Chapter 41

Octavia remained at the seating area, musing over Indira’s offer. She wanted to jump at the chance.

How exciting would it be getting to work with Curie Technology and also using her knowledge of Icarus Tech to integrate the two? It was exactly the kind of complex, challenging thing she loved to do.

There was only one issue with the whole thing.

There was no way Raemon would agree. Octavia guessed he would either flat-out refuse her resignation as his assistant and cancel the deal with Indira or just fire her to be done with it.

As civil and almost friendly as he had been, Raemon still had his dark, vengeful side. He liked Octavia working for him. He would not stomach her working with him.

She had no idea why anyone would be so dumb, but she knew he could be.

“Lost in thought, are we?” a voice said.

The thought that too many people interrupted her thoughts with their out-of-the-blue voices (except for Indira, who had been a welcome interruption) crossed Octavia’s mind as she looked up at the speaker she already knew.

“Lucas,” Octavia said without surprise.

“Hello, Octavia,” Lucas Marino said, sliding onto the seat next to her and gazing into her eyes with a face oozing charm. He gave her a sexy half smile and cocked his head back casually.

“I hoped you would be here,” Lucas said.

Octavia noticed he was as hot as ever. His skin was tanned, and his hair thick, dark, and perfectly gelled and combed. His muscular, lithe limbs were looking exceptionally muscular in his dark-blue suit.

“I wanted to see you again so badly I figured I could risk running into my old snake of a friend, Raemon,” Lucas said.

Octavia also noted the whiteness of his teeth. The contrast of his pearl-white teeth against his tan skin was stunning. Yes, the man even had super sexy teeth.

“Really?” Octavia said. “I’m flattered.”

“That’s it?” Lucas asked.

“Should there be more?”

He gave a careless laugh. “I guess not. But I hoped there was more.”

Octavia’s eyes went back down to her shoes. “I can’t imagine what I did or said to give you the idea there would be more.”

She heard Lucas shift beside her and felt the brush of his leg against her own on the seat.

“I knew you were different the moment I saw you, Octavia. Most girls throw themselves at me. But not you. It’s like you don’t even know I exist,” Lucas said.

Octavia looked up. His tan face and white teeth were closer to her than they had been seconds ago.

“That’s not true,” Octavia said, “I remembered your name.”

“I guess I should be grateful for that,” Lucas said ruefully.

“Come on, Lucas,” Octavia said, “you don’t even know me. I don’t know you. We’re basically strangers.”

Lucas’s hand suddenly closed over hers. “I’d like to change that,” he said huskily. His face was leaning in toward Octavia.

It appeared he meant to skip dinner and move straight to dessert. Octavia wasn’t having it.

She stood suddenly, whisking her hand out of his, and took two steps away.

“Let’s go back,” she said. “You’re missing the party.”

“I don’t care about the party,” Lucas said, his carefree, lovelorn look now tinged with a hint of coldness. He stood and walked over to Octavia, facing her.

“Am I too late?” he said nonchalantly, but his eyes betrayed the bitterness that would have been in his voice.

“Too late for what?” Octavia said.

Lucas searched her face. “Too late to save you from him. From Raemon.” His face fell.

“He’s worked his magic on you, hasn’t he? Probably told you all sorts of lies about me, I’ll bet. And now he has you wrapped around his finger.”

Octavia listened patiently to Lucas’s speech, then shook her head. “Actually, he didn’t tell me anything about you. I asked, believe me. But he refused.”

For a second, Lucas seemed confused, unsure of himself. But he quickly recovered.

“Then why won’t you let me in, Octavia?” Lucas said. He brought his hands to rest around her arms as if he wanted to pull her close to him.

Octavia was unperturbed, though she wasn’t thrilled by having Lucas’s hands on her body as gorgeous as he was.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m not good enough for you, Lucas,” she said with a shrug. “You should find someone else. Anyone else.”

Lucas searched her face a while longer. “I am too late,” he said mournfully, “again.”

Had she not been annoyed with him, Octavia would have laughed at that doleful proclamation.

“Uh…I guess so,” she said.

“Octavia,” Lucas said, his brow furrowing, “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I don’t want to see me get hurt either,” Octavia said, “so it would be great if you let go of me.”

Lucas’s grip only tightened. “I can’t let you be broken by that man. I can’t let him do that to someone else.”

“You have nothing to worry about, trust me,” Octavia said. “Though if you don’t let go of me, someone definitely will end up broken—only I’ll be the one doing the breaking.”

“I’m serious!” Lucas said. “Don’t trust anything he says! That’s what he does. He lies to get what he wants.

“He manipulates people like they’re all pawns in a game of his making. The man would sell his own mother to better himself.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Octavia said, inwardly rolling her eyes. “Can you let go now, please? I can’t beat you up without ruining this dress, and I really don’t want to ruin this dress.”

Octavia’s threats of violence did not deter Lucas or dampen the flames of his passion.

“Octavia,” Lucas started, choking on his words, “I…I care for you.”

