Soulless: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Starcrossed Lovers Trilogy Book 2)

by Jade West

  I had no real idea about the monster above me or who the hell or what the hell he really was. I had no real idea who I was, not with all my shattered pieces jarred together, and I didn’t want to know.

  I didn’t want to know anything.

  “I should just finish you off right now,” he said, but his voice was different somehow.

  Yeah, he should. He really fucking should.

  I’d been feeling like I wanted to take my final breath for months now, cycling the thoughts over and over. Lucian Morelli should take it. He should fucking take it.

  That’s when he pressed himself back down onto me, his breaths hot in my face.

  “I loved pulling the wings from butterflies when I was a boy,” he said. “I’ll enjoy pulling yours from you.”

  “I’m not a butterfly,” I told him. “I’m a caterpillar in a cocoon who’s never been free, rotting from the inside.”

  “I’m rotten from the inside,” he whispered, then licked his tongue flat and wet up my cheek.

  I felt him shuffling, and I knew what was coming. He was going to do it, positioning himself between my legs just right. Holy shit, my clit was still hurting from his slap.

  His fingers squirmed against my panties, tugging them to the side. I heard him unbuckle his pants, shuffling some more to pull them down.

  Lucian Morelli’s hips were bare against mine. His cock was hot and hard. He was going to do it . . . Lucian Morelli was going to take my virginity . . .

  “Yes . . .” I managed to gasp. “Do it . . . be the man who truly makes me his . . .”

  “You’re mine, Elaine Constantine,” he snarled. “Believe me, I’ll be the man who truly makes you his. I own every dirty little scrap of your soul.”

  I braced myself. I held my breath. My body was ready. Ready. Ready.

  Yes . . .

  But no.

  Just like that, the moment was shattered by the screech of his cell from the other room.

  He paused, braced, staring down at me like I was a piece of meat he was ready to butcher.

  It was clearly someone important to be calling Lucian Morelli at midnight on his personal cell.

  It seems he came to the same conclusion.

  “You’d better stay the fuck still for me,” he said and raised himself back up.

  He pulled up his pants and headed away. My breaths were ragged as I watched him leave.

  Predictably, I didn’t stay still. I got to my feet and inched closer to the doorway, stepping up to the hall. I could hear him pacing around in the other room, barking out one side of a conversation.

  What the fuck? Now? It can wait until morning. I mean it, Alto. It can wait until morning . . .

  The front door was standing tall before me. I guess it was basic human instinct that wanted me to make a dash for it. I nearly did it. I nearly opened that door and ran.

  I heard Lucian curse as he stomped his way back down the hall. He looked frustrated, raging at something that wasn’t a Constantine. Wow. It was a bizarre phenomenon.

  “I need to go,” he told me. “Idiots and fools.”

  My breath caught as the potential reality truly dawned.

  Maybe he really would finish me off before he left. Maybe my final breaths would be nothing beyond a broken neck in the middle of Kington Peak.

  As usual with Lucian Morelli, he surprised me.

  He led the way upstairs without so much as a look behind him. I was still hovering at the bottom of the staircase when he shot me an aggravated stare.

  “One of the most basic fundamentals of being a servant is following the fucking master,” he barked, and for once his rage was spitting in a way that wasn’t at me.

  I didn’t bother bitching at him, not this time, just followed him upstairs meekly with barely more than a scowl.

  There was no point arguing.

  He was holding the door open at the far end of the landing. Inside was a room with a bed and a bedside table and very little else.

  I already knew the door had a lock on it when I stepped over the threshold. I already knew this was going to be my prison until he showed up again as he set me in his evil stare one more time.

  “Enjoy your fucking cell,” he told me, then left me in the dark.

  I heard the key in the lock.

  Weirdly, being alone in this space scared me just as much as he did.

  Once his footsteps had left me behind, I finally let myself cry.

