Hot Shade

by Tamara Lush

  “Amore mio,” Luca whispered, kissing the back of her unhurt hand, then her palm, then her wrist. “Amore mio.”

  She didn’t say anything, just looked groggily around the hospital room. It was half-dark, and a machine behind her beeped.

  Luca’s face registered concern. “Can you speak? Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

  “I’m…in pain. But yeah. I can speak. What…? Where…?”

  “Shhh, Sky. You’re safe. We’re safe.”

  “I’m really tired,” she whispered.

  “It’s the drugs. Just go back to sleep.”

  “But,” she said, struggling to keep her eyes open. “Are you leaving?”

  Luca moved forward and brushed his lips over hers. “No. I’m not. I’m yours. I love you. As long as you want me, I’m yours.”

  “What if that’s forever?” Had she thought that or said it aloud? Her brain was so foggy.

  He kissed her again. “That’s what I’m hoping.”

  She smiled and closed her eyes. Then opened them again to see Luca staring at her, concerned.

  “Luca?”

  “Yes, amore mio?”

  “You’re everything I once thought I didn’t want. Or didn’t need. But now you’re everything I need and the only thing I want.”

  She slipped back into a deep sleep.

  * * *

  Skylar’s mind was clearer the next time she woke up. Emily sat in a nearby chair, reading a magazine, and her eyes got wide when Skylar stirred.

  “Dude, you’re awake!” She moved to the edge of the bed, breathless. “How do you feel? You were stabbed!”

  Skylar grimaced. “How do I…? Wait. Help me sit up.”

  “Don’t move. Here.” Emily pressed a button on the side of the bed and shifted Skylar into a sitting position.

  “Thanks. That’s better. I feel okay, actually. How long have I been here? Been asleep?” She glanced down at her injured shoulder. A thick bandage covered the skin, and she couldn’t move her right arm much at all. How was she going to type and work? Her shoulder felt itchy under the dressing.

  “Let’s see. Everything happened Saturday afternoon, and it’s now Sunday afternoon. You had surgery to repair the tendon in your shoulder and then they stitched you up. Fed you some good drugs. Oh, and I gave you blood.”

  “Hunh?” Skylar shook her head, bewildered. It seemed as if every time someone spoke to her, a new weird detail was revealed. Luca had said something surprising at some point overnight, although she couldn’t remember exactly what.

  “You and I have type O negative blood. That means we can give our blood to anyone, but we can only receive our own kind. They were low here at the hospital, so I donated a pint to you.”

  Skylar felt tears well in her eyes. “Thanks, Em,” she whispered, reaching out to grasp her friend’s hand. It might have been the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her.

  “No problem, dude.” Emily squeezed her good hand. “We’re blood sisters now.”

  A wave of fear surged through her body as Skylar looked around, panicked and stiff. “Where’s Luca?”

  “He’s out harassing the nurses. They brought you eggs and toast but you were asleep. He wanted you to have fresh fruit and oatmeal, because he knows that’s what you like. He’s a little bossy, did you know that? But God, so sexy. Protective, too. He hasn’t left your side since the cops let him go.”

  “Oh, God.” The cops. Skylar groaned. “Luca wasn’t charged with anything, was he?” She recalled the horrible sound of the gun hitting Annalisa’s skull and shivered.

  Emily shook her head. “Nope.”

  “And Annalisa?” Skylar shuddered as she said the woman’s name. “Is she alive?”

  “Yeah, Jimmy said that Annalisa was checked out by a doctor. Luca didn’t hurt her too bad, just knocked her out, apparently. She’s being charged with murder, home invasion and attempted murder. She’s in the hospital ward at the jail over in Fort Myers.”

  Skylar let out a long, thin breath. “I feel a little sorry for her.”

  Emily scowled. “Why? She tried to kill you.”

  “I know. I mean, I don’t want to be friends with her or anything. I hope she’s locked up forever. But she needs help. She just seemed so pathetic.”

  At that moment Luca entered carrying a tray. “Who’s pathetic?” he asked.

  “Look who’s awake,” Emily said quickly.

