Wicked Games [Mature 18 +] **COMPLETE**

Chapter Eleven

Moaning, I woke up alone. For a moment I panicked as I tried to put two and two together about where I was but it slowly set in. I was in Lucien's chateau. It certainly looked like where some old world noble would sleep. It wasn't modern in the slightest, similar to the hotel but here everything was gold and cream. Nude, I hunted around the room for something to wear and settled on one of Lucien's shirts and since everything he owned was slimfit, It didn't cover much and I had to leave it mostly open over my breasts, I grabbed a pair of his boxer briefs. The black and grey geometric pattern stretched out over the swell of my ass. I rolled the waistband down so that it flash the fading PROPERTY OF MR. D and went on my hunt for Lucien.

After what I saw, I needed to talk to him. Initially I was shocked to see him shoot the guy like it was nothing, but the glint in his eyes as I took that step back from him made all of the rest of my decisions for me. My inner brat was sated after that command performance.

The palace was a maze, and darker than I thought any place could be with the lights turned off. There wasn't any way to figure out where he'd gone. Maybe if I go outside, I can see where lights are on? Nodding at my idea I walked the path I remembered from before. Eventually I made my way back out to the garden. All the tables, the dance floor and stage were gone, leaving only gleaming pave stones. However, in the distance someone was under a tree with a light. Squinting, I couldn't make out who it was, but I walked toward them all the same. They could at least tell me where Lucien might be if he wasn't with them. Half way there I heard his voice and I started walking quicker, but I couldn't really make anything out, with the slope of the field there was a bush blocking my view.

Thwap. I paused and my brows knit. Thwap. Slowly, I hugged the bush as I peered around it. My hand instantly covered my mouth and I was so proud of myself for not screaming. Lucien, Felix and another man had hatches and were chopping up a body and throwing pieces into a pit at the bottom of the tree. My stomach turned and I had to fight the urge to vomit. Blood misted across Lucien's face and I took a step back, loosing my footing I tumbled down the slight hill. Lucien said something in French and the thwapping stopped as I held my breath. One of them answered and the thwapping continued as I stood and made my way back to the Chateau.

Trying not to simultaneously vomit and cry. Logically I knew they had to do something to get rid of the body... but I didn't need to see it. My hands trembled as I reached the door and it took me forever to actually grasp the knob to turn it and head back in. The darkness didn't make it any better. All I could see was Lucien's face covered in blood as he hacked up a person like they were nothing. Back in Lucien's room I took out my phone and stared down at it. Going into the bathroom I closed the door, locked it and turned on the shower. Hopping up on the counter took a deep breath and dialed Willa's number.

"Hello?" She sounded half a sleep, and cranky.

"You were right."

"Shit," she hissed and sighed. "What happened?"

"I..." swallowed I shook my head. "I can't say but... you're right I let myself be dicknotized," I kept my voice soft, hardly audible above the hiss of the shower. "This was a bad fucking idea." I can make you disappear. What only scared me a little before was put into a whole new terrifying context considering what I saw.

"Alright," she yawned.

"Do you work tomorrow?"

She snickered, "No."

"Shit. My passport was in the Birkin bag."

"So?"

"It was in the fucking limo." I covered my face.

"Deep breath, we'll make this work," she murmured. "Are you going back to England?"

"No."

She took a breath, "Okay. Just say you need to meet me for breakfast. Fucker doesn't know me; say I'm having a pregnancy scare. We'll go from there..." she trailed off and silence settled in. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

"Unequivocally and irrevocably," I muttered.

"Damn girl, you're quoting Twilight. That's pain right there. Well... Breakfast at eight, there's a café by the hotel. Wait, no nine..."

"Why nine?"

"Business, WAKE and LMTD have a joint press conference at nine. As CEO he has to be there and sit beside the scrumbdiddlyumptious Aiden Emery."

#

We got off the phone and my hands were still shaking. It took what felt like forever for me to strip, eventually I managed and got in the shower. The warm water cascading down my body did nothing to distract me and instead thrust me deeper into the situation I was actually in. Did The Society's rules even apply to him? Would I even be safe back in America? I sat down on the marble bench in the shower and sighed kicking my feet as my skin pruned. Unseen weight pressed down on me; I didn't want to lie to him, but I couldn't be sure he'd let me leave. I couldn't do it. No matter how amazing the sex was, everything else scared the shit out of me. Maybe that was the real reason Lydia left? Shaking my head, I let out a long slow breath and laid-back listening to the water hit the tile.

In a different world, he'd be my perfect dominant, but I couldn't feel safe with him now. It hurt; my heart ached like someone reached into my chest and squeezed it. It wasn't fair. Lucien was someone I could fall for with more time. There was a spark between us, but it wasn't enough.

Shaking my head, I turned off the water and wrung out my hair before pulling the clothes back on and heading out into the bedroom. Lucien was still not there, so I made my way through the chateau once more. It didn't take long to find him, he was sitting in the kitchen with wet hair dripping on the floor, with a towel around his waist as he smoked a cigarette. Butts filled the ashtray in front of him, some were even smeared with what could only be blood.

As I stepped in the kitchen his eyes were so large and innocent as they locked to me and the look he gave me, one full of fear and pain was almost enough to make me forget what I saw less than an hour before. I approached him slowly and he pulled me close, pressing his face into my side.

"I think a part of myself died tonight, " he whispered, his voice brimming with agony. I'd never been with a man who was able to show a shred of vulnerability but there it was from the last man I'd ever expect to. My fingers trailed through his dark brown locks, as he nuzzled against me, one hand still on the table with a cigarette between his fingers. He flicked the butt of the cigarette and the ash fell off the cherry into the pile.

Blood caked under his fingernails. Blood caked under the fingernails of the man I begged to take my virginity. Blood of the man he shot in front of me then hours later dismembered and buried at the base of a tree. My stomach turned and I furrowed my brows, but I didn't walk away from him, though my fingers did still in his hair. He took my hand and kissed my palm.

"Go back to sleep. One of us should get a good night's rest, no?" he raised from me and took a drag from the cigarette, filling the air with the scent of cherries and cloves.

Our eyes locked, and that gaze was almost too heavy to bear. I swallowed.

"Willa... Willa called me an hour ago, she thinks she's pregnant and wants me to have breakfast with her tomorrow at nine." The lie was bitter on my tongue, but somehow, I managed to say it all with my heart fluttering in my chest like it was trying to shift states of matter.

He nodded. "I have an early meeting; I'll drop you by the hotel on the way." He kissed my side. "Go sleep. My melancholy will pass." After rubbing my side, he released me completely and took a drag from his cigarette, blowing a long plume of smoke. I left the vast airplane hangar of a kitchen but not before pausing in the doorway and getting one last look at him smoking. Lucien didn't look at me, instead he stared at the table in front of him with lips half parted like as if in a trance. Sighing I turned back around and continued upstairs. I was doing the right thing there were too many red flags.