Breathless Series - (17 page)

“At least tell him you’re leaving,” pressed Pam. “I’m all for you doing what’s best for your wellbeing, but Lucas strikes me as someone who deserves to know exactly how you feel.”

“He does know how I feel,” Alyssa said, turning to face Pam angrily. “I told him I loved him but he never said it back. All he wants is a living sex doll and my feelings don’t count. I thought that was all I wanted too.
An exciting love affair that I could turn into my next big fantasy romance. But now my heart’s breaking and I still have the chance to walk away with the pieces. If I stay there’ll be nothing left to save.”

Pam nodded with a deep sigh. But just then, her doorbell rang. “That must be Hank to drive us to the airport.” She squeezed Alyssa’s hand warmly. “Somehow, I know this is all going to be okay. If anyone ever deserved a happy ending, it’s you, sis.”

“Thanks, Pam,” Alyssa said with a smile, her thoughts quizzical as she watched Pam leave the room to get the door. Pam’s enigmatic words made Alyssa pause to think even as she wondered how she could ever have a happy ending without Lucas featuring in it.

And then she let out a gasp to see not Pam’s boyfriend Hank walking through the door, but Lucas.

“What are you doing here?” she gasped, her hand flying to her throat as he stood in the middle of the room, as always dwarfing everything around him with his magnetic, overwhelming presence. Before he could reply, Pam returned with a guilty smile on her face.

“Like I said, you both need this last chance to talk things over. I’ll be out getting a coffee,” Pam said, her look apologetic as she met Alyssa’s furious gaze. The door locked behind her and Alyssa once again turned to Lucas who hadn’t taken his eyes off her for one moment. Alyssa’s breath caught in her throat but she quelled any feeling of danger.

“Lucas, my flight leaves in two hours…,” she began tonelessly.

“Plenty of time then to make up your mind if leaving is exactly an option you’d like to take,” he said, advancing a few steps that caused Alyssa to instinctively retreat till he stopped, a slight scowl crossing his brow. “It’s not really fun knowing that each time I turn my back, you’re trying to run away. Did you really think I’d ever let you go so easily?”

Alyssa looked at him and couldn’t shake off the feeling she always had of being in over her head with him. His power, his beauty and masculinity never seemed to wane no matter how many hours she spent around him.

“What do you want, Lucas?” she heard herself ask accusingly, her eyes suddenly snapping as anger returned. “Can’t you see I’m done being your favorite little toy?”

Swift as a jungle cat, he was in front of her and seizing her shoulders. “How many times do I have to tell you I’m not letting you go?”

Tears pooled in her eyes from his harshly possessive tone. “I can’t go on being just your plaything, Lucas. It was never going to be enough for me. But I’ve always known I didn’t stand a chance. I’m not Sara, the one you truly want.”

“That’s crazy,” Lucas bit out, his eyes dark with a fury of his own, “as we speak, Sara’s just days from marrying Ned Grant, the man in her life right now. He was the one she was hurting for when she asked for a few days to spend in my home, needing to get over their recent break-up. She begged for my help, for one last chance so she could make up her mind who she really wanted. I told her it could never be me, and it took those few days to show her that all we could ever be now was friends. When we got back, Ned apologized and proposed. Seeing pictures of her around me made him realize he didn’t want to give her up. Now they’re going to be married.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand,” Alyssa murmured, eyes wide and confused.

“No, of course you don’t,” Lucas said on a hard sigh, before his tone softened as he cupped the side of her face. “To start at the beginning…when I said there were some stuff about Sara I couldn’t share with you, it was this: Sara used to be an addict. Recreational and prescription drugs, cocaine the whole lot. I noticed she liked to mess with a bit of the ecstasy drug when we were together and even though I didn’t touch the stuff, I felt she was old enough to make her own decisions. But as we drew further apart, she went deeper into her habit with the help of some bad connections she made at the club. That’s one of the reasons I blind-folded you the first time I took you there, Alyssa,” he told her with a wry smile. “A part of me was reluctant to let you get too familiar with the club. I didn’t want you showing up there and making friends I didn’t know about or approved of. Not that you’re anything like Sara, which was probably why you appealed to me so much. I saw in you everything she never could be; she always had to be complicated, a drama queen. You, Alyssa, with your sexy exterior and steamy talent mixed in with your sweet, endearing innocence…you slayed me from day one.”

