He gave a brief nod before leaving, closing the door behind him.
Taking a shaky breath while she looked around the dark room, she held herself tightly at the mere fact of being in the boogieman’s most intimate space. She couldn’t help wondering at what moment her path had led her here, or if this wasn’t her rightful path and she had been stolen off hers to walk down another.
The chains that held her body and mind gripped even tighter.
Lucca waited until he had calmed himself down before leaving his office. He had to let the darkness simmer enough before he could be near Chloe again. Though, he wasn’t entirely sure what he had to calm down from the most: finally kissing her, or Amo finally seeing he wasn’t the man for her. Both had brought the darkness out equally.
Heading toward his bedroom, he passed Drago along the way.
“I took her things to your room. Chloe’s waiting for you there.”
“Thank you.” He nodded his head and then stopped. “There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
Drago paused, turning around to face him.
“Did you break Amo’s hand in hopes that I would think that was punishment enough?” Lucca studied his face, seeing a slight change in his stoic demeanor, which told him he had been right to think that. Drago had known Lucca wasn’t going to let him leave without physical pain.
“It will not happen again,” Drago told him firmly.
“Thanks for doing it for me,” Lucca said from over his shoulder as he continued toward his room, satisfied with Drago’s answer.
“Why?” Drago asked in confusion.
Lucca smiled. “Because now I get to tell Chloe you were the one who hurt him.”
“Fucking asshole,” Drago mumbled under his breath.
Chloe sat alone on the edge of Lucca’s bed, nervously waiting and not knowing what else to do. The door opening had her back straightening, hoping her wait was coming to an end.
When she saw that it was, in fact, Lucca coming in, her back somehow went even straighter.
“You didn’t unpack?” he asked when he saw her bags on the floor, untouched.
Looking down at the hands in her lap, she started wringing them, wanting to scrape her skin off. “N-No. I didn’t know where to put them.”
His hands suddenly appeared on top of hers, stopping her from the damage she wanted to inflict. “You’ve been good about not doing this all month. Is it because of him, or because I moved you here?”
Biting her lip, she wanted to blame it on having to sleep in here with him, but truthfully, she had started wringing her hands when Amo had come for her.
“Did you hurt him?” she whispered.
“Drago broke his hand—”
“He did!” she exclaimed more than asked, her eyes shooting up to his.
He gave her hand a squeeze. “Yes. His hand will heal, though. It’ll be fine.”
“That wasn’t very nice of him.” Chloe relaxed a bit. She supposed she had hurt him way more than Drago had. I broke his heart … again.
A smile tugged at Lucca’s lips. “You’ll have to tell him that, darlin’.”
“I’ll think about it.” Drago still scared her from time to time.
The hands that covered hers now moved in a light, soothing motion over her palms.
“Thank you for letting him go,” she told him.
“You’re welcome.” Keeping one hand on her hands, he lifted the other to swipe her hair behind her ear so she couldn’t hide her face from him. “You know, if he does anything like he did again, there will be no saving him,” he warned her, promising her she wouldn’t be able to help him next time.
Swallowing, she could barely get the words “I know” out.
He was making it very obvious how possessive and protective he was of her. A part of her secretly appreciated it—needed it after all she had been through—never having to worry about being touched by anyone other than him.
Amo was the only one she was worried about Lucca’s protectiveness hurting.
Reaching into his pocket, Lucca pulled out her cell phone, placing it in her open palm.
Looking up at him, she couldn’t believe it. “Y-You’re giving it back to me? Why?”
“Because I want you to know that I trust you just as much as you trust me, darlin’.” Leaning down, he placed a kiss over the top of her scar. “And I’m tired of pretending to be you every time Elle texts.”
Chloe giggled, trying to imagine him texting Elle as her. “I’m sure I’ll have fun reading over the texts you sent her.”
“Well, I just used a bunch of emojis, really.” He laughed with her, twirling a piece of her hair around his finger. “Be sure to use the black heart one. I used that one a lot.”
“Why the black heart?”
He tugged on her strand playfully. “Just seemed like one you’d like.”
Smiling, she finally began to fully relax.
He let go of her hair, letting it fall to her chest. “Go get ready for bed, darlin’. You can unpack your things tomorrow.”
Tensing right back up, she got off the bed and went to her bags, quickly pulling out the things she needed. She was thankful that her thickest fleece pajamas were clean. They also covered her whole body, which she was the most thankful for.
Her nerves were getting the best of her as she then went into his bathroom and started getting ready for bed. She liked her showers in the morning, so she found herself hoping that was okay with him, since she was sleeping in his bed.
Once she was ready and done with the bathroom, she found herself staring at the door, her nerves racking throughout her body, frightened to sleep beside the boogieman.
It’s going to be okay. He won’t hurt me. She kept repeating those words in her head, trying to muster up enough courage to open the door.
When she had pushed it off for long enough and an ounce of courage had been mustered, she opened the bathroom door.
When she walked out of the bathroom and into the dark room, relief washed over her, beyond grateful when she noticed Lucca was already fast asleep on his side of the bed. Then she found herself staring at the sleeping, haunting man for a few moments, seeing he wore his normal black T-shirt, the covers only coming up to his hips as he slept on his back, thinking how beautiful he looked, even in his sleep.
Lucca was a handsome man. She always thought that was what made him so deadly.
Quietly and carefully, she went to the other side of the bed and crawled in ever so slowly. She was so afraid of waking him as she gently pulled the covers over her. Then she positioned herself as far away from Lucca as she could possibly get, clinging to the edge of the bed.
It definitely felt awkward to be in his bed, with him only a foot away, and was even painful at first as she tried to get comfortable in a bed she hadn’t slept in before. However, exhaling deeply, she was finally able to relax. And when she snuggled the blankets around her more tightly, the smell of the room soothing her, she found comfort … soothing to her soul …