“It’s going okay,” she told her, not wanting to oversell it. “It’s just different, I guess, and you’re not here with me, but I’m doing good. School is keeping me pretty busy.”
“Is everyone treating you nicely?” Elle asked. It was what she was obviously worried about the most.
Chloe pulled her eyes up to Lucca’s face. “Yes, no one is picking on me or calling me a freak here.”
“Oh, thank God.” A weight seemed to lift off her friend. “I was so worried about that.”
“Now it’s your turn to tell me everything. How’s college?”
Chloe listened to Elle tell her everything she had missed and what college life was like for her. She expected Lucca to take the phone away, as he had said only a few minutes, but he didn’t, seeming content with listening to her voice and playing with her hair. Strangely, she found it kind of nice.
“How’s California? Is the weather as nice as it seems?” Elle asked after she caught her up on all her life events.
“Yeah, it’s … um … sunny. The weather is great.” I hope. Not wanting to push her luck for much longer, she decided it was time to wrap it up. “Well, I have an early morning tomorrow—”
“Aren’t you three hours behind? It’s not that late there, I don’t think.” Elle sounded like she was checking the clock on her phone to see what time it was.
Quickly, she tried to think. “Uh … yeah, but I have an assignment to still finish.”
“Oh. Okay. I understand.”
“I’ve really missed you, Elle. It was good to hear your voice again.”
“Me, too. Thank you for calling me. I’ve worried about you so much.” The emotions seemed to come back to her friend.
Chloe bit her lip. “Don’t worry about me. I’m doing good.”
“Promise?”
Pausing, she found it again hard to answer, until Lucca lightly tugged on her strand of hair. “Promise.”
“Okay, I’ll let you get your work done now. Bye, Chloe.” It was obvious how hard it was for her best friend to say good-bye, and she found it equally as hard.
“Bye, Elle.”
She pulled the phone away from her ear and ended the call. It really sucked having to give it back to Lucca, but she was grateful for the time he had given her.
Blue-green eyes slowly started to travel down her scar, making her remember that a debt was to be paid.
“Come closer, darlin’,” Lucca’s voice was dark and melodic.
Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him widen his legs, giving her room to move between them.
Following the voice, she did as he commanded, knowing exactly how he wanted her positioned by instinct alone. Chloe was on her knees now, in front of him, as close to his legs as she could get without touching them. Closing her eyes, her lashes fell to her cheeks, waiting …
Lucca moved his hand, hovering his fingertips over the top of the scar that graced the right side of her face. When the cold, light fingertips touched the top of her scar, she went deathly still.
No one had ever touched her scars. Never had she let anyone touch something that was so personal to her. Now, here she was, letting the most dangerous and frightening man she had ever met touch something that had been given to her by a man just like him.
He ran his fingers ever so gently down her scar that ran from just above her eyebrow until it disappeared right below it. Then he ran it even gentler over her closed eyelid, making it feel as if it was just the wind touching her. When he reached the continuation of her scar right under her lower lashes, he paused.
“Look at me, Chloe.”
Opening her eyes, she looked into his blue-green ones that were gradually beginning to look more green, transfixing her, along with his voice, his presence, his icy yet soft touch.
“I’ve waited for this very moment.” Moving his fingertips, he began again slowly smoothing down her scar. “Dreamed about this moment for the longest eight months of my life. Ever since I first saw you in that shop, looking at the music box.”
“W-We first met in the gazebo …” Her voice trailed off.
“I had been watching you for a week before that, darlin’.” He continued gliding his fingertips up and down her scar. “I was watching Elle’s house when a black BMW dropped her off from school. I had this strong, instinctual feeling to follow, and even though I didn’t understand it at the time, I listened to my gut. I still hadn’t seen your face before I followed you into the shop, but then, when you turned around and I saw your beautiful face, it was like the world stood still. That was when I knew”—Lucca cupped her face, using his thumb to smooth over her scar—“that you were mine.”
Chloe’s mind raced with her heart, trying to comprehend everything he had just told her.
“It was everything I could do not to take you then and there,” he confessed.
But you didn’t, not until several months later … That only made her mind and heart race more.
“Y-You said y-you took me to save me.”
“I did.”
She could feel it then. Something she had been missing fell into place as Drago’s words flew through her mind, We both know what being a real prisoner feels like, Chloe. Then Maria’s, Are you sure you’re being held hostage? And, It’s not what you think. You’re here for a reason, Chloe.
“Why am I here?” she whispered. “Tell me why I’m really here.”
Still caressing her scar, he shook his head. “I can’t tell you, darlin’, not yet.”
“You told me I can ask you anything. I need to know why I’m her—”
“You can, and I will answer anything and everything you want to know, but not this. Not until the time is right.” He pressed his hand deeper into her skin. “I need you to trust me, Chloe. Will you do that for me?”
A sudden feeling came over her as she stared into his intense eyes. She couldn’t understand it. She only knew she believed in it, trusted in it. It was … instinctual.
“Y-Yes.”
“You feel it, too, don’t you?” He didn’t need the answer, because the feeling was shared between them, like a bond.
The feeling had been there since meeting Lucca, just how it had been for him when he had first seen her. She had subconsciously pushed away the intense feeling because it frightened her, yet it only grew stronger the more she was around him.
He smiled. “It took me a week to understand it, darlin’. Let’s see how long it takes you.”
“I-I met you in the gazebo a week later … You bought the music box a week later.”
Lucca nodded.
She was unsure if she ever wanted to know what the feeling meant, more frightened of it now that she knew he felt it, too.
Taking one final swipe across her scar, he released her.
The loss was evident, not only on his face, but in his voice. “You may go to bed now, darlin’.”
Chloe stood from her knees, still in shock of what had taken place. “G-Good night, Lucca.”
“Good night, Chloe.”
The shock never left her body as she left him behind and went upstairs.
In her room, she opened the music box and listened to the beautiful tune, feeling her heart grow heavier, heavier, heavier, while the chains he placed on her body grew lighter, lighter, lighter.
She reached up, touching her scar. The loss wasn’t only felt by Lucca, but by her, too.
Twenty-Seven