The water beat against her shoulders, loosening tension that Luca massaged out days ago. Just as she stepped back under the water it turned icy cold. Unaware of Luca’s presence, La’Nova jumped back from the water like it scorched her.
Luca leaned one shoulder against the doorframe. The small black remote balanced easily in his palm. Steam rolled out of the bathroom in soft clouds as he continued to press a button without hesitation, making the temperature shift to extreme cold. La’Nova’s scream cut through the steam as her body reacted before her mind could catch up. Jets that she hadn’t seen embedded in the stone walls shot out iced water.
She gasped and hit the shower glass as her breath stuttered.
“Breathe, Nova baby,” he whispered out.
Luca was amused and turned on seeing La’Nova panic in the cold water. Her heart-shaped face made his heart thud in his chest as she squirmed uncomfortably.
“Breathe? Nigga you want me to breathe in this bitch and the water is literally biting at my skin?! Let me the fuck out!” She yelled.
She frowned at him covering her back as the water continued to pound at her back. Luca chuckled lightly as he eyed her with amusement. He stepped closer to the glass and pressed his hand to it calmly.
“Don’t fight it, embrace it.” His whisper carried over the jets.
Before he came to entertain La’Nova, he drunk two cups of his favorite hot tea. Luca even took it a step further this morning by taking three pain relievers to help him exercise his voice box. La’Nova shivered hard, her teeth chattered as her chest heaved,she tried her hardest to fight against the coldness. It was so cold that it burned then numbed every nerve in her body screamed for relief.
“Luca, please.” She shook hard.
Luca’s cold gaze traveled from her pretty fat feet, up her legs to her thick thighs then stopped at her belly. It was a crime to him how beautiful and rare La’Nova looked.
“This,” he whispered then gestured to the cold water. “Forces your body to focus. It’ll tighten the blood vessels, sharpen your awareness, and pull you out of panic and into present.” His eyes followed her movements with expectation for her to understand the lesson that he was trying to teach her.
“Your heart races, your breath shortens… but if you stay still and slow your breathing, your body will learn fast.” He paused and cleared his throat.
When he felt no pain, he smirked. Luca wouldn’t express how proud of himself he was at being able to talk for a longer stretch of time without excruciating pain. The pain was faint but still manageable.
“Let me the fuck out right now!” La’Nova gritted out with soap gliding down her luscious body.
Her heart slammed into her ribs as she tried clutching the glass door. She touched all over it, trying to find a point that would grant her access out. She shot Luca a deadly look as she gave in a little and accepted her current fate. Despite her being pissed to the max, she took in his full appearance.
He looked damn good, dressed simply in a charcoal button-down shirt tucked neatly into tailored black slacks. His sleevesrolled just enough to show his tatted forearms. A leather watch hugged his wrist and his scent dominated the soft vanilla and lavender suds that rested against the shower floor.
Her eyes fell on his thick lips as he licked them seductively then down to the thick long bulge in his slacks.
“Eyes up here, Nova baby,” he whispered, snapping her out of her trance.
She snapped her eyes back up at Luca, slightly embarrassed that he caught her ogling him. When he had her attention, he continued to speak before she could get a word in.
“Calm isn’t something you wait for; it’s something you have to choose over and over.” He lifted the remote slightly so she could see it. “Throughout today, when things tighten, when your nerves jump and you feel on edge… I expect you to remember this feeling. I expect you to remain grounded, follow my lead so you won’t lose yourself to whatever negative emotions you feel.” He warned her.
“Understand?” Luca took a step back and waited for La’Nova’s answer.
He didn’t plan on turning her shower water cold at first. When he stepped into his room and was hit with the strong smell of cigarette, the idea came to him then. He had a lot planned today that consisted of the both of them spending a lot of time together. If La’Nova was going to be his wife he would have to expose the good, bad and ugly. There was no sweet way of showing her his demonic side. That side would arrive by night fall and she would have no other choice but to accept him for who he truly was.
There were a lot of layers to La’Nova Reign. The cigarettes, her hands shaking randomly whenever her nerves got the best of her. Luca went inside of her camper this morning and took in the neat precise way she colored. Then there was her connection to Kentrell. While he wanted her to trust him, he couldn’t trust her until he knew everything attached to her and about her.
While she had a beautiful aura attached to her, Luca could still see the darkness that made her gray eyes look dangerous. He wouldn’t ask her for answers, he planned on waiting to see those actions through actions. Once she started to trust him, she’d talk more and reveal everything he needed to know. Today would be the start of that. He had a lot on his hands between the twins and La’Nova. Unbalancing either was not an option.
He didn’t mind La’Nova smoking but refused to deal with her chain smoking all throughout the day. It was clear to him that La’Nova needed better self-control. Luca planned on getting to the bottom of whatever made her nerves bad enough to make her smoke the way she did.
“I don’t understand shit, but I guess Luca. You brought me inside of your house. Undressed me, made me sleep in your bed. I’m confused as hell and don’t like feeling this way,” La’Nova expressed truthfully.
Luca heard everything she said and appreciated her honesty and boldness. Most women would have struggled to cover themselves from feeling uncomfortable standing behind a shower glass naked and wet. Luca’s stomach grumbled from hunger; he wanted to devour her. His mouth watered as he imagined himself drying her wet body with his tongue. The sight of her made him want him impatient to get her to fully submit to him.
He stayed up all night, watching her chest rise and fall. Just the closeness of her made him feel content and calm. The feelings she gave him was something he wanted to claim since he knew he needed some form of peace. Not wanting to see her suffer from the cold water although he still felt like she needed it, he pressed a button on the remote.
Heat rushed back through the pipes, chasing away the last bite of cold. La’Nova groaned openly, then made a sound of pure relief. Her shoulders dropped as she stepped back beneath the stream. The hot water slid over her skin, loosening what the shock had tightened; it calmed her nerves until her body remembered how to be soft and relaxed again.
