Page 32 of Their Reckless Thief
I shook my head and cleared my throat, but I couldn’t shake the haunting vision. “Nothing. Just… thinking.”
He focused on the road again, and I watched him carefully. I had an overwhelming urge to question him, to demand answers about where his loyalties truly lay and what kind of danger he’d put himself in. But I held my tongue. Pushing him wouldn’t lead to anything useful.
Instead, I focused on the questions that had been simmering under the surface. “So, how does this work? You work for The Shadow, who’s Vincenzo’s enemy, but you also work for Vincenzo?”
Luca didn’t so much as glance at me. “You could use your imagination to answer that one.”
“So, you’re a spy?”
The muscles in his jaw tensed. “I owe my life to Vincenzo. I trust him. I worked my way up in The Shadow’s ranks, earned his trust, but my loyalty has always been to Vincenzo.”
That shut me up for a second. Loyalty was rare in The Below—I certainly hadn’t ever encountered it here. “What are you, anyway? The way you manipulate shadows… I’ve never encountered anything like that before.”
“I’m fae,” he said simply, like that answered everything.
I raised a brow. “Okay, but what else can you do with the shadows? Because the things I’ve experienced…”
Luca’s grip on the wheel tightened, but his face remained impassive. “I can do a lot more than what you’ve experienced. The shadows are an extension of me. I can use them to bind, to fight, to conceal. They obey my will.”
I settled back against the leather, thinking about when his shadows had touched me. It hadn’t been oppressive or terrifying. In fact, it’d feltintimate. Surreal. Borderline pleasurable.
“And how do they feel to everyone else? Because when I felt them…”
Luca glanced at me then, his silver eyes flicking over my face, assessing. His lips curved into a subtle, almost imperceptible smile. “They feel how I want them to feel.”
Before I could think of a response to that, shadows curled out from him and snaked across the seat, winding their way up my arms and across my collarbone. My breath hitched as they trailed over my skin, featherlight yet undeniably present. He wasn’t even looking at me. His eyes were still on the road, as if this were nothing to him.
I couldn’t stop the moan that escaped my lips. The sound was barely audible, but I knew he heard it. That slight smile turned into something sharper, more knowing.
It was the first time I’d seen Luca smile. And fuck, I hated that I wanted to see it again.
The shadows became more insistent, tracing my skin, slipping under my jacket, trailing down my spine, wrapping around my thighs. My pulse raced as they moved, every touch sending jolts of warmth and sensation through my body. It waspleasure. Pure, unfiltered, glorious pleasure. I bit my lip to keep from making another sound, but it was too late. I wanted more. Needed more.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, it was gone.
I let out a frustrated breath, my body aching at the absence of that touch. “Prick.”
Luca smiled again—twice in a few minutes. That had to be some kind of record for him.
“You wanted to know,” he said so casually, as if he hadn’t just wrecked me with the most surreal experience of my life.
“You must beverypopular with the ladies,” I said, even though it grated on me for some reason.
I stared out the window, willing my mind to stop spinning. It was difficult to focus when all I could think about was hisshadows caressing me. They’d been so close to every part of me and made me feel things I wasn’t prepared to feel.
I hated this. I hated that he could get under my skin so easily. That these men, these monsters, were starting to unravel me. And it had only been twenty-four hours.
When Luca pulled the car to a stop, I peered out the window at the unfamiliar streets. We were deeper into The Below than I’d ever been, somewhere far beyond the parts I knew. This place was darker, thicker with magic and danger. The streets were narrower, the buildings stacked against each other like they were trying to suffocate the life out of anyone passing by.
My stomach twisted.
I glanced over at Luca. He hadn’t said a word since the shadows had touched me in the car, and now, his silence was even more unsettling. He scanned the streets as if he was expecting something or someone to jump out at us.
“What are we doing here?” I asked, trying to mask the anxiety crawling all over my skin.
“I’m on a mission for The Shadow,” he said, his voice clipped.
He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t press. The gnawing in my gut grew stronger as we stepped out of the car and into the shadows. Luca moved with quiet confidence, his posture rigid and alert, like he was ready to strike at any moment.
