Melody Anne's Billionaire Universe: Devoured (Kindle Worlds Novella) (8 page)

Vivian jerked. “Luca---”

Luca didn’t bother to turn back. “There is nothing to worry about.”

And he was right.

Before Ida could take another step, security caught up with her, holding her back and even as she struggled and cursed, there was no way for Ida to go against the two burly men holding her captive. They marched away, half-carrying the receptionist towards the service elevator---

Which was the dirty little hole that people like her came from,
Vivian couldn’t help thinking.

And if the irony wasn’t enough, Luca was now leading her towards the elevator at the other end of the lobby, which was reserved exclusively for the use of the company’s executives.

“Good morning, sir, ma’am.” Everyone they walked past were painfully quick to greet both Luca
and
Vivian, the nervous expressions on their faces making it clear that they were aware of what exactly had gone down earlier – and who Vivian was to Luca, despite the fact that she was wearing her cleaner’s uniform.

When they entered the elevator, no other passenger was willing to ride with them and the doors slid close, leaving Vivian alone with the billionaire.

Noticing the way Vivian was again gnawing on her lip, he asked calmly, “You are troubled?”

“A bit,” she admitted reluctantly. “You know, don’t you? About…her and me…last night?”

“Yes.” He didn’t offer an explanation and was glad when she didn’t waste his time asking for one. It meant she was beginning to understand him in a more fundamental way despite the short amount of time they had known each other.

Vivian took a deep breath before confessing, “You were…surprisingly ruthless.”

Luca almost shook his head. Trust his Vivi to be so softhearted that rather than feeling properly vindicated, she instead felt pity for the one who had treated her abominably in the past. “You are too soft,” he told her in chagrin. “But then, that is also why I have chosen you, so I am not complaining.”

She grimaced. “You make being soft sound like a sin, but it’s not.”

“And you say that so easily, despite the fact that your enormous debt is all because of---”

Knowing he had a point but hating to acknowledge it, Vivian couldn’t stop herself from sticking out her tongue.

Luca let out a startled laugh. “How refreshingly…immature.” Deliberately taking her by surprise, he tugged her towards him and as she fell against him with a gasp, he didn’t waste any time and covered her open mouth with his.

Her heart slammed against her chest at the first touch of Luca’s lips, and her body melted in a pool of heat as the kiss deepened. She found herself clutching at his shoulders as his tongue played with hers, and with each second that passed, she could feel her knees starting to weaken.

The elevator reached the penthouse floor and the doors slid open.

Dimly, she heard gasps and realizing belatedly what it meant, Vivian froze. “Luca,” she begged against his lips.

With a sigh, Luca lifted his head but he didn’t let her go. Instead, he kept her chained to his side as they stepped out of the elevator. Again, everyone at the penthouse stared at them, but everyone was also wise enough not to question what they saw. News had traveled fast, with everyone greeting Luca and Vivian and congratulating them on their engagement.

Vivian smiled and mumbled incoherently while Luca took everything in stride.

When they entered his office, Luca turned around to lock the door. When he turned back to Vivian, it was to see her slowly falling to her knees like a wilted flower. She told him seriously, “I don’t think I can take it anymore.”

“What?”

“The way they look at you and me.” She shook her head morosely. “And I can’t even blame them.”

“Do you mean because I happen to own this company and you’re one of my employees?”

She sighed. “It’s worse.”

Luca echoed with genuine puzzlement, “Worse?”

“Yup. They see you and then they see me, and they’re like
‘whut
?’”

Another startled laugh escaped him.

“If we’re really going to marry tomorrow---”

“We are,” he assured her swiftly.

“Can you do me a favor? Can you please make yourself, I don’t know, a bit uglier?”

Grinning, he crouched down on one knee in front of her. “I’ll do my best,” he teased her, “but I can’t promise anything.” Her sigh made his grin widen, but inside of him, Luca became aware of the slightest bit of misgiving, like a bad omen. It was starting to dawn on him just how oddly he had acted, to go to such lengths simply to ensure that no one would harm Vivi.

The sudden tension in the air had her stiffening and she gazed up at Luca searchingly, asking, “What is it?”

Such innocence in those green eyes
, he thought broodingly. It could have been an exquisite sight – if only they did not, at that moment, remind Luca of how his ex-wife’s gaze was once like that, too.

