Malea’s POV
Lucian pulled me outside and into a nearby cab that had been waiting for us. Where is he taking me? As soon as we got inside, Lucian gave the driver directions towards our destination.
“Lucian. What’s wrong and where are we going?”
“You might want to call your family and tell them you won’t be back home tonight.” Lucian didn’t take his eyes off the road.
“I swear Lucian, I’ll tell the cab to stop and walk out right now if you don’t tell me where we’re going.” I said angrily. What happened?
Lucian sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Then he turned to me. “Do you trust me?”
What kind of a question is that? “Yes. Of course.”
Then he turned to face the front. “Then you won’t question where we’re going.”
After 10 minutes we pulled up at a large mansion home. A fountain sat in the middle of the front yard and a circular driveway lead up to the double French doors.
Lucian paid the driver and helped me out of the cab. “Where are we?”
“At my house.” Lucian took my hand and led me up the driveway.
My eyebrows collided in confusion. “Your house?”
Lucian turned to face me just as we reached the door. “The place where I live. Eat. Occasionally sleep whenever I travel on business to California.” He replied.
I rolled my eyes. “No need to be a smartass. I just didn’t know that you have a house here. Maybe we wouldn’t have had to stay with my parents and crazy family.”
Lucian laughed. To the right of the door, inside the adobe wall, was a bright blue box with a fingerprint scanner. Lucian placed his pointer finger into the scanner and the box requested his voice in order to activate the locks because he didn’t have the keys.
The locks clicked silently and Lucian pulled me inside, locking the door behind us. He pushed me against the wood door and I let out a gasp, confused at what was going on.
The whole house was dark and extremely chilly from the air conditioning. “Lucian?” I whispered.
“I’m right here.” Lucian whispered into my ear, his body now pressed up against mine. I shivered in anticipation. He nestled his head into my neck and began pressing slow kisses down to my collar bone.
“God, I missed you.” He muttered against my neck, his deep voice sending vibrations up my neck to my ears. I giggled stupidly.
“But I was with you the whole night.”
“But I missed you…” He said against my ear. A shiver passed through my spine and I ached to have his lips back on mine. But instead he allowed his lips to trail from my neck to my collarbone, to my exposed cleavage….
He stopped right over my right breast and brought is lips on to mine suddenly. He bit my lower lip softly and tugged, asking for entrance into my mouth and I let him. Our noses brushed as he sucked on my top lip for a second before continuing the kiss, his hands exploring my exposed back and gripping my butt.
He pulled me through the dark and suddenly I was climbing up stairs and led into a room, while everything was pitch black. And then Lucian was kissing down my neck, his body now pressed against my back and I let out a sigh of pleasure.
“Let me help you with this.” He whispered huskily into my ear as he hooked his finger on the straps of my dress and slowly pulled it down lower and lower… until the dress fell around my feet and I felt the sharp bite of the cold air against my bare skin.
I stood pressed against him in my bra and underwear and I realized that we’ve never went past making out. And then Lucian was pulling off his suit jacket and his now wrinkled white shirt. And then when he was in nothing but his own black boxer briefs, he climbed on to the bed.
My eyebrows clashed in confusion when I heard the first snore. Is he sleeping? I wondered in amusement as I tip toed towards him. And he’s sleeping.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the smile that made its way across my face. He looked so peaceful. How could he possibly go to sleep in the time span of 2 minutes. I glanced at the glowing alarm clock. 1: 15 am.
And now I battled with myself. Should I wash off my makeup… or sleep? Because an overwhelming feeling of weariness washed through my body. I’ll pray to God that I don’t break out and just go to bed, I decided.
I got under the covers, shrinking into Lucian’s body for warmth and when he turned to wrap his arms around me, I could only smile as sleep washed over me.
***
Malea’s POV
The sound of water running woke me up as well as the sunlight streaming in from the windows. I rolled over in the soft bed to see Lucian wasn’t next to me any more. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, glancing towards the alarm clock on the bedside table. 12:15. Woah I slept too long. I picked up my phone and scrolled through the notifications, my eyes widening as I realized that I have over 20 missed calls from my parents..
Shit. I quickly sent my parents a text and got out of bed just as the shower turned off. Lucian walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, water droplets darkening his already black hair and rolling down his abs. He had a smaller towel in his hand and was rubbing the water out of his hair.
“Lucian why didn’t you wake me? Now my family thinks I was abducted.” I stood up from the bed and scanned the room for my dress which was folded on top of the dresser, my heels arranged underneath it. Lucian must’ve arranged my clothes when he woke up.
“I wanted you to get some sleep.” Lucian said as I slipped on the dress. I turned around to say something back but froze when I noticed he was closing the blinds. Once he was done, he began to remove his towel so he could get dressed and I flushed red before turning around to slip on my shoes.
“Are you coming with me or staying here?” I adjusted the straps on my dress and turned around just in time to see Lucian already in a pair of boxer shorts.
I pulled my hair up into a ponytail. “I should probably go with you.” He pulled on a heather gray t-shirt and then slipped on a pair of joggers. “And you, should probably get dressed into something more comfortable.
“Like what?”
Lucian tossed me a black t-shirt and a pair of Adidas sweatpants. “Thanks.” I pulled off the dress again, fully aware that Lucian was watching my every move as I pulled on the sweatpants and then the t-shirt. I had to roll up the sweatpants a lot to make sure it fit well and decided to ditch the heels.
