Page 37 of Devious Lies

“See that? It’s a stone path cutting through the rose bushes and hydrangeas. It leads to the water. The gate has a biometric lock too, and I employ around the clock security. Nobody can get around this building from the back.”

“Well, no, not with those twenty foot high fences,” I murmur.

“They’re fourteen feet high,” he corrects me, but he’s smiling.

“Do you like it?” he asks, and I sense he is feeling vulnerable.

I’m shocked, but also grateful for that glimpse of humanity.

I’m starting to think he’s superhuman.

But I know he is every bit as real as me. We might be different, but Luc is still a man. Just like I am a woman.

“Like it?” I repeat, turning to him. “Luc, it is incredible. Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Good, I want you to like it. I want you to feel safe here.”

“I do.”

“and I want you to feel safe with me.”

“I feel that, too,” I whisper. And it is the truth.

Yes, I’ve gotten used to shitty apartments, but before that, when I lived at home, my childhood home was small, messy, and loud.

But it was full of love.

My heart contracts inside my chest, and a pain of longing hits me hard. I miss Papi. It’s been six years since we lost him.

But it’s worse than that.

Matteo Sanchez robbed me of my entire family, of my friends, my whole damn life on the day of my father’s funeral.

I’ve been carrying the guilt of my decision to leave home for so long. Especially with my mother’s cancer.

Coming back might be dangerous, but I have no choice. Matteo stole enough from me.

Someday soon, I will have to face my fears.

I will visit my mother in the open. Stealing glimpses of her at church isn’t enough.

Someday, but not now.

Now, there is only one thing I want, and it’s this man.

This quiet, mysterious, ridiculously gorgeous man.

“Want something to drink?” Luc asks.

I shake my head.

I don’t want anything to drink. I want to be in control of something in my life.

And tonight, I think I can be.

CHAPTER TWELVE-LUC

Goddamn.

---