Julia stopped reading and closed the journal. Rubbing at her eyes, she told herself she really had no business prying through this. Reading the journal first to make sure there wasn’t anything potentially upsetting in it was a flimsy excuse. She was being nosy and she really should stop—
A knock on the bedroom door caused her to jump. She rose, but before she could take a step forward, her door swung open, and her stomach dipped in the most pleasant way.
Lucian stood in the doorway, dressed like he’d gone to a gym or something, but . . . lost a shirt along the way and found a bar. He held a whiskey bottle in one hand.
“Hey,” she said, drawing the word out as she reached behind her and picked up the journal. “Get done . . . working out?”
“Yeah.” He swaggered into the room. “About five or six hours ago. Maybe more. I don’t know.”
Her brows lifted as she turned, watching him make his way toward the bed. His walk was a little strange. “Did you get lost or something then?”
“Kind of hard to get lost in your own house,” he replied, looking around the room as he took a drink from the bottle.
Of course. They had their own gym. Why not.
“Did you get lost?”
Julia placed the journal in the basket. “Get lost how?”
He turned to her, lowering the bottle. His eyes were slightly unfocused. “To my bedroom?”
“What?” She coughed out a laugh.
“You should’ve found your way to me.” He leaned forward, and she caught the strong scent of liquor. “Instead I find you in here doing . . .” He looked at the bed. “I have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Well, I didn’t come to you, because . . .” She folded her arms. “I was reading between the lines.”
“You need to read better then.”
Julia frowned.
“Because there are no lines.” He held up the bottle, pointing a finger in her direction. “That I’ve written or said that would indicate that I wouldn’t want to see you again.”
Her eyes narrowed, and then he sat down on the edge of the bed—well, dropped down more like it. She shot forward, grabbing the bottom of the bottle. “Are you drunk?”
Lucian snorted. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She arched a brow. “You’re so freaking drunk.” Tugging on the bottle, she sighed when he didn’t let go. “Have you been drinking this whole afternoon?”
“I couldn’t drink and run at the same time.” He rolled his eyes, still holding on to the bottle when she pulled again. “I mean, back in the day, when I was younger, probably. Not anymore.”
“That’s good to know. I guess. Why don’t you give me the bottle?”
Lucian pulled—pulled hard enough that she inched toward him. “Why didn’t you come see me?” He stared up at her with those eyes of his. “Didn’t you want to?”
Julia knew he was drunk, but her breath caught nonetheless. “I did,” she admitted.
“Then why not?”
She was losing the battle with the bottle. “Because I didn’t want—I don’t know. I just don’t know what I’m doing.”
A lazy grin appeared on his mouth. “Well, guess what, Ms. Hughes? I don’t know what I’m doing either. Let’s just not know together.”
Despite his condition. Julia laughed. “Give me the bottle, okay? Just for a little bit.”
“But I like the bottle.”
“I’ll take good care of it.”
Pressing his lips together, he dipped his chin. “Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Okay.” He let go.
Shaking her head, she walked the bottle over to the small kitchen table and placed it there, hopefully far enough out of his reach.
“Come back,” he called, stretched out onto his side as he craned his neck. “Come back here.”
She fought a smile. “I’m right here.”
“No you’re not.” He let his head fall to his shoulder. “You’re all the way over there, protecting my whiskey.”
Julia laughed. “Would it make you feel better if I was sitting next to you?”
“Yes.” He rolled onto his back then and lifted his arms over his head, stretching until his back bowed and all those muscles flexed and coiled. “It would make me feel so much better. You know why?”
“Why?” She walked back over.
“Because I like you, Ms. Hughes. I really do.”
Her dumb little heart did a happy jump. “I like you too—” Julia yelped as he sat up, wrapping an arm around her waist. One second she was standing and the next she was lying on her back beside him. “Holy crap, even drunk, you’re fast.”
“I’m always fast.” Sliding his hand across her stomach, he reached just below her navel and stopped. “I like you best right here.”
Drunk Lucian was an . . . interesting Lucian.
Heart pounding, she turned her head toward him. He was looking at her, and suddenly, he looked so incredibly young.
“I think I . . . like you too much,” he said, and her lips parted on a sharp inhale. “Someone once said, and I don’t know who, that a drunk man’s words were a sober man’s thoughts. What do you think about that?”
“I think you’ve drunk a lot of liquor.”
He chuckled. “I think I’m just more honest. So, what were you doing in here?”
She shifted onto her side, facing him. “I was going through the photo albums and stuff.”
“Oh, stimulating shit right there. Now I’m even more glad that I decided to barge into your room.” He cast his gaze to the ceiling. A moment passed. “Did you overhear Dev and me today?”
Julia didn’t even think about lying. “Yes.” She wasn’t sure if now was a good time for her questions, but drunk people did tend to be more loose-lipped. “Is there a reason why they’re investigating his death?”
He snorted as he shook his head. “None of us really think he killed himself.”
Surprise filled her. “Really?”
