by Kira Archer
She opened her eyes, staring into his for a moment before smiling, then she trailed her hands up his chest, pushing his shirt up so she could skim over his nipples until they pebbled under her fingers. He yanked his shirt off over his head, giving her better access. On the way back down she applied her nails, pressing hard enough to draw a growl from him. She leaned forward, pausing with her lips a breath away from his.
“Yes,” she said. “Please, yes.”
That was all he needed to hear. He closed the distance, his mouth devouring hers until she whimpered and moaned. He bent to lift her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, crying out when the hard length of him pressed against her center. God, her wet heat radiated through their clothes. They needed to come off. Now.
He turned, marching across the room to the bed. He let her slowly slide down the length of his body, biting his lip as every inch of her rubbed against him. His hands moved under her shirt, lifting as he went. She raised her arms and he slipped her shirt off over her head so he could push her bra aside. His hand closed over a breast and she moaned, arching into him. If she kept doing that, he’d never last.
He left her for a second to grab a condom out of the drawer of the nightstand.
“I’m on the pill,” she said. “And all was well at my last physical.”
“Same here. Minus the pill part,” he said with a grin.
“Guess it doesn’t hurt to double up.”
His smile grew wider. He rolled the condom on and nudged a leg between hers, his heart hammering. He lowered himself, an arm braced on either side of her head, letting her feel his weight without crushing her. Her breath hitched. The sound sent his pulse thundering in his ears. She wrapped a leg around his waist and he bent his head to reclaim those lips.
A scream ripped through the night and Luca jerked up. He knew the sound hadn’t come from Constance but looked her over anxiously just in case. She was already pushing off the bed, grabbing her shirt and whipping it back over her head.
“Elena,” she said, running for the door.
Luca’s heart pounded again, for an entirely different reason. What was wrong?
He ripped the condom off, yanked on some sweatpants, and followed Constance at a dead run through the house. Mrs. Ballas met them in the great room, holding the little girl in her arms.
Elena let out another wail and Constance reached for her. She quieted down, her screams reduced to great hiccupping sobs.
“I’ve got her, Mrs. Ballas, thank you.”
The woman nodded, glanced briefly, eyes wide as sea urchins at Luca’s shirtless chest, and then turned to leave them.
Constance was crooning softly to Elena, swaying on her feet. He glanced at her, not sure what he could do to help. She motioned to the sofa and he nodded, following her as she sat with Elena on her lap.
“She has nightmares,” Constance quietly explained.
He sat beside them and looked down at the little girl again, his heart twisting. Poor little thing. He reached out a tentative hand, looking to Constance for permission. She nodded, a bit hesitantly. Maybe she wasn’t sure how the child would react. He took it slow, gently stroking Elena’s hair back. She didn’t protest, just looked up at him with large, dark eyes, her thumb in her mouth.
He continued to stroke her hair as she blinked sleepily against Constance’s shoulder. Memories of his mother doing the same thing for him flooded his mind, and he began to hum. The same tune his mother had sung to him whenever he’d been sad or afraid.
Constance glanced up, surprised, but a gentle smile touched her lips. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned down to kiss her forehead, keeping up his rhythm stroking of Elena’s hair. And then he began to sing low and soft over and over, while Constance slowly rocked.
Luca wasn’t sure what time it was when Elena finally released a deep, tremulous sigh and drifted off into sleep. All he knew was that his heart ached for the little girl, and the rest of him wanted to sleep.
He helped Constance up and walked with her to the room Elena shared with Lexi and Irene. She carefully laid the little girl back in bed and tiptoed out the door.
“Will she be okay?” Luca whispered. They stood at the door and watched a moment, but Elena seemed to have settled into a deep, contented sleep.
“I think she’ll sleep now.”
She headed back toward their room with him in tow, climbed onto the bed with a choked sigh and gathered a pillow to her chest.
“Hey,” he said, settling down beside her. “What’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer for a moment but her eyes grew shiny. Finally she shook her head. “I don’t know what to do for her. When her parents were killed in the car accident last year, she was with them—the only one to survive. She still dreams of it. There was no one else who could take her in. She lost everything, her parents, her home, everything. No child should have to go through that. I just wish…I wish I could take all that pain from her. I feel so helpless…”
The tears slipped down her cheeks unnoticed by her, though each one seared his heart like drops of acid.
“Shh, don’t cry. Come here,” he said, pulling her onto his lap. “It’s all right, Stanzia, I’ve got you.”
He held her and rocked her while sobs wracked her body. He knew exactly how she felt. He’d have given anything in that moment to take away her pain, to make it all better. The best he could do was hold her while she cried, stroke her hair from her face, and murmur soothing nonsense into her ear.
After a while, the sobs grew softer and then stopped altogether, her body lay limp and heavy in his arms. He sighed, resting his cheek on her hair. She’d cried herself to sleep. That was definitely a first for him. When they’d started the night he certainly hadn’t expected it to end up like this.
