Chapter 3

LUCAS

“We’re good to go boss,” my bodyguard and confidant Nico De Luca said as I stepped into the foyer of my penthouse, in New York.

“Where is the gold-digging whore called my wife?” I inquired when he held the elevator door open for me.

“She just arrived at Avery and Belding and is in a closed door meeting with Miss Ellington,” he flashed me a knowing smile.

“Hmm… the deliziosa Drew Ellington…” my lips and something else in my lower region twitched when I thought about her.

“I see you enjoyed your project?” Nico chuckled, his brown eyes twinkling with humor.

“I did,” I affirmed, the hint of a self-satisfied smirk playing across my mouth. “And I’ll continue to do so.”

“Careful boss,” Nico warned as we stepped into the lobby. “You just might get hooked.”

“Never again,” the smile dropped from my face and my face clouded. “There’s some mistakes a man can never repeat.” I said, jumping into the limousine that was waiting just outside.

Camille Ferraro-Mancini.

Malicious, lascivious, greedy, implacable, self-indulgent, lying, scheming, cheating puttana. In a nutshell, that would be the definition of my wife you would fail to find on Google search.

I didn’t hate her, I was way past that. I condemned the very air she breathed.

She was poison. A viper. A sorceress of the highest order, minus the broom stick and crooked hat. If I never see her again it will be too soon.

I’m sure by now you’ve figured out that I loathe Camille Ferraro. I want to make sure that I take back my name along with everything I own, when we cut ties for good. She doesn’t deserve my name let alone all my hard earned money. She could take her clothes and all those fripperies but that’s as far as my generosity would extend.

Camille wasn’t always so vindictive. When I picked her up from the gutter she was sweet and pliable. We first met in Florence and she was a struggling waitress who lived in a shoebox with four other girls. The place was smaller than the bathroom of my penthouse in London.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t look down on people that are less fortunate than I am. I was born into wealth, but my miser of a father made sure I worked for every penny. Growing up, pocket money was a luxury I only dreamed about. I looked forward to my nonna’s visits because she’d sleep me a couple of hundred without father’s knowledge. Hard to believe I know.

She was so innocent and caring, not superficial- I thought I’d finally met a real woman. We read the same books, loved the opera, family was everything to us-we had so much in common and got along like gas and fire. After dating for a year, it was only natural that I introduced her to my family. They loved her on sight. Even my skeptical father.

Two years after we were married the honeymoon phase slowly faded. We had spoken about having kids before getting married and we agreed that we’d have lots of them. I came from a huge family and wanted one of my own. I only had a young sister and I didn’t want that for my children.

Camille and I tried for a baby religiously but had nothing to show for our efforts. Until I found the birth control pills in her dressing room, stashed in between her underwear. What was I doing rifling through my wife’s closet? I have no idea. I just had a hunch she was keeping something from me. If only I’d know that was only the beginning of her deception.

I found my pretty project seated in the boardroom of their prestigious offices, deeply engrossed in a conversation with her conniving client. Dio aiutami I hated Camille with every fiber of my being. Just seeing her made me want to commit first degree murder in a room full of witnesses.

Awards and framed pictures of partners and high-achievers were hanging on the neutral colored walls. There was a particular lovely one of Drew that I wanted to keep for myself. Laptops lay open on the glass-topped, oval-shaped table, surrounded by butter-soft leather chairs. Expensive cologne clashed with the morning air that wafted from the open wall-to-wall windows. The atmosphere was charged and both legal teams looked more than ready to each present their cases. I hoped they were at the top of their game because we were in for one hell of a fight. And I paid them a damn fortune to handle my affairs.

As my attorney Gabriel Lombardo and the rest of the team took our seats, Drew’s head snapped up when she finally took notice of me. Her eyes widened and the color drained from her face a moment, as she struggled to compose herself.

“Good morning,” Gabriel said on our behalf and Camille and eye graced each other with our death glares. “Since everyone is here, shall we get started?”

“Excuse me-I need the ladies room before we start,” she mumbled and fled the room. But I wasn’t going to let her mess this up for me. I hadn’t even started to play.

“I think Miss Ellington is onto something,” I tore my gaze away from that detestable human and trailed Drew’s steps. “I might as well follow her to the bathroom or risk getting lost.”

I hurried after her, watching the way her navy pants hugged her perfectly shaped globes. She slipped through the door of the restroom and I didn’t give her breathing space when I stepped in immediately after her.

