It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1)

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It Takes Two (Italian Summer Book 1) Page 19

by Lily Zante


  Nico had arranged for Elsa to meet with the doctor first thing in the morning and they hoped this would be the end of Elsa’s health concerns. With only a week left before Nico and Ava’s big day, there had already been enough drama to last them a month.

  “Do you have to clear that up now?” Carlos asked her, switching the baby monitor on and placing it on the table. She glanced up at him with a diaper in her hands. There was a softness in his voice, as well as a softness in his eyes and he looked at her the way he used to before. She wondered what he wanted.

  “I could do it later,” she said, slowly.

  “Come back to me.” His voice sounded like a cross between a question and a statement. She dropped the diaper and folded her arms feeling wary again. She couldn’t take more of this, not after the drama of this afternoon. Would he shoot her back down again if she dared to think they might get over this? Back at the Casa Adriana they’d clung to one another. It wasn’t just that they’d been terrified for Tori, it wasn’t just that she had needed Carlos to cling to. Part of her was Carlos. She felt his pain, his fear, his terror as acutely as she’d felt her own and when they’d found Tori again, she felt his supreme joy as keenly as she had felt her own.

  She couldn’t see, nor did she want to imagine, or live in, a world without him. She swallowed nervously, afraid to move because she didn’t know how to react to his words. Instead he moved to her.

  This time he folded his arms too and mirrored her pose. “This silliness has to stop.”

  Unsure as to what he referred to, she went along with it. “It has stopped,” she said, thinking he meant the whole episode with Ruben. “It would never have gone anywhere, whether you came back that night or later. I already knew it had to stop. It should never have started.”

  “This silliness,” he said, unfolding his arms, and unfolding hers too. He slipped his hand into hers. “I need you and I know I can’t live without you. I don’t want to live without you, but I have to know that I’m enough.”

  Was that really what he thought? His words jolted her.

  “You’re more than enough, Carlos—for me, you’re everything. This isn’t about you as a person, what you are and aren’t. It’s about me being a stupid, heartless, thoughtless—”

  “Shhh,” he said. “I’ve learned a few things too. I won’t ever take you for granted again. I didn’t think I was, but I can see that things slipped, my focus changed. I never put you second intentionally because I assumed we were rock solid and I didn’t have to worry about us. So I worried and focussed on earning the money instead.”

  “I know,” she said. “That’s important too, but so are the others things. We need to talk more, make more time just for us. It’s hard to do that when we’re both so busy and now we have Tori and we want to give her everything and spend time with her but I think it’s important to make time just for us. Otherwise we’ll lose ‘us’.”

  “I hear you.” His brown eyes melted her heart.

  “You think we can carry on now?” she asked, feeling goosebumps popping up all over her skin.

  “I don’t want us to carry on,” he told her.

  Alarm bells set off in her head.

  “I want us to start over. I’ve made some mistakes, and—”

  “—and god knows I have,” said Rona.

  “This thing with Tori scared me to death. It scared me as much as thinking I might lose you.”

  She shook her head but he held her hand firmly, and stared down at her. “You’ll never lose me,” she told him.

  “But I thought I did,” he whispered. “I still don’t fully understand what would make you look at another man.”

  She closed her eyes, knowing that this was the reason he didn’t think he was enough for her. She didn’t understand herself why she’d looked elsewhere but no words would wipe away the feeling she’d instilled in him that he wasn’t enough. She hated herself for it. And the same old explanation of timing and being in the moment, losing her senses, seemed futile now. That she had hurt the man she loved was punishment enough for her. She would find a way to show him that he was all she ever needed, but it would take time, and trust.

  She looked down at his chest, wanting to fall into his body but afraid to and still unsure of how he would react.

  He tilted her face up with his hand. “Coming this close to losing the two girls who mean the most to me can be a very liberating experience. Your mom lost Edmondo and she will never get him back. Sometimes I think of that and I feel for her.”

