by Bethany-Kris
Lucian shoved his hands in his pockets, watching as Paulie released Jordyn’s limp hand he had bee holding. “You’ll be around, yeah?”
“I’ll come once a day to check her IV, change the bags and fluids, and the tubes, if needed, until she’s okay without them. I’ll be around, don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Lucian hoped so.
• • •
Jordyn’s body felt like it had gone through a hurricane. Just moving her arm was an effort, one she found to be not worth the job of doing it at all. Something tugged in her hand, a slight discomfort stinging her skin around the area, but it was nothing compared to the rest of her aches and pains.
A deep, almost melodic voice came from her side, soothing her. “You have to be careful, piccolina. If you pull out your IV, I won’t be able to get it back in myself and Paulie won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon. You need the fluids.”
Jordyn shuddered with every breath. She recognized that voice, his accent, and the way she seemed to react to his words, as if something inside was fighting to reach for him.
Lucian.
“Do you remember what happened yesterday?” Lucian asked.
Jordyn opened her eyes, her vision adjusting to the darkness of the room with a slowness she wasn’t accustomed to. Her brain was a muddled mess of thoughts, and none were clear. Slowly, she shook her head, but regretted the action immediately. Sickness threatened to spill from her stomach.
Her whole body felt warm. The pain, while it was there, felt almost dulled. She was dizzy and tired.
“Sleep, sweetheart,” Lucian whispered. “It’s okay to sleep. You’re safe here.”
Somehow, Jordyn knew exactly that before he even said it. Even so, she fought the drowsiness slipping around the edges of her senses, threatening to take her under again. She had so many questions.
“But—”
Jordyn’s words cut off instantly. It hurt to even talk. The bed dipped to allow Lucian’s weight on her right side. He sat down gradually, cautious of his size moving her, as if he wasn’t the six foot, three inch tall man she knew him to be and instead, nothing more than a pillow.
“But nothing,” Lucian said firmly. “Let some of that swelling go down first, and then we’ll talk as much as you’d like. Do you know how much I’ve wanted to just talk to you, sweetheart?”
Jordyn didn’t start in surprise as she usually would when a man touched her without warning. The smooth, hot palm of Lucian’s curved along her jaw and neck, fitting there perfectly. He seemed to be mindful of the pressure he placed on her jaw. Something sweet curled in her middle, twisting up to her chest. She melted into that hold, swallowing words and feelings because she didn’t know what to say or what they meant.
The touch and her reaction to it, however, said a lot.
Lucian leaned down, giving Jordyn a much better view of his concerned features in the darkness. Worry creased his forehead, sadness turned his usually smirking mouth down into a frown, and those dark eyes of his searched hers unashamed. She wanted to wipe that look off his face.
Gently, Lucian rolled his thumb along her bottom lip. The simple action caused goosebumps to creep all over her body from head to toe. “I’m sorry.”
For what?
Jordyn didn’t even care what he was apologizing for. She was much too distracted staring at his face, wondering what his mouth would taste like pressed to hers. How did he kiss, slow and controlled like a building wave, or fast and destructively passionate like a raging forest fire?
“I wondered the same thing the first moment I looked at you inside that confessional,” Lucian said, smirking just a little.
Had she said that out loud?
“Oh,” Jordyn murmured faintly.
She barely had time to react before Lucian leaned down further, removed his thumb, and placed the softest, most tender kiss to her lips. The warmth inside her body seemed to bloom into a full blown heat spreading out from her middle. It only lasted but a brief two seconds before he was pulling away.
Lucian pressed his thumb to her lips once more, the wetness left behind from his own smearing under the digit. “Sleep. The next one will be much better. And I intend for you to remember it.”
Jordyn didn’t quite think she’d be able to forget this one, either.
• • •
The next time Jordyn woke up, the room wasn’t dark. Soft light filtered in through the one window, bathing it in warmth. She quickly noted her mind wasn’t as confused or tired as it had been before.
The bedroom she was in wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small, either. Pale, beige walls stared back at her. There were no photos on the walls, but a few pieces of art were hung in a stylish way. The comfortable bed she rested in was plush and forgiving to her tender back, the sheets even softer.
She noticed immediately the sheet was the only thing covering her, also. She wore no clothing underneath. Lifting the sheet enough to peer under only bothered her further. Bruises littered her arms, along with gauze wrapping in every direction she looked.
Her pain wasn’t as dulled this time around, however. It literally made her choke on air when she tried to move. From her head to her toes, Jordyn’s body was stiff and sore.
“Ah, the principessa is awake,” she heard someone say from the corner of the room. “It’s good to see you more alive than what you were yesterday morning. Lucian will be happy about that.”
Jordyn jerked in surprise at the unknown intruder. The action caused agony to ricochet all over. A whimper broke from her chest as she turned into the sheets, which only caused more pain. From the distress alone, her body fought back, threatening to upheave what might be in her stomach. A massive headache suddenly pounded in her skull.
