by K. L Mann
“No wedding band, and no woman is crazy enough to date someone they see, what, 6 hours a week? You’re here every day.”
“Point taken I suppose.” Vito shakes his head and finishes his food.
I raise my eyebrows at Caterina and smile, her cheeks go red.
I’ve definitely started something here.
When 8pm rolls around, I’ve finished all of my final papers and submitted them for review. I completely skipped dinner which I know Caterina will not be happy about if she’s still here. But, when I’m in the zone I can’t get out of it. Though I did make good on my promise and sent Luca a few special pictures throughout the day, he hasn’t had time to respond.
Unfortunately, now I’m starving but also exhausted. I’ve been lying in bed now for a few minutes, trying to make myself get up. My head is just spinning with a million different scenarios of where Gio is instead. He still hasn’t answered me and he told Vito not to tell me where he is. I’m worried about him, but I’m also worried about myself and my conflicting feelings.
I’m completely excited by the fact that Luca will be home soon. I never thought I would ever be excited to see Luca Caruso, let alone that I would miss him while he was gone. It’s like this weird chemistry just flicked on overnight and it won’t turn off. We’ve made promises, fucked like lovers, and kissed like our lives depended on it. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing with my life. Every part of me wants to call my mom and talk to her, but she’s not like Marco, she’d tell Lorenzo. She’d tell my dad too, and my time here would end. I can’t let that happen.
I decide to text Gio again and get out of bed to find something to eat.
Arianna: Gio, can you please come back? I don’t like not knowing if you’re okay.
The kitchen is empty but there is a note on the island. What is it with this house and notes? We all have phones, people.
“Dinner is in the fridge, you better have eaten some before I come check on you tomorrow!
–Caterina”
I smile at the note and then toss it in the trash on my way to the fridge. There’re a few different containers but the one that catches my eye makes my mouth water.
Mac and cheese, hell yes.
Caterina doesn’t make anything fully unhealthy though, she grinds up veggies into the cheese sauce so fine you can’t even tell. I don’t even separate the dish into a smaller bowl, just throw the entire thing into the microwave. It’s pretty big but I’m confident I can eat it all, it’s so fucking good. I grab a bottle of wine from the cooler and unscrew the cork, not bothering with a glass. It’s been a long weekend and I did all of my assignments so I’m going to eat this Mac and Cheese and drink this wine as my reward.
I’ve taken a few sizable sips from the bottle when the microwave finally beeps. Pure joy courses through me as I grab it and immediately stab a spoon into it. I don’t even bother sitting down at the counter, I just lean over and take a burning hot bite. It stings the roof of my mouth but I don’t care, it’s so delicious even as it’s scalding hot.
I can’t not believe how fast I devoured the entire container. I should have saved some for tomorrow but I couldn’t help it. Now my stomach is definitely as full as it can get, and my wine is more than halfway gone. It’s nearly 9pm and Luca still isn’t home.
Arianna: I just ate way too much food, and drank too much wine. Are you leaving soon? I miss your lips.
Luca: Look out in the garden, gorgeous.
Huh?
Curiosity courses through my veins. I take my bottle of wine and my phone with me, walking to the door to the back yard. Glimmering lights shine through the window and my stomach flips. I slowly open the door and step into a fucking wonderland. A wonderland that couldn’t be more perfectly crafted for me. My wonderland.
Holy shit.
Luca, dressed in a suit and tie smiles, walking toward me slowly. Swiping a hand through his blonde hair he comes to a stop just in front of me, smiling nervously. “Do you like it?”
“When…” My head is so distracted looking around at the yard that my mouth stops speaking. I gulp, taking it all in. “When did you do this?” I ask, spinning around.
The garden is completely covered in soft white twinkly lights, and there is a white tent behind him. The tent is lightly covered in the same lights, and it appears there is light coming from inside of it. The twinkly lights are a soft and warm yellowish white color that compliments the scattered stars in the sky.
My heart is going crazy in my chest, excited beats thump harder and harder. I’m mesmerized by the pure beauty of the scene, hoping this is real. If this is a dream, I’ll cry. This has to be real.