  She nodded gently, let go of his hand and placed her arms around his waist, unable to resist the comfort of his chest.

  “When I heard about you and Ruben, a part of me thought I’d lost you. And today, with Tori, I thought the same. We were lucky Rona, lucky she was unhurt, lucky that it was nothing serious. Just as I was lucky that what you did—,” his voice faltered and she looked up at him. “You and him, I get that it was nothing serious. But what worries me is that you went there at all.”

  “Carlos—” but he wasn’t going to let her explain.

  “I let you down,”

  “No, Carlos. It was never your fault.”

  “I get it. I put work first, I took you for granted. But we can work at this. We can put it back. We can put it back together again and make it stronger. But you also hurt me when you said you didn’t want another child.”

  Her mouth fell open. “I get it,” he said, not giving her a chance to speak. “I get that you might not want to, and I respect your decision and I accept it, of course I do. It’s your body and the decision is yours. But back then, it hurt, the way you said it. It was as if you didn’t want my babies.”

  She placed a finger on his lips. “It was never that. Never,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not ready for another one yet, Carlos. I don’t know if I ever will be. That’s all.”

  He dipped his chin. “I understand that. But it was just how you said it. You can be pretty hurtful sometimes.”

  “Not sometimes, Carlos, most of the time. Admit it. It’s like Ava says, you’re a saint to have put up with me for as long as you have.”

  “Somebody’s got to love you,” he said and kissed her suddenly; planting his closed lips on hers.

  Her eyes glassed over and she felt herself smiling through blurred eyes. He stroked her cheek as her eyes brimmed with water and then he reached down and kissed her again. A proper kiss this time where she melted into his mouth and gave herself to him. She had missed this; the feel of him, the smell of him, the very essence of him. He pulled his lips away and she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him, breathing in his scent and feeling the warm skin of his neck against her forehead.

  “Come on,” he said, picking up the baby monitor and grabbing her hand.

  “Where?” she asked, frowning.

  He said nothing and she followed him out of the pensione.

  “Tori?”

  “It’s okay, we have the monitor. The door’s locked. Elsa is there, and we are just here.” He led her to the middle of the lawn where in the distance they could see the vineyards all around.

  “I love this place. I’d come out here sometimes when Tori and I would get back from the hotel. It’s a world away from my usual hectic life at the restaurant.”

  “It must be a huge contrast,” she murmured, loving the way his hand, so big, so warm, felt around hers.

  “There’s not a soul around, just me and my thoughts. I figured out what I really wanted.”

  “What was that?”

  “You and Tori.”

  She pressed against him and they stood with their arms clasped around each other’s waists.

  “I’d booked a restaurant for us for this evening.”

  “Oh?” she looked up at him, scrutinizing his face.

  “Nico recommended it to me so I went in and had a look around earlier today. It’s beautiful, simply stunning. I think you’d love it. I reserved a table out on the balcony for us, overlooking all of Verona.
I thought I might take you there tonight and win you back.”

  “You don’t need to win me back. You already have me.”

  “I do, don’t I?”

  She nodded.

  “Shall we go? I booked a table for nine.”

  “We could make it another day,” she suggested. “We’re here until the wedding.”

  “Actually, no.”

  “No?”

  “We could stay longer. I took off the entire month.”

  “Oh.”

  “So we can stay here a couple of weeks after.”

  “I don’t mind.” She said, “Whatever you want.”

  “What about that restaurant?” he said, again.

  “I had something else in mind.” She couldn’t help but smile, knowing that it had been a while since they’d been together.

  “Some other restaurant?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “No, no, no. We can go where you suggested tomorrow. But if you’re hungry,” she murmured, unable to take her eyes off his lips, “I could arrange some food for you.” She gave him her best sultry voice.

  “Uh-huh.” And it had worked. She could already see that he’d lost the capacity to think, the way his eyes had grown dark and she guessed that the blood from his head had pooled further down below. Suddenly, she couldn’t wait any longer. They had been apart for too long.

