Icould feel Luca watching me from the doorway as I put Daphne to bed. My little girl was completely tuckered out after playing with so many new friends today, and she’d been fighting sleep in the car on the way home. She was far off in dreamland by the time I left her room, flicking on the night-light she claimed she didn’t need and closing her door behind me as I ushered Luca back to the other end of the apartment. Daphne was sleeping hard already, but I’d still rather talk out of her earshot.
“Thanks so much for everything today,” I told Luca as we hovered at the edge of the living room. “Picking us up. Being so good with Daphne. Welcoming us into…” I almost saidinto your family.Because it really had felt like I was part of Luca’s world at his family barbecue; all of them had treated me as if my joining the family in an official capacity was a foregone conclusion. And even Luca had allowed us to blend in such a way that I almost forgot it was all for show.
Luca seemed to sense what I wasn’t saying as I trailed off. He smiled softly, his lovely hazel eyes glinting green in the warmlight of my thrifted floor lamp. “Allie, I should be thankingyou.You’re the one who made the day.”
I shifted under his gaze, not sure if I felt comfortable taking the kudos he was offering. “You asked me to be your fake kind-of wife, so I did it.”
“But you didn’t have to charm everyone to the level you did,” he urged. “You didn’t have to make all of my family love you. You didn’t have to…well, frankly, verbally kick my dad’s ass.”
My laugh surprised me. I felt my cheeks redden. “It was nothing. He just…shouldn’t be allowed to talk to any of you that way. I’ve never been good at keeping my mouth shut.”
“Good,” Luca enthused. “You’re teaching Daphne to stand up for herself too. Honestly, I’ve been so impressed all day, watching you with her. Seeing you as a mother. You’re incredible with her, Allie. I really admire it.”
This was too much sweetness. Too much flattery, though there was nothing false or put-upon about it; Luca had such a genuine, kind softness about it him that I’d even noticed it when I was half wasted back in Vegas. It was what made me want to reach up and kiss him all the time. And maybe it was the adrenaline of having pulled off our little scheme today, of having confronted Marco Branchini in front of everyone he usually controlled with an iron fist, or maybe it was just that I didn’t know how to respond to such a compliment, but there was nothing in the world that could have stopped me from kissing Luca in that moment.
When I met his mouth with mine, gentle and exploratory, I felt Luca relax into me. His lips pressed forward, tender but with a small amount of urgency that stoked a fire inside my skin. With the ease of someone who had done this a million times, he slid his hands around my waist, gripping me firmly against him as he tried to get closer. I wanted to get closer too.
When he slid his tongue across my bottom lip, I opened for him easily, almost moaning with the pleasure of our mingling warmth. My reaction had a magnifying effect on him. Luca clutched me tighter, my hips coming flush with his—a nice perk of how close we were in height—and I could feel the stirrings of his increasing hardness. Want shot through me like a bolt of lightning. I’d wanted him for years, and if he was ready for it, I was going to finally have him. There was no reason to wait.
I pulled back from Luca’s mouth only long enough to suggest, “Couch?”
He nodded, not removing his hands from my waist as I led him over to the hand-me-down gray sofa. I broke the contact only so I could sit back against the arm, kicking off my shoes and flirtatiously propping my legs up on the cushions. I beckoned Luca closer, patting the spot beside me.
“I want you so bad, Allie,” he told me, standing close enough that if I really wanted to undo him, I could reach out and touch him, seek out the thickening cock starting to tent the front of his pants. But sensing his hesitance, I kept my hands to myself, smoothing down my skirt and drawing attention to my legs, my hips. Luca’s eyes followed my movements.
“You can have me,” I said simply. I parted my knees the slightest bit, teasing. Tempting him with what he really wanted between my thighs. “If you think you’re ready for it.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” he half laughed, a little hoarse, and I shrugged as if to say,if the shoe fits.He licked his lips, and I remembered the heat of that tongue on my clit in that big hotel bed back in Vegas, vivid and tantalizing even after all these years. Perfection.
“I’m ready,” he said hurriedly, making me want to laugh. His eagerness was so cute.Hewas so cute.
“I’m…I’m more than ready, if I’m honest. Damn tired of waiting.” His voice took on a husky quality that I felt at my core. “It’s just…what about Daphne?”
Of course he’d want to be cautious about my little girl. He’d proven himself as a wonderful role model all day, and he worked with kids besides. Just learning that endearing fact about him had made my heart melt, and I never thought I was prone to melting before.
“We’ll be quiet,” I urged him, feeling the excitement I used to feel when I’d sneak boys into my teenage bedroom. “She sleeps through anything. If my bedroom wasn’t right on the other side of hers, I’d go in there. Lock us in. But…we’re better off out here.”
Luca didn’t look convinced, but he met my eyes with such open need in his expression that I knew neither of us could resist this any longer. I whispered, “We’ll be quiet,” and he silenced me completely with another kiss.
He moved over me, covering my body with his just as surely as he covered my mouth, and I loved feeling his weight push me into the couch cushions. Loved the closeness of him. The warm pressure of his erection pressing between my thighs had me soaked under my skirt already, and I kissed him back like I needed him to breathe. At that moment, it felt like I did.
Luca kissed like he knew the art in it, his tongue and mine matching each other stroke for stroke in drugging, slow pulls. I could feel, could hear how we were both breathing more heavily, and that only increased when he moved from my mouth and started tracing his soft, sensual lips over my jaw and then down my neck, his warm tongue joining the kisses and making me sigh. I tangled my fingers into the silken strands of his long hair, holding him against me, needing him even closer. I’d never felt like I needed to share someone’s skin before, but the intimacy of the day, Luca’s sunshine personality, and the clear care he tookwith everyone in his life…it made me feel like I belonged there. Near his heart. Where I knew he’d cherish me and keep me safe as long as I’d let him.
I felt Luca’s breath against me as he inhaled, taking in my scent, reveling in it as he lavished attention on the sensitive skin of my neck with his tongue. Shivers of pleasure tore through me, and I whispered sweet nonsense as I stroked his hair and took it all in. Slowly, with careful consideration, Luca’s hand found its way to my calf, his grip there surprisingly possessive considering his usual gentleness. When I tugged at the roots of his hair a little, he took it as the encouragement it was, sliding his hand up further.
I was almost panting when he finally reached my outer thigh, his fingers just barely caressing the skin under my skirt. All the while, his mouth moved to the other side of my neck, stopping in the middle to place a perfect kiss on my throat. He found my earlobe, gave it a soft, playful nip with his teeth that made me gasp. Luca’s soft chuckle felt like heaven against the space where my neck met my shoulder.
“You’re so soft, Allie,” I heard him breathe. “So…perfect.”
As if to test more of that softness, his hand started to move inward until he was gripping my inner thigh, his thumb rubbing circles into my heated skin. I loved it, the reverence in his touch, his willingness to take his time after all of those years of waiting for this moment.
But I’d been waiting all this time too—had thought of little else but finally taking his virginity since that night on the beach when he revealed that Vegas hadn’t gone exactly how I remembered it. I spread my legs for him, hoping that would send him the message that I wanted,neededhim to touch me.
But he kept that hand in the same spot. Thumb still stroking in circles. Mouth still slowly exploring my neck and collarbone. Turning my already molten core into an aching inferno.
“Luca, please touch me,” I practically hissed when he sucked at my skin, almost certainly leaving a mark I’d have to hide with makeup tomorrow. I didn’t care about tomorrow. I wanted tonight to start. To continue.
To never end.