Octavia’s face was blank. “That’s unfortunate.”

“Do you have any idea how much it kills me to know you’re always in the same room as that man? That you have to obey his orders? That you’re always at his mercy?”

“Only during business hours,” Octavia supplied.

Lucas’s voice dripped with emotion. “I can’t stand it. I need you to know that. I can’t let you walk out of here and back to that guy. I have feelings for you. And Raemon only wants to see you ruined!”

Octavia sighed to the dark sky above them. “Sorry, Mrs. Santos. I’m going to have to ruin the dress.”

“Listen to me, Octavia!” Lucas said, his grip tightening even more. “I’m not letting you leave here without me. I’m not letting that monster get to you!”

Just as Octavia was deciding between putting her knee to Lucas’s groin or directing a fist at his beautiful face, another voice added itself to their conversation.

But unlike all the other interruptions, this one broke in with a cold, dark command.

“Let go of Octavia, Lucas. Now.”

Before Lucas’s hands swiftly dropped to his sides, Octavia saw his knuckles whiten. Then he straightened up and tried to face Raemon Kentworth with the same imposing presence Raemon had.

Octavia rubbed at the spot on her arms where Lucas had held her in his enamored grip.

“Now you listen,” she grumbled, “I said the exact same thing, over and over.”

Raemon took a step toward the two of them and glanced at Octavia. His eyes were calm, his brow lowered.

But the fire raging behind his eyes was unmistakable. It was easy to see why Lucas had immediately followed his orders without thinking.

“Are you all right, Octavia?” Raemon asked.

“I’m fine,” Octavia said, sighing.

Raemon’s eyes swept over her and then shot back to Lucas. The fire in them blazed higher.

“You’ve got some nerve showing up here,” Raemon said. “Either that or you’re just incredibly stupid. Probably the latter.”

He took another step toward Lucas in a way that clearly communicated the threat to Lucas’s life hanging in the air.

Lucas gulped inadvertently, then forced himself to step toward Raemon, squaring his shoulders as if to make himself look bigger next to the man who was so evidently stronger and angrier than him.

“I don’t need your permission to go anywhere, Raemon,” he said, “and neither does Octavia.”

“Crap,” Octavia whispered to herself, “not this again.” She wondered if she could slip away while they were breathing fumes into each other’s faces.

“Don’t worry about my assistant, Lucas,” Raemon said, “the only person you should be worried about is yourself.”

A small muscle rippled in Lucas’s jaw. “I’m not afraid of you.”

All Raemon deigned to do was give a small shrug with his left shoulder. “Like I said, incredibly stupid.”

“Raemon! There you are!” a breathy, slightly tipsy Lila said, stumbling onto their little party. She shoved herself past Octavia and threw herself onto Raemon’s arm.

His hand was deep in his pocket, but Octavia was sure that that was the hand he was about to use to punch Lucas’s face black and blue.

“Miss Lila Scott,” Lucas said with a wry smile. With Lila plastered on Raemon’s side, he seemed to become bolder. “Fine party you threw tonight.”

Lila glanced at Lucas and gave him an annoyed expression.

“And you are?” she said.

“An…acquaintance of Raemon’s,” Lucas said, not bothering to look at Lila. His eyes were focused on Raemon’s face, on the raging inferno hidden behind his stone mask of a face.

“Okay, whatever,” Lila said. She turned her pink face back to Raemon.

“Where did you go, sexy?” she said, slurring one or two words. “I looked up and you were gone. Are you trying to hide from me?”

“Hide?” Lucas taunted. “Raemon Kentworth hides from no one. He fears no one. Perhaps it’s everyone else who should be hiding from him.”

“There’s only one person who has a good reason to hide from me,” Raemon said coldly.

Lucas shrugged. “We’ll see about that.” He nodded to Lila. “My regards to your father, Lila.”

He then turned to Octavia. “I’ll be keeping an eye out for you, Octavia.” He winked at her. “Remember what I said.”

With an airy sweep of his shoulder, he turned and walked away from them. Raemon watched him disappear and stared after him long after he’d left. The fire in his eyes had not subsided.

Octavia recognized that as her cue. She took one tentative step away from her boss.

“Octavia,” Raemon said abruptly.

“Would you look at the time?” Octavia said loudly, taking two more steps away. ~No way~ was she doing this whole thing again. “I’m going to call it a night. See ya.”

With that, Octavia followed Lucas’s example and turned to go back to the house.

Raemon made a move to follow her, but he was stopped by the inebriated woman latched onto his arm and gazing into his face while batting her dark eyelashes.

“Come on, Raemon,” she said in a voice that was at least partially seductive, “I asked if you like this dress on me. Do you? Huh?”

Raemon looked down at Lila and barely hid his exasperated frown. Lila didn’t seem to notice.

As Octavia dashed away, the last words she heard were Lila’s incessant voice.

“Do you like it? Do you like it on me? Do you really? Do you wanna know what’s like off me? Do you wanna find out? Huh? Huh? Do you?”