He felt good, God, so good. I was right. He was hard everywhere. And I liked it.
He pressed his hips into mine, tight, deep, I felt them, I liked what I felt and more heat rushed through me.
God, yes, yes. I was right, he was hard everywhere.
I forced a leg out from under him and wrapped it around the back of his thigh, reciprocating the gesture, lifting my hips to fit them to his, his lips left mine to trail down my cheek to my ear where he whispered, “Fuck, baby.”
I liked that too.
A lot.
So much I arched my back, turned my head and ran my tongue up his neck to his ear.
God, he tasted as beautiful as he just was.
“Fuck,” he whispered then his teeth nipped my ear and I trembled instantly, top-to-toe.
Then, no joke, no freaking joke, I heard the creak of a door swinging open and a sultry voice crying, “Buongiorno!”
Sam’s head shot up and his neck twisted.
Seeing as my head was to the bed, just my neck twisted.
And there was Luci, wearing a fabulous outfit, looking stunning, holding a stack of fluffy folded towels and grinning at us unrepentantly.
This went on awhile, Sam and I tangled in a carnal clench on the bed staring at Luci, Luci standing a step inside the doorway gazing at us with a huge grin and not moving.
Finally, Sam asked on a growl that was clearly frustrated, clearly impatient and clearly angry so it was also clearly very scary, “Are you serious?”
“You’re in luck,” she announced. “I have exactly two unused toothbrushes.”
I blinked.
Sam growled again but this one was unintelligibly.
“Sam, caro,” Luci said, striding in (yes, striding in!), “Kia can see the lake from that bed but she’ll see more of it from the boat.”
Was she serious?
And, was this happening?
And, if it was, why?
I didn’t ask these questions. Instead I stayed silent as Sam rolled off and sat up, pulling me with him so I was sitting up too, but close and he settled us with my back to his chest and one of his arms wrapped around my belly.
He did this saying, “Woman, you know I’m trained to kill.”
She smiled at him then ignored him and looked to me.
“And Kia, cara,” she dropped the towels on the foot of the bed and two toothbrushes in their plastic wrappers and a tube of toothpaste bounced off the top of the pile and onto the bed, “it’s morning and you have something to look up on my computer.”
I stared up at her having experienced all of this still snug in the warmth of heated, brilliant foreplay the like I’d not only never experienced at the hands of a (now I knew) seriously not very talented Cooter but also the like I didn’t even know existed and the mistaken belief that, in short order, I would return to that.
Suddenly that disbursed, what was happening intruded and, what could I say?
It was admittedly a little weird and it was definitely crazy.
But it was also hilarious.
So I burst out laughing.
Luci’s sexy chuckle joined my laughter and, honest to God, it actually sounded like it was accented with Italian which was way cool.
Sam dragged my laughing body across his lap and both his arms clamped around me as he declared, “Just to be clear, I’m not finding anything funny right now.”
This made me sober but I did this unfortunately with my eyes on Luci. Then the sultry, sexy, smack you back beautiful Luci snorted.
That’s right! I saw and heard a famous model snort!
I burst into giggles this time and Luci was right with me.
“Fuck me,” Sam muttered.
I giggled harder.
So did Luci.
Sam allowed this.
For approximately two point five seconds.
Then he clipped, “You came, you interrupted, you annoyed now you wanna get out?”
I swallowed my laughter, slapped a hand on his chest and cried, “Sam!”
Sam didn’t even look at me. He kept scowling at Luci.
“Certamente,” she muttered.
“Well?” Sam instantly countered when she didn’t immediately vanish in a puff of smoke.
I pressed my lips together.
Luci planted her hands on her hips. “Breakfast is in half an hour, Sam, you need to get back to your hotel and sort yourself out. I’ll sort Kia out. Then you can enjoy your day together.”
“We were enjoying it before you walked in,” Sam shot back, I smacked his chest again but this time snapped, “Sam!”
He looked at me. “What?”
“What?” I returned.
“Baby, she walked in on us. She’s got eyes, she didn’t miss it.”
I looked at Luci and griped by using universal female griping language, “Ohmigod!”
Luci smiled at me.
“You still haven’t left,” Sam prompted Luci.
“All right, all right,” she mumbled, flicking her hand, turning and gliding like the catwalk model she used to be to the door. “See you at breakfast.”
“Close the door,” Sam ordered.
She closed the door.
I turned my head to look at him in order to say something to him about being rude but I didn’t finish turning my head and got nowhere near saying anything because I found myself on my back, Sam’s solid, heavy torso pressed to mine and his face an inch away.
“Sam,” I breathed, suddenly not feeling snippy but remembering our kiss, not the first one that was crap, the second one that was everything.
“Today, I show you Lake Como even though I don’t know fuck all about Lake Como; I do know how to drive a boat. Tonight, no parties, no friends, no nothing. You, me, dinner. Later tonight, just you and me. You with me?”
“I’m with you,” I whispered, and I was with him. So with him.