“Cazzo merda. I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Breathing deeply to try and ease the pain, Jordyn slowly calmed down. She peeked over the sheets through squinting eyes to see who the unknown male was. At first, she didn’t recognize his green eyes, or dark hair. His features didn’t ring a bell.
Then, she took another look.
Jordyn vaguely remembered the young man to be one of the four Marcello men who had been at Legs and Leather.
That brought with it a whole slew of other memories.
The anger in Will’s face. The cruelty in his words. A belt cracking over her body without any mercy or end in sight. A hot knife searing into her skin, burning off her tattoo. Vomit. Panic. Pain. Blood.
It was a never-ending cycle of memories playing on repeat in her overwhelmed mind.
She’d tried to clean her wounds. Jordyn distinctly remembered wondering if her first aid kit had anything for severe burns in it and if she should shower to wash the injuries first, or if that would only cause more harm.
That was all she could recall. After that, the pain had become so awful she thought maybe sleeping for just a moment would help.
It hadn’t, obviously.
Anxiety thrummed hard and fast in Jordyn’s heart, causing the organ to thunder like hooves as panic ebbed her breathing to short, gasping pants.
“Jesus, calm down. It’s okay. You’re fine. Lucian! Lucian, get in here!”
Jordyn felt his presence in the room the moment he stepped into it.
“What in the hell did you do, Dante?” Lucian growled.
“Nothing! She woke up and had a fucking panic attack or something.”
“Get out before I kick your ass, right now!”
When the bedroom door closed quietly, Jordyn felt Lucian slip into the bed with her. Strong hands curled around hers clawing into the sheets, pulling them free. Kisses dotted down to her knuckles over and over, a calm murmuring following each kiss. Jordyn had squeezed her eyes shut so fiercely it actually hurt, so when she opened them, she found herself face to face with Lucian’s panicked expression.
“It’s all right,” he told her. “Safe, remember? You’re always safe with me, sweetheart.”
Jordyn let him pull her up to a sitt
ing position before wrapping her in a strong embrace. It was only then she realized what he was wearing, which was practically nothing at all. Nothing but a pair of boxer-briefs and a towel hanging around his neck. Even his skin and hair were damp, telling her he must have just gotten out of the shower.
She didn’t even care. It didn’t matter that she had nothing covering her but a sheet, either.
Every injury on Jordyn’s body stung like hell, but she clung tightly to the one thing that seemed familiar and safe. Lucian.
“H-he … he beat me,” she rasped out. “Like an animal. Just … beat me.”
“Will Vetta?” Lucian asked, his tone turning dark.
Jordyn nodded frantically. “The others, they … they didn’t do anything. Held me down and let him hurt me. They didn’t even care.”
With gentle touches and tender words, Lucian pacified Jordyn’s panic. Once she was calmed enough to think rationally, the first wisps of embarrassment fluttered through her emotions. The sheet hiding her nudity had fallen in her fear, exposing her from the chest down to where it pools between them.
Lucian, ever the gentleman, covered her with the sheet, never taking his gaze from hers once. “I’m sorry about your lack of clothes. I didn’t have anything in this apartment for clothing, and I didn’t take the time to grab you something from yours after I found you like you were. My mother will be around later to bring you some things and she’ll buy whatever you’d like to have otherwise, okay?”
That admittance sent Jordyn through a whole new round of emotions. He’d found her after the attack. Bloodied, bruised, and beaten. She must have looked near death if the way she felt now was any indication.
“Besides that,” Lucian continued, not noticing Jordyn’s distraction, “… Paulie suggested it wouldn’t be good for your wounds to be wrapped too tightly for the first couple of days, especially by something as constricting as clothing. This way, it minimizes the chance of infection for the bad ones on your back and hip.”
“Paulie?” Jordyn asked.
Lucian offered her a supportive smile. “A very good friend, a doctor for us, our family.”
“Your family … Cosa Nostra. That one, you mean.”
“You remembered that, then,” he said, not seeming bothered by it at all. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
“Kind of,” she admitted. “I don’t understand, though.”
“Another time. It’s not important right now.”
“But you will tell me, right?”
“I will,” Lucian agreed. “When you’re better. It involves more than just me.”
Jordyn understood that. Thinking about the man Lucian had kicked out of the room, she asked, “Was that one of your brothers?”
“Yes, that was Dante. He’s a year younger than me. He should be in church this morning with our parents, but he’s using me as an excuse to skip. I need a babysitter, and apparently, my father agrees.”
“For what?”
“To keep me from killing someone,” Lucian said frankly. “They should know better. Out of the three of us brothers, I am not the hothead, even as pissed off as I am.”
Oh. Well …
“What did he call me?” she asked.
“What was it?”
“He said something when I woke up. I didn’t understand it. Caz … murder, I think.”
Lucian laughed darkly. “Cazzo merda?”
“Yeah.”
“Essentially, cazzo is a really offensive word in Italian for a man’s dick, but it’s also used in place of fuck or variations of the word fuck. Merda literally means shit. So …”
“Fucking shit,” Jordyn filled in, nodding. Of course it would be some form of a cuss. “I get it. There was something else, though. Princi … princa-something or other.”