“Nothing,” he heard himself say.

And it was nothing, except that he silently wished she would not change like Maria had.

Because if she did---

What Luca would do to her would make his treatment of the receptionist earlier appear the height of kindness.

So for your sake, cara, never change.

Chapter Six

Wednesday.
This – and not Tuesday nor Monday – was the
real
beginning of a new chapter of her life. Today was the day she would be Luca Valencia’s wife and Eula’s stepmother. Today was the day everything would change---

“For the better,” she finished out loud. Staring determinedly at her reflection on the mirror, she told herself firmly, “Got that?”

The bathroom door opened, and Maggie complained, “Will you please stop talking to yourself when you can talk to me?” Sauntering inside the hotel suite’s expansive toilet, she took a hold of her friend’s shoulders and used it to get Vivian to face her. What she saw almost had Maggie wincing, with the way Vivian’s pale face looked even smaller and thinner, her body dwarfed by the too-large terry robe wrapped around it.

Scared out of her wits,
Maggie thought,
like she should be.

“Are you going to tell me I’m making a big mistake?” Vivian asked fearfully.

Maggie smirked. “I would…if I didn’t know that’s
exactly
what you want to hear from me.”

“I hate you,” Vivian mumbled. “I really, really, really hate you.”
Maggie clearly knew her too well
, she thought. She should have asked for a private talk with the judge first. A third party would no doubt tell her that---

Maggie gave Vivian a quick shake when she saw her friend’s eyes beginning to glaze. “Keep it together, Viv,” she growled. When Vivian blinked at her, she told her friend firmly, “This is something only
you
can decide, okay?”

Vivian nodded.

“So we’re going to talk about it, and maybe it will help clear your mind.”

Vivian nodded again.

“First – have you asked him?”

“Ask him if there’s a catch in marrying me?” Her friend’s gaze skittered away.

Maggie gave Vivian a harder shake this time. “You didn’t ask him, did you?”

“Umm…”

“Vivian!”

“I didn’t want to,” Vivian cried out, “because I already know the answer to it.”

Maggie froze.

Finally looking at her friend, Vivian said haltingly, “If there’s one thing I was able to understand about him all those times we were talking, then it’s the fact that he’s a control freak. And honestly? I don’t mind that, at all. You know how my dad was like. He was the opposite. He was way out of control, and people always had to rein him in and when you grow up with someone like that, it gets tiring.”

Looking down at her bare feet, Vivian mumbled, “When he practically threatened me about my IOU, he probably thought I’d get mad, but I didn’t really care. At the back of my mind, I was thinking, at least he was doing something about what he wanted. I know it’s bad, but I couldn’t help comparing him to my dad, who blamed everyone but himself for how his life turned out.”

When Vivian fell silent, Maggie was at a loss for what to say. “Viv…” She knew the kind of childhood Vivian had, with her on-off father, who had acted more like an overgrown child than anything else. She could see where the attraction lay because of that, but was that enough reason for Vivian to risk everything on a marriage?

“Did he get you to sign a pre-nup?” Maggie asked abruptly.

Vivian’s lips quirked. “Did you really believe there was a possibility he wouldn’t?”

Maggie sighed. “You’re right, that was a stupid question. And of course you signed it, but were the terms fair at least? I mean, what if he---” She caught herself in time before saying anything negative.

“It’s okay, Mags. I know ours isn’t exactly the template for the perfect marriage, and to answer your question,
yes,
the terms were fair. More than fair, actually. It was more like an employment contract, and I get a
financial incentive
---” Vivian rolled her eyes. “That was the term they used, for every year I stayed married to him. I had his lawyer change that. It was pretty insulting.” She paused. “Other than that, I only asked for one other change, and that was that I’d have the right to see Eula---”

“His daughter?” Maggie asked, surprised.

Vivian nodded. “If for whatever reason we had to file for a divorce or whatever, I wanted visitation rights. I just…I just wanted to make sure she would never have any reason to think I’d abandon her---”

“Like your father did,” Maggie finished, “when he left you and your mother.” With a heavy sigh, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Vivian square in the eyes. “Well, that’s enough drama for now. I just have one last question for you. Are you
certain
this is what you want to do? Because if you feel you need to get out of it, you still can.”

