Relentless

by Jade West

  His answer was enough to make me tingle. The idea was one I’d never have considered in a million years.

  “What we do, is take hold of London and put our mark on it, loud and clear. We work our connections and we use our strengths and we own it. We own our names and our lives for who we are, fuck our families and what they want to do to us. They can keep their bitter shit across the Atlantic and accept who the fuck we are.”

  I didn’t even know what to say, I was so shocked.

  His smile was proud.

  “Who would you rather be, baby? Penelope or Elaine?”

  My answer was quick and obvious.

  “Elaine.” I managed a proud smile too. “Provided Penelope doesn’t live seventy years longer next to Jason’s side than Elaine lives next to Lucian’s. I like gardening a bit too much for that.”

  I was trying to make light of the tension, because I just didn’t know how to process it. I didn’t know how to even begin to digest that we could be Lucian Morelli and Elaine Constantine, walking the London streets together as Lucian Morelli and Elaine Constantine. It just seemed… unreal.

  But that’s when I realized just how much power that gave my heart—the idea of us walking the streets together as us. Proud. Because that’s what I’d be. Proud. I’d be so fucking proud of being Elaine Constantine at Lucian Morelli’s side with the whole world there to see it.

  “Then we do it,” Lucian said. “We take hold of London and we put our mark on it, loud and clear.”

  I propped myself up onto an elbow, still trying to let it sink in.

  “The very idea of a Morelli with a Constantine is going to drive people wild. Everyone in the world knows we detest each other.”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “They do. So let’s fucking surprise them.”

  I let out a giggle. “It’s hardly how Romeo and Juliet ends, is it?”

  “No,” he said. “It’s not, but what if Romeo and Juliet had used every bit of power they had in them and stepped out proud and given their families the middle fucking finger?”

  I shrugged. “Their families would have probably stabbed them and danced on their corpses.”

  He was shaking his head. “Not if Romeo and Juliet had a whole fucking army around them, ready to stab their families right back.”

  I could see his reasoning now. I could see what he meant by connections and strengths and using them.

  He was planning on working this city and all the associations he’d known at a distance from across the Atlantic and forming allegiances in this new world.

  I had a whole flood of new admiration for him when I saw another burst of fire in him. He was truly a master. A master who needed to be ruling an empire.

  Jason Reynolds could never be ruling an empire. Not from some cute little cottage on the British coast.

  “You with me?” he asked. “You ready to stand up as Elaine Constantine at my side? The two of us proud to be one?”

  I could feel the fire in my eyes match with his.

  “Yes,” I said, “I’m with you all the way.”

  16

  Lucian

  I showered with Elaine, soaping her up in a lather very carefully around the slice on her chest before we stepped out together and toweled each other down. I brushed my teeth as she brushed hers, eyes on each other in the bathroom mirror, but my mind was already hard at work, weighing up what I needed to be doing in this place.

  I still had my investments and my financial empire overseas, wrapped up safe and tight in the legalities. I had my reputation and my known power, and the talents that had led me to ruling the Morelli kingdom so effectively. Letting Lucian Morelli go would be a crime against my humanity.

  I watched Elaine pull some fresh clothes on from her suitcase once we were back in the bedroom.

  Not standing tall and proud next to that beautiful angel would be a crime against my very soul to match.

  I hadn’t ever known my soul. It was still an interesting stranger to me. Elaine had brought that gift to me by showing me hers.

  It wasn’t clothes I tugged from my suitcase, it was the little black book I’d slipped deep between some shirts when I’d been getting out the cash cases from Kington Peak. The book I’d always used to record the most private of my affairs, in scrawled handwritten text, safe away from the virtual world. I’d been writing in it for years. Passwords, and ID numbers, and names and connections. The most important keys of the most important locks of my life.

  Elaine lay down on the bed next to me as I thumbed through the pages.

  “What’s that?” she asked, her pretty eyes shining bright in the lamplight.

  “It’s our future,” I told her, and turned the book around to face her.

  She scrunched up her face as she stared at the numbers and letters. “Business stuff?”

  “Financial security of the very highest order.” I flicked through a few of the pages, until the numbers and letters turned to names and numbers. “Associations of the highest power. This is where we’ll get started.”

  “Some of those are from the UK, right?” she asked, and took the book from my hands.

  “Some very important ones of those are from the UK,” I said. “So I’d best get taking advantage of them before my father realizes this is where I’ve gone and starts reaching out to them himself. I need to get a head start on the battle.”

  She handed the book back. “So, we’re really doing this? We’re really going to be Elaine and Lucian?”

  I knew it, right down in my core. Yes. We were going to be Elaine and Lucian. Running away as damn Penelope and Jason would be a pitiful last resort. Elaine deserved to be a Constantine even more than I deserved to be a Morelli. She was too regal to carry any less of a crown.

  I smiled at her. “It would be a travesty to call you anything but Elaine. You are Elaine. You will always be Elaine, not just to me, but to the world.”

  She let out another one of her sweet little giggles.

  “I never, ever thought we’d be holding up each other’s names as some kind of pride thing. We were born to hate each other’s names. I was told to hate the Morelli family as soon as I could understand the words.”