  Luca set the tray of food on a table near the bed then kissed Skylar’s forehead and sat. His gaze was fearful, concerned. He put his hand on her forehead as if he was monitoring her temperature then brushed her hair away from her face. “Amore mio,” he sighed.

  She reached to hold his hand, and their fingers tangled together.

  Emily rose from the bed, grinning. “Okay, I’m gonna let you lovebirds have sexytime here in the hospital. I need to get back to the paper. I’ll tell everyone you said hi.”

  “Wait. Em?” Skylar tried to reach her arm toward her friend, but she was stopped by the IV, which poked uncomfortably into the crook of her arm. “What’s going on at the paper? What does Jill think about all of this? Did we write a story?”

  Emily nodded. “We did. Front page. But we didn’t put your names in it. They said you both were victims of a domestic stalking and that’s why they left it out. The article focused on Annalisa’s murder charge, anyway. That’s much sexier. You know, if it bleeds, it leads.” Emily winked. “Oh, and guess what? Jill and Federico were spotted at breakfast together this morning.”

  “What?” Skylar yelped, and she struggled again to sit up. Luca shushed her, settling her back against the pillows.

  “Luca will fill you in,” Emily said. “I gotta go.”

  “Bye, Em.”

  Her friend waved and left.

  Luca pulled the table on wheels close to the bed and fiddled with poking a straw through a foil-covered juice container. “Amore mio, you need to get something in your stomach.”

  When he held the container and straw up to her mouth, she let out an exasperated sigh. “Luca, I can feed myself. My shoulder was sliced open. My arms weren’t cut off. Tell me about Federico and Jill.”

  “In a minute. Open your beautiful mouth.”

  She smiled and did, her eyes meeting his. She put her lips around the straw and sucked in the juice. Somehow, even though it wasn’t fresh-squeezed or organic, it tasted delicious.

  “Jill and Federico did go to breakfast this morning. I can’t tell if it was just a business thing or what. I sensed something between them. They came to the hospital together. Jill’s happy you’re not dead. She joked about how she’s glad she doesn’t have to hire another reporter.”

  Skylar laughed and noticed that he only had mustered a small smile. “What?” she asked, in a whisper, handing him the cup.

  He leaned forward to brush her lips with his. She closed her eyes and shivered a little from the feeling, but when she opened them, he was frowning.

  “Sky. I’m…I’m so sorry. I feel so much guilt about not telling you my secret earlier. Maybe if I had, you would have wisely stayed away from me and we wouldn’t be here now.”

  “No.” She shook her head and tried to sit up straighter, fumbling for the pillow that had wedged uncomfortably in the small of her back. She leaned forward, and without her asking Luca adjusted it. “I wouldn’t have stayed away from you. Don’t you understand? I couldn’t stay away from you.”

  He sighed. “And I couldn’t stay away from you. But it would have been better if I did.”

  Reaching with her good arm, she grabbed his hand and slipped her fingers in between his. “You don’t have to apologize,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever stop apologizing. I’m sorry that you had to hear all of that between me and Annalisa. I told you that I wasn’t an angel.” He drew in a breath and opened a fruit cup. “Can I persuade you to eat a little?”

  She shrugged then opened her mouth, wanting to please him because he seemed
so concerned. He fed her two apple slices, then grapes, and she chewed in silence. Finally, he spoke.

  “Federico, Jill and I have talked about increasing security for you at the paper, and for us at home. But we’ll discuss that later, when you’re better.”

  “Wait. Us? ‘At home’?” She reached for the fruit cup.

  Luca took it from her hand. He speared a banana slice with a fork and fed her. “The doctors said you’ll be getting out soon, maybe tomorrow morning. They just want to make sure there’s no infection in the cut. I’m bringing you back to our house to recover. Federico’s hiring bodyguards and drivers for us. It’s going to be a little delicate when you go cover stories, but we’ll figure it out.”

  “Bodyguards?” She looked at him, alarmed. “Why?”

