Lucas was just frozen in the spot he was in.
This should be simple and expected. Easy even. Callis was very much beautiful and was already promised to him, they had even known each other all through their childhood and fought together. Even built alliances together.
It made a lot of sense in a very logical way.
Yet he couldn’t deny that he had never seen her that way. Nothing more than as a friend.
Callis’s lips moved back to his neck while her tongue traced patterns that should have driven him wild but did absolutely nothing.
"This is right for both of us. We could just seal it all right now and get it over with."
Why wait? She whispered as her lips hovered a breath away from his, "let’s just do it, it’s very much due."
The word betrothed seed to continue to open certain wounds in Lucas. Not knowing what else to say, he sighed from exhaustion and turned his face away from her seeking lips.
Even the scent of her perfu was now suddenly suffocating him.
"Are you really still holding on to that? To dead people’s oaths and agreents?" He asked in a flat voice.
Callis wasn’t giving up. "Dead people? Lucas? That’s our parents you’re talking about, it’s disrespectful to just call them dead people. And those were our fathers’ words, their bond as friends."
"But we’re civilized people and need to start acting like one now, Callis. We cannot live our life based on a promise or so path made in the past over expensive whiskey and cigar smoke?"
The mory itself was almost laughable to Lucas. His father, a mountain of a man with old world ideas and Callis, a businessman who saw a rger in everything and even their children’s futures. They rely expressed their desires.
Why did anyone even take those words so seriously?
"It makes no sense now, the world they even built is gone. We just have to carry out what is needed in their na and live our own lives."
Gosh, he thought almost scoffing.
I was ten years old while she was eight and they shook hands while we were probably in the next room building Lego castles and now we’re supposed to base all our lives on it?
The whole situation was so absurd.
"I’m sure even you didn’t like that arrangent if I rember correctly," he continued trying to appeal to a logic even he knew she rarely used. "I even thought you’d forgotten about it, I’m so shocked to hear you bring it up right now."
Callis stopped her actions and pulled back just enough for him to see her eyes filled with so rage.
The seductress was now gone and replaced by so sort of determination. "I didn’t forget anything, Lucas, I never forgot even. Not a thing like that. We should honor our parents’ mories, not disrespect it.
Her gaze was intense as she pinned him in the spot he was in.
"I’ve always felt like we would be together at the end of it all no matter what, we don’t have mates after all, heck, our mates might have died or not have been born at all. Also, mates is not a concept we’ve used anymore for like centuries now because it just never happens to a lot of us."
She continued, "I’ve always imagined us together at the end of all of this that we were embarking on, all the... fun."
She moved in closer to him again as he pressed her body on his to resu her open-mouthed kisses along his neck. This ti her touch felt less like an invitation and more like a claim being staked.
Lucas had had enough so he placed his hands on her shoulders with his grip firm and pushed her back to create a solid foot of space between them.
"Callis," he said in a voice that was not going to leave any room for argunt. "Stop."
She stumbled back a step with imdiate surprise and so irritation.
She then rolled her eyes so dramatically that Lucas thought it was a miracle that they even stayed put in her head.
"I’ve been patient enough!" She suddenly exclaid while throwing her hands up.
The robe gaped open so much but the gesture was now one of frustration and not seduction.
"I’ve fooled around with enough humans as possible and I’m sure you’ve had your fill of them all too."
She said the word ’humans’ with a sneer as if they were disposable toys.
"For fuck’s sake, we can now have each other, we’re not kids anymore. Whether you like it or not, we would have to honor our parents’ wishes and get married soon enough anyway so what on earth is your problem?"
Lucas watched her carefully, he knew that a flat outright rejection would not just offend her but even create a powerful and vengeful spirit in her.
After all, Callis was never a woman who took no for an answer, not even when she was a kid. So he needed to handle this with the sa care that he’d use in handling a live explosive.
He chose his next words with the precision of a surgeon about to do a surgery. "I know Callis, and I understand," he said, literally letting her win. "But not now, not like this, we need to be patient."
He could see the skepticism in her eyes so he had to press on. "We need to wait until all of this is all done, Callis. Until the plan is finished and the company is very much secure. Then we can start talking about marriage and whatnot..."
It was a stalling tactic, one that was designed to just get him out of this room without him triggering a war.
Callis rolled her eyes again with contempt this ti.
She turned and walked back to her bed with a huff while her robe swirled around her. She then sat at the edge of the mattress, allowing the fabric to fall open to reveal her long and shapely legs.
She did it all in a way that made it look like she was reminding him of what she was offering and making sure that it stuck to his mind.
"Fine," she conceded even though her next tone ca with a mix of threat and promise.
"But you had better be fast with all of it already." She leaned back on her hands while her gaze locked with his. "I may be Lorena’s friend right now but that’s only because of you, I’m sure you don’t think I’m happy laughing with soone whose father caused the death of my parents. Plus I need you all to myself as soon as possible."
Lucas gave her a businesslike nod with no words like saying anymore might be a risk. He then turned on his heel and left, making sure to pull the door shut behind him with a click.
And the mont he was in the hallway, he exhaled a long ragged breath that he hadn’t even realized that he had been holding.
He strode to his own bedroom as the master suite imdiately felt more like a luxurious prison rather than his safe haven because despite all that had just happened with Callis, he could very much sll Lorena’s perfu all around him.
With a growl of frustration, he ripped off his suit jacket and threw it on the floor like it were on fire.
He then stalked to the side piece and poured himself a generous asure of amber whiskey into a crystal glass.
He didn’t bother sipping it, he threw it down his own throat in one gulp, welcoming the burn as it slid down.
But it was useless as it did nothing to quench the fire inside him.
One that one woman had lit and another was trying to claim.
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