  “I was taught to hate the Constantines with so much venom it would kill a whole fucking nation,” I replied. “You were nothing but pieces of shit since the moment I first opened my eyes.”

  “Strange, isn’t it?” she asked. “It’s insane how the universe turned so damn weird and brought us together.”

  “The universe is a strange fucking place,” I said. “Only it isn’t. Not when you really think about it. Not so strange as it seems. The whole world is magnetic. Opposites. It’s full of poles apart in the most extreme of ways with the most potent attractions. Darkness and light. Fire and ice.”

  “Constantine and Morelli,” she finished.

  I put the book down and took her hands in mine, squeezing her fingers.

  “Just imagine the beautiful combination that Constantine and Morelli could bring together.”

  “Let’s find out,” she said, and her stunning smile was at full volume.

  “I’d best get started, then,” I told her and kissed her fingers before turning my attention back to the pages.

  Dawn was just creeping in outside when Elaine put the TV on and flicked through the channels. There was no doubt about it—her wound was recovering nice and fast.

  She dozed there, watching the screen while I scoured through my book some more, creating a strategy in my mind. I plotted out the most important connections, and what I’d like to propose to them. I considered just which of my investments would be the most valuable assets in this new world and how best to exploit them.

  Elaine was quiet, relaxing in a way that spilled over to me like a drug, helping my focus rather than hindering it. She was an asset valuable enough to put all of my others to shame.

  I could hear the street coming to life outside the hotel when she pulled herself up from the bed and stepped up to the window. The l
ight shining through her blonde hair was divine.

  “London,” she said. “Wow. I still can’t believe we’re in London. There are so many things I want to do here, to see here. I just can’t believe I’ll be doing them with you.”

  So many things were unbelievable in our life, it was insanity.

  “I need some things of a more practical nature,” I told her. “A cell phone is at the top of my goddamn list, that’s for sure.”

  She turned and smirked. “I need some things of a more practical nature too. Your dick is at the top of my goddamn list, that’s for sure.”

  Holy fuck, her sassy little face changed the atmosphere in a heartbeat, charging up the beast down deep in my fucking gut. Little miss horny was indeed a sassy little bitch, and that sass had been shining there in her eyes, poking my fire.

  She saw the shift in me. That sassiness turned to that sweet little rabbit in the headlights, eyes open wide as I got up from the bed, still naked, cock hard and huge.

  I gave her my goddamn dick, that was for fucking sure.

  Her clothes were off, practically torn. She was slammed onto her back on that cruddy mattress and kissed so fucking hard it took her breath. Her pussy was hungry, and my fingers filled her up, stretching her as wide as she could fucking take as she whimpered and moaned.

  “Let’s see how much of a practical nature this feels like, shall we?” I growled.

  I still had two fingers inside her when I forced my cock straight in. I knew it hurt. I wanted it to hurt. I wanted to hear her pant and gasp and struggle to take it.

  “Beg,” I grunted. “Beg me for more. Spread your legs open as wide as they’ll fucking go and beg me for more.”

  Her thighs were shaking as she forced them wider. Her breaths were shallow. Her whimpers made my balls tighten.

  “BEG!” I snarled, and that’s when I knew it with every fucking sliver of my soul. I heard it in my voice and felt it right down my spine, that knowledge. That truth.

  I’d only ever be able to be Lucian Morelli.

  I couldn’t ever give up being Lucian Morelli if I tried.

  Elaine was so pretty when she cried. Eyes watering. Pain. Such beautiful pain. Only it wasn’t about the wound she’d taken. That was fading… opening things up for more delicious sensations of hurt.

  “Please…” she whispered.

  I fucked her harder, grunting and slamming. She whimpered like a dirty little slut, taking it.

  Wanting it.

  Even in her pain, she was fucking desperate for it.

  I was her lord. Her master. Her fucking god.

  Only now we were magnets coming together. Poles colliding as one.

  Elaine Constantine was my goddess right back.

  I was circling my hips when I pulled my fingers free from inside her, leaving just my dick stretching her wide. I forced them into her mouth so far she gagged.

  “Suck,” I hissed and she did. She sucked like a good girl.

  My fingers were nice and wet when I shifted position enough to play with her swollen pink bud of a clit. She was squirming, greedy, moaning for more as I played her like my sacred little instrument, faster and faster and faster.

  Yes.

  This was the connection that had eaten us up in the first place. The calling that had snared us right from that very first encounter at her sister’s sad little birthday ball. This was the reason we were here in the first place and it had turned into so much fucking more.

  She came before I did. I watched her crest and peak before I slammed deep and fast enough to shoot my load inside her, my hand on her throat as I took my fill.

  We were both panting, wrecked when I pulled away from her. The air was tense and glorious, both of us still heady on the climax when I reached out and held her hand.

  She held mine back. Tight. Both of us staring up at the ceiling. I didn’t need to see her face to know she was smiling along with me.

  The bustle of the London street outside was a whole load busier when I gathered myself enough to take a look out of the window, the morning finding its true swing.