  6

  Lucian

  I loved driving, but it rarely happened anymore. I was always too busy, with too many drivers waiting on my command. It was a surreal thing to start up my Mercedes from the garage at Kington Peak and head back into NYC. The world was usually a blur of city life to me outside the windows, removed from my engagement, but not tonight. Tonight I was amongst it, senses tuned in to the thrill.

  Alto was waiting for me at my City Central suite. I pulled into the underground parking bay and headed right on up to level thirty-two, giving my nod to security on level thirty-one via the security cameras in the elevator.

  I’d spent so much fucking time thinking about little bitch Elaine that I’d forgotten just how much like Terence Kingsley I looked tonight. Alto raised his eyebrows as I met him at the doorway, clearly noticing.

  “Hey there, Terence,” he said, but I didn’t join in with his laugh.

  I opened the door and stepped in, not looking back as I stepped on through to the lounge and the glow of the city lights through the windows.

  “What the fuck is so important that you want to see me at half one in the bastard morning?” I asked him.

  “News. I didn’t want to tell you on your cell, but there’s been some pretty crazy shit going down. About Elaine Constantine.”

  I turned to face him, keeping my expression deadpan.

  “News?”

  I waited for the tornado of accusations and questions, but they didn’t come.

  “Yeah. The Power Brothers. Looks like they’ve taken her. Shit’s going down.”

  “The Power Brothers?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Fucked up, ain’t it? I mean, people were saying they were gonna bust her up, but nobody really believed it, ya know? Apparently, her mother’s already kicking shit off about it. Gonna be a war.”

  Oh the thrill. I could feel it in my veins, my filthy love of the battle about to go down between such piece-of-shit families. But surely not. Surely the Power Brothers couldn’t be sitting back and taking that kind of accusation.

  I looked back out at the city lights. “How do they know it was the Power Brothers?”

  “Dunno,” he said. “Still got feelers out for the details.”

  That got me frustrated. I was festering with agitation when I stepped up to him and jabbed a finger at his shoulder.

  “You seriously dragged me back here at gone midnight just to tell me that the Power Brothers have grabbed Elaine Constantine from her city center apartment with no further fucking details? It could have waited until morning.”

  He shrugged. “Thought it was pretty major news. You’ve been hunting the bitch down like some kind of stalker. Thought you’d want in on the action as it happened. I’m still waiting on updates.”

  I could see his mind working as he stared up at me, something ticking.

  “If that’s all, you can fuck off,” I told him and gestured him away, but he didn’t move.

  “Say, boss. Where have you been off to looking like Terence Kingsley? Taken a liking to him, have you?”

  “None of your damn business.”

  “Your dad’s already been onto me,” he told me. “He’s keen to know what’s going on. More keen than you are, it seems.”

  The thought flared in me. Of course he would have been keen – trying to rule me out of the Constantine bullshit no doubt.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “Same as I told you. Not a lot, just that the Power Brothers have taken her.” His mind was still ticking. I could almost fucking hear it.
<
br />   “Good for you,” I said. “I’m sure he’s grateful for your outstanding intel.”

  My sarcasm was laced with spite. Spite Trenton Alto was well used to, having been my assistant for twelve years straight.

  “That’s the thing, boss, isn’t it?” he asked, his eyes still weighing me up. “Intel. Seems you have a bit more of it than I do.”

  I got a shiver before I knew what he was talking about, feeling his suspicions through his stare.

  “What are you talking about?”

  He tipped his head, thinking, thinking.

  “How did you know they took her from her city center apartment?”

  “What?”

  “You said it. You said the Power Brothers grabbed Elaine Constantine from her city center apartment. They could have taken her from anywhere. How did you know where they took her from?”

  I kept my eyes cool and calm. “A lucky guess.”

  He didn’t believe me. He knew me too well for that. Once again I realized I should have wiped the fucker out a long time ago. His knowledge was my weakness.