His face got even closer and his voice got that sweeter, deeper rough-like-velvet I liked so much when he said gently, “Baby, when I say just you and me, I need you to get I mean just you and me. Now, do you get me?”
“I get you.” This time it was a whisper that sounded a lot like a wheeze because I got him. I so got that I was going to get him.
His eyes held mine then I watched with a deep fascination that affected me systematically when they heated and he whispered, “You taste even better than you look and you’re unbelievably fuckin’ beautiful. Christ,” his head dipped so close I felt his breath on my lips as his blazing eyes burned into mine, “I can’t fuckin’ wait to taste the rest of you.”
Oh man.
Oh God
Oh man.
I couldn’t either.
While I concentrated on breathing and not doing anything stupid like pushing him off, running to the door, locking it, ripping my expensive dress off and then launching myself across the room at him, he twisted us again so he was seated and I was in his lap.
Then, his hand gliding up my neck into my hair, he turned my head to look at him and he ordered, “Give me your room key and tell me what you need. I’ll pick it up.”
This threw me and it mostly threw me because what I needed included panties and I might have just gone at it hot and heavy with Sam, not to mention slept in his arms, not to mention spent hours yammering on telling him my deepest secrets and my not-so-deepest secrets but I wasn’t ready for him to see my panties.
Still, I needed them and, if I was correct, to save myself from the nightmare that would end in me vowing never to eat again that I knew would be me trying on any of Luciana’s clothes; I needed an entire outfit.
“Kia, baby,” Sam called into my frenzied thoughts and I focused on him.
Then I mumbled, “Um…”
To which he grinned, his hand left my hair so both arms could give me a squeeze and he proved yet again that he could totally figure me out.
I knew this when he whispered, “In case you didn’t get me when you told me you got me, honey, just you and me means I’m g
onna be in your pants tonight before I take them off so, right now, get over what’s polluting your head, tell me what you need so I can get to the hotel, get it, get back and get your fine ass on a boat and far away from a now up in both our business Luci.”
I stared at him. Then I forced myself to think about this. Then I made some decisions. Then I told him.
When I was done telling him, he stared at me.
Then he burst out laughing.
I was perplexed as I watched him and when he stopped I asked, “What?”
“You need all that to go on a boat?”
I tipped my head to the side not thinking “all that” was all that.
“Well, yes.”
He grinned, then he stood at the same time he slid me off his lap and put me on my feet but he didn’t take his arms from around me and, looking down at me, he muttered, “I’m gonna brush my teeth. You’re gonna find Luci to get a paper and pen and write me a list.”
“Sam, it isn’t that much.”
“Baby, I need underwear, jeans, a shirt, shoes and deodorant. I’ve got a good memory but lost track when your list became five times that.” His arms gave me a squeeze. “Find Luci. Paper. Pen. List.”
“I’m not high maintenance,” I informed him quickly. “All women would need at least that.”
“Not true. You are high maintenance and before you twist that to pollute your head, I don’t care about that either. I like it. I get to best the challenge then enjoy the benefits. But, right now, to move us on, what I need is a list. Yeah?”
I studied his face thinking that it appeared Sam Cooper could get grumpy.
So I felt my best course of action was to agree with a, “Yeah.”
He grinned. Then he dipped his head. Then he touched his mouth to mine.
Seriously sweet.
Then he lifted his head, turned me out of his arms and gently pushed me toward the door.
I accepted the prompt and kept moving but I looked back to see him bent at the waist, his long arm stretched to the toothbrushes, one of his hands in the bed.
God, I was a freak because I thought he looked hot even reaching for a toothbrush.
Then I thought it prudent to look where I was going so I didn’t run into the door.
I was leaving the room but eventually coming back to him.
I was coming back to him.
On that thought, I left the room.
And I did it smiling.
Chapter Six
God Granted You More Talents
I was sitting at Luci’s kickass wrought iron table outside on her terrace, my heels to the seat, my knees to my chest, sipping a cup of coffee while wearing her bright orange silk robe with huge even brighter scarlet red flowers on it that she let me borrow when she brought me a bunch of stuff so I could shower.
Upon seeing it, I told her it was totally awesome and she told me she bought it not far away and promised we’d go there before I left so we could pick one up for me.
“They have one exactly the same but this enchanting purple with a splash of vibrant pink flowers, cara mia, that would be perfect for you.”
I agreed instantly, wondering what Luci would consider was an “enchanting purple” that was “perfect for me”, completely forgetting my vow to quit blowing my admittedly large but shrinking by the day cash stash on stupid stuff and telling myself everyone needed a good robe.
Still, I knew by the feel of it that robe was expensive so I didn’t figure everyone needed that good of a robe.
But… whatever.
One more splurge.
Nothing wrong with that.
Right?
My hair was wet and combed back, I’d consumed a bowl of fruit and two pieces of toast that was more delicious than any toast I’d ever had except in Paris. My experience was that Europeans didn’t mess around with bread, no doubt about it. I didn’t know what it was but their bread rocked. What made it better was that the toast was spread with Nutella which meant I went from really liking Luci to seriously liking her considering her breakfast included Nutella.
