by Lynne Graham
Artie toyed with the open collar of his shirt, her eyes not quite meeting his. ‘I found it helped to shift my focus off myself and put it on you instead. I knew you wanted me with you and I wanted to be with you too. So, so much. That had to be a bigger driver than my fear of leaving the castello. And thankfully, it was.’
Luca framed her face in his hands, meshing his gaze with hers. ‘Once Nonno is out of danger, I am going to introduce you to everything you’ve only dreamed of until now.’
She wound her arms around his neck and stepped up on tiptoe to plant a soft kiss to his mouth. ‘I can hardly wait.’
* * *
A short time later, Luca’s grandfather was wheeled back into the room. Artie held on to Luca’s hand, feeling nervous at meeting the old man for the first time. She had met so few people over the last decade and had lost the art of making small talk. But she drew strength from having Luca by her side and basked in his pride in her for making it to the hospital. Something had shifted in their relationship, a subtle shift that gave her more confidence around him. He might not love her but he wanted her with him and that was more than enough for now.
It had to be enough.
Her love for him might seem sudden, but wasn’t that how it happened for some people? An instant attraction, a chemistry that couldn’t be denied, an unstoppable force. Luca didn’t believe himself capable of loving someone, but then, she hadn’t believed herself capable of being able to leave the castello. But she had left. She had found the courage within to do so. Would it not be the same for him? He would need to find the courage to love without fear.
Nonno groaned and cranked one eye open. ‘Luca?’
Luca moved forward, taking Artie with him. He took his grandfather’s hand in his. ‘I’m here, Nonno. And so is Artie.’
The old man turned his head on the pillow and his sleepy gaze brightened. ‘Ah, my dear girl. I’m so glad to meet you in person. I hope you’ll be as happy with Luca as I was with my Marietta.’
Artie stepped closer. ‘Buongiorno, Signor Ferrantelli. It is so lovely to meet you face to face.’
The old man grasped her hand. ‘Call me Nonno. You’re family now, sì?’
Family. If only Nonno knew how short a time she would be a part of the Ferrantelli family. Artie smiled and squeezed his hand back in a gesture of warm affection. ‘Yes, Nonno. I’m family now.’
* * *
An hour or so later, Luca drove Artie to his sprawling estate in Tuscany a few kilometres from the town of San Gimignano, where fourteen of the once seventy-two medieval towers created an ancient skyline. The countryside outside the medieval town was filled with sloping hills and lush valleys interspersed with slopes of grapevines and olive groves and fields of bright red poppies. Tall pines stood like sentries overlooking the verdant fields and the lowering sun cast a golden glow over the landscape, the angle of light catching the edges of the cumulous clouds and sending shafts and bolts of gold down to the earth in a spectacular fashion.
Artie drank in the view, feeling overawed by the beauty to the point of tears. She brushed at her eyes and swallowed a lump in her throat. ‘It’s so beautiful…the colours, the light—everything. I can’t believe I’m seeing it in real time instead of through a screen or the pages of a book or magazine.’ She turned to him. ‘Do you mind if we stop for a minute? I want to stand by the roadside and smell the air and listen to the sounds of nature.’
‘Sure.’ Luca stopped the car and came around to open her door. He took her hand and helped her out of the car, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth, creating attractive crinkles near his eyes. ‘It’s an amazing part of the country, isn’t it?’
‘It sure is.’ Artie stood beside him on the roadside and lifted her face to feel the dance of the evening breeze. She breathed in the scent of wild grasses and sun-warmed pine trees. Listened to the twittering of birds, watched an osprey ride the warm currents of air as it searched for prey below. A swell of emotion filled Artie’s chest that Luca had helped her leave the prison of her past. ‘I never thought I’d be able to do things like this again.’
Luca put an arm around her waist and gathered her closer against his side. ‘I’m proud of you. It can’t have been easy, but look at you now.’
She glanced up at him and smiled. ‘I don’t know how to thank you.’
