Page 4 of Saint Of Envy (Tangled Hearts, Sinful Hands #2)

VALENTINA

T he moment I step into Luc’s car, the destination stops mattering.

As long as it’s far away from Leonardo and his men, that’s good enough for me.

With Luc, I feel safe—more than that, I know I am safe.

He treats me like a person instead of like property, as both Leonardo and my father do.

Besides, it doesn’t matter where I’m going because I don’t think I even have a home anymore.

I’m in another country with no one to turn to, and back in Vegas, I have only Leonardo’s estate or my father’s house.

But my father is part of the reason I ended up in this mess with Leonardo to begin with.

He’s the one responsible for my arranged marriage to Leonardo, a “strategic family arrangement” as he called it.

And as much as I love my father, I’m now deeply conflicted and frustrated with our relationship.

What kind of man would put his daughter in this position, committed to a husband she doesn’t care for?

I feel for my father. He was always a neutral man who kept a low profile and tried to get by without getting sucked into too much trouble.

But his fatal flaw was turning to Leonardo when his business struggled, and he needed a loan.

Asking a Conti for money means that you are in their debt—or, as the case turned out to be, I'm the one responsible for paying my father’s debt by giving my hand in marriage.

I tried to do my duty and passively go along with it, but that night with Luc changed things.

It reawakened a personal desire that has been burning hot ever since and quickly led me to finding my agency outside of my family loyalties.

Still, this can never work between us. It’s a tragedy waiting to be written.

“You know we can’t actually be together, right?” I ask him, wanting Luc to convince me otherwise. “Neither of our families would allow it.”

“Do I look like a man who lets mafia politics and societal expectations impede taking what I want?” he asks without looking at me. “I know the risks of what we just did, Valentina. You left Leonardo Conti embarrassed at the altar during his own wedding, and I just stole you out from under him.”

Funny, I hadn’t thought of Luc as “stealing” me until just now. It seemed at first that he was just there in the right place at the right time to help me escape. But in truth, Luciano stole my heart a long time ago.

“You’re a consigliere, not a Don,” I remind him carefully. I’m used to having to tread lightly around Leonardo so as not to set him off, and those habits die hard. “You’ll have to answer to Vincent too, for what you did in helping me escape.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of that. It’s not something for you to worry about, though. I’ll take care of it. Besides, Vincent doesn’t have as much power over my life as he thinks.”

I can pick up on a hint of envy in Luc’s voice, as if he thinks he might be a better leader than his cousin.

But there’s a quality that I’ve seen almost every Don share in common—a ruthless, cold, selfish demeanor that puts them above others.

Vincent might be an exception to that with Isla, but he still has a hard edge around his heart.

Luc doesn’t strike me as being that way, especially not with how he seems both so adoring and protective of me at the same time.

I look down at my wrist and pull the charm bracelet he gave me out from beneath the sleeve of my wedding dress.

Luc catches sight of it and seems surprised that I’m still wearing it, especially on my wedding day.

I can only imagine that Leonardo would have ripped it from me later tonight, behind closed doors, after the wedding reception was over.

Thankfully, I don’t need to think about that scenario now.

“You know, being a don doesn’t seem like it’s all that it’s cracked up to be,” I say, trying to ignore the consequences we’ll both face if our families catch us. “There are sacrifices that men who are dons have to make.”

“Like their souls?” he jokes, lightening the mood a bit as we drive.

“I don’t think you could sell your soul if you tried,” I smile back at him. “You’re much too good of a man, Luc.”

“Why did you agree to marry him, Valentina?” Luc asks. “Did your father pressure you?”

“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” I say as I look out the window at the evening landscape rushing past the car window. “But you already know that my father commands respect with his mere presence. He doesn’t even need to raise his voice inside his house—his word is law within my family.”

“From what I know of your father, he loves you. You’re the jewel of his eye.”

“Perhaps,” I say forlornly. “It’s complicated.”

My father is a weakened man these days, and I don’t want to think about it now, especially knowing that he will have to deal with Leonardo directly now, and that Leonardo will see my escape from him as the ultimate betrayal.