“Caterina and Vito helped,” he admits. “Since you told them, I figured they wouldn’t mind and they didn’t.” He shrugs, letting his lips purse and his eyes search mine for a reaction.
“Oh yeah, shit, sorry,” I apologize, and smile tightly with nerves. “I should have asked first. I didn’t even think about that.”
“It’s okay, I’m glad you did. This would have taken me so much longer on my own.”
I must be gawking at him or the scene because he chuckles, taking my hand and leading me inside of the tent.
This is unreal.
My mouth falls open as we step inside. This setup is the most insanely romantic and beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. A real fully made Queen-sized bed, topped with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, champagne and two glasses is in the middle of the hideaway. There’s a projection screen against one of the tent walls and rose pedals are sprinkled on the grass floor. I hear the tent clasp shut behind us.
“What is all of this for?” I ask, breathlessly.
Luca grins, watching me walk around the tent. “For you, of course. You asked to see my biggest kink and I’m delivering, all for you.”
“Is this your kink then, camping?” I’m so dumbfounded, I can only assume this is a very elaborate set up for some strange sex.
Luca chuckles and pulls me into his arms, planting a slow and sensual kiss on my lips. The softness of our embrace sends chills down my arms. “While fucking you outside is definitely on the agenda, no, camping isn’t my kink.”
My cheeks heat as his hands caress my arms. “But then what is?”
Wracking my brain, thoughts of possible kinks in relation to this set start flowing, but I realize I’m not even in the ballpark when he speaks.
“I’ve always wanted to take care of someone, I guess. Do nice things for a beautiful girl, watch her swoon and jump into my arms...” He sighs, grabbing a strawberry and putting it to my lips. “I just never found anyone I was willing to expose myself like this with.”
I take a slow bite of the chocolate dipped fruit and nearly burst into a million pieces. My heart feels like it’s actually melting in my chest.
Luca Caruso is a fucking closeted romantic and he’s doing romantic things, for me.
“No one has ever done something like this for me,” I admit after swallowing my bite. “My chest feels heavy.”
Is this? Is this what being in love is supposed to feel like? No, that’s way too fast, right?
Luca laughs nervously. “I’ve never done this for anybody, either. My heart feels like it’s on fire, it almost hurts.”
He feels it too.
“What movie do you have planned for us?” I smile, playfully looking toward the blank projection screen.
“I figured you could pick.”
While I would love to subject him to one of my favorite sad romantic movies, I can’t focus on anything other than him.
“Can we listen to music instead? I kind of just want to look at you.”
I can’t believe I just said that out loud.
“Sure, I don’t know that I could focus on a movie when you look like that anyways.” He grins, playfully looking me up and down.
“My pink skirt and white sweater?” I laugh. “It’s hardly a head turner, Luca.” I wear this kind of stuff all of the time, it’s nothing new or imp
ressive.
“It has always turned mine,” he admits.
My heart flutters, and my palms feel sweaty.
It’s beautiful here and he’s beautiful too.
Luca pulls out his phone and flips music on, connecting it to the projector and speakers. It’s quiet and romantic sounding. We both climb into the bed, sitting inches from each other as he opens the bottle of champagne. He pours me a glass first and hands it to me, before pouring himself one.
“How long have you been home?” I finally ask, dying to know how long he spent on this.
“A few hours.” He smiles, taking a sip of his bubbly drink. I take a sip too. The crispy sweet taste is nice but my throat almost feels dry despite it.
“I can’t believe you did all this,” I whisper, still feeling taken back.
Those blue eyes light up with surprise or happiness, I’m not sure. “You really like it?”
“Are you kidding? It’s amazing… you’re amazing.” It feels like something is hitting me in the chest and my skin is radiating heat. “Can you kiss me now? Because I think I might faint if you don’t do it soon.”
Luca grins and sets down his glass, takes mine from my hands and does the same.