‘I can think of a way.’ His eyes darkened and his mouth came down to press a lingering kiss to hers. After a few breathless moments, he lifted his mouth from hers and smiled. ‘We’d better get going before it gets dark.’
Once they were back in the car and on their way again, he placed her hand on the top of his thigh and her fingers tingled at the hard warmth of his toned muscles beneath her palm. ‘Thank you for being so sweet to Nonno,’ he went on. ‘He already loves you. You remind him of my grandmother.’
Artie basked in the glow of his compliment. ‘What was she like? Were you close to her?’
His expression was like the sky outside—shifting shadows as the light gradually faded. ‘I was close to her in the early days, before my father and brother drowned. Their deaths hit her hard and she lost her spark and never quite got it back.’ His hands tightened on the steering wheel, making his knuckles bulge to white knobs of tension. ‘Like my mother, being around me reminded her too much of what she’d lost. I was always relieved when it was time to go back to boarding school and even more so when I moved away for university.’
Artie stroked his thigh in a comforting fashion, her heart contracting for the way he had suffered as a young teenager. She was all too familiar with how grief and guilt were a deadly combination. Destroying hope, suffocating any sense of happiness or fulfilment. ‘I can only imagine how hard it was for all of you, navigating your way through so much grief. But what about your mother? You said she lives in New York now. Do you ever see her?’
‘Occasionally, when I’m there for work.’ His mouth twisted. ‘It’s…difficult being with her, as it is for her to be with me.’
‘I don’t find it hard to be with you.’ The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. She bit her lip and mentally cringed as heat flooded her cheeks. Next she would be blurting out how much she loved him. Words he clearly didn’t want to hear. Love wasn’t part of their six-month arrangement. Romantic love wasn’t part of his life, period.
Luca glanced her way, a smile tilting the edges of his mouth and his eyes dark and warm. ‘I don’t find it hard to be with you either.’ His voice was low and deep and husky and made her long to be back in his arms. To feel the sensual power of his body, the physical expression of his need, even if love wasn’t part of why he desired her. But she realised now her desire was a physical manifestation of her love for him. A love that had awakened the first time his lips touched hers, waking her from a psychological coma. A coma where she had denied herself the right to fully engage in life and relationships. Locking herself away out of fear. But she was free now, freed by Luca’s passion for her and hers for him.
‘Will I get to meet your mother? I mean, is that something you’d like me to do?’ Artie asked.
A frown formed a double crease between his eyes. ‘I’m not sure it will achieve much.’
‘But what if I’d like to?’
He flicked her a brief unreadable glance. ‘Why do you want to?’
Artie sighed. ‘I lost my mother when I was fifteen. It left such a hole in my life. I can barely watch a television show or commercials or movies with mothers in them because it makes me miss my mother all the more.’
‘You have no need to be envious of my relationship with my mother,’ Luca said in a weighted tone.
‘At least you still have her.’
There was a protracted silence.
Luca released a heavy breath. ‘Look, I know you are only trying to help but some family dynamics are best left alone. Nothing can be changed now.’
> ‘But that’s what I thought about my fear of leaving the castello,’ Artie said. ‘I lost years of my life by giving in to my fears, allowing them to control me instead of me controlling them. I never thought I could do it, but you helped me see that I could. Maybe it’s the same with your relationship with your mother. You shouldn’t give up on trying to improve the relationship just because it’s been a little difficult so far. What you went through as a family was horrendously tragic. But you still have a family, Luca. You have your mother and your grandfather. I have no one now.’
Luca reached for her hand and brought it up to his mouth, pressing a soft kiss to her fingers. ‘You have me, cara.’ His voice had a note of tenderness that made her heart contract.
But for how long? Six months and no longer.
And then she would be alone again.
* * *
A short time later, Luca drove through the gates of his estate and pulled up in front of the imposing medieval villa.
Built like a fortress with four storeys, a central dome and several turrets, it was surrounded by landscaped gardens with a tinkling fountain at the front. ‘Don’t be put off by the grim façade,’ he said, turning off the engine. ‘I’ve done extensive renovations inside.’
