by A. C. James
Clara raked her nails down his back and pushed him off of her.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a voice that came out more like a strangled growl.
Clara smiled. “I want to be on top.”
Luca groaned, but he flipped onto his back and let her roll on top of him. She was on his lap, her legs wrapped around his hips. Her boots dug into his bedspread. His hands on her waist drove her down onto his cock as he thrust upward. The sheer force jarring her up and down had her digging into his shoulders for balance. And the hot, wet sound of their bodies crashing together was the only noise that filled the apartment. Clara reveled in the power she felt thrumming through her. It gave her deep satisfaction that she could do this to him, rock his world and turn it upside down, just like he did to her. He let out a deep, primal cry as his body spasmed inside of her. He thrust up and into her one last time, and gripped her arms as he came.
“Ah, Luc.” She dug her nails deeper into his shoulders as she moaned. She exploded again and collapsed against his sweat drenched chest. Slowly their breathing returned to normal and she slid off his cock, flopping backward onto the bed. In that moment, the rest of the world, the future, and all the things that they’d left unsaid ceased to exist.
Chapter 7
The Morning After
Wednesday, December 24th
Thump, thump, thump.
Dear God, what was that hammering noise? Clara groaned into the pillow. The light filtering through the window was entirely too bright.
“Clara? Clara where are you?”
Lacy’s voice penetrated the pounding in her head and then she realized that the thumping was her sister coming up the steps to Luca’s apartment. She reached out a hand to the space beside her and found it empty. She was thankful for the small favor because she really didn’t want Luca to see her in her current hung-over state.
“Back here…in the bedroom.”
She wanted to groan again as soon as the words had left her mouth. Her sister would eat this up, and she was sure Lacy would razz the hell out of her. Clara rolled over and slowly opened her eyes.
“Looks like somebody had fun last night.”
“I’d roll my eyes at you right now if it wouldn’t hurt so bad.”
“You’ll feel better after you eat something. Luca was on his way out when I showed up, but he’ll be right back.”
“Ugh. I don’t think I’m ready for food yet. I drank way too much wine last night.”
Lacy gave her a once-over. “And if the tangle of sheets and the pile of clothes in the kitchen are any indication, I’m guessing that’s not all you did.”
“Yeah, and now I have to do the walk of shame in front of Mom and Dad. So if you don’t mind I’d rather you not rub it in.”
“Nah, we can go to my house after breakfast and you can borrow some clothes. They think you slept at my place and we had a girly sleepover since it’s been about a million years since you’ve been home.”
“What do you mean they think I slept at your place?”
“Oh, I called Mom and covered for you.”
“When?”
“Last night after we had dinner,” Lacy said with a snicker.
Clara sighed. “Am I that predictable?”
“Yes.”
“Well would you grab my clothes for me so I can look at least somewhat respectable before Luca gets back? Where’d he go anyway?”
“He ran down to the Quick Stop to pick up some Irish Cream for coffee.”
Lacy headed back out to the kitchen.
Clara laughed. “I can’t believe he remembered that I like Irish Cream in my coffee. Guess he wouldn’t have that in his kitchen.”
After all, he owned an Italian restaurant.
“Nope, and this place is never open for breakfast,” Lacy said from the kitchen. She returned with Clara’s sweater dress and threw it at her.
“Gee, thanks. I’ll be down in a bit. Just give me a few to get cleaned up.”
* * *
After she splashed water on her face and did the best she could without a shower or a toothbrush, she joined her sister and Luca in the kitchen. He’d almost finished cooking breakfast by the time she got done. Then again, she was awful sluggish and had spent a good long while leaning over the bathroom sink to make sure she was ready to eat rather than hurl and crawl back into bed.
On the other hand Luca looked spectacular, but at least her sister had switched from tormenting her to picking on him, which seemed about right. The three of them sitting around a kitchen table kibitzing was just like old times. If she hadn’t have been so hung-over she might have been more animated, but her sister had more than made up for it. Luca made them both omelets, something simple, at least for him. Clara couldn’t flip an egg the right way to save her life. The only kind she’d ever mastered was scrambled and that was just fine by her.
When they were getting ready to leave after breakfast Luca grabbed her and pulled her to his chest. It felt right. It just did.
Clara closed her eyes as he placed his forehead against hers.
“I’ll see you later, okay?” he asked.
Her eyes popped open.
“I have to go to Mom and Dad’s for dinner tonight, but you’re welcome to come if you want to.”
Luca laughed. “Lacy already invited me.”
“Of course she did.”
He leaned forward to kiss her forehead, but somewhere in the descent, his eyes met hers and his lips caressed her mouth instead. His kiss was gentle, slow, and tentative. Almost like he was testing the water after last night to make sure she didn’t regret it. She didn’t. Clara slid her mouth against his and met his kiss with the reassurance that he needed.
He cupped her face with his hands and looked like he wanted to say something, but was afraid that if he did it would ruin the moment. “I’ll see you tonight then.”
