Page 66 of Their Reckless Thief (The Below #1)

LUCA

I wasn’t thinking.

All I knew was that I had to get Celeste out of the chaos, out of the danger. The moment that incubus grabbed her and thrown her through that glass wall, something inside me had snapped. Watching her now… shards embedded deep in her skin, blood trailing along her body, was tearing me apart.

I wasn’t supposed to care this much. But I fucking did. My hands trembled as I tried to stay steady. I undressed her gingerly, focused only on removing each jagged piece of glass from her delicate skin.

She winced, her face tight with pain, but somehow, she still managed to summon a bit of her usual wit. “Well, I didn’t think this is how I’d finally get you to take my clothes off.”

I almost smiled. But the moment passed too quickly, and before I could think of a response, she continued. “I should have known that you’d never willingly take my clothes off in normal circumstances. I obviously repulse you. Why do you feel the need to protect me? Are you just following orders?”

Her words stopped me cold. I wasn’t sure how to answer. She didn’t deserve the half-truths I was used to giving people. So I stayed quiet, focusing on the task, pulling another piece of glass from her arm, careful not to cause more pain.

She winced again, this time letting out a soft gasp. “Come on, please talk. I need a distraction.”

I hesitated before pulling out another shard. “No one could ever be repulsed by you, Celeste.”

That shut her up. Her eyes widened, the playful glint vanished, and something raw and vulnerable took its place. I kept my focus on her skin, on the glass. That was safer than staring into her eyes.

“Have you ever been in love?” she asked softly, curiously.

I shook my head, not trusting my voice.

“Why not?” she pressed. “You must have women lining up to be with you. You look like a fucking Greek god.”

Her words, casual as they were, sent a warmth through me that I had no business feeling. I shut it down quickly. “I’ve never allowed anyone to get that close to me.”

“Why?”

She was persistent, I’d give her that.

“Because I’m dangerous.” I didn’t sugarcoat it. Didn’t hide the truth behind more walls. “And… love is dangerous.”

Her eyes softened, and she winced again as I pulled another shard from her leg. “You’re not that dangerous. Not to me, anyway.”

“You should be scared of me, Celeste.” I let my voice drop, my shadows dancing at the edge of my control. “You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

“Then tell me.”

I hesitated, but the look on her face, the raw pain I could see there—physical and emotional—pushed me over the edge. She needed something, some sort of distraction from the agony she was in. And maybe… I needed to finally say it out loud.

“I killed someone,” I said in a low whisper. “Before I could control my powers. Someone I cared about. I didn’t mean to.”

Her eyes widened, but she stayed quiet, listening.

“I lied to you before,” I admitted, my voice tightening. “When I said my family kicked me out for my political affiliations, that wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was… I killed my older brother.”

My confession hung heavily in the space between us.

“My powers… these shadows, they’re difficult to control when I…

feel things. I was young, and I didn’t understand what I was.

What I could do. No one took the time to train me, to help me understand how to control my shadows.

One day, my brother pushed me. It was typical sibling rivalry, but I snapped.

The shadows consumed him within seconds.

By the time I managed to pull them back, it was too late. He was gone.”

I swallowed hard as I pulled another shard of glass from her side. “So, no. I don’t let people get close to me. It’s safer that way. For everyone.”

There was a long silence, broken only by the glass I dropped into the metal tray. Then, to my surprise, Celeste put her bloody hand on my chest. Her fingers were cold against my skin, but the warmth of her touch seeped into me like a soothing balm.

“You wouldn’t hurt me, Luca,” she said quietly, her voice full of conviction. “I don’t believe you would. Not now. Not ever.”

I stared down at her, and for the first time in a long while, I felt completely exposed. She was wrong, though. She had no idea how close I was to losing control. But when she looked at me like that, like I was more than the shadows that clung to me, it was hard not to want to believe her.

“You were just a kid,” she continued, her voice softer now, almost soothing.

“You need to forgive yourself, even if your family couldn’t find it in themselves to forgive you.

You said it yourself, no one taught you how to control your abilities.

That burden shouldn’t fall on your shoulders.

” She winced as I pulled a particularly large piece of glass from her forearm.