‘I try never to judge a book or a person by their cover,’ Artie said. ‘Not that I’ve met a lot of people lately, but still. Hopefully that’s going to change.’
Luca’s eyes glinted. ‘I’m not sure I want to share you with anyone just yet. This is our honeymoon, sì?’
A shiver coursed down Artie’s spine and a pool of liquid fire simmered in her core. She sent him a shy smile. ‘So, we’ll be alone here? Just you and me?’
He leaned closer across the gear shaft and, putting a hand to the back of her head, brought her closer to his descending mouth. ‘Just you and me.’
CHAPTER TEN
ARTIE WOKE THE next morning to find her head tucked against Luca’s chest and his arms around her and her legs tangled with his. One of his hands was moving up and down her spine in a slow stroking motion that made her pelvis start to tingle. His hand went lower, to the curve of her bottom, and every nerve in her skin did a happy dance. Her inner muscles woke to his touch, instantly recalling the magic of the night before and wanting more. Would she ever tire of feeling his hands on her body? His touch was gentle and yet created a storm in her flesh. A tumult of sensations that made her ache for closer, deeper, more intimate contact.
Luca turned her onto her back and leaned on one elbow to gaze down at her. He brushed some wayward strands of her hair back from her face, his eyes darkly hooded, a lazy smile tipping up one side of his mouth. ‘Well, look who’s been sleeping in my bed.’ His voice had a sexy early-morning rasp to it that made something in her belly turn over.
Artie traced a straight line down his strong nose, a playful smile tilting her own mouth. ‘I don’t know that I did much sleeping.’ Her finger began to circle his stubble-surrounded mouth and chin. ‘Unless I was dreaming about you making love to me…how many times was it?’
His eyes darkened. ‘Three.’ He stroked her bottom lip with his thumb, a small frown settling between his brows. ‘I would have gone for four or even five but I didn’t want to make you sore. This is all so new to you and…’
Artie smoothed his frown away with her finger. ‘New, but wonderful.’ She looked deep into his eyes, holding her hand against his prickly jaw. ‘I didn’t think it would be so…so wonderful. Is it always like this?’
Luca held her gaze for a long moment, his eyes moving between each of hers before lowering to her mouth. He released a soft gust of air, his lopsided smile returning. ‘No. It’s not always as good as this.’
‘Really? Are you just saying that to make me feel good?’
He picked up one of her hands and turned it over to plant a kiss to the middle of her palm, his eyes holding hers. ‘I’m saying it because it’s true. It feels…different with you.’
‘In what way?’
He interlaced his fingers with hers, a contemplative frown interrupting his features. ‘I can’t explain it. It just feels different.’
Artie aimed her gaze at his mouth rather than meet his eyes. ‘Is it because of my lack of experience? I must seem a bit of a novelty to someone like you who’s had so many lovers.’
He tipped up her chin and his eyes met hers, and something shifted in the atmosphere. A new, electric energy, a background hum, as if each and every oxygen particle had paused to take a breath.
‘I’m not going to dismiss any of my past lovers to faceless bodies who didn’t leave a single impression on me, because it’s simply not true.’
He stroked his thumb over her lower lip again—a slow-motion stroke that set her mouth buzzing.
‘But with you…it feels like I’m discovering sex for the first time. Feeling things on a different level. A more intense level.’
Artie toyed with the hair at the back of his neck, her lower body tinglingly aware of the growing ridge of his erection. Aware of the potent energy that pulsed and throbbed between them. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better first lover.’
His mouth came down and sealed hers in a mind-altering kiss that set her pulse racing. His fingers splayed through her hair, his tongue meeting hers in a playful dance with distinctive erotic overtones. Her lower body quaked with longing, her flesh recognising the primal call to connect in the most physically intimate way of all. Her legs tangled with his rougher ones, her breasts crushed against the firm wall of his chest, her nipples already tightening into pert buds.