She turned around and the pulse at the base of the neck gave her fear away. Her neck was exposed by a low-cut top and beckoned to my teeth to take a nibble. I intended to. “You can’t be in here-”

“Lucas,” I supplied, securing the lock and I watched her, unmoving, like a predator watching its prey. “And I’ve already seen you turned outside out…making the sexiest noises as you-”

“I can’t take this case,” she mumbled to herself, leaning on the marble counter. “I can’t…”

“You will,” I told her, snaking my arms around her trim waist and indulging my lips in what they craved for the most. “There is no other way…” Her perfume was doing things to me, things I found myself unable to resist.

“Lucas don’t…” Her resistance held little conviction. “And I can’t take this case because it goes against the code of ethics. I can’t represent your wife when I’m sleeping with you.”

“I love the way you used the present tense, bellissima.” I covered her mouth with mine and swallowed further protests.

“I’m being serious, Lucas,” she tried to break away from hold but I kept my arms around her. “I could lose my job or even get disbarred.”

I dropped my arms and stepped back. “Then you can just come and work for me.”

“I can’t do that to Camille,” she frowned and ran her fingers through her chocolate brown hair. “What would she think of me?” She hunched her shoulders and rubbed her arms. Her beauty was naturally unique and slightly overwhelming. It was refreshing.

“Let me assure you that your pity is wasted on that witch, stellina.”

“She would say the same about you,” she let out a choked laugh.

“Are you going to tell her?” I asked.

“Yes.” Her brilliant blue eyes met my silver ones. “I have to-”

“No. You don’t.”

“Yes I do!”

“Look, I’m not going to say anything about our little play date, sì ?” I compromised, weaving my web just a little bit tighter. “So what? We had a one night stand. It happens. We move on. We can’t allow it to affect us. This is just business.”

“But I-”

“You need to focus on your job and let me worry about the rest, yes?”

“It doesn’t feel right…” she folded her hand into a fist and popped her knuckles one at a time, a sign that I had come to associate with her being nervous. She did that in the car as we drove home on Saturday night.

“You worry too much, cara,” I said, tracing a plump lip with the tip of my finger.

“It’s easy for you to say…” she breathed out an exasperated sigh. “You have nothing to lose.”

“If only you knew, stellina...if only you knew…”

“Why do you keep calling me a little star?” she rolled her eyes. “I do understand Italian, you know? Plus-”

“You speak five other languages,” I finished for her, with a teasing smile. “I know Miss Ellington. I know everything about you.” I coaxed a smile from those lovely lips as she finally relaxed. I couldn’t help but touch her. Her swelling curves held the power to entice and compel a man to start another world war.

“You would, Mr Mancini-stay back!” her hands shot up and pressed against my chest. “We can’t do this again. It can’t happen again, Lucas.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“I missed you…” I whispered, my breath a hot caress on her skin.

“You don’t even know me…” her breathing grew ragged when I slid my hands curved over her ribs, covering her breasts.

Why couldn’t I get enough of her? I hadn’t felt such intense attraction to a woman since high school. But, she was just a means to an end. I had to remind myself of that. There was a lot at stake.

“I think we know each other well enough, stellina…” my hands cupped her generous backside. “I wish we had time…I’d bend you over and take you right here…”

“We can’t…”

“Cosa vuoi che ti faccia adesso?” I whispered the words that had become familiar between us. “Tell me what you want me to do to you right now?” I nuzzled my way up her neck to playfully bite her earlobe. Lust burned in my brain and I could think of nothing else but sinking into her heat. If only we had time…

“Do you want me to spell it out again?” she panted. She was touch-hungry and would not be denied.

“Every experience is different…” I nibbled on her hot satin skin, working my way down. “So, yes my piccolo spuntino, spell it out. Say it?”

“I want…you...”

“How do you want me, bellissima?”

A loud knock echoed, interrupting the intimate, charged moment. But nothing was going to stop me. Not even an earthquake.

“Drew?” The poisonous viper of a wife called out. “Are you okay?”

“Yes!” she replied hurriedly. “I’ll be right there!”

“Can I come in, Drew?” My wife’s knocking became more insistent. She suspected something. She suspected I was here. Same way she had suspicions about where I slept on the weekend. I made sure to plant evidence to feed those suspicions.

She froze and looked at me.

“Posso entrare?” I repeated the question in Italian and smiled. “She took the words right out of my mouth…” My predatory look assured her that I wasn’t going to let her go before having my way with her.

“Lucas, no…”

“Change of plans,” I whispered into her ear, turning her around and bending her over the counter. “I’m going to take you right now with her listening at the door.”