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

by Jade West

  Even the thought was terrifying—because if it was Uncle Lionel and people knew—if people knew, they would put the pieces together and those pieces would spell MORELLI in huge capital letters, and MORELLI would spell out LUCIAN Morelli the very moment it was said out loud.

  Only it wasn’t Uncle Lionel.

  “It was Reverend fucking Lynch,” he told me. “I tore the piece of shit apart.”

  I stared in shock. Lucian had killed the man who’d prepared me for punishment and made me take it at the hands of other men. My mortal enemy of just a few days ago had ripped apart the man who’d been my true enemy since I was a little girl.

  “You killed Reverend Lynch?” I asked him.

  He gave me a smirk. “I most certainly killed him, Elaine. I’m sure he was damn well pleased when I did. He was hardly enjoying his last few moments alive, I can promise you that.”

  The thought of Reverend Lynch suffering was strangely nice. Even buried after all these years, it was nice to think of him hurting, just like all the times he’d enjoyed my pain. Only he was dead. Lucian had killed him. Reverend Lynch was actually dead.

  It shouldn’t have surprised me, because this was Lucian Morelli standing before me, and Lucian Morelli was undoubtedly the most vicious man alive. He hurt people for fun and fascination. He arranged deaths for his own ends, whenever it suited him. What surprised me was that his own hands were dirty, and it was because of me. He’d killed someone for me. Again. He’d killed someone because they’d hurt me.

  I’m not sure it was everyone’s traditional idea of boyfriend material but in a fucked-up little part of my soul it sure felt like it to me.

  My next words were a whisper as I tried to digest it. “Reverend Lynch is dead.”

  Lucian poured my coffee.

  “Lynch and the wicked old bitch, Margaret, too. I finished her off with a quick twist of the neck. Hardly torture, but she’s done.”

  “You killed Margaret?”

  “Of course. I also made sure the girls’ doors were open before I left the place, even though they were sleeping soundly.”

  “Wow.” He’d killed them and freed the girls. I smiled at him. Those girls would have been going through so much, just like I was. The monster had freed the victims.

  “Thanks,” I said, and it was the most pathetic word in the world.

  His smirk was broader than ever.

  “You’re very welcome, Elaine.” His eyes were fire on mine. “He will be the first of many.”

  “Many?”

  His grin made me light up inside.

  “Many. Believe me, baby, I have a whole list of the next candidates. I’ll be savoring every single one of them.”

  My brain was spinning just thinking about it. I was still trying to comprehend whether I was reading this right, because if I was . . .

  “You mean people alongside Reverend Lynch?”

  “I mean every man who has ever laid his sick twisted hands on your sweet little body. Payback will be divine,” he said.

  Yeah, he was certainly boyfriend material. I didn’t know what to do so I did nothing, still trying to get a grip on my thoughts. I took my mug from him with shaking fingers, still blown away by just how casual the monster was in the aftermath of butchering someone up close.

  I stared at him, loving him. The full weight of what he’d done for me slammed me like a train when I finally came to my senses enough to process it. Reverend Lynch was dead, and the girls around him were free. I’m not sure who was more surprised when I launched myself at Lucian’s body and wrapped my arms around his neck. He was still wet with blood, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was being up tight to the man I loved.

  I didn’t just love Lucian Morelli, I adored him. I adored him as much as it could ever be possible to adore someone. He was like a god to me – a beautiful, vicious god who’d killed for me like a noble avenger.

  “Thank you,” I whispered, and this time it sounded from right down in my heart. “Thank you for loving me, Lucian.”

  He pushed me away just far enough to look me in the eyes.

  “I told him I loved you, you know,” he growled. “I told that sonofabitch I was in love with you before I knifed him to death.”

  The thought made me proud. It filled me with glee that Reverend Lynch knew that finally someone loved me enough to make him pay for his sins. Just a shame it was one of the Morellis and not the Constantines.