He then ushered me out of the house and to the garage which held at least 3 cars. He got into the Range Rover and we were off to my parents house. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, I noticed something. There was an extra car in the driveway.
We both made our way to the front door and rang the bell. The door opened to reveal my mother.
“Finally! I thought you guys ditched us for good.” She grinned and opened the door wider for us to enter.
“Sorry, Mrs. Hayes. Malea stayed over at my house last night.” Lucian said as my mother ushered us to the dining room.
“You have a house in California?” She asked, clearly confused.
“It’s a long story mom.” I butted in.
“But we will be transferring our things over there. I think it best if we stay there for the rest of our visit in California.” Lucian said right after me.
“Okay. I totally understand. Our family can be a bit overwhelming at times.” My mother chuckled. “Well come have breakfast.” She brought us into the dining room and my jaw dropped when I saw Adam sitting with Isabelle and the rest of the family. Why is Isabelle here?
Lucian’s POV
I tensed when I saw Isabelle sitting next to Adam. Isabelle shot me a grin and I averted my eyes. I took a seat next to Malea and her mother placed a plate in front of both of us before sitting down.
“So how was the charity event for you Malea? Adam told me your dress was really beautiful.” Malea’s father grinned before taking a bite of his omlette.
Malea nodded and smiled back at him. “It was nice. I didn’t know Adam would be joining us for breakfast.”
“Yeah well, I invited them over.” Malea’s mother replied.
“So where are you staying at the moment Isabelle?” Zoya asked as she reached over for the jug of orange juice.
“In a hotel. I haven’t found a place here yet.” She replied with her head down, a sad tone to her voice.
“Well, Lucian told me he and Malea stayed over at his house last night. Maybe he wouldn’t mind taking you in for the time being. He and Malea are going to move their things over there today.” Malea’s mother exclaimed as if an idea had just come to her.
No. No no no no. I can’t have Isabelle living with us after what happened between us last night. “Actually—”
“You do have the space, don’t you, Lucian?” Isabelle pouted, looking up through her lashes at me. Everyone at the table looked at me expectantly and I knew I couldn’t say no.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, yes. I do have space.” A lot of space actually but the space isn’t for Isablle. It’s for Malea and I.
She clapped giddily. “Great! Send me the address and I’ll have my bags there by this evening.”
I internally groaned. Why now? She’s only going to make things harder. I glanced at Malea who had a smile on her face. She didn’t even know that Isabelle had kissed me and I haven’t even told her either.
“I don’t have your number.” I faked a smile. I’ll tell Malea what happened tonight.
Isabelle rolled her eyes as if she made a mistake. “So sorry. I forgot that you don’t have my number. My mind goes blank sometimes.” More like her mind goes blank all the time. She slid her phone over to me. “Just add your number in and add the contact name to whatever you like.”
I typed my number in half heartedly wanting to put a fake number in but knowing it wouldn’t be beneficial. I would’ve put the contact name as ‘Don’t text me ever’ but instead set it as ‘Lucian King’, and slid it back to Isabelle.
She grinned and then sent a quick text to my phone to confirm my number and I sent the address to her.
“Malea and I should actually get going.” I stood up from the table after putting in the number.
“Where?” Eileen butted in.
“We have to transfer out things to he house.” I pushed in the chair as Malea got up. Her parents hugged us both and I ran upstairs to get our suitcases.
After I put them inside the Range Rover, I turned out of the driveway and I made my way over to the house.
Malea’s POV
At 6 pm, the doorbell rang. I paused the show that was on the tv and hurried down the hallway and to the enormous front doors. I pulled it open to reveal Isabelle.
I smiled just to be polite. “Hi Isabelle. Please come in.” I moved out of the way so she could lug in her suitcases.
“Where’s Lucian.” Was the first things she said as she got inside, ogling at the rediculously high ceilings and the large mansion itself.
Why does she care where he is? “In the room. Why?”
“No reason.” She glanced around. “I’m going to my room now.” I was going to show her where her room is, but I guess she’s just going to pick any out of the 6 available.
“Okay. You can go to the dining room after you finish in your room because the chef made Chicken Alfredo for dinner.” I called after her as she flew up the marble staircases, her luggage trailing behind her.
I glanced at my phone. It’s 6:10. I’m supposed to be in the gym. I grabbed the water bottle off the kitchen counter and went outside, past the pool and to the other house that was part of the mansion but was solely dedicated to gym equipment.
It was honestly humongous. About the size of a regular gym and filled with twice the amount of gym equipment a regular gym has. Treadmill for an hour and then weightlifting before the elliptical. I told myself.
Lucian’s POV
I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist before walking into my bedroom. It still smelt of Malea’s perfume and I didn’t mind one bit. I smiled to myself remembering how Malea had explained to me that it was the only perfume she ever wore. Speaking about Malea, she should be back from the gym soon. It’s been over an hour.
I headed over to the dresser in search of what to wear just as the door opened. It’s probably just Malea. I opened one of the drawers. “Hey, babe. What’s up?” I asked as I turned around only to find Isabelle standing behind me, a sly smirk on her face and her wearing nothing but a skimpy piece of red lingerie.
“Hi, Lucian.” She grinned.