“What is Vincent going to think of you taking his plane?” I say as we pull up outside a private airport.

“Eh,” Luc shrugs. “He already thinks he’s the most powerful man in the universe. I’m sure having his consigliere borrow his jet won’t do anything to humble him. Besides, by the time he catches up with me, we’ll have already landed in Vegas.”

Luc’s phone lights up on the console between us, and I can see from the caller ID that it’s Vincent.

“Speak of the Devil,” he says as he silences it. “I’ll deal with him later. The important thing right now is to get you out of Italy and somewhere safe.”

“And where will that be, exactly?”

“With me.”

When we board the plane, I stand in the aircraft's belly, barefoot and still in my wedding dress, while Luc talks to the pilot. I can hear him giving the man some story about how Vincent approved the flight and there’s “no need to call and check since Vincent and Isla are enjoying an event reception and don’t wish to be bothered right now”.

The pilot glances over at me several times with a raised brow, but in the end, he does as Luc directs.

Luc has an air of confidence about him, along with the sort of honorable reputation that no one questions his loyalty to his Don—perhaps they should.

I bet Vincent might after this incident.

Once the plane is in the air, Luc pours us both a drink from the extensive minibar on board.

“Scotch?” He asks as he hands me a glass.

At this moment, I would drink anything to dull my nerves a bit but think better of it at the last second.

“Thank you,” I say, shifting uncomfortably in my seat because the gown I’m wearing is so obnoxiously bulky.

“Here, let’s take care of that too,” he says with a small chuckle as he walks to the back of the plane and returns a moment later with a bathrobe folded over his arm. “Sorry, but there’s not really a change of clothes on here. The only thing I could find is this robe.”

“That will work,” I smile as I take it from him. It looks delightfully more comfortable than this god-awful dress. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure. Now, before I forget, let’s go over a few things that will be important to establish as boundaries before we land in Vegas.”

“Boundaries?”

“Yeah. I’m going to bring you to Vincent’s Casino,” he says, knocking back his glass of scotch in one gulp.

“It’s the safest place that I can think of to keep you protected for now.

Leonardo is going to be beyond furious, and he’s going to do everything in his power to get you back.

And since you and I both know that we shouldn’t be together, we’re going to need to keep things at arm’s length. ”

“I understand,” I say, already feeling the rising chemistry between us, even on this plane. “There’s a lot at stake.”

“Which is why you’re going to have to follow every safety rule that I lay out once we get there.

Otherwise, I won’t be able to keep you safe.

” His voice is strained, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of the constant threat that we’ll be under or the emotional danger of our forbidden relationship.

“If Leonardo finds out that I care about you, Valentina, he will use it as a weakness to exploit.”

I think that’s the first time Luc has said aloud that he cares for me, even though I already knew it by his actions and the fact that he’s risked so much just to help me escape from that hell.

“I promise I won’t reveal anything to anyone,” I swear. “Not even Isla.”

Luc nods and then turns to close the door at the front of the plane that separates the cockpit from the rest of the aircraft. Despite the cockpit door already being shut, he also secured the secondary door before getting another drink.

“You can get changed here if you want,” he says over his shoulder. “The bathroom is a rather tight space for that absurdly enormous dress.”

He turns around, highlighting the fact that he really is a gentleman. But I can’t get undressed because I can’t unbutton the bodice of my dress.

“Can you help me, please?” I ask hesitantly.

When Luc turns back around to look at me, there’s a darkened desire in his eyes, as if he’s trying to silence his sinful thoughts before they get the better of him.

Our adrenaline is still running high as he walks to stand behind me and unbuttons my dress.

There are so many lace-covered buttons. It’s a painstakingly slow process, one that becomes more insatiably charged with each button that he loosens.

I can feel his hands lingering along my backbone.

He traces gently down the sides of my spine as he goes.

I can hear his breath become labored as he reaches the last button.

He sucks in a sharp inhale as my dress hits the floor.