He settled her gently against her pillow, climbing in beside her before pulling the sheets up to cover them. She wiggled back against him and then fell back to sleep with a sigh. Luca’s body instantly reacted and he released a sigh of his own.
Well, it might not have been how he’d pictured their evening going, but there were worse ways to spend a night. He wrapped his arm tighter around her and closed his eyes, breathing in her sweet scent as he drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Thirteen
Constance stood at the water’s edge, letting the sea lap against her toes while she watched the girls play in the surf. She closed her eyes for a second, lifting her face to the sun. This was why she’d fallen in love with Greece. The thought that some ancient woman might have stood in the same spot she was, the same breeze blowing through her hair, the same sea spread out in a glistening turquoise field before her. The beauty and history of the place renewed her, energized her. She could breathe for the first time in over a week.
Spending her days traipsing around town with Luca and nights caring for Elena while trying to convince herself she didn’t want to be in his bed had taken their toll. Even to herself she couldn’t pretend there wasn’t an attraction there. The man was sex on a stick and she was having a hard time resisting him. The moment may have passed but after their near miss a few nights before, her resistance was becoming more and more futile. She’d only been able to hold out since then because opportunity had been scarce. She might be able to think a little more clearly when she wasn’t nearly naked in his arms, but that hardly mattered anymore. The fire had been lit and it was consuming them both.
The reason for the scarce opportunities had resolved itself, which meant her brief reprieve was over. Elena was finally sleeping on her own, without insisting Constance stay with her all night. Whatever had triggered her nightmares seemed to have passed, for the moment, which meant Luca would be expecting Constance back in his room. Maybe even back in his bed. She didn’t even try to lie to herself again about whether or not she wanted to be there. She wanted it with every fiber of her being. It was her sensible mind that was causing the headache.
A shadow joined hers in the waves moments before strong arms slipped
around her waist. She tensed for a moment, and then let herself lean back into him with a sigh. There were some advantages to a legally binding job to act like a loving fiancée. A tough job to be sure, but someone had to do it, and it allowed her to relax and act as she wished without the constant barrage of what ifs and should I’s running through her head.
Luca nuzzled at her neck, his lips leaving a trail of fire everywhere they touched.
“You look so beautiful standing here in the sun,” he said, his arms tightening around her waist.
“You don’t have to say things like that, you know. They can’t hear you from wherever they are hiding.”
“Wherever who is hiding?”
“The vultures you invited.”
He pressed another kiss to her neck. “I didn’t invite any photographers today. And those that managed to find us anyway are hopefully being kept at bay by my security. I’m not saying anything for anyone’s benefit. I’m saying it because it’s true.”
Her stomach did a little flip and she fought the urge to sigh like a schoolgirl. The man was smooth, she’d give him that.
“What do you mean, no photographers? I thought that was the whole point.”
“Not anymore. They’ve gotten their story. They’ll get what pictures they can when we’re in public. We don’t need to invite them into private moments.”
“Yes, but…”
“Forget them.” He lightly grasped her chin, turning her face to the side so he could look into her eyes. “I mean it, Stanzia. You’re like my own Aphrodite rising from the sea. You take my breath away.”
He brushed a thumb down her cheek and she shivered against him.
“You’re very good, you know that?”
He smiled. “Yes, I do. And if you weren’t so stubborn, you’d know it too.”
He kept her face turned toward him, his thumb moving up to stroke her bottom lip.
“Luca, the children might be watching.”
“I don’t care.”
He stopped any further protests with his lips, his mouth moving over hers until she forgot where they were. Nothing existed but the man whose arms held her, whose lips were wreaking havoc with her good intentions, whose hand had crept from her waist to move up her rib cage toward the breast that ached for his touch.
Wait…
“Luca,” she said, spinning out of his arms. “Behave yourself.”
She reached up to pat at her hair, her eyes darting from the children who were having lunch on the sand and completely ignoring them to the security team keeping the few tenacious paparazzi who had hunted them down cornered behind a wall of well-muscled men. At least they wouldn’t be able to snap a hundred pictures of Luca trying to cop a feel.
“Sorry. I can’t seem to keep myself under control when I’m around you.”
He didn’t look the least bit sorry. In fact, he looked pleased with himself, in need of a lesson in humility. Constance backed up slowly, going deeper into the sea. Luca followed, as she’d known he would, stalking her like a shark would its prey. She waited until she got about shin deep and then kicked at the water, sending a huge spray raining down on Luca. He shouted, looking at her in shock while water dripped from every chiseled muscle.
“Oh, now you’re in trouble.”
He lunged for her and she shrieked, laughing and tripping in the water trying to get away. She didn’t get far. Two strides and he was on her, picking her up and running deeper into the water with her.
“Don’t you dare!” she yelled.
He laughed, wrapped her tighter in his arms, and jumped backward, dragging them both beneath the waves. Constance came up sputtering.
“I can’t believe you did that!”
He shrugged, but the happy, carefree grin on his face warmed her to her very soul. That was his real smile, the one he never showed the world. Seeing it made her dousing well worth it. Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t up for a little revenge, but before she could do anything, he’d grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up. Her legs bicycled in the air, but she was laughing too hard to disengage herself.