“I thought you’d never ask.” His hands wrap around my face and he uses them to pull me in. My head falls into his lap and he kisses me from above like a superhero. His lips are so soft against mine, moving in the most perfect way, earning a gasp with my mouth slanted on his.
This is a fairytale. The spoiled princess and her former enemy, Prince Charming kiss under the false stars while soft music consumes the air around them. This is perfect.
“Tell me about another time you’ve thought about me,” I plead, reluctantly ending our kiss to speak. My hands can’t help but float up to his neck, pulling at his tie. I want it off.
Luca grins down at me, pulling his fingers through my hair. I’ll never get used to the feeling of his hands gently caressing my hair, it’s too lovely for words. “You like hearing those as much as I do?”
When I nod, his smile grows. “I’ll tell you one too, if you tell me one first.”
His fingers brush my scalp, rubbing a little circle over the skin, sending a rush of chills to my ears and neck. My body relaxes and my head rests even deeper into his lap, letting every nerve I had float away. I’m safe with Luca, and I shouldn’t be nervous about anything we do together. He’ll protect me from anything, I know it.
“Your parents threw Lorenzo that surprise party last year, remember? The one at the beach?”
The dreaded birthday party from hell, of course I remember.
“Oh God,” I grimace, recalling everything that went wrong. “It rained for hours, even though it was supposed to be sunny, it was a disaster.” Though, it wasn’t all bad. Laughter comes out of me softly, remembering dancing around in the rain with Marco, throwing sand at each other like toddlers would.
“Yeah, that’s the one,” he confirms. “The rain kept coming down no matter how long we waited and everyone was so upset about it. But you, you wanted everyone to cheer up. You pulled Marco out of the pavilion but he ran back so you threw sand at him so he’d have to get out of the cover to get you. You screeched and tried to run away but it was too late, he got you. You fought back though, tackling each other to the ground fighting, laughing like crazy, like you might run out of breath if you get going.”
He pauses, planting a soft kiss on the top of my head, earning a sigh. “Then you and Marco pulled Lorenzo into the water and he actually laughed, tackling you guys back. Gio and I just kind of stood there, watching you guys all laughing like you didn’t have a care in the world. Until you came over and grabbed our hands, and pulled us out with you too. It wasn’t even about you in a bikini, which was obviously fucking awesome by the way. But you just wanted everyone to lighten up and have fun, you didn’t want the rain to ruin the day. Even your mom and dad danced in the rain, humming their song.” Luca’s story makes the memory feel so close, so current.
I’ve loved and hated that day for what feels like eternity despite only being a couple of years ago. Party planning is a Vitale specialty so when it went wrong, the energy in the air was terrible. We don’t like failure of any kind. So, eventually when the sadness became too much, I changed the energy. I forced myself to be happy and eventually it turned genuine. Mamma loves telling this story, meaning I turned the failure into a success. Still, it took a lot out of me to do it, so the day will forever be bitter sweet. Perhaps more sweet than bitter knowing that Luca was affected by it.
“I hated the sticky sand, it felt so gross between my toes. But I didn’t like everyone just waiting for the rain to end. It felt like a waste of time, and we’re never all together doing fun stuff. I can’t believe you remember that I pulled you guys out there, you both let my hand go so fast when we got into the water.” That part stung of course.
“I didn’t want to, but Lorenzo gave us both a look and I had to. I wanted to spin you around and pull you deeper into the water. I wanted to kiss your sandy lips and wrap your legs around my waist. It was driving me crazy that I couldn’t touch you.”
If he’d tried to kiss me that day, I would have melted for him. I would have never recovered and he would have been my obsession right alongside Gio.
My story time…
One of my three darkest days.
“When I went to my senior ball, mamma and papa were out of town. So, I had to stay here at Lorenzo’s after, which I was not happy about. I knew I couldn’t sneak out to an after party from this fortress. But then twenty minutes into the dance, I started to feel so fucking dizzy.”
“Arianna…” he’s immediately wary, cautioning me with his eyes. He knows this story. But he only knows it from his point of view.