Vivian slowly shook her head. “I know what I’m doing is
insane.
But Mags, it’s just that – ever since he came into my life, he gave me a reason to look forward to the next day. Even before I found out who he was, he made me happy and excited to wake up because I knew my life wouldn’t just be all about going from one cleaning job to another. I don’t want to let that feeling go.”

Watching Vivian speak, Maggie realized she had never seen her friend this happy, and it was both an incredibly touching…and terrifying sight. “If this is what you want,” she said gruffly, “then we need to hurry up.” Pushing Vivian towards the marble bath at the center, she said, “If your guy’s the control freak you say he is---”

“He is,” Vivian confirmed.

“Then you need to take your bath now because we’ve just under two hours to make you pretty.”

****

The wedding was a private ceremony held at the banquet hall of the hotel where Vivian and Maggie had stayed overnight. The reception area outside the hall was crawling with paparazzi, everyone hoping to be the first to introduce to the world the woman who had been able to bring Luca Valencia back to the altar.

A red carpet had been rolled out over the banquet hall’s mosaic floor, and although it was just a short walk to make it to where the officiating judge and Luca waited, her knees still quaked under her skirt, and Vivian’s face felt like it was about to crack.

It didn’t help that among the small group of individuals invited to attend, Vivian only knew Eula and Maggie. Everyone else at the wedding were Luca’s closest friends, mostly Italian bachelors like Luca, with the exception of Rafe, who had his lovely partner Ari with him.

Luca had asked her if she wanted to invite anyone else, and she had shaken her head, too shy and even somewhat ashamed to let him know that aside from her roommate, she had no one else. Making friends was not easy when one was too busy earning a living.

Whatever you do, just don’t trip,
she whispered fiercely to herself. She took a deep breath and tried to take a step forward, but she couldn’t.

Her panicked gaze flew towards where Luca stood, and as if her fear had somehow communicated itself to him, the billionaire slowly turned to face her.

Oh!

Today, Luca was dressed more elegantly than usual, replacing his dark suits with a white formal jacket and a silk dress shirt. But what really stunned Vivian was his oh-so-handsome face, where it appeared Eula had drawn a crooked mustache over his upper lip using lipstick.

She remembered the last time they had talked and what she had asked.

Can you do me a favor? Can you please make yourself, I don’t know, a bit uglier?

When she gazed at Luca’s handsome face again, his somber expression had not changed, but the gleam in his eyes had her swallowing back a laugh.
Oh, oh, dear, he had really done it.
He was a far cry from ugly still, but he was also just a little bit less than perfect.

More than that, she knew he had done something so ridiculously silly – something utterly unusual for someone like him – for her.

Her fears were washed away, all her doubts and anxiety – they disappeared completely and Vivian took one step forward.

What she was doing might be crazy---

She took another step forward.

But it also felt right.

Luca reached for her hand and drew Vivian close to him. He smiled down at her, and she smiled back dazedly.

His hand squeezed hers. “Ready?”

She squeezed his hand back. “Yes.”

The rest of the ceremony proceeded in a colorful, heart-thumping blur, and Vivian was privately thankful that Maggie was there to record everything on her phone. The only thing she could remember was the part they exchange ‘I dos’ and, of course, the kiss.

She had expected him to give her a conservative peck on the cheek, but instead he had cupped her face and given her an amazingly deep, scorching-hot kiss---

With tongue!

The mere memory had Vivian blushing, and at that moment Luca joined her inside the master’s bedroom of his private plane. He took one look at her face and asked, “Anything wrong?”

“N-nothing?”

Luca grinned. “Liar.”

“I’m n-not.” But she could feel her cheeks reddening even more as she spoke.

Moving forward, he watched his bride fidget in front of the vanity mirror and repressed a smile at how obviously nervous she was. Vivian was still in her wedding dress, a long-sleeved lace and silk concoction that he had personally picked for her. It had emphasized her generous curves to perfection, and with her roommate artfully styling her hair in a twist of curls, the sight of her had Eula whispering to him that ‘Vivi looked like a princess.’

He agreed, and right now looking at her, Luca thought,
Mi principesa.

My princess.

Vivian held her breath when Luca came to a stop behind her, and she tensed when she felt his fingers graze the back of her neck. Their eyes meeting through the mirror, she heard him ask huskily, “May I?”