  “Food at the restaurant or food…anyplace else you want me to put it?”

  “Uh-huh,” his lips parted and he stared at her, desire flashing in his eyes.

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Carlos?”

  “A while?” He was definitely gone. The ability to think clearly had vanished. “Did you have anything in mind?” She licked her lips suggestively and in the next moment he picked her up and flung her over his shoulders, Fred Flintstone style. She squealed with delight as he strode quickly back to the pensione.

  ** The End **

  Click here for release dates for the other books in the ‘Italian Summer Series.’ Also get excerpts, special offers and a FREE book!

  I hope you enjoyed this story. If you have a moment to spare, I would love it if you could leave a review of this book wherever you downloaded it from. Your opinion goes a long way in helping others decide if a book is for them. Click here to leave a review on Amazon.

  Thank you so much.

  Lily

  Honeymoon Series:

  Honeymoon For One

  Honeymoon For Three

  Honeymoon Blues

  Honeymoon Bliss

  Honeymoon Series Boxed Set (Books 2, 3 & 4)

  Italian Summer Series:

  (A spin-off from the Honeymoon Series)

  It Takes Two

  All That Glitters

  Perfect Match Series:

  The Proposal

  Lost In Solo

  Heart Sync

  Perfect Match Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  A Leap of Faith

  Tainted Love Series:

  (A spin-off from the Perfect Match Series)

  Misplaced Love

  Reclaiming Love

  Embracing Love

  Tainted Love Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  The Billionaire’s Love Story:

  The Gift, Book 1

  The Gift, Book 2

  The Gift, Book 3

  The Gift, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  Standalone books:

  Love, Inc

  An Unexpected Gift

  Unexpected Love (Bundle: An Unexpected Gift & Love, Inc)

  Excerpt from ‘All That Glitters’

  Chapter 1

  “You dropped your towel.”

  His voice, soft and golden like melted butter, stole into her thoughts, jolting her from her dreamlike state. Andrea, who had been lying on the sun-lounger, letting the sun kiss her bikini-clad body, now opened her eyes and looked up through the brown filter of her sunglasses.

  Him again. She’d noticed him before, she thought, watching him as he stood beside her with a white towel in his hand.

  He was gorgeousness personified and so different from the dark haired Italian men she was used to. The man before her was blue-eyed and golden and hotter than lava; she thanked the god of fitness, for she could see that the gym had been particularly good to him.

  Blinking, she became vaguely aware that her own towel lay by her feet and she was just about to reply to the handsome stranger when Caprice beat her to it.

  “That’s mine,” her friend purred, leaning over Andrea to take the towel from him and no doubt giving the man a good eyeful in her plunging cherry red bikini. Andrea’s eyes narrowed. Caprice, with her long straight hair and luscious body, had the type of figure and full lips that gave men ideas.

  The man glanced at her friend and grinned, and Andrea was grateful for the huge Prada shades that shielded her eyes as her gaze swept easily over his chest and arms. He looked like a tower of strength, standing over her with his tall and taut gym-sculpted body. She felt vulnerable lying down in her bikini and propped herself up to a seated position. Her movement attracted his attention and he looked at her, making her feel self-conscious and excited all at once.

  “Are you ladies enjoying your stay here?” he asked. His accent was American, she noticed and the more she stared at his electric blue eyes—as blue as the lake which the Villa Costanza overlooked—the more she recalled that she’d seen him yesterday, too.

  The pitter-patter of her heart increased and she briefly wondered whether the sun had affected her. She was far too cautious and sensible to believe in insta-love, yet here she was ogling this man as though he was the last of his species.

  Her body was reacting to him—even if her mind still sat on the side-lines wondering when to join the game. She tried to think of something to say, so that he would know she had a voice, that she wasn’t mute.

  “We are,” said Caprice, wriggling around in her seat. “Someone had a big milestone birthday celebration this weekend.”

