Page 36 of Scarlet Embrace

“I should be the one who’s embarrassed seeing how I broke your camera,” I answered.

“Oh, you were the one who broke her camera?” Natalia said, snapping her fingers.

“Guilty as charged.”

I never did get to replace that camera, and I placed it on my to-do list. Replacing her camera was something I would do the next day. In fact, I would get her the possibly best camera I could get her.

“I acted like a jerk, but if I didn’t act that way, I doubt I would have gotten entangled with you,” I said, looking at Elena, who wouldn’t look at my gaze.

She might probably think it was acting, but I was indeed telling the truth. Maybe our paths would still have crossed. My emotions for her were mainly that of curiosity and maybe a little attraction, but it was nothing more.

Or at least that’s what I want to believe.

As much as Father seemed bent on pushing us together, a relationship with Elena would never work, mainly because both of us are worlds apart. If things were slightly different, maybe I would have loved nothing more than to get to know the kind of person Elena was. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I brought it out, realizing it was a message from Logan.

“Is everything alright, babe?” Elena asked with concern.

“Yes. I need to take my leave now, babe. There’s something I need to attend to,” I told her. “I’m really sorry I have to cut my time short, girls.”

Carmen and Natalia told me that they understood, and Elena had walked me to my car. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah. Everything’s alright,” I assured her.

“Good. I’ll need you to kiss me, though. My friends are watching.”

True, I could see Carmen and Natalia watching us from the window. Neither of us had ever made any attempt to kiss each other before, mainly because there wasn’t a need to. At the ball, we had danced together and touched each other, but we had no reason to kiss.

“Are you sure about that?” I asked as I leaned in closer as if I wanted to kiss her.

“We don’t want them asking questions now, do we?” she asked.

I stared at those full lips of hers. They were tempting, and the idea of kissing her was something I would really love to do. Yet, kissing those lips would be crossing a line I’m not sure either of us wanted to.

“Fine then,” I said right before I kissed her.

Soft, gentle, and sweet. Those were the words that popped into my head as my lips came in contact with hers. It was meant to be brief, but that vanished just at the taste of her. A deep longing rose within me, the longing to savor her taste, but Elena broke off the kiss.

She looked at me, her eyes mixed with want and surprise. I could tell that she was just as taken aback as I was.

“Good night, Elena,” I said as I opened the door to my car and got in.

Damn! That was magical.

CHAPTER 16: ELENA

DOUBT

It’s been long since I kissed a man, and that was the only reason I reacted that way. That was the mantra I have been singing to myself ever since the night of the kiss. Both Carmen and Natalia had seen me kiss Lucas, and they wanted to know how it felt like kissing him, though I did not discuss that with them.

This whole sham of a relationship was only meant to get me access to whatever Lucas was planning, but so far, I had yet to stumble on anything major. The other night, we had gone to a ball hosted by Caroline Jones, a Mogul and prominent member of the city. Being in the same room with that woman was something I would never have dreamt of, and Lucas made it possible. I enjoyed myself to the fullest, and I found myself thinking about how this would have been my life if Andrew Cruz had not killed my father.

My opinions of Lucas were slowly starting to change as the more time I spent with him, the more I came to realize that he wasn’t entirely the villain I thought him to be. At least, he was far better than Marcus LaRosa. After the ball, we had gone on a few dinner dates, all for the sake of keeping appearances, and each time, I found myself trying to make sense of the kind of person Lucas was.

He got me a new camera, went to Carmen's exhibition, and used his influence to get her a deal with Rene L’Amour, one of the best gallery owners in the city. He told me he had done nothing to influence L’Amour, but I knew he was responsible for it. It was almost as if he was trying to win me over.

“Trust me, Lucas is not that kind of person,” Roland told me after I explained everything to him. He had paid me a visit in my office. “Word on the street is that he’s preparing for some kind of war with Marcus LaRosa.”

I shivered at the mention of that name. The words he had said back at Madam Caroline’s ball still made me angry. He had treated me as if I was some toy made for his fancy and amusement. Clearly, that was how he treated women, and I hated him for that.