One of Luca’s hands cradled one of her breasts, his touch light, and yet it sent shockwaves of need coursing through her body. Molten heat was licking along her flesh…lightning-fast zaps and tingles that made her groan in pleasure. She moved closer, pressing her mound to his erection, opening her legs for him, desperate to have him inside her.
‘Not so impatient, cara.’ He gave a light laugh and reached for protection, deftly applying it before coming back to her, his eyes gleaming with the fiery desire she could feel roaring through her own body.
Artie framed his head in her hands, her breathing erratic. ‘I want you so much it’s like pain.’
‘I want you too. Badly.’ He kissed her mouth in a kiss that spoke of his own thrumming desire, his lips firm, insistent, hungry.
He moved down her body, kissing her breasts, her belly, and to the secret heart of her womanhood. He separated her and anointed her with his lips and tongue, making her writhe and gasp with bone-melting pleasure. The wave broke over her in a rush, sending her spinning into a place of sheer physical bliss. The storm in her flesh slowly abated but then he created another one by moving up her body again, entering her with a slow, deep thrust that made every hair on her head tingle and tighten at the roots. Her back arched, her thighs trembled, her breath stalled and then came out in a rush of rapturous delight. Delicious sensations rippled through her as he continued to thrust, his breathing rate increasing along with his pace, his touch like fire where his hand was holding her hip, tilting her to him. The pressure built in her body, the primal need a drumbeat working its way up to a powerful crescendo. Blood pounded through her veins, a hot rush fuelled by the intense sensations activated by the erotic friction of his hard male body.
Artie lifted her hips to get him where she most wanted him but it was still not quite the pressure she needed. ‘I’m so close…so damn close…’
‘Relax, mia piccola. Don’t fight it.’ Luca slipped a hand between their bodies and stroked the swollen heart of her flesh, sending her over the edge into a cataclysmic orgasm that surpassed everything she had enjoyed so far. Starlight burst behind her eyelids, fireworks exploded in her body, heat pouring like liquid flames all through her pelvis and down her legs to curl her toes.
‘Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God,’ she panted, like she had run a marathon, her heart pounding, h
er flesh tinglingly alive with mind-smashing ecstasy.
Luca’s release followed hers and swept her up in its power and intensity. His entire body seemed to tighten as if he were poised on the edge of a vertiginous cliff. And then he gave an agonised groan and shuddered as if consumed with a rabid fever, his essence spilling, his body finally relaxing against hers.
Artie stroked her hands down his back where his firm flesh was still peppered with goosebumps. The in and out of his breath tickled the side of her neck but she didn’t want to move in case it broke the magical spell washing over her, binding her to him in a way no words could possibly describe. There was a rightness about their union—a sense of belonging together for all time.
But you’ve only got six months, remember?
The prod of her conscience froze her breath and stopped her heart for a moment. It wasn’t long enough. Six months was a joke. She wanted for ever. She wanted to be in his arms like this for the rest of her life. How could she ever move on from her relationship with him? Who would ever measure up? How could she love anyone else when he had stolen her heart from the first time he kissed her?
She didn’t want to love anyone else. Her heart belonged to him and only him.
Luca must have sensed the subtle change in her mood, and quickly disposed of the condom, and then leaned up on one elbow to look at her, his hand idly brushing her wild hair out of her face. ‘What’s wrong?’ His tone and gaze were gently probing.
Artie painted a smile on her lips. ‘Nothing.’
His eyes moved between each of hers like a powerful searchlight looking for something hidden in the shadows. His thumb began to stroke the pillow of her lower lip in slow movements that sent hot tingles through every corridor of her flesh. ‘I’ve been around long enough to know that “nothing” usually means “something”. Talk to me, cara. Tell me what’s worrying you.’
She aimed her gaze at his Adam’s apple, her heart skipping rope in her chest. How could she be honest with him without relaying how she felt? He might call an end to their physical relationship and go back to the paper marriage he’d first insisted on. ‘I’m just wondering how I will ever find another lover who makes me feel the way you do. I mean, in the future, when we’re done.’
