Page 6 of Saint Of Envy (Tangled Hearts, Sinful Hands #2)

VALENTINA

I can’t help but notice that Luc seems more on edge now that we’ve gotten up into the hotel suite than he was down at the casino bar. When he returned from taking his phone call, his demeanor, although he tried to hide it, seemed different and more worried than before.

“Is everything alright?” I ask as he pours himself a scotch from the minibar and takes a seat on the long couch in the living room of the suite.

“Yes, everything is fine,” he says with a tight smile. “Are you okay? I know you’ve been through a lot, and I’m sure it’s difficult having everything up in the air right now. I promise that we’ll get you settled as soon as possible.”

“Settled?” I ask, not even sure what that means for me anymore.

I sigh and sit down beside him as Luc hands me his glass to take a sip, but I decline.

“Do you remember the conversation that we had while we stood in the corner of that gala years ago? The one that made me giggle and garnered the attention of everyone around us.”

“I do,” he says with a small chuckle. “There were at least two other men standing close enough for me to hear their remarks when they looked over and saw you smiling so widely. Honestly, I wanted to punch their lights out for thinking such salacious thoughts about how delicious you looked in your dress.”

“You never told me that!” I laugh. “Well, I was thinking more about what you said that made me giggle. We had been talking about my love of photography, and you suggested I take a series of candid mafia photos—a sort of visual exposé. I responded that photographing the mafia would likely anger them, and you joked I could use the photos for their obituaries if they dared to harm me.”

Luciano laughs again and nods as he remembers the conversation vividly. “That should have been your first clue that I didn’t want anyone else touching you.”

I can feel the heat rise to my cheeks when I think back to that night.

I knew I felt a burning attraction to him, but I was still uncertain if Luc felt the same way about me.

After all, he was older, in a position of authority as a consigliere, and could have had any woman he chose.

It didn’t seem plausible that he and I would ever have the chance to be anything more than friends, and yet—here we are.

“It’s been a long time since you and I have had the chance to sit and talk,” I muse as he refills his glass.

“When you climbed into my window, there wasn’t much talking that night, and then after the incident at the church in Italy and on the plane ride home, well, there wasn’t much talking then either. I’ve missed our friendship.”

“So have I.” Luc leans forward to kiss me and, as much as I want to, I feel like maybe we should slow things down a little.

Everything has been a crazy, passion-fueled, adrenaline rush since he climbed through my window, and I want to make sure that it isn’t just a forbidden lust that is behind our feelings.

“I think maybe we should take things slow now,” I suggest as I let my lips brush against his. “Get to know each other again in the midst of all this chaos.”

For a second, I worry about upsetting or angering Luc with my idea. But he isn’t at all opposed to it. Instead, he smiles and takes my hand in his.

“I agree,” he says as he leans back against the couch. “So, tell me, have you been using that old camera at all?”

I had almost forgotten about the things that I left behind in Leonardo’s estate when I ran from the cathedral.

The camera that Luc gave me is still there, although it might not be there much longer now that I’m gone.

I wouldn’t put it past Leonardo to destroy my things in a fit of rage over my betrayal and the fact that I made him look like a fool without power over me in front of an audience of his peers.

“Sometimes,” I say wistfully. “Mostly, I just looked through the lens.”

Luc cocks his head to one side as if trying to understand why I would look through a camera without actually using it. So, I let him in on one of the little secrets that kept me from wanting to jump out of the window of Leonardo’s estate in order to escape my fate.

“Sometimes,” I say thoughtfully as I recount the memory. “I would take off the lens cap and stand at the window, looking through the camera lens at the world outside. I’d use my imagination to add things to the images that I could see through the camera.”

“What kinds of things would you add?” he asks, genuinely interested in my thoughts again, as he always seems to be, even from the first moment we met.

I hesitate to tell him I would often picture him on the other side of that camera lens. “Just people that I would rather be with and places that I would rather be in,” I say, leaving the interpretation vague for now.

“Well, I’m glad that you had the camera to keep you company when I wasn’t there to do it myself,” he says, surprising me with how tender his remark is.

I want him with every fiber of my being, but a part of me knows that this flame might burn too hot, and I don’t want to risk it burning out. Many things hinder Luc and me from being together, primarily my betrothal to a family rival.

“You know, I used to wish secretly that you were at every gathering that I had to attend,” I admit. “I would scan the guests, looking for your face or the shape of your profile amidst the conversations being had.”

Luc’s eyes light up as if we’re both feeling the excitement of that long-lasting forbidden romance that started years ago.

“I would always spot you as soon as I walked inside any venue that we were both at,” he says.

“I could pick you out from the crowd a mile away—those endless dark eyes and the way your hair falls in waves against your shoulders. Sometimes, your father would show you off, and it was all I could do to keep myself from intervening and whisking you away. Especially when I saw other men looking at you. There was more than one night that I left those events, wishing I had broken a few necks.”

“I wish you would have—whisked me away, not broken anyone’s neck,” I clarify.

Luc laughs lightly and tightens his grasp on my hand.

The emotionally charged conversation about what began as our friendship—a mutually shared experience in a sea of mafia settings that we both felt frequently averse to, and progressed to deepening, secret desires about the forbidden romance we both knew we shouldn’t entertain ideas about.

“My father would have locked me in my room forever if he knew I was having secret fantasies about an older man,” I tease.

“And yet now he wants to marry you off to one,” he grimaces. “And a bad one, at that. Valentina, why is he?—”

Before he can ask me about my father’s questionable judgment and before I have to wrestle again with the conflicted way that I feel about it, I interrupt him.