“The dance was fine enough, but my friends all had dates to dance with so I was pretty alone. I hadn’t drunk much of anything, so when I felt lightheaded, like the room was spinning, I panicked. I texted Lorenzo that I couldn’t see, because everything was blurry. It was so hard to type that text, but I knew he couldn’t hear me if I tried to call him instead. My stomach hurt so badly I felt like I was going to throw up all of my intestines. Then everything went black and I felt like I was going to hit the floor. But you caught me.”
I felt safe because the last thing I saw before the lights went out, we’re those blue eyes.
“You caught me and you brought me back here. You took me to some room I’ve never been in, and Dr. Cruz came. He gave me an IV and some medicine that made my legs feel numb. I couldn’t see Gio or Lorenzo, but you held my hand and squeezed it when I would shut my eyes. I couldn’t hear you, but your lips were moving. You looked like an Angel, all blonde haired and blue eyed. Dr. Cruz opened my eyes and shined a light too bright in them, but eventually he left. You kept squeezing my hand though, making me stay awake. When I could finally hear again, my eyes were shut but I could hear Gio and Lorenzo talking to you. They said it was all taken care of now, that I was safe. That no one would bother me ever again.” I sigh, starting to vividly remember how much it all hurt at the time.
“Mamma said a bad man tried to drug me, and that if I hadn’t texted Lorenzo, bad things would have happened to me. But all I could remember was you squeezing my hand, and trying to talk to me. You didn’t talk to me after it for a few days, you looked like you were scared of me. Why?”
Luca’s eyes look shiny, and he seems sad as I gaze up at his beautiful face.
“I wasn’t scared of you, princess.” He kisses the top of my head again and thinks about his explanation for a moment. “I thought you were going to die, baby. You were so cold to the touch and you weren’t responsive for such a long time. Dr. Cruz said you were going to be okay, that your body was fighting off the drugs with the help of the medication, but it was terrifying. You were under my watch. Lorenzo and Gio needed to figure out what happened and I needed to keep you alive. It was hard to look at you, knowing you could have been gone forever. I’m sorry, I sho
uld have talked to you, that wasn’t fair.”
“It’s okay, I wasn’t mad at you. I thought you were mad at me because I kept closing my eyes. It was like they weighed a million pounds. I couldn’t help it. Your hand was so fucking warm. I felt like if you took it away, I would freeze to death. You were my only source of heat, and I liked looking at you, no matter how distraught you seemed.”
“Come here,” Luca breathes, pulling my body on top of his.
My legs straddle him instinctively and my body relaxes into his embrace. Our arms wrap around each other tighter than what should be comfortable. I let Luca in and he let me in. It’s only been a few days, but this thing we have… it’s been brewing for years. My head falls into his neck and I can’t help but kiss it.
“Show me how you want to take care of me. Show me how you imagine it,” I ask, planting more soft kisses on his neck.
I can feel his breathing change with every hit my lips make against his skin. I let my legs sink around him further making my skirt ride up my thighs. My hips roll slowly, grinding my sex against his. He’s harder than stone.
“I don’t know how to do this,” he admits, planting his own kisses against my chest. “I’ve never actually tried to go slow like this…”
“Do it however you want, baby.” I smile, pulling my sweater above my head. I can’t believe I just called him that. “Slow, fast, hard, soft, just go with it,” I encourage, feeling the cool night air make my nipples harden in my bra.
“You’re so fucking beautiful. You know that right?” Luca asks, pulling my lips back into his.
“So are you,” I whisper through his mouth. “So are you.” He deepens the kiss, making butterflies attack my stomach. “Kiss me in other places too,” I whisper, breathlessly begging to feel every inch of him.
In the smoothest motion, Luca flips us. I’m under him and he’s looking over me so fucking sweetly. The smile that comes across his face makes my whole-body tingle. His lips dip down, pecking against my arms and then my stomach and then my legs. Each kiss is scalding hot and I don’t want it to stop.
“You’re so sensitive, princess…” Luca drawls, kissing my hip so perfectly that I squirm. “Every time I put my lips on your skin, I can feel your heart jump.”
