by Malone, M.
But she looked like she wanted to talk. Maybe about the favor she’d asked him about. The promise you broke. Shit.
"Matthias, listen —"
He started talking at the same time that she did. "Lucia, look I never meant to —" And then he gestured to her. "Ladies first,” he said with a smile. He was still careful to not look at her directly or come any further into the kitchen. Instead, he hung by the wall. All he had to do was get the hell away from her.
"Look, Matthias. I'm so sorry. I never should have dragged you into this and had you looking for information for me. I certainly never should've asked you to keep it from Noah, your boss. I know how he is and I know you were trying to help me, but I was wrong to ask you to do that."
His eyes flickered to her, and quickly looked away again. "Lucia, it's fine. It was my choice to comply or not. I chose not to tell Noah, but I'm sorry I broke your confidence and told him anyway. I was worried you were in danger and, as it turns out, you were. If it had been simple information, I never would've told him."
She scooted around the island in the kitchen and approached him. He immediately took a step back. Every instinct told him to run. She was too close and smelled too good. He looked even further away from her if that was possible. Do not look. Do not fucking look…or touch. Noah will rearrange your balls.
"Matthias, I consider you a friend. And I used that. And that makes me a bad person and I'm really sorry. I hope that you can find a way to forgive me."
He frowned, but kept his gaze on the fucking fridge. "Forgive you? Honestly, it's fine. I would do anything to help you. You’re family. I'm not mad."
Through his peripheral vision, he could see her frown, then plant her hands on her hips.
"Oh yeah, then why is it that you can't look at me?” She opened her arms, "Can we hug this out, start fresh? I won’t take advantage of our friendship again. I promise."
Heat burned through him like a furnace. He was so fucked. He wanted to touch her. This was God damned torture. He hugged the fucking wall like she would burn him. The last thing on earth he wanted to do was hug her. Anytime he’d hugged her before, they’d never been alone. He was used to pretending. He could act. But this kind of thing without anyone around to make him fucking behave himself, he was screwed.
She closed the distance between them, her bare feet barely making a sound on the concrete. And then she wrapped her arms around him tight.
Fuck. This was bloody heaven.
He knew he shouldn’t, but after a moment, he wrapped his arms around her. Jesus, Mary, fuck him, she was so damned soft. Enough. He needed to stop. He cared about her, but this was torture. He was shutting this shit down. No more. After this, he was never touching her again. Besides, if he’d been capable of love, he would have loved Noah. But he wasn't capable of much emotion. Though he understood respect, and he respected Noah too fucking much. This had to stop.
"I'm really sorry, Matthias."
No, he was the one who was sorry. She deserved someone who could love her. And Noah was that man. "You have nothing to be sorry about."
Matthias felt the presence in the hallway before he heard Noah’s voice, cold and furious. "What the fuck do you think you're doing running around here naked?"
He immediately released her, but Lucia took longer to step back. Matthias grimaced. She really wasn’t helping him here.
When Lucia turned to face Noah, her body softened. Yeah, if Matthias needed any more reminders that Lucia belonged with Noah, there it was. She might be mad at him, but they’d be fucking like rabbits inside of a week. He’d put money on that.
Matthias tried to slide out of the kitchen, but Noah pinned him with a glare. Fuck.
"I am not naked."
She glanced down at herself then flushed slightly. When she slid a glance to him, Matthias knew enough to keep his gaze on the fridge.
"Sorry. I'm not used to having to cover up.” She turned back to Noah. "Besides, you're the one who told me to make myself at home."
Through gritted teeth, Noah ground out, "That doesn’t mean run around here naked. Matthias lives here. Or did you forget?"
"I was just coming for some water. No one was supposed to be awake. The lights were freaking off. Bite me."
Matthias scoffed. Watching the two of them fight could be funny when it didn’t hurt.
"Anytime. You just tell me where."
"Sorry, Noah. Not interested. What's that thing that guys say sometimes? I'm just not that into you?"
And with that, Lucia turned and headed back for her bedroom. Matthias released a slow exhale. With her gone, he could fucking breathe again. And interestingly, he had the desire to laugh.
"Keep it shut."
Matthias put up his hands but couldn’t stop his lips from twitching. "You got it boss. Keeping it shut."
Noah crossed his arms. "You want to tell me what you were doing with your hands on her considering she's not wearing any clothes?"
Matthias swallowed hard but shook his head. "Noah, I didn't touch her. She came over here and hugged me. I think she could tell I was deliberately not looking at her." Fuck, his balls were so going to get vanished.
"Damn straight you weren’t looking at her. Not if you want to keep your God damned eyeballs.”
Matthias’s lip twitched again. He wasn’t saying shit. He didn’t have a fucking death wish. At least not anymore. “I like my eyeballs where they are thanks.”
Noah frowned and narrowed his gaze. “You seemed to be hugging her back."
Matthias rolled his eye. "Mate, Lucia is family. Of course I hugged her back. I'm not mad at her and I'm not the one she's mad at. If she's handing out free hugs, I'm taking them. If you want some hugs of your own, you might want to talk to her."