  “A milestone birthday?” he asked, his eyes twinkling. “A twenty-first?” he asked, all innocent.

  “She turned thirty,” replied Andrea, nodding her head at Caprice and finally getting a chance to prove that she could talk.

  “Thirty is the new twenty,” Caprice declared as she rubbed sun lotion slowly and suggestively over her upper body. Andrea smiled at the man, more out of embarrassment for her friend who had turned the art of applying sun cream into foreplay.

  “I agree. That’s quite a milestone you celebrated in style.” With his attention directed at Caprice, Andrea’s eyes darted to his body. Her gaze lowered to his swim shorts which hung dangerously low on his waist. Rivulets of water trickled down his chest and kept her transfixed as she watched them cling to the light dusting of golden hairs across his chest.

  He caught her looking and her throat dried up like a prune. She didn’t know where to look.

  “Nice meeting you, ladies,” he said, finally. “Happy belated birthday,” he told Caprice before stealing a look in Andrea’s direction. Then he walked away.

  She stared at the perfect V-shape of his back. Caprice made lewd, low moans and licked her lips in pure, unashamed admiration as he stood at the side of the pool, getting ready to make a dive. The glittering water was blue and silver as slivers of sunlight fell and danced upon its gently moving surface. He dove in and disappeared, emerging moments later with his arms raised, thick and corded at the biceps, as he swept back his golden hair.

  Andrea’s heart galloped as though she’d just sprinted four hundred meters. She lay back on the sun-lounger, her chest rising and falling.

  Hot damn.

  “Where did he come from?” Caprice sounded as though she needed an inhaler even though she didn’t suffer from asthma. “If I was single…,” she whispered, adjusting herself on the lounger. “Oh, look,” she cried, almost spilling out of her bikini. “I have my towel here, see.”

  “Maybe someone else dropped theirs,” murmured Andrea.

  “O
r maybe that was his line,” purred Caprice. “I think he was interested.”

  “You’re with Luigi.”

  “I can still look.” Caprice pouted. “And he’s not here.”

  “That makes it alright?” Andrea asked.

  “I’m not breaking the law. You can be with one person and still have thoughts for another.”

  “That’s called cheating.”

  “It’s harmless, Andrea. I love Luigi and I would never do anything silly.” She settled back on the chair.

  Andrea welcomed the silence and the feel of the sun as it licked her skin. This weekend had been the tonic she’d needed. The Villa Costanza nestled high above Lake Como and was set in a small wooded peninsula. An enchanting and luxurious hotel, it was tucked away in a quiet corner of Bellagio with only the view of the lake and surrounding greenery around. This magical paradise had enabled her to unwind completely during the long weekend.

  It might have explained why her pulse had rocketed the moment she’d set eyes on the golden haired stranger. She didn’t usually notice men, not as easily as her friends Talia and Caprice did. They seemed to have been born with some sort of heat seeking device which locked onto all the hottest guys within a short range.

  Yet she’d noticed him.

  “It’s been a great weekend, huh?” Caprice asked.

  “It’s been amazing. I so needed this,” Andrea replied, dreamily. “I can’t thank you enough.”

  “You are welcome, my darling. I wanted to celebrate with two of my best friends but now I wish I didn’t have to leave so soon. Why didn’t we make it longer?”

  Because it would have cost a fortune, Andrea thought, wishing her friend would lie down and keep quiet for more than a minute.

  “Make sure you plan at least a week for your thirtieth birthday celebrations.” Caprice could talk for the world, and Andrea realized that she wasn’t going to get the peace and quiet she desired. She sat up and tied her thick dark curls into a ponytail.

  “I was thirty last year,” she said quietly.

  “You didn’t invite me!”

  “I didn’t do anything.” Andrea opened her bottle of sun screen lotion and rubbed it over her shoulders. “I think I might have had takeout pizza.”

 

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