“I would apologize for my car,” I mutter when I slide into the driver’s seat, already shivering and rubbing my hands together as the engine putters to life. “But I’m pretty sure the cold is the worst part.”
Luca doesn’t say anything, and when I look over at him, I see why. He’s staring at me, his pupils practically having swallowed his eyes, jaw set.
“Everything okay?” I manage weakly. But I barely get the words out before he’s hauling me over the center console and settling me on his lap, his hands anchoring my hips against his. When I feel him already hard through his jeans, I gasp, and he swallows the sound.
Reaching down, I grab the lever to lower his seat, and we recline to being basically flat. My knee digs painfully into the seat belt on one side, and I struggle for purchase between Luca’s body and the door on the other, but it doesn’tmatter.
Because his hands are on me, his breath mingling with mine, his lips hot and eager and suddenly, I don’t notice the cold at all.
He tips his hips up, and I’m nudged forward, draped over him, my hair falling down around us and curtaining us off from the world.
I’ve never kissed someone like this before. Every kiss of my life up to this point suddenly feels painted in harsh relief—a practice session. All playing pretend.
Because this—the way he thrusts his fingers into my hair, the way he holds me like he’s been thinking about nothing else—this is consuming. Intoxicating.
I forget where I am.
That is, until there’s a sharp knock on the door and I sit up, heart racing, my natural instinct to remain cool overriding my other instinct to panic. Seeing a figure I recognize just outside the fogged window, I run a quick hand through my hair and roll it down, still sitting in Luca’s lap.
“Wren,” Ruby says, a knowing smile on her lips as she holds something out to me. Her dark hair is long, curled around her shoulders and sticking out from under a maroon winter cap. Just behind her, a black SUV idles, Maverick watching from the driver’s seat. “I believe this is your scarf.”
“It is,” I say, reaching out and taking it from her, watching her eyes dart around the inside the car. Luca throws an arm over his face, laughing into the crook of his elbow.
“Thank you,” I manage.
“Just a note of advice,” she says, lowering her voice, “there was a parking monitor down there. Might be a good idea to head home.”
I just barely keep myself from rocking against where Luca’s still hard and pressed against me. “I agree.”
***
Considering the fact that I’ve never been to Luca’s place before, I really should take more time to look around, drink in the details, figure out more about this man. I’m sure there’s something in the way he organizes his cereal that’ll tell me something I don’t know about him yet.
But there’s only one thing I want to look at.
We tumble backward through his front door, him boxing me in against it, kissing me hard as he effortlessly punches in the code to the lock, letting us into a dark entryway.
His hands are warm as they push under my jacket, his strong, capable fingers pushing the thing off my shoulders and letting the cool air inside the house brush over my skin.
I shiver, and he steers me backward into another room, pulling away from me momentarily—then, a second later, there’s a mutedbeepand a fireplace roars to life.
The laugh bursts out of me. “Afireplace? Are we going to do it on a bearskin rug?”
For a second, I think I might have ruined the moment with my stupid joke, but Luca just shoots me a grin. He reaches down andstrips his shirt off over his head, stunning me from the sight of his shifting muscles, the broad expanse of skin available to me all at once.
There’s a mole near his belly button. Shadows under his pecks dance in the light of the fireplace. My mouth actually fuckingwaters, he’s that gorgeous.
“Actually,” he says, stepping toward me, his hands finding the hem of my dress and stripping it smoothly up over my head, “I was thinking we could do it on my couch.”
My heart is in my throat. When he leans down to kiss me, I nod and nod against him, core already flooded with heat and tight with lust. He kisses me with ease, guiding me smoothly backward to a couch that’s wide enough—shamelessly—to be just as comfortable as a bed.
He pushes me back onto it and reaches behind me to undo my bra, sucking in a breath at the sight of my breasts, which feel heavy and taught. When Luca drops to his knees between my legs, one of his hands spreads wide against my back, holding me to him. I let out a sound that’s somewhere between a moan and a sob.
And when he lowers his mouth to one of my nipples, I only get louder.
My mind feels like a hazy mess. All normal, rational thinking is out the door. It’s like when you go to watch a movie and youcompletely forget everything in the outside world still exists, still continues to go on without you.
Because it feels like the only thing that should matter, in this entire universe, is the sensation of his teeth scraping over my sensitive skin. His rough, calloused hand massaging my other breast, fingers pinching the nipple just hard enough to make a shot of lust arrive directly between my legs.