  “She’s rarely in there,” he said. “One hell of a lucky guess, ain’t it?”

  “Spit it out,” I barked at him. “Fuck the hints and talk directly.”

  I stared at my assistant, so much shorter than me with his tough little scowl. I could take him out here and now and be done with it, but I didn’t. It seems that every single one of us has our idiocies, mine was a selfish desire to keep Alto alive to serve me.

  He gestured to my suit.

  “Terence Kingsley, out for the night, knows Elaine Constantine has been snatched from city central . . . some people might ask questions.”

  “Not people who had any fucking sense in them,” I snarled.

  He held up his hands. “Sure thing, Lucian. Sure thing. Just saying. People will be asking a fuck load of questions about Elaine Constantine and what the fuck happened to her.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “They will. You’d better keep me informed of them. Me before my father. He can wait in line for the news.”

  “Alright,” he told me. “You before Bryant. I’ll be back with news as soon as I get it.”

  He saw himself out without even an attempt at a goodbye. No point making niceties with a sonofabitch like me. He’d learnt that well enough over the last decade.

  It was unlike me to feel any sense of relief or nervousness. It was unlike me to feel anything in my psychopathic monster of a mind. Feelings were a novelty. Still, I felt them both in that moment. A clash that had my insides dancing in my gut.

  I should’ve learnt from my own bullshit and the chaos about to kick off in the world around me. I should’ve settled down into my Morelli Empire and let Elaine bitch Constantine shrivel away to nothing over at Kington Peak, thanking the Power Brothers for covering up my insanity of a kidnap.

  Yet again, I didn’t.

  Fuck that temptress and her filthy fucking ways, but I didn’t.

  I barely gave Alto any time to leave the complex before I was straight back down to the parking bay and slipping back into my Merc. Only this time there was no Terence Kingsley in sight. This time Lucian Morelli looked like Lucian fucking Morelli.

  Elaine Constantine was going to get me at my best.

  Sorry little bitch.

  7

  Elaine

  The darkness had me wrapped up tight. The light wasn’t working overhead. There was a bed in the room, but I didn’t want to use it. I was pressed up against the wall opposite the door with my arms around my knees, hugging myself tight.

  So many nights I’d been scared in the darkness staring at a locked door. Waiting. Waiting for people. Men.

  Now I was waiting for one man. One god.

  I was thirsty and cold. Alone.

  I was the broken little Elaine I’d been running away from for years, only now I had no coke or drink to help me escape her. Fuck, I needed it. I needed the escape.

  Kington Peak was a backwater little nothingness. Nobody would think to look for me here in a thousand years. I really was at Lucian Morelli’s mercy now. He could leave me here to shrivel and die and nobody would ever know it. As much as I wanted to be dead, the thought of dying like that was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Please God, don’t let Lucian Morelli be that evil. Even Lucian Morelli can’t be that evil.

  Only he could be. I knew he could be. Lucian Morelli could be the most evil monster I’d ever known.

  I nearly cried with relief when I heard a car pull up the driveway and into the garage. I rushed up to the window but couldn’t see anything, just pitch black outside. Nothing until the porch light came on and lit up the figure heading up to the front door.

  I stepped back and pressed myself up against the wall, braced and ready. The front door slammed downstairs, and I heard footsteps. I heard movement.

  It was him. I knew it was him.

  I don’t know whether I was more scared or more relieved as I waited for his entry. Only it didn’t come. Nothing came.

  More movement sounded downstairs but still nothing. Still no footsteps on the stairs.

  It felt like I was waiting a lifetime, standing there with my heart thumping hard. When his footsteps finally did sound out on the stairs, I was almost grateful he was coming. Anything would be better than fading away alone.

  The key was heavy in the lock. The door swung open slow and steady, and there he was. The huge frame of him was lit up by the light from downstairs, only this time he didn’t look like Terence Kingsley, some paltry journalist from the UK. This time he was Lucian Morelli, suited and booted.

