“It’s beautiful,” Amy adds, and I turn to the window for my first glimpse of Florence’s famous Duomo.
The girls are right; the view is amazing. But what else is amazing is the heat from Gio’s arm where he rests it casually along the back of the bench seat we share, his shirt brushing against the bare skin of my arm and shoulders that aren’t covered by my white camisole top.
The connection between us in Capri was not something my imagination built up; it was real, and I have every intention of exploring it further when we’re alone in his one-bedroom suite.
***
Gio’s hotel overlooking the Arno River is even more spectacular than the one in Naples, based on the chandelier ratio per square foot alone. This hotel foyer screams opulence, from the marble-inlaid floors, the soaring stone columns, and all the way up to the ornately carved ceilings. The girls follow a porter, who seems particularly pleased to have been given the task, over to the front desk.
While Gio and I trail a little farther behind, his hand resting on the small of my back, ensuring I don’t move too far away.
“Have you decided in which room you want to stay?” he asks in that sexy, deep baritone that is impossible to resist.
“I most certainly have. Could you please wait here a moment?”
The blue in his eyes dulls to the color of the sea on a cloudy day, before I turn to go and speak with my friends. It only takes a minute, and then I’m back.
“Now I’m ready, Mr. Barbieri, to be shown to your suite.”
He grabs a hold of my hand and rushes me across the gleaming marble floor to a separate bank of elevators than the main ones I noticed earlier in the lobby. He pushes the button several timesto call it, and when it finally arrives and the doors glide open with a ding, he bundles me in.
“You seem to be in a bit of a rush,” I taunt him over my shoulder, and his response is a low growl as he braces an arm on either side of me against the back mirrored wall. Our bodies are not physically touching, but they don’t need to be for me to feel the heat emanating from him, making my body burn with need. We’re so close that any movement on my part would bring us together.
“You enjoy tormenting me, don’t you, bella. Tormenting my dreams and now tormenting me here.” His stormy gaze in the reflection holds mine. “You should know, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head since Capri. Your taste. Your perfume. Everything about you has been imprinted in my memory. And if you don’t feel the same, then now would be the time to speak up.”
I gasp at the intensity shining like faceted sapphires in his irises.
Slowly, I turn to face him, and when we’re chest to chest, I place my hands on his shoulders and smile up at him. “That’s good to know, Gio … because what’s imprinted on my mind are all the things I wanted to do to you last time before we were so rudely interrupted. I’m speaking up but not to say I don’t want you. Instead, I’m saying I need more of what we did in Capri and anything else you’ve been imagining.”
He reaches to tilt my chin higher, then captures my mouth in a bruising kiss that steals the air from my lungs and sets fire to the craving that, till now, was simmering in my belly. I’m an inferno of emotion that’s consuming every cell in my body. It’s been too long since I felt this tremor of greedy need shaking my very core and dampening my cotton G-string between my legs.
The elevator dings its arrival, but I don’t want to let go, so when his hands go to cup my butt, I jump into his arms, mylegs wrapping around his waist. He groans his approval, and the bulge pressed against the juncture of my thighs makes my pussy weep. Gio stumbles out of the lift and a few steps farther to lean me up against an empty wall, his lips never lifting from mine.
Sucking on my bottom lip, nibbling on the top, then his tongue diving between them to taste more. He’s an excellent kisser. All-consuming, and with my weight being supported by the wall, his hands begin to wander under my top. I want him to rip the fabric from my body; my need to feel his hands on my skin is so strong. I remember how good it felt to have his mouth sealed around my tits.
His palm reaches into my bra to cup my soft flesh, gently massaging the weight with his long fingers.
“I want to feast on these gorgeous breasts,” he growls against the corner of my mouth. His words dripping with unfiltered lust—an intoxicating mix that makes my head spin.
The sound of a door opening near us has his fingers freezing mid-tweak of my nipple. But a moan still falls from my lips into the silence.
Is the universe conspiring to keep us apart with interruptions?
“Gio?” a deep voice says, stopping close to us, and I bury my embarrassment in the folds of the shirt covering his shoulder.
Gio lifts his head but doesn’t remove his hand from my breast. I’d care if it didn’t feel so good.
“Ant. I’m a bit busy for a chat at the moment,” Gio responds.
“Very busy, by the looks of it.” I can hear the smirk in Ant’s tone even if I’m not brave enough to lift my head and look at Gio’s brother. “Text me when you’ve dealt with your pressing matters.”
I can’t hold back the chuckle that slips out, but at least it’s muffled. Gio responds with a squeeze of my tit, and it’s so surprising that I jump in his arms.
Ant seems to choke on his own laughter as he moves farther away. “I’ll see you later, big brother. Or probably not.”
Gio has the door open and us inside before the ding of the elevator can whisk his brother away. Safely in the privacy of his suite and not the shared hallway, I lift my head and let the laughter I’ve been trying to keep in check out.
Gio, for some reason, seems pleased with my response. “Now you’ve met my brother Ant, what do you think?”
