CHAPTER TWO
LUCCA
I LEANED AGAINST THE WALL, impatiently watching as my old college pal, Jason Somers, scribbled on his note pad as he continued talking to the cute dark-haired girl with a pixie-like haircut. Yet again, I wondered what the hell I was doing here. I’d met Jason almost twenty years ago when we’d pledged the same fraternity, and over the years, we’d become as close as any true brothers could be. So, when he called me, I always answered the phone. And when he asked for a favor, I rarely said no. Glancing down at the gold Rolex adorning my thick wrist, I grimaced as I realized that I’d been holding up the wall behind me for the last ten minutes, and I strove to remain calm. But I, Lucca DeMario Falconi, was never a man that liked to be kept waiting. Maybe it was my privileged upbringing as the only child of a wealthy, older Italian couple. Maybe it was my penchant for milking the most from every moment of my day. Either way, if my beloved frat brother kept me waiting much longer, wasting my valuable time, I was gonna deck the shit out of him and worry about the damn consequences later.
I’d already told Jason “The Butcher” Somers that my sausage was now my own and the weekends I’d spent working for his “shop” were over. Sure, being a male escort had been fun when I’d been a horny young guy in my twenties. Hell, it had even been exhilarating in my early thirties when I’d felt like the world was my own personal playground, but I was older now, damn it. I’d buried both my parents in the last couple of years. My age was catching up with me. It was time to stop passing out my cock to every willing woman and find the one lady that I could love for a lifetime. I’d worked hard to build a career that I was proud of, and I couldn’t afford to jeopardize what I’d built as a real estate broker with an illegal side job that I didn’t even need. Hell, if I was being honest, it was a job that I’d never needed. I’d done it for the thrill. And to help out my oldest friend. But it wasn’t like my old college pal needed my dick anymore. His butcher shop, The Meat Market, was now firmly operating in the black and had been for quite some time. The proceeds he brought in from his escort side business was just gravy at this point, and I didn’t feel bad for walking away from the operation.
But when Jason left a voice mail this morning that he needed me for one last job, I’d felt duty bound to help him out. Now, I just wanted to get the details and get the job done.
Then, I could be done. Officially done. Thoroughly done. Stick-a-fucking-fork-in-me-because-I’m-fucking-done DONE. Straightening as I watched the girl give Jason a happy smile and a nod before turning to leave, I watched as my friend turned to face me, his grin widening as he spotted me.
“Hey, man!” he greeted me with a lift of his chin. “I’m glad you could make it in. How’s life in the financial district? You still wheeling and dealing, making money hand over fist?”
“Like you give a shit,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at his glib question as I followed him toward the office in the back while the other two guys behind the counter continued assisting customers. I knew Jason could not give two fucks about how the real estate market was treating me, and he knew that I knew. It wasn’t Jason’s fault. He just wasn’t the type of guy to care about more than what was on his own personal plate. “Let’s you and I cut the bullshit, Jay. We’ve known each other too fuckin’ long to waste our time like that. Why am I here? I told you weeks ago, man…The butcher needed to find somebody to take my place because I was out,” I reminded him, making sure to call him by his codename.
Collapsing into the chair behind his desk, Jason sighed. “C’mon, man. I’ve got a customer that needs a great Italian Sausage. You might say she’s starving for it,” he said as he picked up a folder on his desk and tossed it toward me as I sat in the only other chair in the room—the one right in front of his desk.
Ignoring the file that landed in front of me, I simply stared at him. “I’m out, Butcher. I’m too old to be fucking my way through Chicago anymore. Easy pussy was fun for what it was, my friend, but I’m looking for more than a good time and a tight hole now. I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done while working for The Meat Market. I provided a service I enjoyed. I liked giving women what they needed. That’s no lie. But I’m looking for The One now. And I don’t think I’m gonna find her if I continue taking these engagements from you,” I said, tapping the thin file for emphasis.
Jason shook his head. “This is the last one, Lucca. I swear. And she’s a special case. There may not even be any sex involved.”
I couldn’t deny that got my attention. It was rare that a woman contracted with me and didn’t want sex. Lifting my eyebrow, I met Jason’s gaze. “What’s her deal?” I asked reaching for the file and flipping it open. “Holy Christ,” I breathed as my breath caught in my throat and my eyes landed on the photograph stapled to the inside of the folder.
She was gorgeous. Absolutely and undeniably hot as fuck.
Between those bottomless blue eyes and the made-to-suck-my-cock lips curved into a shy smile, she was everything my dick screamed it wanted. And while I could only see a hint of her cleavage in the picture, I could tell that her body promised pure heaven. I could see from the candid photograph that she was a tiny little thing. It was clear by the way the couch dwarfed her petite frame as she sat into the corner as she canted her head slightly to the left and rested her elbow on the arm of the sofa, her chin in her hand.
