Chapter 58: The Breaking Point
⚠ Warning: Contains sexualised contact under intoxication and a power imbalance. Reader discretion is advised.
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The car finally rolled to a stop in front of the mansion.
Lucas did not move immediately. Instead, he sat there for a moment to collect himself first.,To try and breathe normally and then to get her off his lap.
After that was done, he quickly adjusted his suit jacket, making sure to pull the fabric frantic enough to hide the very obvious and very persistent evidence of his arousal before opening the door.
It was a humiliating necessity.
The cool night air hit him like a splash of cold water as he moved around to her side and pulled the door open.
Lorena was, of course, sprawled across the seat with her dress now so high up that the delicate black lace of her underwear was fully exposed against the pale skin of her thighs.
Don’t look. Just don’t look.
But he had already seen. He couldn’t help but see if he would carry her after all.
Jack was already rounding the car towards him, and Lucas’s head quickly snapped upwards.
"Don’t come closer and close your damn eyes," he snapped in an aggressive voice than intended.
Jack didn’t bother arguing with him, like he could already tell what was going on, so he immediately stopped moving and turned his back to the car.
After being satisfied with that, Lucas finally bent down to slide one arm under Lorena’s knees and the other behind her back.
Then he lifted her from the car, allowing her head to rest against his shoulder while she draped her arm loosely around him.
He even had to adjust his grip to keep her dress from exposing her even more.
This is torture. Actual torture!
Every step he took toward the mansion felt like he was walking through fire as her perfume continued to swarm around him and her breath continued to hit that same sensitive spot just below his ear.
The front door opened as they approached, and one of the night staff took one look at them and wisely said nothing. She only stepped aside and averted her eyes.
Lucas carried Lorena up the grand staircase and down the hallway into her room. He shouldered her door open and crossed to the massive bed at the center of the room.
He then laid her on top of the covers as gently as he could.
She sighed in a soft, contented sound and curled to her side immediately with one hand tucked under her cheek.
In the soft moonlight that filtered through the window, Lucas could not help but admit for the umpteenth time in one night that she looked so beautiful.
So innocent and completely infuriatingly tempting.
Her hair spread across the pillow like dark silt while her lips were parted slightly.
He knew he was standing for way too long now and needed to leave.
He started to retreat but her arms, surprisingly strong for someone drunk, locked around his neck suddenly, and his heart stopped. Again
.
"Don’t go," she whispered in a voice thick with sleep and alcohol.
Her eyes fluttered open, just a little bit. The look in them was like pure unadulterated seduction from Lucas’s point of view.
He had to look away. Anywhere but her face before speaking.
"Lorena, let go."
But she didn’t listen. Instead, she did the most shocking part of Lucas’s night.
With a sudden and drunken force that took him completely by surprise, she pulled him hard and suddenly closed the distance between them with her lips on his.
His balance that was usually so perfect was compromised as he stumbled forward, his hands flying out to catch himself on the mattress on either side of her head.
The world in him had stopped.
It wasn’t even a gentle kiss. It was more of a messy and sloppy one. One that tasted of champagne.
Her lips moved against his with a desperate, clumsy passion. It was all heat and no skill.
Like the kiss of someone who didn’t know what they were doing but knew exactly what they wanted.
Lucas didn’t know when he started kissing her back.
His control, the whole fortress he had spent the whole night building up, crumbled with just one kiss.
A low groan mumbled in his chest as his mouth moved against hers while his body was responding on a primal level he couldn’t command.
One of his hands came up to cup the side of her face while his fingers tangled in her silken hair and held her to him to deepen the kiss even more.
He was feeling such an amount of need and hunger for the very first time in his life that it terrified him.
Wrong. What am I doing? She’s drunk and she doesn’t know it’s you. She’d even probably kiss anyone right now.
That thought alone was like a bucket of ice water.
He wrenched himself away, tearing his mouth from hers so violently that he almost fell off the bed. He then staggered to his feet while breathing so hard like he had just finished running a marathon.
He stared down at her even though he suddenly felt dizzy while she merely looked up at him with those half-lidded eyes and a small satisfied smile playing on her lips.
"Stay," she whispered, reaching for him again.
No, absolutely not. He thought as he quickly stumbled backward to put more distance between them before he did something even more unforgivable.
The self-loathing that hit him afterwards got him feeling nauseous as he realized he had also just taken advantage.
He had lost control, heck, he was no different than the man he had punched just minutes ago.
"Damn it," he snarled as he ran both hands through his perfectly styled hair.
He couldn’t stay here. Not for another second.
So he turned and practically fled the room, pulling the door shut behind him with a click and even searching for a key in his pocket and locking it from outside.
"It’s to keep her in there," he said to himself even though he knew it was more to keep himself out.
He stood in the hallway for a minute or more with his back pressed against her door while trying to calm himself.
The image of her was burned into his mind, seductive, drunk, and kissing him like she was drowning and he was the air she needed.
He could even still taste her on his lips.
This can’t happen again. Ever.
He pushed off from the door with more force than necessary and stalked down the hallway. His feet carried him furiously towards Callis’s room on the other end of the house.
She needed to explain what the hell had happened tonight. Why Lorena had been at that party without prior notice.
And why the hell she’d been left alone with Alex Vance?