Alyssa blushed, unable to credit the warmth she saw twinkling in his eyes. He must have read the disbelief in her eyes, because he sighed deeply and continued, “I know I’m the worst at showing it. But if you really looked, Alyssa, you could tell that I’m even more entangled in what we share than you can even imagine. Yes, I’m the worst at showing it, call it what you will: self-preservation, my damned pride… But I swore never to let myself be open to attack, not unless I was sure exactly what I was getting into. I wanted no surprises as with Sara, never knowing the problems she had till it was almost too late. She did find help for her addiction though, and a new man, who she met while enrolled in one of those celebrity rehab centers. He’s a former band mate of some big rock group who had a sister in the same clinic where Sara was getting help for her drug habit. But then they had one big fight and Sara was confused whether there was a chance she was making a mistake. She told herself she needed to be sure she was
over me and not jumping on the rebound with Ned. So she thought up the four days at Aspen, just the two of us while she took a break from all that was going on in her life even with her dad who still wanted her to take a leading role in the family business. I knew there was no use in spending all those days together but I had to prove to her it was well over for me too. And during that whole time, we never did anything but talk and she mostly only ever talked about Ned.” Lucas grinned wolfishly. “It didn’t take her long to figure out who really held her heart. By the time she got back, he was waiting, proposal and all. In the meantime, nasty rumors were still going around about me and her and I’m sorry you got caught up in that. I spoke to Erin the other day and she confessed, like I suspected, to sending you a copy of that magazine. She knew how much I’d come to care about you and wanted to burst your bubble, as she put it. Apparently, she’s flying back to the UK to mend her shattered pride and find someone else to sink her vindictive fangs into. She was just someone I allowed myself to be seen with though there was nothing going on really between us. It’s just that, when you told me ‘no’ that first time, after you shared my bed for those few glorious hours – my pride was hurt. And then when I found out you’d started seeing someone you met through your sister Pam…”

Alyssa’s eyes widened to saucers. “How did you know about
Brendan?”

He smirked. “You really think I pushed you right out of my mind the moment you said you weren’t interested? Being the control freak I am, I still kept tabs on you even as I stayed away. Totally inappropriate of me, but I couldn’t just forget all about you. I almost accepted defeat when I realized you’d found a new admirer. That was until we met again at that art gallery and you made it known you wanted to give us a try. Since then, you’ve fulfilled every one of my deepest needs and I’ll be damned if I let you fly off somewhere just to get away from me,” he finally growled, pinning her against his formidably solid frame and kissing her lips before Alyssa could even blink.

He overpowered her with the inflamed passion in his lips which stole away her breath the way his words stole away all reason.
Dare
she believe?
Was there a chance he’d truly cared all along, in his own way? That little meant a whole lot just knowing it was possible. It almost made her want to give up every doubt just to see where it could lead. And yet…

“Don’t go,” he said softly, breaking the kiss to gaze deeply into her eyes. “Stay. You let me teach you so much about submission. I think it’s time I admit there’s a lot I still need to learn when it comes to the emotions department – and only you can show me.” An endearingly boyish grin crossed his handsome face, melting her right to the core while she shivered deep in her belly.

“The first time you said ‘I love you’… I don’t think I let myself believe it,” he said deeply, nuzzling the curve of her collarbone as his arms tightened around her. “Part of me wasn’t ready, while the other half wanted it to be very, very true. I’m sorry I let you go a day doubting how I really feel. I’m not going to make that same mistake if I get one last chance to show I do love you and don’t intend to let you walk out for even a day.”

Alyssa’s gasp was loud with shock, her fingers unconsciously clutching into his lapels. “Lucas…
please. Don’t…don’t make me dream and then dash my hopes just when I’m starting to believe in myself again. I’d just die if you didn’t mean it – if you didn’t really care.”

“I care, Alyssa. Very much,” he growled, his fist tipping her chin so she had to meet his compelling gaze. “That’s why I called Pam up a few days ago, asking what I can do to make you see I’m far from cold-hearted but just need time to understand my own feelings. It was then she told me about your planned trip and
trust me, Alyssa – I almost went berserk thinking my dumb sense of preservation was sending you away. You will stay, wouldn’t you? Because I’m going to use all my powers of persuasion to get my way, you know. Taking ‘no’ for an answer was never my strong point especially when it comes to you.”

“Well,” Alyssa breathed, her eyes dancing while her heart skipped with almost painful joy. “I guess I’ll be open to suggestions. Just what do you have in mind in the hope of convincing me, Mr. Lucas Edge?”

Her smile was playful as she saw his head descend and his lips press close to her ear. His sensuously whispered words made her blush deepen and her pussy walls contract.
Oh shit
, she thought, already moist as he made her know that before the night was through, he’d do things to her body that would be considered illegal in some counties. And then, he promised to make her smile every day for the rest of forever if she only said ‘yes’ to his next question…

Pam found Alyssa’s eyes brimming with joyous tears when she returned and saw a dazzling ring on Alyssa’s engagement finger while Lucas had a huge grin on his face. A smirk of glee crossed Pam’s lips. “Looks like the trip to sunny St. Maarten’s cancelled after all,” she murmured, her own smile beaming as she watched Lucas steal Alyssa’s lips in a kiss that had Pam blushing and deciding maybe she’d go for another trip to the coffee shop – a much
longer one this time…

*

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