  Lucian ran his thumb down my cheek, then pressed his lips to mine. His kiss tasted like blood, but I didn’t care. I’d already kissed him in someone else’s blood. Both times were because he was hurting them for hurting me. Boyfriend material didn’t even come close to it on reflection.

  “What did you do with the bodies?” I asked. “Are they just lying there? The police will come find them, right? Will they know it was you?”

  His laugh was evil but hilarious.

  “Lynch’s body is in the trunk outside,” he said.

  “In the trunk?”

  The whole thing was growing more bizarre by the second.

  “Yeah,” he told me. “In the trunk. They’ll find plenty of blood in that fuck-up of a manor, but they won’t find him. The police might well find the scene, but they won’t be coming after me. The fellowship will be damned sure his death stays well hidden.”

  The relief when I heard that was a beautiful thing. The idea of Lucian being arrested and taken away from me was becoming the most unbearable thing in the world.

  “And what about Margaret?” I asked him.

  He was still smiling. “Margaret was dumped somewhere suitable. They won’t be finding her anytime soon.”

  I didn’t even want to ask about that. I held him tight again, breathing against him, grateful to have him in my arms. I wanted nothing but Lucian for all time. I wanted him at my side through every step I took, right to the end of my life. I couldn’t be away from him if I tried. I’d never make it. I’d never want to make it.

  “I mean it,” he whispered. “I’ll kill them all, baby, one by one. They’ll all rue the day they ever looked at you that way, let alone touched you. That’s a promise.”

  His warmth against me was blissful, even soaked in blood. I squeezed him, kissed him, did everything I could to let him know just how much I loved him, and then I asked him all over again.

  “Please, Lucian, please will you fuck me now? I need to feel you inside me, please.”

  He brushed my hair from my forehead and smiled down at me with dark, sparkling eyes.

  “Yes, sweetheart, I’ll fuck you now. It’s time.”

  36

  Lucian

  Elaine Constantine’s sweet virgin pussy was the greatest jewel in the crown there could possibly be. It was still amazing to me that taking the prize mattered less to me than how much she would enjoy me taking it. But still, I wanted her to gasp and beg, desperate for every second.

  She was a hungry little minx in my arms. She wanted kisses. She wanted holding. She wanted me.

  I was drenched through to the skin with Reverend CuntFace’s blood. I dropped my jacket onto the kitchen floor and it landed with a damp thump on the tile. Elaine’s fingers were already on my shirt buttons as I guided her through to the living room. Fingers that were shaking, just like the rest of her, only it wasn’t fear that was making her quake for me this time. It was a whole other type of nervousness; I could see it in her beautiful eyes. Those pools of crystal blue were light and delicate, even in the dull of the pre-dawn. They were eating me up with a devotion I’d never seen before. I’d never felt before.

  It was a beautiful thing to witness, just how surprised and moved she was by someone caring about her. There should have been a whole army of men in her life tearing down walls to destroy anyone who dared to fuck her over in the slightest, but that army had never existed. Her family was fake, each and every one of the sad fuckers too far up their own self-important assholes, casting her aside for telling lies when all she wanted was for someone to hear her
truth.

  I’d heard her truth. I’d avenged her truth with the very first vile cunt who deserved it.

  I was already aching to get started on the next vile cunt on the list.

  Elaine was still kissing me as we reached the bottom of the staircase. I tore the bloodied shirt from my shoulders, and she was already at my belt, unbuckling as we climbed the stairs.

  I never thought I’d be desperate to take a virgin in my bed. I usually wanted them on all fours, begging for their first cock like a slut, or making them force themselves down onto my cock like a dirty bitch, not enjoying the comfort of the mattress like a princess with her legs spread beautifully wide for me.

  “You’re really going to do it?” she hissed as we reached the top of the stairs. “You’re really going to take me?”

  The nip of my teeth on her throat said more than words. The way I shunted her towards my bedroom screamed volumes.

  I dropped my pants and kicked them aside before we reached the doorway. My hands were on the oversized shirt on Elaine’s body, tearing it from her tiny frame.