  I pulled a fresh pair of pants on from my suitcase, smirking down at her while she winced, soothing her poor battered pussy.

  “We’d better go get that goddamn cell, then,” she laughed. “You’re going to have to help me off the bed though, since I’m too damn sore to move.”

  She held out her hands with a grin and I pulled her up to her feet.

  17

  Elaine

  My stomach was rumbling as we finished getting dressed, ready to head out into London. I could feel it as I put my sneakers on and it was so loud even Lucian heard it standing next to me.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart,” he said. “We definitely need breakfast right now more than we need a cell phone.”

  I sure wasn’t going to argue with him on that.

  We headed downstairs and they were already serving breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We stepped in and found a table, and it was a whole other round of strange—sitting in public next to the man the whole world expected me to despise. There were a few other couples eating, but they were all too busy with their food to give us much attention.

  The woman who came up to take our order barely looked at us either. She had a notepad in her hands and hardly shot us a glance. Probably not least because I had my hair scraped up into a loose ponytail and Lucian still had those nerdy glasses on. I hadn’t worn makeup for so long I’d almost forgotten what it felt like. I was hardly recognizing myself in the mirror, let alone anyone else recognizing me.

  “Full English?” the waitress asked, and I looked up at her.

  “What’s a full English?”

  She listed a whole load of things she’d be serving up. Sausages, bacon, eggs, baked beans, hash browns, something called a black pudding, and wholemeal toast. Even the thought made my stomach rumble some more. It sounded like an absolute feast, apart from a black pudding, that didn’t sound so good.

  Lucian was looking at me, waiting for me to answer.

  “Yes, please,” I said to the waitress with a smile. “I’ll have a full English.”

  “Tea or coffee?” she asked, and I was still smiling.

  “Black coffee, please.”

  She looked at Lucian, and he was smiling too. I loved how easy and casual he looked here, enjoying the simplicity of the place.

  “I’ll have the same as Elaine,” he said, and my eyes widened.

  Penelope. My name was Penelope.

  Luckily the server didn’t seem to notice or care.

  “Coming right up,” she said, then pointed to a counter at the side of the room. “If you want any fruit or cereal in the meantime, just help yourselves.”

  I leaned across the table to get closer to Lucian, whispering just loud enough that he could hear me as she walked away.

  “You called me Elaine!” I said. “My name is Penelope, remember?”

  His stare was so firm.

  “I know,” he told me. “I’m perfectly aware I called you Elaine.”

  “But she might know—”

  He shook his head. “Too dumb. She barely knows her own name, I imagine.”

  Damn he was so rude. I saw that side of him again. The arrogance. The bluntness. The sarcasm. It was classic Lucian Morelli.

  He leaned across the table to me as I leaned away.

  “I won’t be calling you anything but Elaine unless I damn well have to. It’s sacrilege.”

  “What do I do, then? Go around calling you Lucian right back?”

  “Let’s see how far we get around London, then, shall we?”

  He smirked. He actually smirked.

  “You’re fucking crazy,” I said, attracting stares from an elderly couple nearby.

  “You really are a sassy little bitch, you know that?” Lucian whispered. “It’s going to make punishing you for it so fucking pleasurable.”

  I smirked back at him. “I’d better keep doing it, then, so you’ll be punishing me nice
and hard.”

  We were still smirking at each other when the server came back with our coffees.

  “Breakfast is coming right up.”

  I was so ready for it when it arrived. Damn it really was a feast. I dug in like a girl possessed.

  Lucian was quick into his along with me.

  “Yummy,” I said between mouthfuls, and he nodded.

  “Full English will definitely be a staple of mine,” he replied, “especially the black pudding.”

  I pulled a face. I couldn’t even bear to taste the thing. It looked like baked shit.

  My stomach was nice and full when I finished up and leaned back in my seat. I finished up my coffee with a satisfied smile on my face, and he leaned back to mirror me. Only his smile was something more than just satisfied. I got that flutter again, feeling so… valued. I guess it was that magnetic thing he talked about. Feeling so drawn to someone that you can’t keep your eyes off them. Polar opposites in the most amazing of ways.

  It was him who shifted us, getting to his feet with another one of his smirks.

  “Let’s go get those cell phones.”

  It felt so natural to slip my fingers into his when we walked through the reception lobby. The receptionist held up her hand in a wave as we passed on by and stepped out through the door, and there we were. The streets of London.

  “Cab or underground?” Lucian asked, pointing at the sign for the station across the street.

  I hadn’t taken an underground train in my life. It was limos everywhere I went for the most of it—limos, and private planes, and cabs at the very worst.

  “Underground,” I said, and realized I was grinning like a silly little girl. “It’ll be fun.”

  “Hardly sure it would be top of the list of London experiences,” he told me, with that sarcastic tone in his voice, but he was smiling as he squeezed my fingers a little tighter and led the way across the street.

  The underground was bustling, even in Elephant and Castle, on the outskirts of the city. We went down on the escalator and it had a vibe to it I hadn’t felt before. Busy and British in a different kind of way. The platform was strange when we reached it. The other side had huge posters with London musicals on them. My heart leapt at the thought we could maybe one day go to see them.