She’d gone to turn on her laptop so I could pull up my webmail and I’d moved to studying a view I knew I’d never find anything less than amazing.
I was thinking that it was weird and cool she had a party last night that included loads of people, food, drink, red-coated valets and white-coated waiters but today her house (or what I’d seen of it on my way to the table) was completely tidy and sparkling clean, not a glass half full of champagne or a stray cocktail napkin in sight. It was like magic.
I was also thinking that last night, I’d laid it out for Sam and, right then, he was picking up my stuff so we could spend the day then the evening then the night together.
Which meant I wasn’t just studying the view.
I was studying the view smiling.
Yes, again.
I heard Luci speaking in Italian and I twisted my head in surprise to see her approaching, a cell to her ear, and I was surprised because she’d walked away not a minute ago.
And she didn’t have her laptop with her.
She stopped by my side, said something, then said, “Ciao,” then took the phone from her ear, extended it to me, I noticed she had the same phone as me right before she said, “I heard it ringing as I was walking by, cara, your bag is in the other room. I answered it. It’s a lady called Celeste?”
Suddenly, my cell phone morphed into the head of ferocious, snapping wolf with rabies though I didn’t know if wolves could get rabies but my phone wolf had them.
Definitely.
“Kia?” Luci prompted on a shake of my phone.
Oh man. Here we go. Celeste was probably curious about how my date went.
Now it was nine thirty in the morning after I slept in my fabulous gown and my fabulous shoes with a man I had practically just met, something Celeste was way too cool, chic and sophisticated to ever, ever do.
I reached out, took the phone, whispered, “Thanks, Luci,” then hesitantly put it to my ear and said softly, “Hey, Celeste.”
“Well?” was her reply.
I blinked at my knees.
“Sorry?” I asked.
“Well? The woman I just spoke to told me she was Luciana Gordon. The Luciana, I assume, whose party you told me you were going to last night?”
Oh man.
“Celeste, um… well…” God! “Honey, last night, I had a bit too much to drink.”
“Excellent.”
I blinked again.
Then I repeated, “Sorry?”
“Ma chérie, you were tense, champagne is excellent at relieving stress. This is good.”
“Okay, well…” Shit! “Maybe I should have said I had way too much to drink.”
Silence then, “And how is that, Kia?”
I sucked in breath.
I didn’t want to tell her this and I really didn’t want to tell her this with a Luci who had not gone back to get her computer but instead settled herself in the chair by me at the table and was currently pouring herself a cup of coffee and therefore also was going to stay awhile. I couldn’t get up and wander away because I figured that would be rude, maybe not as rude as Luci’s obvious eavesdropping, but still rude.
So I had no choice.
And that was why I glued my eyes to my knees and whispered, “I… something happened and, I couldn’t help it. See, um…” I rushed the rest out. “I didn’t tell you this but I’m a widow and my husband was abusive and last night, like, ten minutes after we got here, something happened and then Sam wanted my attention so he got it and he was kind of physical doing it and I, well… I freaked out, exposed my secrets because I kind of couldn’t, um… not react. And he, well, then he freaked out in his, uh… Sam way because he freaked me out. He was really upset and then he promised me he’d never hurt me and shared about his life and when I told him I couldn’t trust him not to hurt me that was when he promised me he’d make me believe he’d never hurt me then he spent the rest of the night bein
g really nice and he was all, well… Sam being a gentleman and making sure I wasn’t left out of conversations and stuff like that so, I, well, I kind of haven’t told you this but I’m wealthy but, I’m, you know, new to being wealthy and I was just a normal person before and will eventually not be on vacation, I’ll go home and be normal again and I got kind of drunk and felt Sam needed to know I was not, you know, like him and so I told him I wasn’t and he told me he didn’t care but it was more than him not caring, he told me he was like me and told me I was not the fraud I was trying to convince him I was and I was just me then we spent the night talking about family and friends while lying in bed, I fell asleep in his arms and today he’s taking me out on a boat and showing me Lake Como.”
I finally shut up then I sucked in breath, continued to ignore the completely unmoving Luci and I waited.
Celeste didn’t speak.
Shit.
“Celeste?” I called softly.
Nothing.
I kept trying. “Are you disappointed in me that I… well, didn’t take your advice, especially when you were so kind, and that I, you know, kept from you I’m normal?”
That was when she spoke.
And this was what she said.
“Ma chérie, you are many things and one of them is not normal.”
I blinked at my knees again, not sure if this was good or bad.
She kept talking.
And she was doing it quietly.
“Thomas and I, we had a daughter.”
She said “had”.
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit.
“Celeste,” I whispered.
“We lost her when she was twelve. She had leukemia. That was four years ago.”
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit!
“Honey.” I was still whispering.
“She was blonde with green eyes.”
I closed my eyes which were green but still felt them fill with tears.
“Her name was Clémence.”
OhGodohnoohshit!
Celeste kept speaking quietly.