“So, if we’re supposed to keep a distance from each other and act like we didn’t just sleep with each other before I ran away from my arranged marriage to your rival, does that mean that I’m going to have to stay in this hotel alone?”

“Not necessarily,” Luc says, quickly forgetting about the question he was getting ready to ask me.

“I’ll just let everyone know that I’ll be staying here with you in order to protect you.

There’s more than one bedroom inside this suite, so Alonzo and Gabriel and the others will assume that I’m simply keeping you under my protection. ”

“Are you sure about that?” I ask. Isla hinted, I’ve noticed that Vincent is aware his cousin has been watching me from afar. I doubt they’re the only ones who can see the way Luc and I seem drawn to each other any time we’re near.

“Sure enough,” he answers.

At that very moment, there’s a knock at the door and Luc reacts instantly by drawing his gun. It surprises me the way his reflexes jump to a heightened threat level, especially since we’re here on his own family’s territory.

“It’s me,” a familiar voice calls from the other side of the door.

I recognize Vincent’s underboss’s voice as Luc shoves his gun back in its holster. I remain seated on the couch as I watch him open the door. Alonzo steps inside and glances over Luc’s shoulder at me.

“Jesus, tell me you’re not fucking Leonardo Conti’s wife,” he says with an exasperated groan.

“She’s here because she needs a safe place to stay,” Luc says without directly answering him. “And she’s not Leonardo Conti’s wife.”

“Well, she was supposed to be,” Alonzo huffs, still glancing over at me as I try to pretend like Luc and I weren’t just sitting here having an intimate conversation about our feelings.

“Why are you here, Alonzo?” Luc asks. “Did something happen?”

“Yeah, actually. Gabriel said he heard word on the street that some of Conti’s men have been snooping around our neck of the woods.

I wanted to give you a heads-up before you get yours blown off.

Also, you should probably keep the girl inside for a while until things die down a bit.

If Leonardo really wants her back, he might send one of his goons to snatch her off the street. ”

“He doesn’t want Valentina back,” Luc grumbles. “He only wants control over the situation and her.”

“Same thing,” Alonzo huffs before turning to leave. “How long are you planning on keeping her holed-up in here, anyway?”

“As long as it takes for me to figure out a better plan to keep her safe from being forced to return to the Conti household.”

“Godspeed,” Alonzo chuckles as he walks out the door, mumbling under his breath about how this is the reason he doesn’t have a woman because they are “more trouble than they’re worth”.

“He’s rough around the edges, isn’t he?” I joke after Luc shuts the door.

“We all are,” he says as he grabs his jacket.

“I thought you were going to stay here with me?” I ask, unable to hide my disappointment.

“I need to do a perimeter sweep and keep my eyes open and alert for a few days. I suspect Leonardo will want to make a move that will help him save face after the embarrassment he suffered in Italy. He blames me for that, not just you,” he explains.

“It’s best if you stay here where I know you’ll be safe for a few days while I check things out.

I promise I’ll be back soon, and you’ll have everything you need in here until I return.

If you need anything urgent, just ask a member of the hotel staff.

They’re all loyal employees of Vincent’s. They’ll know how to find me.”

After he leaves, I walk over to the window to look outside.

A few minutes later, I can see Luc walking across the street outside the building.

It’s ironic that I’m right where I started, stuck inside a building.

Except that this time, instead of dreading the return of a man like I used to every time Leonardo came home to his estate, I’m eagerly awaiting Luc’s return.

It worries me that he’s out there, managing the Moretti mafia family while Vincent is still in Italy with Isla, and while Leonardo is likely scheming up a way to exact his vengeance on us both at this very moment.

If that wicked man had his way, he’d kill both Luc and his cousin and force me to return to his side.

The only thing currently preventing that from happening is the fact that such action against another Don’s family, and those under its protection, would constitute a war.

Still, I don’t think that Leonardo will just let this go.

He’s never been one to open the cage and let a bird fly free.

For the next few days, I see Luc only for a few moments at a time.

Sometimes, Alonzo is with him, and we both act as if this situation is nothing more than Luciano stepping in to protect a vulnerable friend.

Other times, Luc is alone and able to stay just long enough for it to make me long for him even more once he has to leave again.

There is something he’s not telling me—something going on that has his guard up and our time together limited. And it isn’t until he finally comes back to the hotel suite late one night that I have time to ask him about it.

“What’s going on out there?” I ask with a furrowed brow as he comes in and takes off his jacket, and sets his gun on the coffee table. “Are things escalating? Have you heard from Leonardo?”

“I’m taking care of it,” he assures me with a smile that leaves lingering questions. “You don’t need to worry. I promised you I would protect you.”

“That doesn’t exactly answer my question,” I frown. “Luc, I can’t stay locked up inside this hotel suite forever. This is no way to live. I feel like I’m still being imprisoned by Leonardo’s hold over me, even though he’s not here and I’m not trapped inside his estate.”

“I know,” he sighs. “And I promise that I’m working on it. But for now, let’s get some rest, okay? I think we could both use it.”

I wait for him to leave again, almost as soon as he’s gotten here, but to my surprise, Luc turns and walks towards the bedroom.

“Coming?” he asks as he holds out his hand to me.

“Wait, you’re staying the night?” I ask as I try not to get my hopes up.

“Yes.”

It’s the first night that we’ve slept in the same bed, wrapped around each other as I nestle into Luc’s arms until the morning sun appears over the top of the buildings on the Vegas Strip.

And it’s the first night in more nights than I can remember that I’ve slept so soundly I almost don’t want to wake up.

If I could snapshot tonight and keep it forever, I would.