Lucian shook his head. “We could be wrong, but Lawrence was . . . he would’ve outlived all of us. There wasn’t a note and there were scratch marks along his neck.” His brow creased. “Who knows? You know, I don’t even care. How terrible is that? He wasn’t a good man. I’ve said that before. I’ll say it a million times more.”
Julia didn’t know how to respond. She fully got that his father was a horrible person, but to not care if he’d been murdered? “At the end of the day, he’s still your father,” she said carefully.
Tipping his head back, he laughed loudly.
“What?” she demanded.
“You don’t know?” A small smile tugged at his face. “I call Lawrence my father because he raised Maddie and me. In that sense he is our father, but he’s really not.”
Julia sat up and stared down at him. “He’s not your dad?”
“No.” He laughed again. “He never let us forget it either—Maddie or me. Mom got busy with someone else.”
That note—oh my God, she’d been right. It had been an affair. “Does anyone else know? I mean, I assume Gabe and Devlin do.”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Richard and Livie do. So does my bud Troy. You’ve never met him. He’s a detective. You’d like him. Anyway, Father even left the company and all the money to his heirs, naming Dev and Gabe.”
And then Lucian fell silent. He said nothing as he stared at the ceiling and tapped his hands off his bare chest.
She drew her leg up and inched closer. Holy crap, she really couldn’t believe all of this. His family truly was . . . a wreck. Like a TV show. Each time she talked to Lucian, she learned something else, something that made her rethink everything she knew about his family—about him.
God, she really was lucky when it came to the whole family department.
“Is that why you drank so much today?” she asked.
“Drinking because of him?” He laughed, but the sound was without humor. “No, I just got some unexpected news about
Gabe.”
She stilled, knowing that he was in Baton Rouge. “Is he okay?”
“Yes. No.” He closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. “He’s going to be okay. He just got . . . he just got some fucked-up news, Julia.”
Everything about her was focused on him. “From his ex or about her?”
“About her. She was in a bad accident. Not expected to survive. That right there’s gonna kill him. He . . . yeah, he loved her. Hard-core.” Lucian’s chest rose with a heavy breath. “She . . . she kept something big from him. God. Something huge.”
“What?”
For a long moment, she didn’t think he would answer, but then he did. “She has a kid. He’s pretty sure it’s his.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God, and he didn’t know?”
“No.” Lifting a hand, he dragged his palm down his face and then dropped it to his stomach. “How do you keep someone away from their child? How do you do that?”
Julia didn’t have an answer. It was obvious how much this knowledge hurt Lucian. The way he cared for his brothers and sister was a real thing. The man who raised him may not have showed him what loyalty and love was, but obviously their mother did . . . or it was just ingrained in him.
“I don’t know,” she said quietly, and she really didn’t know how someone kept that a secret. There had to be a big story there.
A couple of moments passed and Julia leaned over, noting his chest was now falling and rising more deeply and evenly. Was he . . . ?
Lucian was passed out. Just like that. Dead to the world and drunk, and he still managed to look like a sleeping god. She smoothed her hand along his jaw, smiling when he turned his cheek into her palm.
On the surface, this man and this family had it all, but Julia realized that inside him, inside all of them, it wasn’t what it seemed. He could have the world, but it didn’t mean the world was kind in return.
Because she was silly, because there was a good chance she was slipping further and further into this world of his, getting far too involved, she kissed his forehead. She kissed his cheek and then she curled up next to him, staying with him because she knew he needed that.
He needed her.
Chapter 28
Two days had passed since he’d drunkenly found his way to Julia’s bedroom. The hangover the next day had been a real bitch, but waking up in the middle of the night, still half drunk and finding Julia curled up against him? Well, that made the steel-fucking-drums in his head worth it.
Lucian couldn’t believe she actually didn’t kick him out of the bed. He also couldn’t believe that he’d told her about Gabe. Shit, he should’ve kept his mouth shut about that. He hadn’t even talked to Dev. It was Gabe’s business, but Lucian . . . he’d found himself in Julia’s room and even though he had been drunk, he was sober enough to know that he wanted to talk to her.
That he trusted her enough to open up about Gabe and the big family secret. As far as he knew, not even Sabrina knew the truth. Hell, if Dev hadn’t told her about their father’s death, he doubted they talked about the family history.
Lucian seriously doubted they did much talking.
Not like Julia and him.
Despite what was happening with Gabe and his sister, things had been almost normal in the house. Lucian spent the better part of the day finding new ways to seek Julia out while she was working with his sister and commandeer her free time. And when night came, he either retrieved her from her room and brought her to his, or he took over her living space.
Not since the first night they were together had they slept apart, which was seriously a first for him. A lot of things with Julia were a first.
Lucian found himself thinking about Elise. What did his great-grandmother say? That when the de Vincent men fell in love, they did so fast and hard and without reason? The craziest thought happened. Maybe he’d been wrong. Maybe it wasn’t lust.
Maybe it was something more.
