Page 4 of Devilish

When I managed to nod, he didn’t waste any time. The rope disappeared in a matter of seconds, making it easier for me to catch my breath.

“Good boy,” Lucien murmured, handing me my shirt before lifting me to my feet.

As the dizziness passed, I realized I was holding on to him for dear life, my fingers curled into his arms like I was begging him not to leave me.

Maybe I was.

He didn’t try to pull away or pry me off him, just watched me carefully. “I’m going to take you to my office. You’re safe now.”

I was safe now? What did he know about my life? He couldn’t make those promises, and I’d never believe them anyway.

But Rupert was gone. I had to go somewhere.

I nodded, and a few minutes later, we entered a room that didn’t look anything like an office but like an extension of the club, with plush chairs and loveseats and low-lit lamps instead of overhead lighting.

Lucien stopped just inside, dropping his hands from me and waiting until he was sure I wouldn’t fall over before gesturing toward a dark velvet loveseat in the center of the room.

My breathing may have finally been under control, but my pulse raced.

Who was this guy? Why was I here? What did he want from me?

When I didn’t take a seat, Lucien took a couple of water bottles out of a mini fridge and set one on the table by the loveseat. Then he twisted the cap off the other and took a long swallow, and it was only then, with his attention elsewhere, that I really looked at him.

Lucien’s coal-colored hair and piercing, dark stare added an air of mystery to him that was as alarming as it was intriguing, as he slipped in and out of the shadows of his office as though they were an extension of his physical being.

He wandered over to the loveseat and took a seat at one end, and the position immediately eased some of the tension thrumming through me. His towering height was definitely intimidating, but the fact he was aware of it and had taken it out of the equation was shocking. Rupert never did anything to put me at ease.

“I didn’t catch your name out there,” Lucien said, leaning back into the seat and crossing one leg over the other. He looked casual, relaxed, and was more than likely trying to make me feel the same way. But considering he’d just kicked my ride out of his club, I wasn’t relaxing anytime soon.

Rupert would be furious when I finally returned home.

“Your name?” he pressed as I stood there silently, trying to work out just how much trouble I was going to be in.

“Kai,” I said softly, my eyes on the floor as I tried my best to think up an excuse Rupert would accept.

“Kai,” Lucien said. “That’s a pretty name. Do you know its origins?”

I brought my eyes up and stared at him, wondering if I’d heard him right.

“In Hawaiian it means sea. Japanese it means shell or ocean. Oh, and this is an interesting one, it means king in Persian?—”

“I don’t know,” I said, wondering howhedid, considering we’d just met. “It’s just a name.”

“Hmm. Perhaps. But I’ve always found the history or origins of them fascinating, and yours is not particularly common around here.”

“And Lucien is?” I hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but when his lips curved into a grin, I could tell he wasn’t bothered by my response.

“No, I don’t suppose it is. Lucien is of French origin and means light. Same in Latin—it’s derived from lux, which means light.”

I frowned and looked around the shadow-filled space, and Lucien chuckled.

“Ironic, right? Please, won’t you take a seat?”

I looked over my shoulder to the door, then back to the man on the loveseat, and thought about making a run for it, but I wasn’t even sure Rupert would be outside waiting for me. I didn’t have any money and no means to get home. Maybe if I sat down and answered whatever questions this Lucien guy had, he’d put me in a taxi and send me on my way.

I walked to the opposite end of the loveseat and gingerly sat, still not sure what he wanted from me. This wasn’t the first time I’d been alone in a room with a powerful man. But at least I knew what to expect in those situations.

“I want to ask you a couple of questions, if that’s okay with you?”

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