He put her down, turning her to face him. Before she had time to second guess him or protest, his lips were on hers. His hands tangled in her hair, keeping her imprisoned. Not that she had any complaints. She wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on her tiptoes so she could press herself closer. The movement of the waves knocked her off balance, but Luca held her tight, his mouth plundering hers and making her head spin even as his body kept her anchored.
She was about to climb him like a Corinthian column so she could wrap her legs around him when the hoots and shouts from down the beach finally penetrated the sex-crazed haze that fogged her brain whenever he touched her.
Luca put her down, his smile gone. He glowered in the direction of the photographers. Constance had actually forgotten for the moment they were there. She laid a hand on Luca’s face and turned him back to face her.
“Looks like a few got through security. Play nice for the cameras,” she said.
“They’ll be dealt with.”
She wasn’t sure if he meant the photographers or the security who’d let them through. And who’d thankfully regained control. Probably both.
He gazed down at her, his frown turning into a smile that sent fire zipping through her.
He hauled her back to him and gave her a swift but thorough kiss.
“I’d rather be alone with you so we could continue what you started.”
She looked up at him. “What I started? You started it. I just got you a little wet, that’s all.”
He closed his eyes like she’d hit him in the gut and lowered his forehead to rest on hers. “Yes, you did, and I’d seriously love to repay the favor, only I won’t get you a little wet. You’ll be soaking through those proper panties of yours.”
She pulled back with a gasp, though she wasn’t so much outraged as turned on like she’d never been before. How did the man make her body beg for him with only a few words? Her mouth opened, but instead of berating him, she leaned closer.
“Mama Stanzia!” a little voice called.
Constance jerked back. The girls were done with lunch…and had probably seen way too much. Luca had a way of making her forget everything and everyone but him. She pulled away from him but he held onto her for as long as possible, those dark eyes of his staring down into hers.
“I better go play with the children for a bit,” she said. They called her over again and she waved. The girls had called her Mama Constance before but had taken to using Luca’s nickname for her. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She loved it. Her heart lurched every time she heard it, but it would be a painful reminder when their time was up and they went their separate ways.
His gaze flickered up to the girls scampering on the beach. “I’ll join you in a bit. I better…take a swim first.”
She followed his gaze down to where the evidence of how much he’d enjoyed their game jutted through his swim trunks just below the water. Her mouth dried. She couldn’t tear her eyes from him.
“Stanzia,” he said quietly, his voice thick with amusement.
“Hmm?”
“While I would love to finish what we started, I’d rather not do it with quite so many witnesses.”
Constance jerked back into awareness and hastily stepped away, her face burning.
“I…I better go,” she stammered.
He caught her hand and brought it to his lips. “Later,” he said.
Before she could respond, he turned and dove beneath the waves, surfacing a few feet away. His strong arms pulled him through the water, farther away from her. She watched him for a moment, swimming in one direction. Her girls waited for her on the beach, in the opposite direction. A nice little visual of the conflict going on in her head.
Luca. Or her girls. She couldn’t have both.
Luca had made it clear how he felt about kids. He might play nice while he was forced to, but he’d said
he never wanted kids, and she had six of them.
The girls were her highest priority. They needed her. Even if Luca were open to having the kids as a permanent part of his life, there was no place for them in his world. What kind of life would it be having paparazzi stalk their every move? Invading their privacy, snapping pictures of their most vulnerable moments the way they’d done to Luca. Even his security couldn’t keep them safe all the time. She’d seen what that kind of upbringing had done to him. She couldn’t allow that to happen to her girls, even if Luca wanted them all, which he didn’t. The girls had had enough people abandoning them. So had Constance.
Luca…he was amazing, larger than life. A dream. And like a dream, he wouldn’t last. Even if he thought he wanted to be with her, accept her and the kids, it wouldn’t last. Their lives were too different. He’d get tired of the restraints that having six kids would place on his life. He’d move on like he always did. She’d seen the headlines. It was never him getting dumped. He was always the one moving on to someone else. It would be painful enough when he walked away from her when their agreed upon time was up. But if she allowed them to get closer, to continue this relationship, maybe make it real…when it crashed and burned he wouldn’t just be leaving her. He’d be leaving the girls as well. Constance wouldn’t let it happen again to them.
She had a little time, time to live in the fantasy, but that’s all this was, a fantasy, and it would be over soon. And when it was, they’d all go back to their real lives. The girls would have pleasant memories of their vacation with Constance’s friend and she…well, it would hurt less than if she tried to stay and make it work only to watch it crumble.
There really was nothing to think about. There was no choice to be made. She took a deep breath, gathered what wits she could, and went to join the girls on the beach.
…
Luca swam until his arms trembled. Constance was going to be the death of him. She filled his every waking thought, and most of his sleeping thoughts as well. He’d never forgotten where he was or who was watching before, and yet there’d he’d been, standing in the sea about to make love to her with a bunch of kids, his security team, and several uninvited photographers watching.