  He didn’t speak to me, just stood there, leaning against the frame, even more sinister in his ease.

  I didn’t speak to him, because my throat was dry and I didn’t know what the hell to say.

  “It’s late,” he told me. “I don’t have time for disobedience. Punishment will be savage if it’s needed.”

  I nodded, and he stepped back onto the landing, heading downstairs.

  My legs felt like jelly as I followed him. I really did feel like the meek little servant he expected me to be.

  He was in the kitchen when I joined him. My eyes were blinking against the harshness of the light as they focused on the man before me. Yeah, he was Lucian Morelli at his finest. He was beautiful enough to take my breath.

  I didn’t want to ask him for anything just in case that provoked him to deny it. I forced myself to stand there, waiting and hoping.

  As it turns out, the monster had at least a sliver of kindness in his bones.

  He handed me a mineral water, and I gulped it down in one.

  “Thanks,” I said, more bothered about basic necessities than the fact I was naked in some backwater kitchen in front of a man who wanted to kill me.

  I had no idea what time it was, but I knew it was late. The monster actually looked tired, just a hint of jaded behind his eyes. I’d never imagined seeing the man before me tired. He always looked so immortal.

  I found my voice.

  “Guess something pretty urgent dragged you away,” I commented.

  “None of your fucking business,” he said back, deadpan.

  We had another minute of silence. Heavy.

  I wondered what he was planning on doing to me. Whether he’d make the pain harsh and hard, or slow and sensual. Maybe both.

  I wondered whether he would finally get round to taking my virginity, and whether it would be as good as my fantasies promised before he tore me apart.

  Maybe tonight he would really kill me.

  “Did you miss me?” he asked, with a sarcastic snarl.

  “Guess you missed me,” I told him. “Since you raced back here in the depths of the early hours.”

  “Missed your suffering,” he said.

  He was lying to himself though. His eyes were telling the truth but his body wasn’t. I’d seen the way he’d been so relaxed as he handed my drink over, enjoying my pleasure as much as my pain.

  I was cold enou
gh that my nipples were hard. His stare almost heated them as he looked me up and down. My thighs clenched tight together. He noticed. He could see plenty.

  “I’m bored and tired,” he told me. “Time for you to entertain me.”

  I shrugged. “I’m bored and tired too. Maybe it’s time for you to entertain me right back.”

  I was coming to know his evil smirk so well. It lit up the horny little girl in my heart.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll be entertained.”

  He gestured through to the hallway, and I didn’t argue. I stepped on ahead of him, turning instinctively into the lounge.

  I didn’t realize how close behind me he was until he pressed up against me and wrapped his arm around my neck.

  “I want your pain, and I want it fast.”

  I knew what was coming when he forced me down over the arm of the couch and took his belt from his pants. I didn’t need to look behind at him, I’d been in this position plenty of times before . . . waiting for the belt . . . the pain . . . the punishment.

  I yelled out the hurt as the first lash landed, right across my ass cheeks.

  He was skilled enough that he hit the same spot twice. Then three times. Then four.

  I was skilled enough at taking it that my skin began to burn in the most amazing of ways, hips rocking as the pain morphed and turned into the strangest of pleasures.

  Release.

  It was release.

  “This is your punishment for being a disrespectful little bitch earlier,” he told me, and I didn’t protest, just took it. “You’re going to have to learn to watch that pretty little mouth of yours.”

  Five. Six. Seven.

  I was gasping, crying out with every lash.

  Eight. Nine. Ten.

  Tingling.

  Eleven. Twelve.

  Hurting.

  Yes. I was hurting.

  I wanted to be hurting.

  I needed to be hurting.

  I was still rocking from the pain when Lucian Morelli’s thumb plunged deep inside my asshole, so dry and so tight it fucking hurt like hell as I cried out all over again. He circled it, hard. He fucked me with it, rough enough that I fucking whimpered.