When he talks like this, it propels me back to Bora Bora. Us naked, tangled in sheets. Him touching my face with that longing gaze and the electrified current passing body to body, back and forth. I could almost taste him falling in love with me. The oxygen shifting around us, melding us into one person. It was a fleeting week, something I couldn’t take with back to the real world. I’m overcome with emotion, something that has never happened before Luca, and my eyes tear up. “Listen, just get over to me as soon as humanly possible, okay? I want you to help me hang Christmas lights outside.” I amend, “I don’t want you to send someone here to do it for me. I want the full-on boyfriend dangling from a ladder, cursing, wearing a flannel shirt, experience. We plug in the lights and drink spiked apple cider and blow a fuse box. Then we blow other more intimate boxes after.”
Luca’s eyes twinkle and his lips twitch. “I can’t wait to dangle from your house.” Someone calls his last name, his stage last name, and he furrows his brows. “They need me. I’ll call you when I get to the airport. This is going to work out. Trust me.”
“I have to trust you. That’s the one thing distance has given. The inability to carry on inside something like this without trusting you. I guess I’m relieved that I don’t have to think about you giving other women orgasms. Makes it easier.” I blow out a pent-up breath.
“You’re beautiful,” Luca says. Then he clicks off the call. Never goodbye. He always tells me I’m beautiful instead. I like it, but I’m also terrified by it. When he says goodbye for real, it’s going to hurt that much worse.
Chapter Ten
The lie
HE’S STANDING ONmy front porch wearing a red and black flannel and a pair of worn-out jeans. He has anLVduffle casually thrown over his shoulder.Mouthwatering. I sling open the door and bound into Luca’s arms. His embrace feels cold from being outside in the snow, just from the walk from his car to my door. Santino waves, and I see Kieran in the passenger seat, rolling her window up after she tips her imaginary hat at us. They drive away when I whisk Luca into the house.
I stand back from him, keeping my hands on his biceps, to get a good look. I’m nodding when he says, “How do I look? Like I dropped out of your Christmas boyfriend fantasy?” His lips twitch as he tries not to laugh. “Not that we have to role-play or anything.”
“Is this so far from your normal that you’d consider this hotness role-play?” I ask. Luca doesn’t reply, he pulls me to him and presses his mouth against mine. It’s a soft, probing kiss—testing the time spent separated. I’m immediately intoxicated by his touch.
Wobbling to one side, Luca steadies me and presses his forehead against mine. “Lightheaded from a kiss? What’s going to happen when I get you naked?”
I inhale his scent and let myself float in this dreamy, turned-on state. “All bets are off when clothes come off.” I pull him by his hand. “Before we get naked. Let me give you a proper tour. This wouldn’t be possible without you.”
“You are a well-qualified employee. It had nothing to do with me.” He smirks. “Americans and house tours. You know I’ll eventually see the whole house on my own accord, right? There’s no need to walk me through the rooms.”
I stick my lower lip out. “And Italians raining on my parade. Come on,” I order, pulling him harder. “You can put your bag down in my bedroom. Where are Santino and Kieran going to stay?” Luca bites my bottom lip and lets it pop back. My core clenches with need. The sex can’t come soon enough.
“They’ll have Christmas in Manhattan,” he says, looking around curiously. “This really was a great purchase. The neighborhood seemed safe on the drive in.”
“It is very safe. Lots of families. I’m probably the only single chick in here.”
“Single?” he growls.
Leading him into the master, I cover my mouth coquettishly. “It’s so new not being single. Sorry. I meant I’m the only chick living here by herself. Singularly. You know?”
“Is that the way you want to keep it?” He narrows his eyes. “Living here by yourself?”
Walking backward, I sit on the edge of the king-sized bed. “I like when you’re here,” I say. “Prefer it even.” His stance is wide and commanding. The sight of him in this space makes my heart knock against my chest.
Luca extends the arm holding his duffle and sets it on the chair in front of my vanity. “I missed you so fucking much. So much it hurts. I don’t want to leave you again.” He closes the distance between us as I scramble to make room on the bed. He joins me, gaze lighting on my bare shoulder. This was the reason I chose this sweater. Leaning down, he kisses the exposed skin. “I want you to be with me always.”
My breath lodges in my throat. “That’s a serious request, Bianchi. One I’m not sure you’re ready for. I’m a handful.”
“I mean it.” Luca drags his lips across my jawline, back and forth. Chill bumps prickle my skin. “Everything about you… I crave.”
“Won’t you get sick of me if I’m always with you?” I can’t take it anymore—or wait for a reply. Grabbing his face, I kiss him and bring his large body on top of me.
His eyes flutter closed. “There is no possible way.”
“Then maybe we can talk about me coming with you on a trip every once in a while.”
“Can I take a trip inside you right now?” Luca licks his lips.
I smirk. “I thought you’d never ask.”
It takes less than a minute for us to be completely naked and all over each other. I can’t kiss him enough, or touch him enough. He puts his hard cock in my hand and my pussy tightens in response. I remind her she needs to do the opposite of that for us to have a good time. Luca slides two fingers inside me while we’re standing in front of the bed. He ends up catching me once more when my legs give out. Being in his presence is bad for my health. “You’re so wet, Elizabeth. Have you missed me, too?” He rubs his fingers against my G-spot.
I bob my chin up and down. “More than you missed me. Everything about you is so unforgettable, there’s not a second of the day that goes by that I’m not thinking about something to do with you.” I stammer because he’s rubbing my clit too. “It doesn’t help that I’m looking at parts and pieces of your naked body all day for social media either.”
He shakes his head once to each side. “Not possible, Elizabeth.” Pulling his fingers out of me, he picks me up under my thighs and drives my back into the wall. Reaching between our bodies to line up his cock, he eases it into my waiting slick folds. A breathy moan escapes my lips, and pleasure seeps up my spine and washes over every inch of my skin. I crave his thick dick as much as I do the connection it brings. The warmth. The sensation of being filled by this man. Call it insta-love, call it perfect timing, call it what you will, but being fucked by Luca Bianchi makes me believe in miracles. Not because the orgasm that’s rapidly approaching, because this passion and connection was born from something neither of us expected.