Clara nodded. In all honestly it was what she wanted more than anything, and for once in her life she was grateful her sister was protective and meddlesome.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
“Are you coming or what? You can laze around all day since you haven’t been home in half a century, but I have to go peel potatoes,” Lacy said.
Clara burst with laughter. “I’ve got to go.”
Luca laughed too. “Okay, later.”
She followed Lacy out to her crossover and fell into the passenger seat. Clara felt a hundred times better since breakfast, but then her phone started buzzing. She glanced down at the text message from Mark.
I actually miss you. Check your email. There’s a contract in for that debut romance novel. Not ideal, but take it anyway.
Clara sighed. If Mark classified it as ‘not ideal’ then she could only imagine that it’d be something she wouldn’t want to present to her client, let alone encourage her to sign. She had an obligation to their best interest even if the only thing Mark seemed to care about lately was the bottom line.
“Hey, can we swing by Mom and Dad’s? You don’t think you could run in and grab my laptop…”
“Yeah, sure.”
Lacy headed toward their parents’ house while Clara thought about the part where Mark said he actually missed her. You never can rely on a text message to tell you what you really need to know…
Was he really surprised that he missed her? Did he just miss her taking the manuscripts that he couldn’t tolerate? Or maybe he was finally getting that case of blue balls. Hard to tell.
Chapter 8
I Quit
Lacy’s door banged shut and Clara wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. The place was like an icebox. Quaint, country décor and neat as a pin, but it was still an icebox nonetheless. She shivered.
“Man, this place is cold,” Clara said.
Lacy looked down. “Sorry. I’ve been trying to keep the heat low since it’s just me now. It’s okay. I don’t mind it. You actually get used to it after a while.”
“Oh, Lace. You need a roommate
.”
Lacy laughed. “You volunteering?”
The thought of sticking around and helping Lacy didn’t seem like such a bad idea. She didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. Luca wasn’t just a one-night stand. No matter what she tried to tell herself, she’d known it the moment she walked into Springbrook and had seen him draped against the wall. Clara had never been able to get him out of her system and now she really didn’t want to.
“Maybe.”
Lacy arched an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”
Clara thought about it and then thought about last night. “I think so.”
“Well, think fast, because I was about to put a roommate want-ad in the paper.”
“Hey, mind if I go get cleaned up and check my email before we head over Mom and Dad’s?”
“Yeah, you know where the towels are, but here’s the thing…if you want to check your email, it’s either Mom and Dad’s dial-up or I can drop you at the coffee shop on the way over so you can use their free Wi-Fi. I canceled my internet for now.”
Clara wished her sister would’ve told her sooner about her and Greg splitting up. Granted, she hadn’t been home, but they talked all the time. She shouldn’t have to go through this alone, and clearly she needed help splitting the expenses in such a big, drafty two-hundred-year-old house.
“Oh, Lace. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to. I almost told you a million times, but if I did then somehow it made it more real. It made it feel permanent. I guess when we were first separated I didn’t want to believe that it was really over. When you’ve been with someone for that long you don’t want to give up. And when he moved out it just seemed easier to forget about all the fights we had and remember when we first met and all the good times…” Lacy trailed off, tears shimmering in her eyes.
Clara hugged her sister.
“I’m not going to cry.” Lacy sniffled.
Clara smiled into her sister’s shoulder. “I know you’re not, but it would be okay if you did.”
“I really wish you would come home. You could teach at the school. We could carpool.”
Lacy was an art teacher at the local area high school and Clara imagined that maintaining the house on what she made wasn’t easy. The lack of internet and the heat turned down was a pretty good indication that her sister was having a hard time. She’d take a roommate before she ever moved home with Mom and Dad. Clara knew her sister well enough to know that was probably part of the reason she hadn’t told them yet. Their mother would give her a soft place to land, but Lacy was a lot like her. Stubborn. And once she made her mind up about something that was it.
“Why are they hiring?”
“Mrs. Maddox died last week. They haven’t posted her position yet, but they’ll be looking to fill it. You were always Mr. Fleet’s favorite. I’m sure he’d hire you in a heartbeat.”
“Mrs. Maddox died? How?”
Clara had always liked her history teacher. Mr. Fleet had been the principal when Clara was in school but had taken a position as superintendent. She always got the rundown on everything related to Overlook Senior High School from Lacy.
“Pulmonary embolism.”
“I can’t believe she’s gone.”
“Yeah, me either. Everyone loved her too.”
Clara sighed. “I guess just drop me at the coffee shop after I shower. I’ll stop by and see Luca afterward. Maybe see if he wants to come over the house early.”
Luca’s restaurant was right across the street from Lil’s Coffee Shop.
“I’m sure Dad will put him to work,” Lacy said.
And her mother would just love to see him too. She only prayed that she wouldn’t start with the grandbabies spiel while Luca was standing right in front of her.
“Okay, I’m have to go grab a shower, then we can go.”