I turn to face him before reaching for the robe, wearing nothing but the delicate white lace bra and panties that I had on beneath my gown, and the charm bracelet that he gave me with the tiny gold camera dangling from it.

Luc reaches his fingertip to graze across my nipple. It feels divine through the lace and sends a quiver down the inside of my thighs.

“Didn’t I just mention the rules?” he asks, with a hint of sultry mischief in his eyes.

“Yes, you did,” I say, joining him in his banter. “Arm’s length and no giving away that there are any feelings between us. But I thought that only started when the plane touches down in Las Vegas?”

Instantly, Luc reaches his arm behind my waist and pulls me against his body.

The composed, controlled demeanor that he’s held onto until now snaps, and his protective instincts over me create a new desire that consumes me.

I’m not sure yet if his actions outside the church have saved me, set me free, or plunged us both into a dire and inescapable situation.

But with Luc, I feel more alive than I ever have before.

I reach down to undo his pants, sliding them off over his hips until they drop to the floor of the plane.

I’m practically overwhelmed with delight when I see his very ready and waiting cock, erect and so filled with physical desire that the swollen tip is pink with pressure.

With only the two of us on the plane and the cabin door locked, nothing stops us from satisfying our mutual desires again.

Luc snaps open the clasp of my delicate bra with ease and tosses it aside, taking a moment to stare at me in awe before slipping his fingers into the side of my panties and dropping them to the floor.

Every time Luc looks at me, it makes me feel like I’m being worshipped.

It’s a feeling that I’m not used to. I think I could get used to it easily, maybe even dangerously easily.

It’s too hard to stay cautious when his mouth is on mine.

It’s too hard to focus on my desire for independence when I’m overcome with my desire for Luc.

Perhaps we are both hungry to choose our own fate and chase our own ambitions, and maybe the loneliness that we’ve suffered while being part of other people’s stories has pushed us together despite knowing that the world that we’re a part of is against our union.

Who knows—maybe love can exist even inside this violent world of ours.

I push all thoughts of the outside world from my mind as Luc lifts me onto his hips and presses my body against the aircraft’s side, using the plane’s wall to steady us both as he lowers me onto his cock and enters me.

Even if we weren’t flying over the city in an airplane, I would still feel as if I were flying above the world right now.

I run my hands across his chest, over his shoulders, and down his back, as I feel his muscles work, flex with every push, and pull, he makes between my thighs.

Our tongues tangle together, and I feel intoxicated by the taste of him—strength and power, need, and desire.

Those are the things that Luciano tastes like to me.

He groans with pleasure as he thrusts deeper, touching a place deep inside of me that makes my entire body tremble uncontrollably.

And as we soar through the sky toward Las Vegas, Luc and I soar toward ecstasy.

I curve my pelvis against him, wanting to draw him in even further, and he moans in response. It makes me feel empowered knowing that I can cause his body to react to mine. Luc makes me feel like I can do anything.

“You have my heart, Valentina,” he whispers against the side of my face as he kisses the lobe of my ear. “My heart, my body, even my soul—it’s yours.”

His words send me cascading over the tipping point in a crashing, nearly violent seizure of pleasure that grips my entire body and causes me to lose control.

No sooner do I erupt into climax than Luc follows, clawing one hand against the side of the plane over my shoulder to keep us both from falling.

I don’t know if the pilot can hear us, but the sound Luc emits as he presses his cock into me to soak up the last seconds of orgasm is a primal growl.

After that remarkable in-flight encounter, I put on the robe, curl up against Luc’s in the wide leather seat, and rest my head on his chest. I let my eyes close and feel his hand stroking the side of my hair.

“This won’t be easy,” he whispers as he wraps one arm around me to pull me close. “Being near each other, keeping the emotional tension between us a secret from everyone else, all while dealing with the fallout of what we just did.”

“I know,” I say as I feel myself drift off into an exhausted, but comfortable sleep that falls over me.

“But at least I’ll be free of Leonardo Conti, and with you instead.”