vulnerability in the air. She didn’t say a word but felt caught in the gravity of Luca’s gaze and the tender way he traced her scar. It was as if the room itself held its breath, waiting to see what would happen next between them.
Luca inhaled her again, as the sensation of her soft silky fingertips brushed along the center of his neck. His scar burned beneath her fingers with raw memory of how it got there. Her touch grounded him and loosened something that had been locked down in the back of his mind for decades. No one touched his throat, not even his parents.
His breathing slowed as her thumb traced the edge of his scar. Her warmth cut through to the cold and numbness he felt. The space around them seemed to narrow. They both forgot about who was witnessing their powerful soul bound exchange.
Lucille’s heart fluttered as she watched two broken people recognize each other without words. Shock rippled through her composed exterior as she witnessed the impossible. Lucaunfolding, showing vulnerability without pulling away and killing La’Nova.
Luca stepped back carefully, putting space between the both of them. He signed purposefully between the two of them and mouthed the words as he delivered them with his hands.
“My wife.”