* * *
Lil’s Coffee Shop was only open until noon. They were closing early on account of the holiday, but it provided a quiet place for Clara to go over the contract waiting in her inbox and work on something she hadn’t touched in a really long time. She pulled up an old manuscript on her computer and read through it. Next thing she knew she’d written three thousand words. The words flowed out of her fingertips and it felt like a dam had been released. Everything that she’d bottled up inside her and put aside for so many years poured across the computer screen. And it felt good. But Lil’s would be closing in an hour, so she grabbed one last coffee before going over the contract.
She sipped her coffee as she read the details, getting angrier by the minute. From the basket accounting to the prohibitive option clause, Clara knew this was something she’d never sign and she certainly wouldn’t expect her client to give up so much in return for so little. The contract was subpar even for a debut author. Never in a million years would she present something like this without negotiating for better terms.
And Mark wanted her to have her client sign it.
Self-publishing had been a game changer, and Mark would have fought harder, but not when their business was hurting. She’d told him that if they didn’t do things differently they would become just as obsolete as travel agents. He was pigheaded and wanted to hold on to a monolithic system that pushed paper rather than embracing e-books.
She sat staring at her computer screen for a long time. This wasn’t just about last night with Luca. Although they’d stayed up talking all night, killed another bottle of wine, and then filled up the time that wasn’t spent talking with a few more orgasms. Clara could see them getting back together, but this was something that had been brewing for a long time. She’d just been unwilling to admit that her uncomplicated life was anything but, and that she wasn’t doing something she loved. The more she thought about the teaching job that had opened up, the more it appealed to her. Clara could spend the summers writing fulltime, nights, weekends, and anywhere else she could squeeze in the time to write.
Cripes, she considered telling her client to self-publish rather than accept this contract. Why couldn’t she do the same? There wasn’t a lot in her savings account, but there was enough to get by for two months, and she had her IRA if the teaching position fell through. It’d be enough to move in with her sister and help out by sharing the expenses. Her apartment was month to month, so that wouldn’t be a problem. Deep down Clara knew she couldn’t support this contract. So she wrote two emails. One was to her client and explained the contract along with its pitfalls. She CC’ed Mark in on it and then sent him another. It contained two words, and they were the most freeing words she’d ever written.
I quit.
The mouse cursor hovered over the word ‘Send’ as she worried her lower lip. There was no turning back.
Click. Life as she knew it would never be the same.
Clara looked out the window and saw Luca shoveling snow off the sidewalk outside his restaurant. She packed up her laptop and grabbed her purse. A blast of cold air hit her as she stepped outside. Luca stopped shoveling for a second, leaning against the handle. His breath puffed out and hung in the air on the blustery Nebraska day. She smiled as she stepped off the curb. When she did a loud honk from an oncoming car startled her. It was headed straight for her.
“Clara!” Luca yelled.
Everything slowed down.
Luca was running toward her, but she knew he’d never make it in time. There was a flash of blue, a dress shirt, and the familiar face of an elf leapt in front of her and shoved her backward, away from the car. She felt herself falling and with a thud, her whole world turned black.
Chapter 9
Life As You Know It
This was so much worse than her hangover. She felt like she’d been hit with a sledgehammer. Her eyes fluttered under the bright florescent lights above her. Clara moaned.
“It looks like she’s coming around.”
“I’ll go get the doctor.”
“Clara?”
She opened her eyes to meet Luca’s, which were filled with concern. It t
ook her a minute, but then she realized she was lying in the emergency room at Overlook Memorial Hospital. Luca was sitting next to her bed, and he was holding her hand.
“You gave us quite a scare,” he said.
“Ow. My head.”
“Yeah, you needed a few staples and you have a concussion.”
“Where’s the…” Clara paused. She was going to say elf, but it wouldn’t make sense to Luca. Words felt thick. “…man in the blue shirt.”
Luca looked puzzled. “What man?”
“The one who pushed me out of the way.”
“Clara, no one pushed you. You stumbled backward and hit your head on the curb. You’re damn lucky. It probably saved your life.”
Clara tried to shake her head, but the motion was painful. But then a doctor came in, along with Lacy.
“How are you feeling?” the doctor asked.
“I’ve been better.”
The doctor looked over her chart and examined her briefly. He said three words, then had her repeat them back. She only missed one, but if it weren’t for the hammering in her head she would have been able to focus.
“You lost consciousness, so we’re going to keep you overnight for observation,” he said.
“Is that really necessary?”
Clara absolutely hated hospitals.
“It’s just a precaution. Of course you can sign yourself out, but my recommendation is that you stay for observation.”
“I’ll stay with you,” Luca said.
“Okay, you win. I’ll stay.”
The doctor nodded and then left to tend to other patients. Lacy looked at Luca. “Do you think you can handle this? I should go down to the lobby and call Mom anyway. She’s a nervous wreck.”
He squeezed my hand. “Yeah, I’m not going anywhere.”
Lacy left and Clara drifted back to sleep. When she woke, Luca was sitting beside her bed with his head almost in her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair and he opened his eyes.