“Glad to know you like what you see,” Jason noted with a self-satisfied smirk. “I knew she’d be your type. She appeals to the alpha male in you. It’s all over your face. You wanna find her, mark her as yours, and protect her from every other swinging dick in the city. And to be honest with you, I think that’s exactly what she needs. That poor chick deserves to feel safe after everything she’s been through the last few years.”
“What the fuck do you mean?” I barked, my hackles rising at the thought that she might need protection from someone. Whatever threat she faced, I’d eliminate. Quickly and painfully. Not one second’s harm would come to this sweet angel. Not if there was a breath left in my body.
“It’s all in the file, but I’ll give you the highlights if you want,” Jason offered.
I felt my eyes narrowing dangerously and I reminded myself that Jason was a friend. An old friend. And he wasn’t the type that would want any woman in danger. Especially one that was meant to be mine, I thought as my eyes dropped back to the picture in the folder, my finger lightly tracing over her face. “I want, Jay. I want to know everything.” I felt Jason’s eyes considering me for a few tense heartbeats before the other man started talking.
“Your girl’s name is Essex Laine Landry. She’s twenty-two-years-old and just got hired as an ER LPN over at County Hospital. She was raised by two loving parents and she’s got the same best friend she’s had since kindergarten. You might have seen her earlier. She’s the babe I was chatting with at the meat counter.”
“The one with the pixie cut?”
“Yep, that was her. Anyway, Essex—or Essie as her bestie called her—has spent the last four years of her life caught up in a nightmare. See, she married her high school sweetheart the day after graduation and everybody’s Mr. All American turned into a fucking monster almost overnight. Apparently, he was beating on her before the ink on the marriage license was dry and continued to take his rage out on her every day after until about a year ago.”
Gripping the arms of the chair I sat in to keep from throwing Jason’s desk across the room, I tried to breathe. The thought of any man taking his fists to a woman as tiny and fragile as Essex looked in that picture was enough to make me want to find this fucker, rip out his throat and strangle him with his own esophagus. “I’m gonna kill him,” I stated with quiet vehemence, fully prepared to follow through on my word.
“Too late, buddy. After he beat the shit out of her for the last time, she got a restraining order and divorced his abusive ass. The nasty prick committed suicide this past May. Bullet to the head on what would have been their anniversary. His suicide note said he didn’t wanna live without her.”
“Fucker took the easy way out. I would have killed him with my bare hands and saved a perfectly decent bullet,” I bit out angrily. I was happy as hell that sick fuck wasn’t still wasting air, but I couldn’t deny that I felt deprived of ending him myself. Now there wasn’t anywhere for my rage to go. Picking up Essex’s file again, my eyes were automatically drawn back to her photograph. How the hell could any man mistreat a woman as beautiful as her? The very idea was appalling.
“At any rate,” Jason continued, “Now that she’s out of imminent danger, Essex is trying to start her life over again. The problem is that she’s now got an almost pathological fear of men.”
“Who could blame her?” I growled defensively, unwilling to listen to anyone that might speak negatively of Essex, even if he was one of my closest friends. She had every reason to be distrustful of the male species. Besides her father, her husband should have been the man she should have been able to trust the most. That dirty fucker had betrayed that trust. It was little wonder she was wary of men. Between what she’d been through and her diminutive size, Essex would know firsthand how destructive a man could be when he was angry.
“Whoa, Lucca,” Jason replied, holding up his hands in front of him. “I’m not insulting her. I’m explaining to you why she contacted The Meat Market. She wants to get used to being around a man again before she starts her new job and figured it might be easier if she was paying for the time. I guess she thinks there’s less of a chance somebody she is paying would hurt her. You were the first guy I thought of when her friend came in to talk to me, but if you’re not interested, I can easily take this engagement. Hell, spending a weekend with this beauty wouldn’t be hard at all. Fuck, with a face like Essex’s, I’m betting I’d stay hard all weekend, sex or no sex.”
“Do you want to die today, Jay? Because I swear to God, if you so much as sniff the air in her direction, you’ll be looking for more than just a replacement for me. You’ll be too busy recovering from your injuries inside a full body cast,” I threatened as I felt a wave of possessiveness flood me. It was a new experience for me. Because while I respected women and deeply enjoyed their company, I never found one that brought out this side of me. I knew just by looking at Essex’s photo that I was going to be a greedy bastard when it came to her attention. I wanted her focus to be on me alone. And that would definitely work both ways. She was already the only thing I could think of.
Jason’s chuckle rumbled through the small office as he leaned forward to clasp his hands loosely on the desk. “Lucca, take a breath, man. I had a feeling once you saw this chick and heard her story that you’d want this weekend with her. It’s why I called you. You can un-clench. I’ve got no interest in this woman. I’m not a big believer in all that destiny bullshit, but it’s fairly clear this chick was meant for you.”
