Read Luca (I Love the Way You Lie #1) for Free Online

hello.
    “Oliver? What can I do for you? Out of your element, don’t you think? No groupies here, dude,” Luca spat out with pure distain.
    Oliver took it in stride, only angering the beast beside me further. “Who said I was looking for a groupie? I saw a pretty lady I knew I had to meet,” he threw out. The room’s phonetic energy hummed along my skin.
    I needed to do something. It wasn’t Ollie’s intention to start trouble. However, it also pissed me off that Luca was acting like an ass. “What’s your problem, Luca? He was just introducing himself. You don’t own me!” I reminded him. There was no room for gentle. We weren’t dating. Not even close. He was a fucking thorn of conflicting emotions.
    Luca leaned over, bending to meet my gaze directly. “You’re mine, Allison. And I don’t want this trash speaking to what’s mine. You’d do well to remember that.”
    I had no words. I mean, what do you say to that? He really was a psycho, one hundred percent flat out. There was no doubting that now. I blinked a few times, trying to gather the proper words to answer. A million scathing adjectives ran through my mind.
    A large, warm hand found its way to my shoulder squeezing gently. I turned. Ollie. “Sweetheart, I’ll catch you later. No worries.” He proceeded to walk away, but not before leaving Luca with lasting words. “Oh, and Luca, she’s far from yours. You just don’t realize it yet, dude.”
    Luca’s face soured. Keri laughed. I was nauseous.
    “Allie, sit and eat your food.” He pushed my tray back in front of me. Yeah right?
    “Umm, so not hungry. Like I told you before, or don’t you listen?”
    His frown deepened. However, he had a renewed glint in his eye. “I listen plenty, Allie-girl. You need your strength. Eat—please,” he said before grabbing his tray and leaving. Great. Now he’s leaving too? What the fuck did I do?
    I sat there perplexed for a minute before Keri broke out in song. “Cherry lips, crystal skies, I could show you incredible things. Stolen kisses, pretty lies… Not that I like Taylor Swift.” She shrugged.
    I gaped at her talent for being a total spaz. Chewing on whether to thrash her around the dining hall or give the staring people the middle finger. I chose the latter.
    After telling Keri I’d meet her back at the room. I slowly made my way across to the mean-girl’s table where I slowly cranked up my middle finger to full fuck-you extension. “Bite me, bitches.” I turned and marched out of the cafeteria with my head held high. Of course, it was mostly for show. I didn’t know where my head was to tell you the truth. Somewhere between tantalized and simmering fury.
    Some of what I was feeling no doubt was from what had happened to me. Suspicion and mistrust were high on my list. Being assaulted by someone close to you is especially devastating. The world as you knew it ceases to exist and becomes a big turbine of it’s my fault. I asked for it. I ruined everything. Nothing will be the same . Judgment. Rejection and shame…mixed with a healthy dose of anxiety, depression, and fear. How will I ever be the same? Shame weighed the most. Nearly sucking the oxygen from my lungs while exquisitely restricting blood flow to my brain. There were no longer any healthy parts of me. I now referred to myself as the shattered mirror barely held together with tape, reserving the right to kill myself another day. The old me died that day. The new caustic me was just trying to live another day. Can I realistically claw back to the girl I was? The one who danced in the rain, bathed in the sun, and slept under the stars? Would I ever wish upon a star again? I didn’t feel like I had any wishes left. I had no wishes. How do I get my wishes back? A girl needs those—right?
    My wishes were replaced with suffering. I did that well. I suffered alone in silence and in the company of others. Even now, as I walked to Luca’s room, I suffered. I don’t want to be