  She thought I was going to throw her down onto the bed and take my fill of her, I could see it by the way she backed up against the bed ready for me. I didn’t. As usual, I surprised her.

  I tugged her into the bathroom, still squeezing tight as I flicked on the shower. It was steaming in no time, the water pumping hard and fast in the little shell of a cubicle. I opened the screen nice and wide and guided Elaine in first, pressing her up against the back wall as I stepped in alongside her.

  Steaming didn’t even come close as I claimed her mouth as mine. I consumed her, tongue to tongue. I ate her up like a starving man, and she ate me up right back as I grabbed up the soap and lathered her body.

  She was my girl, and I was going to treat her like one. Maybe boyfriend wasn’t so far off the mark after all.

  Maybe I, Lucian Morelli, really was Elaine Constantine’s boyfriend. It gave me another one of those damn fluffy tingles to think of being a damn sight more than that, too.

  Maybe I, Lucian Morelli, wanted Elaine Constantine to be my damn bride.

  “I’m so nervous,” she told me over the hiss of the water. “I’ve been waiting for this for years, and I never thought it would really mean anything, but now I’m here, ready. Now it’s with you it means so much.”

  I wanted to kiss every inch of her until she was ready for everything that was coming. In the haze of how much I wanted the girl in front of me, I lost all sense of time, of urgency, of me.

  I thumbed her clit just enough to make her grind against my hand before I slipped two fingers inside her and curled them. She supported her weight on my shoulders, moaning as she rocked, and I twisted my fingers inside her, just enough to make her whimper. She was tight, so fucking tight. Taking her sweet little cunt would definitely still hurt her. The thought made my mouth water and my dick swell.

  I worked her soft skin slowly under the pummelling water. Kissing, stroking, squeezing. My fingers played her until the morning was bright outside the bathroom window, teasing her softly enough that when she came for me she was a bucking mess against my hand.

  I guess it was when her sweet breaths were shallow on my face through the steam that the beast in me reared its head through the fluffy bullshit. I loved Elaine Constantine with every scrap of my fucked-up soul, but that didn’t stop what I needed. What my cock needed. What my filthy fucking mind needed.

  I flicked off the shower and reached for the towels from the rail. She must have seen my expression change because her eyes widened big and blue as she stared up at me.

  I saw it in her gaze. There she was again, my opposite. The masochist to my sadist. The pain toy inside her was ready to dance with the beast.

  Elaine wanted me to be rough with her. She wanted to be my dirty little princess doll.

  “Don’t make it nice,” she whispered, before I’d said a word. “Please, Lucian. I want to know what you’re like. I want to feel you as you.”

  I felt my smirk and recognized myself as the true Morelli I’d always been.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’ll feel me as me,” I told her. “It’s gonna be one hell of a fucking ride.”

  37

  Elaine

  I was already learning so much about the dynamic between me and Lucian. We shifted so much from minute to minute, so naturally I didn’t even feel the twist. Kind, then cruel, in the kindest of ways. The monster found his claws as he threw me onto the bed. I was still wet from the shower and so was he, both of us hot and steaming, and that just made it all the more beautiful as he slammed his body down onto mine.

  His kiss was tongue and teeth, pain and pleasure. His breaths were heavy and hot, and his hands were savage as they sought out my tits and twisted my flesh until I moaned for him.

  This was what I wanted.

  I wanted the monster to claim me as his, lust and love dancing together in a blur. I wanted to be owned by Lucian Morelli and I wanted to feel him possess me, his body taking mine with every breath.

  My skin was tingling, on fire in the flames. I knew this was it. The beast was really going to take me.

  My legs spread so naturally for him, wrapping up and around his waist. My clit was still thrumming, alive from his attention in the shower.

  He didn’t let my legs hold him for long. He pulled them apart and licked a path down my body. He bit my nipples and pulled them sharp. I whimpered. He bit them harder.

  His teeth were bliss as they nipped their way down my stomach. My hips were already rising from the bed to meet his mouth as his tongue found my clit all over again.