Lucian’s head snapped up as if he’d been shot, his eyes blazing into hers. “Principessa?”
“Yeah. That’s it. What is that?”
Swallowing thickly, Lucian muttered, “It means princess in Italian. For men like us, it means something entirely different. I’ll tell him to cut his nonsense out.”
“I don’t think he meant anything by it,” Jordyn tried to say.
“Yes, he did.”
Seemingly not wanting to discuss it further, Lucian went about untangling the IV tube that had become wrapped in her arm and hand.
“Thank you.”
“Never thank me. Not for helping you, sweetheart. The only thing I need from you is for you to tell me what you need, when you need it. If I can, I will always give it to you.”
“Safety,” Jordyn whispered.
Lucian nodded, his fingers ghosting over the multiple bruises littering her arm. “I can do that.”
Chapter Nine
Jordyn awoke to pitch-black darkness. Perspiration soaked her skin and hair, dampening the sheets and pillows on the comfortable bed. She must have been tossing and turning something awful in her sleep, because the sheets were tangled around her lower half in a terrible knot of fabric, effectively keeping her from moving.
She didn’t have to wonder what woke her up. Jordyn knew. It was the same thing that had been affecting her sleep for the last six days since she woke up after her attack. The nightmares were recurrent of her beating. She could smell her vomit and blood, the tang of propane, and feel the pain like it was happening all over again. Even worse, the nightmare only seemed to get more horrible with every dream. There were more people there, some yelling¸ some urging her attacker on. No one would help when she begged them to.
Jordyn was aware they were just dreams. Not real, not now. It didn’t help much.
The fear from her dream was still running thick through her emotions, and before she could stop herself, she was gasping Lucian’s name. The sound was strained and terrified. Fisting the blankets, she barely called out for him a second time before his familiar, comforting figure was shadowing the doorway.
Did he ever sleep?
Lucian took a hesitant step into the room, staying silent. The thin sleep pants he wore rested low on his hips while his muscled stomach and chest were bare. Maybe he had been sleeping. Jordyn didn’t need him to tell her she was safe. With him there, she knew she was.
“You okay?” Lucian asked.
Jordyn wanted to reassure him, but she couldn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Jordyn whispered as Lucian watched her warily. “I just …”
What, had a bad dream?
Jesus, she felt like a child.
“Never mind,” Jordyn eventually said, embarrassment slipping into her voice. “Please go back to sleep.”
“Wasn’t sleeping,” Lucian replied easily. “I was just resting my eyes.”
Jordyn snorted under her breath. “Sure. I’m good, though, really.”
Lucian didn’t act like he’d heard her. “It’s a good thing Paulie took your IV out the evening after he put it in, what with the way you squeeze sheets to death every time you panic.”
She released her grip immediately.
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s hard, you know.”
“Huh?”
Lucian shrugged in the darkness. “Listening to you whimper and thrash around in here. I don’t know if you want me to wake you up, or what you need. I feel like I have to stay awake just to make sure at some point you’re sleeping without the dreams.”
Oh, God.
“You’ve been having them a lot,” he stated matter-of-fact.
“Yeah, but I’m fine, Lucian.”
“I don’t believe that for a second, and since my heart is in my throat right now, I really need to make sure you’re fine, sweetheart. Otherwise, I won’t sleep for another month.”
Jordyn didn’t know how to respond, not that Lucian gave her the chance to. Wordlessly, he crossed the room and sat on the bed before untangling the fabric around her legs. Then, he was lifting the soft sheets and lying under them with her. Lucian propped his head in his palm while he was situated on his side, watching Jordyn w
ith that piercing stare of his.
Lucian, while clear in his interest of her, had been very proper in all aspects. He never crossed any boundaries, was always polite when she needed help changing her bandages, and didn’t give even the slightest hint he expected something from Jordyn unless she was willing to give it. He also respected her choices on other things, which helped for her to trust him. Like stopping the dose of morphine the very next day after she woke up, even after Paulie suggested she keep taking it for another day or so to help her sleep.
Morphine was a narcotic—addiction ran rampant in her family history. Besides that, Jordyn wanted her mind to be clear around these people, especially Lucian. She trusted him without even knowing him. What she didn’t trust, however, was her thoughts and choices when she was too high to think everything through properly. Her pain was severe for the first couple of days, but she gritted her teeth and handled it with over the counter pain meds that didn’t make her feel like she was swimming through clouds.
“Will this help?” Jordyn asked, waving between them.
“It might,” Lucian answered with a grin. “I’m here, so now you can sleep without fears ruining those dreams of yours.”
The faintest smile crossed Jordyn’s lips. It was almost funny how his words didn’t seem like an excuse to get into bed with her. The previous panic had all but ebbed away, and Jordyn couldn’t help but feel the exhaustion creeping back in. She rested back into the bed on her side, still facing Lucian. Comfort seeped into her veins.
The gentlest touch of a hot palm pressing to her naked hip and fingers curling tightly to hold her had Jordyn’s eyes flying wide.