Christ, listen to him? A girl puts up with his drunk-ass ramblings and he was wondering if he was catching feelings? He should really just punch himself in the nuts at this point.
That didn’t stop him from looking for her.
Lucian found Julia in her room, sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed and staring down at her phone. “Are you stalking me on social media? I don’t have any accounts, in case you are.”
Laughing softly, she glanced up as she placed the phone screen down on the bed. “Not everything I do is about you.”
He walked across the room and dropped down on the bed beside her. “I don’t like the sound of that to be honest.”
“Big surprise there.”
Lucian grinned as he stretched out on his side in front of her. “What were you doing?”
“Nothing really.” She lifted a shoulder. “Just checking the news.”
“You going to join us for dinner tonight?”
“With you and . . . ?”
“Gabe should be back, but it would be later or tomorrow.” He only knew that from a text he’d gotten earlier in the day. Other than that, he wasn’t sure what was going on.
Sympathy crossed her face. “I wish there was something I could do for him.”
“You and me both,” he replied, curling his fingers around hers. Right now, he didn’t want to think about what was going on with Gabe. There’d be time to process all of that since it was most likely going to change their lives. “What do you think?”
“Lucian—”
“Let me tell you what I think first.” He drew her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm as he stared up at her. “I think you should have dinner with us and then spend a little time with us instead of staying holed up in your room.”
She didn’t try to pull her hand away. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” He flicked his tongue along the center of her hand, pleased when he heard her suck in air.
“Because . . .” Her lashes lowered.
He lowered their joined hands to the bed. “Because what?”
“I just don’t know if it’s right.”
“Well, things that are fun are rarely right.”
She sighed. “Why am I not surprised that’s how you responded.”
Lucian chuckled and then he moved. Swiftly rising up, he shifted onto his knees as he grabbed her by her shoulders. She let out a little shriek that turned into a laugh as he brought her down to the bed, flat on her back with him hovering over, a knee on either side of her hips.
“That surprised you,” he said, kissing her.
Julia laughed into the kiss and then pulled away. “It did.” She loosely looped her arms around his neck.
“I think I need to explain something to you.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek, down her throat.
“Can’t wait to hear this,” she said, tone dry.
One side of his lips kicked up as he dragged his hand down the center of her top, stopping between her breasts. “If I’m going to be fucking someone more than once, I’ve decided that I’m not going to hide them. That may sound crude, but it’s the truth.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. Do you normally hide the women you sleep with?”
“As you know, I normally don’t sleep with the same woman more than once—”
“That still sounds as bad as the first time you said it.”
He shrugged as he slid his hand down her belly. “But I never hide the fact that I’ve been with them. Just like I don’t plan to hide the fact that I’m with you.” His gaze lifted to hers. “And I’m with you, Ms. Hughes. I’m going to keep being with you.”
She bit down on her lower lip as his fingers toyed with the thin band of her pants. “Is that so?”
“Yes,” he said, holding her gaze as he slipped his hand under her pants and then her panties. “And that means that I want to spend time with you outside of these rooms. It’s a strange feeling to want that, I’ll admit.”
Her cheeks were flushed. “Wow, Lucian.”
He grinned as he inched his fingers down. Based on the way she was breathing, he would bet a million dollars she was already wet for him. “I want to spend time with you while spending time with people I care about that.”
Julia’s thick lashes lowered as her chest rose and fell heavily. He leaned over her, lining their mouths up as his forefinger reached her very damp core. Her head kicked back slightly as he drew his finger along her center, slowly parting her. He loved every little catch in her breath.
“And if you don’t agree to it, I’m going to think that you only want me in this bed and not any place else.”
She curled her hand around the nape of his neck. “Well, you put it that way, I’d feel like an ass if I didn’t agree.”
“You should.” The grip on his neck tightened as he dragged his finger up and down, sinking in farther with every pass. “Is there a reason why you wouldn’t want to?”
Her hips twitched under him. “I . . . what if your brother doesn’t want me there?”
Lucian kissed the corner of her mouth. “I want you there.”
She gasped as he worked his finger inside her. “But I—I feel like I don’t . . .”
Slowly thrusting his finger in and out, he fucking loved that soft little cry she gave him. Could eat it right up. “You feel like what, Ms. Hughes?”
She was moving her hips in tandem with his finger, growing more and more breathless as he added another. “I feel . . . I feel like I don’t fit in.”
Lucian’s hand stilled—his entire body stilled as he stared down at her. Did she really feel that way? Fuck. Why was he surprised? She hadn’t grown up like he had, living the kind of life he and his brothers experienced. Most people wouldn’t feel like they fit in. He was a dumbass for not even realizing that earlier.
“Lucian,” she breathed, her hips rolling against his hand.
He gave a little shake of his head and then he kissed her—kissed her as if he could kiss away the insecurities. “You fit in,” he told her. Hooking his finger, he pressed his thumb down on her clit. “Don’t ever doubt that.”
Moonlight Sins Page 31