There, that sounded good right? Believable?
Noah stared at him for a long moment. Would he see through the bravado? Matthias’s inner shadow woke, preparing for a fight. He mentally tightened the leash he kept on the thing. This was Noah. The man had saved his life more than once.
Noah’s gaze shifted to Lucia’s retreating form. "Yeah, you might be right about that."
Without another word to him, he chased after his woman calling after her and Matthias breathed a sigh of relief. He’d lived to fight another day. Which was a good thing. He liked Noah.
It would have been a shame to kill his friend.
* * SPOILER ALERT * *
If you haven't finished reading the entire Shameless trilogy, please don't read any further. The next alternate scene is spoiler city!!
Use the table of contents to navigate to another section of the bonus book.
Alternate Scene : The Stalker
There she was. Lulu.
All this time he’d avoided looking at her. He had to keep his attention on the fight, surrounded as he’d been. But now that those assholes were taken care of, he could finally allow himself the emotion of seeing her all grown up.
He’d seen her from afar, of course. Leaving her completely alone had never been an option. But stolen glances from behind trees and in between cars was nothing like being this close. She was beautiful.
He drew in a deep breath. Lucia had just stumbled and he lunged forward to catch her before she hit the ground. On reflex, he wrapped the tether he’d brought just for this purpose around her. If he was going to get her out of here in one piece, he’d have to restrain her. As much as he hated to do it.
All at once Lucia went crazy, kicking and struggling in his arms. Never breaking stride, he headed for the bedroom in the penthouse. It had been a bitch to get his hands on the layout and he was impressed that Noah hadn’t forgotten everything he’d taught him.
Then he remembered that his old protégé was the only thing standing between him and his family. His lips settled into a straight line. It was time to end this.
“Motherfucker,” he whispered as Lucia whacked him in the back with something heavy. Was that a bottle in her hand?
"Relax, Lulu. You only hurt
yourself doing this.”
As he sped up, he passed the guy on the ground he’d doused with a blinding agent earlier. He was still rubbing his eyes as he crawled toward the others. The big blond guy with fists like meat cleavers was still on the ground, as was the kid he’d taken out. The one who looked like he wasn’t even old enough for a beer.
What the hell kind of operation was Noah running these days?
As they approached the bedroom, Lucia continued to struggle and he almost lost his grip.
"Lulu, I told you to stop it.”
All at once, she went still. "Rafe?"
He didn’t pause but inwardly cursed. She wasn’t ready for this. Not here, not now. He’d planned to get her to safety and then explain a few things. Soften the blow. But he should have known that he couldn’t speak to her and not be recognized. For so long, he’d been for all intents and purposes, her father. God knows he’d tried to raise her like his own. Be the man of the house. The way their father would have wanted him to.
Instead he’d abandoned her.
There was a soft sob. Then she asked again, "Rafe?"
Just as they entered the room, the doorframe splintered and he immediately reacted, throwing Lucia on the bed to get her out of the line of fire. Noah wasn’t supposed to be back yet. He palmed a knife from his belt and threw it at the doorway, rewarded by the sound of a muffled curse and the dark shadow at the door dodging out of the way.
With no time left, Rafe mentally calculated the possibilities. If Lucia wasn’t correctly secured, he couldn’t chance climbing out of the window with her. If she fell… no, his mind wouldn’t even allow for the possibility.
As much as it rankled to be so close and fail, he would have to leave her in the belly of the beast for a little longer.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered.
His course set, Rafe grabbed his grappling hook from his belt and attached it to the windowsill. A dark shadow flashed in the doorway and he knew he was out of time. Noah would come running in any second now and he couldn’t chance that Lucia would get hurt in the fight that would ensure. Not many could best him in hand to hand. But he’d trained Noah and pushed him harder and harder, knowing that his old friend might have to protect Lucia one day.
If only he’d known then that the friend he’d trusted to protect her would become the enemy she needed protection from.
Soon, he thought. Then he jumped out of the window into the night.
excerpt of shameless
www.malonesquared.com/shameless
I am the thing that goes bump in the night. I am a liar, a protector ... a killer ... I am Noah Blake.
There is only one light in my darkness, one bright ray in the storm of my life. Lucia DeMarco. And I’ll do anything for her. Anything except show her who I really am: an assassin. Well, former assassin. I don’t really do that anymore ... usually.
It would be easier if she didn’t call me names. Asshole, control freak … shameless. It would also be easier if she didn’t look at me with those trusting gray eyes. If I didn’t dream about the perfect curve of her — Never mind all that. The point is she’s digging into my world, my secrets, and it’s going to get her killed.
But first, we have another more immediate concern. Lucia is going on a date—with someone else ...
And I’m not allowed to kill this one.
Noah’s Warning:
Ladies, I know you want to see the full package. But I have to tease you first. So I’m just going to open a few buttons so you can take a peek. And while you’re at it, hold onto your panties because I like it dirty. (The Shameless Trilogy unfolds over the course of three books.)
chapter 1
There was nothing like the sound of New York City in the morning.