  Luca sighed. “We all agreed that it’s for the best, at least until Bruno Castiglione’s trial is over. Who knows if he’ll try to send someone else here. Until we can talk to the Italian consulate and international authorities, we’re not taking chances. There’s someone”—he pointed with the fork—“outside the door of this hospital room right now.”

  “But, but,” she stammered, reeling at the idea of a bodyguard just steps away. “We? Us? Why are you making all of these plans? Are you definitely not leaving Palmira?”

  Luca shook his head and brushed a kiss onto her lips. “No. I told you in the middle of the night, but you were half asleep. I’m not leaving. I’m staying to write my book. And most of all, I’m staying for you. For us. I’m with you for as long as you want me. I hope that’s forever. I hope you can forgive me for everything.”

  He kissed her again, and she stared at him, her mouth open.

  “You need to eat.” He popped another banana slice between her lips and she chewed. She began to cry, unable to contain all of the feelings. She swallowed and cried harder. It was as if all of the emotions inside of her—about her mother, about how James treated her, Luca, the attack—poured out all at once. She’d never felt such a massive rush of sadness. Or relief. Not after her mother died, not after she broke up with James, not ever.

  Luca set the fork down then hugged her gingerly. She didn’t move much because of all the tubes. He leaned to kiss her further, and eventually her crying stopped.

  “It’s all going to be okay, amore mio. We’ve got no more secrets.”

  Through her tears, she eyed him. She couldn’t help saying, “Why would you want me when you’ve had all of those other women? You could just keep traveling and screwing—”

  “No.” He wiped her tears away with his fingers then found a napkin and blotted her cheeks. “No. I’m sick of traveling. I’m sick of empty, meaningless flings. Being with you makes me happier than I’ve ever been in my life. Being with you makes me a better man, Skylar. It’s you. Don’t you see? I found you when I needed you the most. We found each other.”

  She shuddered in a breath. “When we were at my house with Annalisa, for a second I thought you were still in love with her. I thought that you were going to choose her over me. I thought—”

  “Please don’t ever think that,” he interrupted. “I can’t believe you had to go through that because of me. I’ll never forgive myself for what she did to you, or for putting you in that situation. For saying all those things in front of you. Will you let me prove to you how much I love you? Will you let me protect you? Please trust me when I say that I’m a different man than I was in Italy.”

  She sniffled and nodded. “Yes. I do trust you. I love you,” she whispered.

  He stroked her hair. “You’re my only choice, Skylar. You’re my now, and my future. I love you, too.”

  EPILOGUE

  Three years later

  “Amore…e hora di cenare! Time for dinner!”

  Luca stood on the balcony of the log cabin in the mountains of western North Carolina and called out to Skylar. It was the first real long vacation they had taken in their two years together, and both agreed they wanted to get away from the beach and palm trees and immerse themselves in cold weather and mountains for New Year’s Eve.

  Skylar waved at him as she ran toward the cabin, followed by Pucci, their shaggy rescue mutt. Luca laughed when Pucci jumped like a rabbit through the ankle-deep snow. He loved watching the two of them play while the snow fell in big, fat flakes.

  Luca poured two glasses of champagne as Skylar and Pucci bounded inside and up the cabin stairs. He flipped the knob on the stove to the off position and covered the simmering tomato sauce. “Baby, it feels so amazing here. The air is crisp, not swampy and humid like in Florida.”

  Skylar’s pink cheeks practically matched the hue of the fuzzy earmuffs that she pulled off her head. Standing near the top of the stairs, she unzipped her fleece jacket. Luca’s eyes went to her breasts, which looked full and sexy in her tight, white sweater, and she turned and bent over to undo the laces on her boots, giving him a full view of her delicious rear in tight jeans, reminding him that even after three years of living together, he still got a charge every time he thought about running his hands over her curvy body.

  For months she had been self-conscious of her shoulder, largely because of the scar near her collarbone. But they had found a good plastic surgeon and now it was barely visible.

  The dog shook the snow off his tawny fur and settled with a sigh near the crackling flames in the hearth.