Hearing his words, I relaxed slightly, leaning back in my seat and loosening my white-knuckle grip on the chair. “I knew we were friends for a reason,” I mumbled, beyond relieved that Jay had the good sense not to send Essex to one of the other men that made up his diverse crew of escorts. They were all good guys who would give up a limb before they raised a hand to a woman, but still…Essex was meant for me.
Jason shot me an amused smile. “Glad to hear you’re not gonna start threatening me.”
“We both know I don’t have to do that.” I shrugged easily. “Because we both know what would happen if you stood between me and a woman I’ve decided will be mine.” It was true, too. Jay was well aware that I didn’t tolerate any obstacle getting in my way when I settled on a goal. And sweet Essex was definitely now my sole goal.
“Please tell me you don’t plan to bulldoze your way into this woman’s life, Lucca. After everything I’ve shared with you, you gotta know those kinds of tactics will only make this injured bird take flight. Intimidation ain’t the way to this one’s heart,” he warned me, leaning forward to tap his finger against Essex’s image. “She’s wounded. She’s scared. And man, flip the page,” he ordered, lifting his chin toward the file.
Not liking the look in his eyes, I quickly reached for the folder and flipped the page as my eyes quickly landed on another picture of her. A much, much different photo. In this one, she was lying in a narrow hospital bed, her face swollen and distorted to the point where her eyes were barely visible. She was beaten black and blue, the bruises looking garish against her pale face, but even that wasn’t the worst part.
No.
As my eyes scanned down the page, a smaller photo had been printed against the paper. This one was obviously of the same woman, only it was a view of her back with her hospital gown pulled back to expose the painful-looking wounds over her spinal area and posterior. Wincing, I quickly realized that these weren’t just any old injuries. It looked like her asshole ex-husband had lashed Essex with a whip, marring this gorgeous woman’s perfection by making deep lacerations in the alabaster flesh. God, how this sweet angel must have suffered! It turned my stomach and made me feel homicidal. I wished with all my heart that this demented fucker was still alive so that I could make him hurt the way he’d forced his wife to hurt. Staring at the photo, I knew in my gut that there were no way marks like that hadn’t made scars.
Awful, hideous blemishes against her otherwise flawless skin.
Yeah, I wanted to murder this sick fuck for what he’d done to her.
“She’s scarred, Lucca,” I heard Jay say softly, regretfully. “Inside and out. So, if you want her, you’ll have to show her that not every man wants to destroy the light in a woman’s eyes. And you’ll have to show her patience like you’ve never known before. And knowing you like I do, I gotta ask: Can you do that?”
Slowly I lifted my eyes from the file to my friend, and I swallowed painfully, wild emotions clogging my throat. I was angry at the fuck that had done this to Essex. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to convince this sweet, battered woman that she no longer had anything to fear. I was excited that I’d finally found her…the woman that would own my soul. I was a lot of things.
But the thing I felt the most?
An overwhelming sense of purpose.
Because one look at Essex Landry showed me what I was missing in my life.
Her.
“Jason, make no mistake. I’ll give Essex whatever she needs to have. She’s meant to be mine.”
Nodding once, Jason grinned. “Good. The engagement starts tomorrow night at five o’clock and ends…”
“It doesn’t end, Jay,” I interrupted.
“Okay,” he laughed at me. “Let me re-phrase. She thinks it ends Sunday evening at seven. She hasn’t specifically asked for any kind of intimacy, but instead wants to play it by ear. Mostly, she wants to get herself accustomed to being around a man. She’s afraid when she starts at the hospital she’ll end up having one of her panic attacks if she’s around a man too long. She’s been in therapy, but she still has episodes of severe terror if a guy makes a sudden movement or raises his voice. If that happens with you, the best friend has indicated you should call her.”
“That won’t be necessary. If Essex has a panic attack, we’ll work through it. Ultimately, Essex will call all the shots with me, Jason. You don’t need to worry. She will be entirely in charge,” I assured him calmly, rising from my chair, eager to get on the road. Yeah, it was only Thursday afternoon, but I wasn’t waiting an entire day to make my move. If I was correct, and I almost always was, right now, Essex was doubting her unorthodox approach to try and cure her aversion to men. She was very likely regretting her decision to reach out to an escort for help and by tomorrow morning, she’d have herself talked out of the idea entirely. I wasn’t going to risk that. Now that I’d seen her picture and knew her story, I couldn’t let her slip through my fingers. I’d simply swing by her apartment, introduce myself, and let her know I knew her situation and was eager to help.
Yeah, maybe my plans were a little presumptuous. And maybe a tad rash.
But she was alone.
She was frightened.
And I could prevent both of those things.
I wasn’t staying away from her. Not even for one more night.