  “Please!” I whimpered. “Please, Lucian, just take me! Take me!”

  His eyes were dripping with lust as he looked up at me.

  “Quiet, little girl.”

  Three simple words, but they put me in my place. Lucian was the master, just like always. He was my master. My only master. My true master.

  I forced myself to relax into the bed, biting my lip as he worked his fingers inside me, slowly enough to make me buck for more. He slapped my thighs when I moved against him.

  “STILL!” he barked, and I loved it – that viciousness in his beautiful voice.

  I was still for him. I took his fingers like a good girl, unable to hold back the moans as he sucked gently at my clit.

  I wasn’t expecting it when he took his fingers from my pussy and twisted them into my ass. I cried out but took everything he had to give me, smiling at the ceiling as he circled his fingers deeper, opening me up. YES! His tongue lapped at my ass and I wanted more. I wanted him as deep inside me as he could go, in every hole, not just my pussy. Everywhere. I wanted him everywhere. I wanted him to own every part of me and show me I was his toy as well as his love.

  “Yes! Fuck me there,” I breathed. “Please. Fuck my ass.”

  “Your ass can wait its turn,” he said.

  He slapped my thighs. He slapped my pussy. He fingered my ass until I squirmed and begged for more.

  He gave me whatever he wanted, and nothing more.

  My body was so tense with sensations that I’d lost control of what the hell I was feeling by the time the monster climbed back up on top of me. His lips were puffy from where he’d been playing with me. They were hot and wet when they met with mine, and his tongue tasted of me.

  His cock was swollen hard and thick when he ground it against my clit, the rhythm of his hips so natural against mine that we were one together. This time he didn’t pull my legs away when they wrapped around his waist and gripped tight. I could barely believe it after all this time. My virginity was about to leave me behind.

  “Time for me to take the crown jewel,” he whispered, and he took it.

  Lucian Morelli thrust his cock inside me in one slam of his hips and claimed me as his.

  It took my breath, and hurt like hell, and I loved the way it hurt. The way he felt deep inside me was every bit as magical as I’d dreamed it would be.

  Hi
s hips were slow but powerful. His smile was both loving and dark at the same time.

  He pinned my wrists above my head and crushed them tight to the bed, holding me in position as he picked up the pace and fucked me harder and harder. My pussy took him, aching for more, desperate for more, even though it was hurting. I was wet but sore in the most amazing of ways, and I realized in that one incredible moment that every day I’d resented being a virgin was worth it. I’d have waited a whole other decade to feel the magic I felt with the Morelli monster deep inside me. It would be worth every single minute.

  “Your pussy is going to get used to this,” he told me, and I smiled.

  “I hope my pussy gets used to this every damn day,” I said, and he smiled right back.

  “Don’t you worry about that, baby. I’ll be claiming this beauty as mine every fucking day we’re breathing.”

  His words were enough to give me the hint of a shiver. Every day we’re breathing.

  There was a body of a reverend in the trunk of his car, and two families who’d kill us just for speaking. I was a kidnap victim all over the news, and Lucian was on a vacation that didn’t exist.

  Every day we were breathing might not be all that many.

  “Come inside me,” I whispered. “Please. Please, come inside me.”

  “Want to have my baby now do you, baby girl?” His smirk was perfection. “Our story gets more and more fucking crazy, doesn’t it?”

  I didn’t say no, because I couldn’t. I couldn’t laugh the crazy off as crazy. I did want Lucian’s baby inside me. I wanted to be his bride and his love and the mother of his child. Fucked-up, but true. The whole thing was fucked-up but true. I was plunging into the pit of insanity deeper and deeper every damn minute.

  “Tell me, Elaine,” he rasped, right in my ear. “Say you want my baby inside you.”

  I felt so raw when I found the words. I’d never felt so exposed as I did when I told the beautiful monster what I wanted.

  “Yes, Lucian. I want your baby inside me. One day, I want our baby inside me.”