Page 200 of Powerhouse: Boxed Set
“That isn’t quite how it went—” I began, but he was already grinning at me.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Lucian,” he said. “I’ve seen her. She’s hot, even by Constantine standards. I mean, they’re all hot, but she’s something else. I doubt there are many guys in that position who wouldn’t want to fuck her if they had the chance.” He thrust his hips to demonstrate. It felt cheap to hear it framed that way.
“It wasn’t anything to do with her pussy.”
He was still grinning. “Yeah, but it became about pussy, right? Believe me, I know you well enough to know she’s got you all fucked up over that tight little body of hers.”
“Forget it,” I said and made a move to leave.
He pushed me back down in my seat, dropping his humor. “Jesus Christ, Lucian. You’ve got feelings for her. Are you out of your mind?”
“I don’t have fucking feelings for anyone.”
“Nah, I’m serious. This isn’t you, pal. She’s done something to you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said, but he wasn’t believing me. I could see it in his stare.
I wanted to believe myself, and I should have. The concept was absurd. Never once in my life had I had feelings for anyone, let alone anyone with even the hint of a Constantine connection. I didn’t do emotions, let alone the fluffy bullshit offalling in loveand all that crap. It was weakness. Nothing but weakness. People were tools for me to use. Nothing more.
“It’s all right, you know,” Elliot carried on. “Seriously, just spit it out. Whatever needs saying.”
“You’re not a goddamn counselor, Elliot. Nothing needs saying,” I countered, but he gestured to the clock above his fireplace.
“Not quite what you showing up here before nine on a Sunday morning is telling me.” He smiled. “I kicked Melissa out for this, you know. I was planning on at least one fresh round of fucking her ass before she left today.”
“Melissa?” I asked. “The girl behind the bar at the Aegean?”
“Don’t change the subject,” he said, and joined me on the sofa, kicking back with his hands behind his head.
I forced myself to speak, for my own sanity. At least if Elliot knew about my bullshit choices then he stood a chance of keeping tabs on me if I lost my head again.
I told him about Tinsley’s ball, and about how I’d grabbed Elaine in the bathroom. I told him how she’d wanted me, even through her fear. I told him how I’d liked it, even if I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself.
“So, what happened next?” he pushed when I was done with the ball recounting. “Did she call you for a date night?” He laughed at the prospect.
That’s when it got awkward. That’s when I should have shut my mouth for good and bailed on out of there.
“I got access to her calendar through Alto. Her personal calendar.”
“What the fuck?” His whole body spun in the seat to stare at me. “You got access to her personal calendar? They’ll skin you for that, your side as well as hers. If they find out—”
I cut him off at that. “It’s a fucking calendar. Nothing more.”
“Yeah, and a swipe at an inroad into the heart of the Constantine world. They’ll come after you with full fucking force.”
He was pointing out things I already knew. It was redundant speech but still he kept on telling me how raging mad my father would be, and just how attacked the Constantines would feel through something so concrete in its intentions.
I’d wanted to track her down and destroy her. They’d know it. They’d react to it. It was a big statement, and I’d known it. I’d known the risks.
It wasn’t anywhere near the severity of me sneaking into the Constantines’ private party, but that didn’t seem to matter shit to Elliot. There was more concern than that in his tone…he was too astute for his own good.
“You tracked her down already,” he said, and there was no question in it.
“Yeah, I tracked her down already. I was intending to marry her.”
He shook his head. “Nah, you weren’t. Tell yourself that all you like, but you were intending to do a shit ton more to her than marry her.”
“I did fuck all to her in actuality,” I told him. “I tracked her down to some shithole bar and stalked her from the sidelines, enjoying every little sniff of her ignorance. Then it gets even better.” I paused to soak in his expression of crazy. “I followed her to some shitty apartment of some friend of hers. It seemed the perfect backdrop to fuck her, slowly.”