Between the honking cars, the cursing and the never-ending rush of voices, just walking down the street was an assault to the senses. To everyone else it sounded like noise but to Lucia DeMarco it was a raw kind of symphony. It was a reminder that despite everything she’d been through, she was still here.
She was still here and still late.
Already she was out of breath as she hurried across the street, narrowly missing being hit by yet another cab. Unfortunately, Lucia didn’t do the delicate, charmingly breathless thing. Oh no. Sweating caused her overly curly hair to stick to her forehead like stringy noodles and she didn’t pant for air in a sexy, Marilyn Monroe kind of way, either. Instead it was more like gasping out her last breath. Her job as a fashion assistant for THE up and coming fashion line didn’t leave much time for anything unnecessary like sleeping, eating or going to the gym. She made a mental note to start taking better care of herself and filed it along with the ten thousand other things she did not have time for.
Dodging traffic counted as a workout, right?
Her phone vibrated in the pocket of her skirt, the early morning humidity and her sweat already making the fabric stick to her legs. She pulled it out while trying to balance the tray of coffees she held with her other arm. Her handbag, a sample from a new designer that her friend JJ had given her just last week, banged against her hip as she trotted through the crosswalk while reading her phone.
- Where the hell are you? Adriana is losing her shit!
Lucia groaned and walked faster. It had taken her longer than expected to get the coffee and she was cutting it way too close to being subject to one of Adriana’s famous tirades. If she’d known she’d be running across town perhaps she would have worn something other than four -inch heels. Perhaps the adorable ballet flats she’d borrowed from the sample closet just last night. However, this was the only chance she’d have to stop by the records office today so she’d have to ignore her already throbbing feet.
When the records office in Southampton had told her they’d sent some of their archives to be held in the city, she’d assumed her research had hit a dead end. It had taken her years to piece together the information she had, and it had been a long shot anyway. After all, what did she expect? Lucia gulped down the huge knot that always rose in her throat when she thought about her brother. Rafe had been gone for six years now, and there were still days she woke up thinking she was fifteen years old again and her favorite person in the world would be in the kitchen making her pancakes.
It was a knife to the gut every time her mind cleared and she remembered that he was gone.
The details of that day were still not entirely clear, but she’d managed to piece together where the shooting had taken place and had used every spare moment over the past year to find out more about the owners of the property. It was a struggle to find anyone who remembered anything about it, which was strange in a town where everyone knew everyone. But her tenacity had paid off because she’d gotten a name and had looked up the deed. It had been sold multiple times since then, and the local records office had only digitized their files the prior year. Somehow, some of the files related to the property had been sent off to archives accidentally.
Lucia looked up at the sign over the drab gray building that housed the New York State archives. Her heartbeat danced in her chest. Whatever she found out today could either shed light on the worst day of her life or lead to another dead end. The heavy glass door opened and as she tried to move out of the way, the coffee tray tilted slightly, leaving a wet, brown spot on the front of her white silk blouse. Awesome. There was no way Adriana would miss that.
“Sorry!”
She nodded absently as the man who’d been in such a hurry continued down the sidewalk without taking a second glance back.
“Good day to you, too.”
She pulled the door open and let out a sigh of relief when she saw there was no one else inside. The gods of karma were taking pity on her finally.
“Hi, Brent. I got your message that you have something for me?”
The man behind the counter glanced up from his computer and smiled. Average height with dark hair and a nice smile, Brent was a nice guy. Nice seemed to be the only word she could think of to d
escribe him, actually. He’d helped her fill out an official request the last time she was there and had promised to look in the archives personally. The fact that he’d flirted with her made her feel a little guilty. Lucia had never been the bat-your-eyelashes type and she had no plans to start now. However, she was willing to take any help she could get at this point.
“Hi, how’s your day going so far?”
Lucia set the tray of coffee on the counter between them and hitched her bag higher on her shoulder. She gestured at the brown stain and grinned. “Amazing! As you can see.”
He chuckled, although his eyes lingered on the swell of her breasts a bit longer than was strictly polite. Lucia cleared her throat and his eyes finally snapped back up to hers.
“You said you found something?” she prodded.
“I did. Sorry it took me so long. I’m not sure what happened when the files were transferred, but a bunch of files were in the wrong boxes. Though, as luck would have it, I finally found the deed of sale from the time period you asked for. I made a copy of it for you.”
He reached under the counter and pulled out a yellow, legal-size envelope. With shaking fingers, Lucia pulled it across the counter toward her. She lifted the flap with the tip of her index finger but then closed it again. Tonight was soon enough to go down that rabbit hole.
“So, I was wondering if, maybe, I mean you might not be into it…”
Her phone buzzed in her pocket again and Lucia pulled it out, smiling apologetically at Brent who didn’t even notice. She glanced down at the text message from JJ. It was marked as Urgent.
- Remember that painting on the wall of Rocco’s when we were there for dinner last week? Adriana wants a swatch of Belgian linen in the exact same shade.