LUCIEN

 

IT TAKES ABOUT a week for Adeline to recover from her ordeal.  To everyone else, she appears to be back to her normal self.  But I can see right through her.  There is an infinitesimal change in her that no one but me would notice since I've studied her so meticulously over the past few months.

She's scared.

The bastard who hurt her caused a deep-rooted fear to implant itself inside her bones.  She's afraid of every single staff member, even the women, but especially the men.

However, even more surprising…she's not afraid of me.

After the night when she took care of me, dressed my wounds and allowed me to open up to her, I haven't left her side.  I've spent the past week nursing her back to health and taking care of her every need.  We've grown closer than I ever imagined possible.  And for the first time in my life, I've slept in the same bed with a woman.

At first, every time I tried to leave, Adeline would either wake up or begin to have terrible nightmares.  Even in her sleep, it was as if she could sense that I was leaving.

I'm her protector.

I've never had to protect anyone before, and it makes me feel powerful.  It makes me feel…wanted.

I always thought of the ideal couple as being two halves of a whole with the man willing to do anything for his woman and vice versa.

Are we a couple?  I can't even begin to describe the kind of fucked up relationship we obviously have, but something has changed.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but Adeline is…different now around me.

The bruises on her arms and neck are fading, and I couldn't be happier.  Yesterday, she asked for makeup, which I hastily provided after an overnighted shipment from the mainland.  I let her order whatever she wanted, and it seemed to make her happy when one of my staff delivered the package this morning.

When I walk into my bedroom around five o'clock in the evening, I notice the bed is empty.  I've become so accustomed to seeing Adeline in bed that panic begins to consume me.  Did she move back to her room?

Did she leave me again?

She's taken over my bedroom this past week, not wanting to leave my side.  At first, I was very uncomfortable to the whole thing, but I've since grown very fond of having her in my bed.  In fact, the thought of not having her here with me every night now sickens me.

Cursing in frustration, I take out my phone so that I can track her watch.  I had fixed it a few days after the attack, and she's been wearing it ever since.  Before I can open the app, her angelic voice calls me from the adjoining bathroom.

"Lucien?  I'm in here."

I walk briskly towards the door, and my footsteps falter when I see her.  Adeline is carefully applying some type of concealer on her neck.  The bruising is almost undetectable, but I watch as she winces in pain from applying pressure to her sore skin.

I stand in the doorway, waiting for her to finish.  And when she turns to me, I can see that she's done up her entire face complete with blush, mascara, eyeshadow and whatever else women put on their faces.

She looks…breathtaking.  She's gorgeous just being her natural self, but the makeup really enhances the green of her eyes, and I just can't seem to stop staring at her…with my mouth hanging wide open.

She giggles at my reaction, and it throws me off even more.  I've never heard her giggle before, and I love the sound she made.  I suddenly want to hear it over and over again.

I clamp my jaw shut and grin at her.  "You look beautiful, Adeline."

A slight blush tints her cheeks as she smiles shyly, and it's so endearing that I almost feel like we've entered another world…a world in which we're just a regular couple and I hadn't plucked her out of her life in order to have her in mine.

"I have a surprise for you," I tell her. 

"A surprise?"

Nodding, I say, "Get dressed and meet me in the foyer whenever you're ready."

"Okay," she says eagerly, and I can't help but be captivated by the excitement in her eyes.  "What should I wear?"

"A dress."  I would love to see her in something beautiful that shows off her gorgeous body.

"Okay.  I'll see you downstairs soon then," she says with a smile.

I leave her to go get the final touches done.  If anyone would have told me years ago…hell, even weeks ago that I would be trying to woo one of the girls I purchased, I would have laughed in their fucking face.

But here I am…trying to sweep Adeline off of her feet and straight into my arms.

Maybe even into my heart.