Page 5 of Beautiful Dangerous

“Olivia?”

His voice is softer now. Less confrontational. Because Lucca has a side to him that others don’t often see, but I know it’s there. Beneath theSicarioexterior he’s a man with a good heart, just like Javier. I guess that’s why they were always so close.

“You look beautiful tonight.”

I reach for my bracelet and slide it over my wrist, snapping the clasp shut. “Like I said, we should go downstairs. I need to show my face.”

Lucca stands aside to let me pass, but I stop in the doorway, and I look up at him; right into his eyes. He’s always been there. Always. And I don’t know what I’d do without him now, but that admission would be seen as a weakness, especially coming from a woman. More so coming from a woman in my position. So I never let him know that. Ever.

“Happy Birthday,mi reina.”

My queen. That’s what he calls me. What he’s always called me.

I reach out to cup his cheek, leaning in to kiss it gently. “Thank you.”

He smiles, and it changes his whole face, makes him look like a different man, almost, but I’d never tell him that. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Stepping out into the hallway, I stop at the top of the stairwell and look down on a room full of people – some I know very well, others nothing more than acquaintances. It’s a room full of the darkest, most dangerous figures, whose world I was never meant to inhabit. And now, I run it.

“Let’s go,” Lucca whispers in my ear as he takes my hand, squeezing it tight.

His job is to protect me, he’s right. It is.

His job is to be by my side. He’s there.

Always…

Fifteen Years Earlier…

As a child you’re told never to go anywhere with a stranger. As a grown-up it’s funny how easily that rule can be torn up and forgotten. It’s that thought that keeps going through my head as I sit in the back of the black Jaguar Javier sent to pick me up from the hotel. And as it pulls up outside of a red-walled, Spanish-style villa surrounded by bougainvillea and palm trees and an abundance of bright and beautiful flowers, I take a moment to think about what I’m doing here. I know nothing about this man, except that he owns the hotel I’m staying in. But I think there’s a lot more to him than that. And that’s why I’m more than a little bit nervous. Now. Something I probably should’ve been before I made the somewhat reckless decision to actually get in the car, and let him bring me here.

The door’s suddenly pulled open, and I step outside, where I’m met by a tall, handsome man with the brightest blue eyes and a somewhat defensive air about him. I’m finding him slightly intimidating, to be honest, he’s doing nothing to ease the growing panic I’m starting to feel. I shouldn’t have come here, what the hell was I thinking? For a moment I’d let myself be swept up in all the attention Javier Delgado was giving me… Why? Because I was feeling let down and not good about myself, after Callum had left me? Really? I get dumped, book a vacation to take my mind off it all; let an enigmatic stranger shower me with flowers and flattering messages, and that’s it? I’m that easily swayed? I swear to god, I thought I was smarter than that.

“Follow me. Mr. Delgado is inside, he’s waiting for you.”

I take a deep breath and follow this tall, intimidating man up the tiled steps to a double-fronted door, glancing around me as he pushes it open, and we head inside the house, into a huge, spacious atrium with a sky-high ceiling and stone floor. It’s wonderfully cool after the heat of outside, which is showing no signs of waning, despite it being late evening now.

“This way.”

We walk through the atrium toward the back of the house, into a large, open-plan living area with deep, rust-colored walls, a dark wooden floor, and expensive-looking furniture. It has to be expensive, right? This man owns a hotel, I mean, you can almost smell the money.

“Have a good evening.”

The tall, intimidating man turns around and leaves, and I’m suddenly alone, and not quite sure what to do next.

“Did Lucca not fix you a drink?”

I spin around to see Javier Delgado standing by the open French doors, dressed much more casually than he had been that first night I saw him, in the hotel. Then, he’d been in a suit, and perfectly groomed, but tonight he looks far more relaxed in jeans and a navy-blue shirt, his hair a little less neat. But there’s still something about him that screams importance. Authority.

“Forgive him. He isn’t usually so ill-mannered.”

“It’s fine. Really.”

Javier shakes his head as he goes over to a sideboard lined with various bottles of liquor. “Guests in this house should always be offered a drink the moment they step inside.” He’s pouring me something without even asking what it is I’d like, but I have no intention of saying anything. I’ll drink it, whatever it is. “But maybe Lucca can be excused his lapse in manners, this one time.” He hands me a cut-glass tumbler half-filled with a golden-colored, strong-smelling liquid. “After all, you’re enough to distract the best of men. Now, try this. The finest aged gold tequila my country has to offer.”

I take the glass from him, clutching it tightly as he turns to pour one for himself.

“I’m sorry. That line about you being distracting…” He turns back to face me, and he’s smiling, but all I’m feeling now is anxious. I’m all alone, in a stranger’s home in the middle of nowhere, miles from the safety of my hotel… a hotel this man owns. I don’t do stupid shit like this. Seriously, this was a fucking huge mistake. “I don’t usually come out with such clichéd, antiquated comments, but you, Olivia… youareincredibly distracting.”

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