  “Sky, come over by the fireplace,” Luca called. “Vieni qui.” He tried to speak in Italian more because she was trying to learn his language. Sitting on the carpet near the dog, he smiled as Skylar joined him, kneeling down while finger-brushing her long, snow-dampened hair.

  “Brrr,” she said. “I’m not used to cold weather anymore. Every part of me is cold. But I love it. I just need you to warm me up.”

  Handing her a glass of champagne, Luca kissed her then rubbed his warm nose against hers. “Warming you up is my job.”

  She giggled and kissed him again. “Cento anni,” she said. They clinked glasses and sipped.

  “Maybe we should think about buying something here. The book is doing so well, we could take the money from that…,” he suggested.

  She grinned and raised her glass. “To the New York Times bestseller list.”

  “To beautiful reporters with great ideas.”

  Luca had followed Skylar’s suggestion to go public with his story. Instead of the book about the second Mafia boss, he’d written an autobiography about his parents’ deaths and the years afterward. Just like she’d predicted, Americans loved a good secret. His story had not only garnered support from press freedom organizations around the world but had sold like crazy. He touched his glass lightly to hers again and leaned in for another kiss.

  He also no longer felt like a hunted animal. Because of the worldwide support, he was more confident about living a safe and normal life. Bruno Castiglione was convicted of all ten counts of murder and twenty of racketeering in Italy and sent to prison for life, in part because Annalisa testified against him and had surreptitiously recorded their conversations in Italy with her phone. She had testified against her cousin, she said in court, because she still loved Luca. Fortunately she was also behind bars, though in a Florida prison, having pled guilty to Gianni’s murder.

  Those outcomes had emboldened Luca to be hopeful for the future. Sure, he still wanted security for a while longer, maybe for the foreseeable future. Federico insisted on it, anyway. Even now, as they vacationed in luxury in a gated Smoky Mountain enclave, an armed bodyguard sat in the driveway.

  He’d forged a tentative, solid relationship with Federico—although he hadn’t quite gotten to the point where he called the man Papa or Dad. Federico didn’t seem to mind, though. He seemed happy just to have Luca and Skylar in his life. They socialized regularly, and were relieved when he decided not to run for governor. They mostly saw him in Palmira, because he and Jill were dating. At first Skylar had felt odd about having such a personal connection to her boss, but Jill had slowly become something of a mother figure
, even encouraging her to apply for jobs at bigger newspapers.

  Skylar leaned close to kiss Luca deep. She had become wonderfully assertive during their time together, and she no longer hesitated to take what she wanted from him sexually—if she ever had. It drove him wild when she was on top, and recently they had experimented with her tying him to the bedposts. It seemed that his once-meek kitten had a dominant streak, which was more than okay with him.

  She pulled away and said, “I’m glad we could take these two weeks before I start at The Herald. We really needed this, baby. We still have so much so do, though, with the move to Miami I feel a little guilty for taking such a long vacation.”

  Luca shook his head. She was such a workaholic sometimes, but he loved her drive because it inspired him to want to do more, work harder, be a better man. “No, amore, you needed a break. I want you to be completely rested when you get to the Miami paper.”

  He leaned forward to kiss her again, and their tongues collided. Although he wanted to make love to her, he had something more important to ask. “Amore mio, close your eyes. I have a surprise.”

  She grinned and did what he asked. He took her champagne glass and set it on the table alongside his. He tried to be silent as he reached into his pocket. Sitting on his knees, he opened the box that contained a two-carat diamond flanked by two sapphires in a platinum setting. His hands shook.

  “Apri gli occhi. Open your eyes.”

  Her gasp was followed by tears. Luca swallowed a lump in his throat and spoke in a hoarse voice.

  “Skylar, I love you. Ti amo. Will you marry me?”

  He took the ring from the box. Skylar trembled as Luca took her hand and slipped the ring over her finger, and she whispered, “Yes,” holding out her hand to admire the diamond’s sparkling beauty. She crawled into his lap, tears running down her cheeks. “Yes. I love you, too.”

  She nestled her face in the hollow of his neck, and he could feel her shaking. Luca hugged her tight as she softly sniffled and laughed.