Chapter 34 Double date
Elena left the villa soon after, the morning sun already climbing high and warm against her skin.
She stepped into the waiting black SUV with a quick wave to the guards at the gate, her backpack slung over one shoulder, ponytail bouncing with every excited step.
Viktor sat in the front passenger seat, silent and watchful as always, while the driver navigated the winding coastal roads toward St. Regis International College.
The windows were tinted, the air inside cool and scented faintly with leather and Luca’s cologne that still clung to her clothes.
She smiled to herself, replaying their morning his reluctant surrender, his jealous growl, the way he’d kissed her like the world might end if he stopped.
By the time the SUV pulled up to the college gates, Sriya was already waiting, bouncing on her toes with two iced coffees in hand.
“Finally!” Sriya squealed, throwing her arms around Elena the second she stepped out.
“You’re glowing. Like, seriously glowing. Is it the fall or the mafia husband sex?”
Elena laughed, cheeks flushing.
“Both. Mostly the husband.”
They linked arms and walked toward the lecture hall, the campus alive with students rushing between buildings, the air filled with chatter and the distant sound of waves crashing far below the cliffs.
For a few precious hours, Elena was just a college girl again laughing at Sriya’s dramatic retelling of last night’s drama, stealing sips of coffee, feeling the sun on her face like she’d never known fear.
Meanwhile, beneath the villa, in the cold stone belly of the dungeon, three men hung upside down from thick chains.
Their ankles were bound tight, heads dangling toward the blood-stained floor, faces red and swollen from the position.
Sweat dripped from their brows, mixing with the tears that streaked their cheeks.
The room smelled of rust, fear, and the faint copper tang of old violence.
One of them thin, trembling, barely twenty choked out the words through a swollen mouth.
“Sir… please… leave us. We don’t know anything. We did our job, that’s all…”
Lucas stood in front of them, arms crossed over his black shirt, sleeves rolled to reveal the corded muscles of his forearms.
His scar stood out stark white against his skin in the dim light of the single hanging bulb.
His eyes were cold, unblinking black voids that swallowed any hope the men might have clung to.
“Mistakes can be forgiven,” he said, voice low and deliberate, each word carved from ice.
“Sins? Not so much.”
He stepped closer, boots echoing on the concrete.
The men flinched as one.
“You three dared to follow my wife,” he continued, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
“Keep eyes on her. Track her. Like she’s prey.”
He tilted his head, studying them like insects pinned to a board.
“She is a free bird. She flies. She laughs. She lives. But that doesn’t mean I don’t keep eyes on her.”
His smile was slow, cruel, devoid of warmth.
“It means I watch. I protect. And you… you overstepped.”
One of the men sobbed.
“We we were just following orders ”
“Whose orders?” Lucas asked, voice deceptively soft.
The man swallowed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Tom… Tom DeSouza…” he rasped, voice breaking on every syllable.
“We were just paid… we didn’t know ”
Lucas’s jaw clenched so hard the muscle jumped.
“Free them,” he ordered Viktor without turning.
“And get that fucking Tom DeSouza here. By tonight. Burn his empire to the ground if you have to.”
The guards moved instantly, chains clanking as the men were cut down, collapsing in heaps of broken limbs and whimpers.
Luca didn’t spare them another glance.
He muttered under his breath, voice dark and venomous .
“How fucking dare he think about my wife…”
He stormed out of the dungeon, boots echoing up the stone stairs, fury rolling off him in waves.
By the time he reached the main wing, the entire villa felt the shift the air itself seemed heavier, charged with the storm that lived inside him.
He marched straight into the open-plan working area where his top men and a few trusted employees gathered around long tables covered in maps, screens, and encrypted files.
All conversation died the second he entered.
Lucas stopped in the center of the room, eyes blazing, voice cutting through the silence like a whip.
“All of you listen carefully. You come here to work. Not to gossip. Not to whisper. Not to waste my fucking time.”
His gaze raked over them, cold and merciless.
“If I hear one more word about anything that isn’t the job, I swear I’ll fire the lot of you. And that bastard who thinks he can look at my wife? He’s already dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
The room was graveyard quiet.
No one breathed too loudly.
Then soft footsteps.
Warm arms slid around his waist from behind.
A small, familiar body pressed against his back.
The scent of vanilla and sunlight wrapped around him like a blanket.
Lucas froze.
The rage in his eyes flickered, softened, melted into something tender and raw.
He knew that touch.
Only one person in the world dared hug him when he was like this.
“Calm down, husband,” Elena whispered against his shoulder blade, voice gentle but firm.
“Why are you scaring these poor people?”
The entire room stared open-mouthed, stunned—as if they’d witnessed a miracle.
The terrifying, ruthless Lucas Romeo the man who’d just promised death was suddenly… soft.
His shoulders relaxed.
His fists unclenched.
He turned slowly, hands rising to cup her face like she was the most precious thing in existence.
The men exchanged glances some shocked, some smiling faintly, all of them pretending not to watch the king of their world melt for his queen.
Lucas’s voice dropped to the softest whisper, meant only for her.
“Butterfly…”
She smiled up at him, eyes sparkling despite everything.
And in that moment, with the entire empire watching,Lucas Romeo looked like a man who would burn the world for her and happily die in the flames.
Lucas leaned in, lips brushing her forehead in a soft, lingering kiss, the kind that always made her feel like the center of his entire universe.
“Have you eaten?” he asked quietly, voice low and tender, thumb tracing the curve of her cheek.
Elena shook her head slowly, a small, sleepy smile tugging at her lips.
“No…”
He tsked softly, mock-scolding.
“Ohh hoo… don’t you ask me why I came early?”
Elena tilted her head, eyes sparkling with mischief.
“Why should I? It’s heaven to me when you come to me,” he teased, voice light and playful, fingers tracing the open collar of her shirt.
Lucas’s eyes darkened with affection, a slow, devastating smile spreading across his face.
“Okay, okay, Mr. Lover Boy,” she continued, poking his chest.
“I have planned a date for you. We’re going on a double date.”
His ears turned unmistakably red bright crimson against his tanned skin and Elena’s eyes widened in delighted shock.
“Oh my God… Mr. Mafia is blushing!” she squealed, laughing so hard she clutched his shirt.
Lucas cleared his throat, trying and failing to look stern.
“Double date?” he repeated, voice gruff, but the flush crept down his neck.
“Yes!” Elena beamed, bouncing a little in his lap.
“Me and you… Viktor and Sriya. Sriya and I planned the whole thing. Dinner by the sea, sunset, music… the works.”
Lucas stared at her for a long second, the blush still burning on his cheeks.
Then he exhaled, a low, defeated chuckle escaping him.
“You and your plans, butterfly…”
She grinned, leaning in to kiss the tip of his nose.
“You love my plans.”
He pulled her closer, arms wrapping around her like he never wanted to let go.
“I love you,” he corrected, voice soft and serious, pressing another kiss to her forehead.
“And if it makes you happy… we’ll go.”
Elena’s heart swelled.
She hugged him tight, face buried in his neck, breathing him in.
“Thank you, my jealous, blushing mafia king.”
He groaned, but his arms tightened around her.
“Only for you.”
To be continued
Outside, the sea sparkled under the winter sun.
Inside, Lucas Romeo—terrifying, ruthless, unbreakable—was blushing like a teenager
because his wife had planned a double date.
And he wouldn’t trade it for anything.