Page 108 of Lucian

Jordyn bit the inside of her cheek until pain saturated her mouth to keep her from shouting her frustrations. “What now?”

Finally, Cecelia spoke up. “My birthday is in two weeks. He won’t miss that. I know it without a doubt. He’s never missed my birthday.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. We’ve had Cecelia’s night out planned for a while, so Lucian is aware of the place and time. But until then, he’s as safe as he’s ever going to be, Jordyn,” Antony said. “I don’t like how he did it, but he did what I asked, nonetheless. That’s what’s important and more than I thought he would do, frankly.”

Jordyn forced herself to be calm, and then decided it didn’t really matter. “I’m taking a fucking sick day.”

Antony coughed away his surprise, muttering, “I think that’d be okay today.”

Yeah, like he had a say.

• • •

“ID to confirm check-in, sir?”

Lucian tossed the fake driver’s licence to the counter.

“Okay, John Antony. I have that room ready,” the clerk said. “Do you need someone to take your bags up?”

“No,” Lucian replied. “I think I can handle it.”

“Two weeks, yes?”

“That’s the plan.”

The girl smiled a little too widely, but Lucian wasn’t paying her any mind. “Do you want to put a credit card on the account for—”

“No,” he interrupted. “I’ll pay in cash.”

Surprise registered in the woman’s eyes. “But usually our guests who stay for an extended period prefer to pay one final bill at the end, not many smaller ones.”

“I’m not a regular guest,” Lucian muttered. “Can I have my key card?”

It took the woman a minute to fumble around with getting the information loaded on the card before she handed it over with another big smile. Lucian was far too exhausted and annoyed to bother with pleasantries.

He hadn’t even showered before leaving the condo earlier. After taking a cab downtown, then switching to another to take him half way back the way he’d come, he paid the driver, got out, and walked into the morning crowd of people just beginning to flood the streets.

Wearing a leather jacket, dark wash denim, and a ball cap, he looked like any other New Yorker on their way to wherever, constantly in a rush to get nowhere. Briefly, he’d stopped at a café to eat something worthy of being called breakfast, but even feeding himself felt robotic. Just another motion he had to go through.

Without Jordyn, he was feeling particularly unsettled.

Lucian didn’t like being so far from her. He also couldn’t bear to wake her up and see how sad and pained she would be when he said goodbye. Hopefully she wasn’t too angry with him over that. If she was, he’d spend however long it took to make it up to her.

After settling into his suite, Lucian unpacked the one bag he brought along. It was only enough clothes to do him a few days, nothing over the top. The hotel offered laundry service and he would definitely be using that. Other than the clothes, he hadn’t brought along much else. Twenty-thousand in cash from his safe. His gun, of course, with a fully loaded clip and a backup, just in case. A book from his library, though he doubted his mind would calm enough to read it.

There was no phone other than the one in his room which he wouldn’t use. No tablet to check his emails and such. Nothing to keep up with his businesses, though he’d taken care of that earlier by leaving messages for the managers of his places that would be curious about his sudden vacation.

Vacation. That was a damned joke.

Lucian didn’t know how to relax when he wasn’t working, or next to Jordyn.

Strange how that worked.

Lucian put the shower to use, cleaning off the smell of sex and sweat still lingering from the night before. While he cleaned the stitches around his bullet graze, he kept his mind on Jordyn and how absolutely amazing she looked underneath him to stray away from thinking much about the pain radiating through his arm.

The first day after anything was always the worst.