“You can’t keep punishing yourself forever. ”

I swallowed hard and looked away, focusing on the last few shards of glass I needed to remove. She didn’t understand. She couldn’t. But the weight of her words settled over me, gnawing at the walls I’d built around myself.

Being this close to her, having her laid bare in front of me, the scent of her blood and skin filling the room while I told her about the deepest, darkest recesses of my being…

it was too damn much. She was consuming me, bit by bit, breaking down the walls I’d spent years constructing.

I needed to focus. I needed to finish this and put distance between us again.

She must have sensed the shift because she started talking again.

“When I was on the streets, I didn’t have anyone.

My parents left me, or, at least, that’s what I assumed.

They went out on a date and then never came back.

I ran away because I couldn’t stand the thought of being put into the foster care system.

I was just another face, another body, on the streets.

I learned pretty quickly that no one was going to look out for me.

So, I did what I had to do. I fought. I stole.

And I survived. But that kind of life… it takes something from you.

I keep people at a distance, too. I get it. ”

Her words hit me harder than I expected. I wanted to go back in time, find the young version of her, and protect her from the world that had broken her down. But I couldn’t. All I could do was care for the Celeste that was here, now, lying in front of me.

She would be protected. She would be cared for. Even if I had to do it from a distance.

Vivian’s voice suddenly crackled in our earpieces, breaking the moment between us. “Luca, Celeste, we’re clear. Dorian and Vincenzo are back in the SUV with the key.”

We both let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s probably safe to say the mission was a success, right?” Celeste looked at me with hope in her eyes, wanting so badly to receive positive feedback for her role.

I shrugged. “Have you seen your body? I wouldn’t exactly call this a complete success, but we did get the key, and that was the goal. Now we can move forward with the heist to get the mirror.”

I finished removing the last of the glass and stood, putting some much-needed distance between us.

“Let’s get you patched up,” I muttered, my voice rough with everything I wasn’t saying.

Celeste gave me a small nod, her eyes still full of something I wasn’t ready to face. I might never be ready for it.

Fuck, I was losing it.

Celeste lay in front of me, her skin bare save for the thin scraps of fabric covering her most intimate places, and I was doing everything I could to stay focused on the task at hand. Glass shards. Salve. Wounds.

Keep it professional.

But her body, her scent, the way her skin shivered under my touch… It was driving me insane.

I dipped my fingers into the healing salve, my hands trembling, and began applying it to the cuts on her legs. Her skin was warm and soft. As I smoothed the cool ointment over her thigh, I saw her breath catch, those gorgeous breasts of hers rising and falling.

I cleared my throat. “Are you cold?”

She looked up at me, her eyes dark, her pupils wide with something that matched the ache building in my gut. “No,” she whispered. A confession. A challenge.

My hand stilled for a moment, but I forced myself to keep going, moving up to the cuts on her ribs and chest. I had to touch her, but the distance between what I wanted to do and what I needed to do was killing me.

Her skin, even as battered as it was from the glass, was flawless.

Every inch of her was sculpted, as if whoever created her was mocking me, daring me to resist the pull she had on me.

As I applied the salve to her ribs, my fingers brushed just below her bra, and I noticed her nipples hardening beneath the sheer fabric. I tried not to stare. Hell, I tried not to think about it, but my mind was a fucking traitor.

Her arousal curled around me like a drug, making my thoughts blur. The scent of it filled the room, wrapping around me, and I was doing everything I could to push down the urges clawing their way to the surface.

I wanted to taste her. No, I needed to taste her.

I wanted to devour her and make her come on my tongue until she couldn’t speak.

Until her body belonged to me, until the only sound she could make was my name.

I wanted to rob her of every orgasm I could with every apparatus I could get my hands on.

I wanted to use my shadows to touch her everywhere all at once and leave her screaming for me to stop.

I wanted to fuck her until the world fell away and nothing existed but us.

I swallowed hard, trying to snap out of it, but I couldn’t. Not when my gaze dropped lower, to the curve of her hips, to the delicate lace at the edge of her underwear. My cock was rock hard, so painful I couldn’t ignore it. I prayed to the gods she didn’t notice.