Once they were done, the kitchen took on a hush.
“Now we need to figure out what to eat.”
“I’m not that hungry after this afternoon’s gelat...o.” Luciana could barely get the word out as she was overwhelmed again by the recollection of Gio’s sexiness with his game about the flavors.
Their eyes caught each other’s for an extended moment. Longing bubbled out of her like an overly filled pot of boiling water would on the stove.
He picked up the one tomato they hadn’t used for their fiasco. “Why don’t we slice this tomato onto toast with a dot of olive oil?”
“Do you think we can handle that much food preparation?”
“Despite evidence to the contrary.”
“Let’s take it out to the courtyard.”
There they sat close to each other, enjoying their beautiful tomato from one plate until all the stars came up in the sky.
“Your wig catches the moon’s glow.” Gio fixed on her blond locks. What he didn’t know is that the hair he was admiring was real.
“Does it?”
“Let me show you,” he said as he picked up a section to hold in front of her face. He realized that the texture felt different. “Wait a minute.”
With his wide hand, he squeezed a cluster of her hair against her scalp. Expecting some movement from the wig atop her head. Nothing shifted. Another chunk, same result.
“I knew it didn’t look the same as it did yesterday.”
“I had my own hair cut and colored this morning to match the wig because I like it so much.”
“I thought you said your father wouldn’t approve.”
“I don’t care anymore.”
“The tigress has been let out of captivity.”
“You know,” she said, licking her top lip, “it’s you who are to blame. First you talk me into buying jeans, then you tell me I should wear my hair how I’d like to...”
Luci—it was definitely Luci—was unable to finish her sentence because without thinking about it first, she leaned over and kissed Gio’s lips.
A groan exhaled through him and ricocheted to her, emboldening her to kiss him a second time.
He took hold of the back of her head and brought her closer toward him. Their mouths touched yet again, and with that, she was sure he set her on fire. They kissed more, his scorching lips pressing urgently into hers.
Flames licked at her legs under the table and quickly worked their way up her body. She had never been so fiery.
The contact of their tongues sent the blaze upward to totally engulf her. As their kisses went longer, the moon stood still and Luciana willed daylight never to come.
Please let this moment last forever!
Both of Gio’s hands traced her hair until they slid down to her shoulders. Which he took hold of and pulled her tight to him. When his lips traveled behind her ear and down her neck, she shuddered with uncontrollable pleasure. A moan she couldn’t negate or retract came forth from deep within her.
A chill swept over her when he took an instant’s break from the embrace. Yet it wasn’t a bitter wind that put out the fire. Quite the opposite, the pause from his kisses only fanned the flames to make her want more.
Gio stood. Why? Where was he going? Her normal brain functions scrambled, not even processing her own questions.
“You are so difficult to resist.” Gio raked both of his hands through his curls and took in a slow breath.
“Don’t resist, Gio.”
“There will be no turning back.”
“Please.”
With that, he reached down and picked her completely up off the chair and into his arms. Relief overtook her at the return of his touch. Her arms wrapped around his neck as if it was the most natural motion in the world.
She couldn’t have anticipated what was happening, nor deny the fact that it was what she wanted. Needed. Luciana tried feebly to protest, but Luci handily silenced her.
He brought her from the courtyard table to the front of his guest cottage. With an elbow, he bumped open the door and lifted her through the threshold. Once inside, the layout identical to her cottage next door, Gio carried her up the stairs and into his bed.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ALL GIO COULD concentrate on was the two kinds of comfort invading his senses. One was the calm presence of the morning sun through the bedroom windows, letting him know that he’d slept later than usual.
The other lay next to him in his king-size bed. Her Royal Highness Princess Luciana de la Isla de Izerote slept facing him, her exquisite features in repose without flaw. The blond hair she favored bathed her face in gold. If only he was an artist so he could capture her beauty this morning and preserve it for all eternity. Or if Michelangelo was still alive, Gio would commission him to carve Luciana’s likeness into marble.
Actually, he might not need anything to help him remember this morning, as the recesses of his mind had already snapped pictures he’d treasure forever.
Gently, Gio brushed away a strand of hair that fell from Luciana’s forehead across her eye. She stirred the tiniest bit from his touch. The ever-so-small curl of her lips affected every inch of Gio’s body, forcing his loins into an involuntary stretch.
With the mild temperature, he didn’t perceive the need to pull the blanket over Luciana’s alabaster shoulders. Instead, his eyes traced slowly downward to appreciate the curve of her breasts. He’d luxuriated for as long as he’d wanted to last night with the perfection of them in his hands, in his mouth. With his lips, his tongue, his teeth, he’d taken her entire body...
He’d done what?
Gio scratched his beard stubble as reality blew in the window. Late last night, after the disastrous attempt at cooking pasta and after they’d settled for tomato on toast and a humble table wine, the evening ended here. In his bedroom.
Where he took the virginity of a princess.
One who was engaged to be married.
Who was leaving Florence in a few weeks.
And whom he’d never see again.
It was hard to decide which of those truths was more disturbing.
Last night. With their laughter over their culinary foibles and her bargaining during their shopping expedition. Her cute yawn and outstretched arms as the evening got later. Finally her, no doubt, impulsive move to lean in and kiss him. He was unable to deny her. The faint voices in the back of his mind that had told him to be careful, to keep his distance, to remember that Luciana was to be a fleeting memory, had no strength last night. They went down without a fight.
All Gio had been able to hear was his own heart hammering in his chest and his gut stoking a fervor that couldn’t be contained. It was the savage need that had been unshackled at the gelateria and never restrained, waiting, waiting, growing more powerful every hour. With every indication that it was what she wanted, too, taboos were cast aside as he carried her up the steps to his bedroom.
Her Royal Highness arched her back in her sleep and Gio’s body firmed in response. Gazing at her, forgetting was easy. That she wouldn’t be his. And how that was what he wanted. No love. No trust. Not to be depended on.
Why was the bravado of his credo fading further and further into the background?
“Good morning.” Luciana opened her eyes and murmured a singsong.
“Good, indeed.” Gio tickled a feather kiss onto her cheek and another to her bare shoulder.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Gio Grassi of world-renowned Grasstech had made love to a princess.
Those two starter kisses were not enough and he trailed another dozen down the length of her arm.
Their fusion last night had been a combination that shouldn’t have worked, yet did. Primitive instincts had driven him while the purity in her eyes relied on him to go slowly, to measure her for pain or fear.
“Are
you sure about this?” he’d asked once more.
“Yes, Gio, yes,” she’d assured.
Relief swept across her face when he fitted on a condom. After that, soulful kisses and the sweetest of smiles informed the rest of the night. His satisfaction had been incomplete until he’d made certain that she’d experienced every pleasure a woman should know.
Eager to teach her more, he bent over to cover her face with a million kisses until the blankets were flung off the bed and the sun moved later into the day.
A lazy few hours later, Gio held Luciana in his arms. “I’ve got to get to work. You, lovely miss, are bad for business.”
Of course he was joking. Because, in reality, after making love with her he surged with energy and creativity. Ideas popped into his head about how to finalize the design for the new motherboard chipsets Grasstech was developing.
Funny how spending these days with Luciana hadn’t been reducing his attention to his work but had been enhancing it.
As agonizing as it was, he separated himself from their embrace and got out of bed.
“Bellissima, do you want to help me with a magazine interview? That was part of our deal, wasn’t it?”
She slid her fingers through her hair, visibly surprising herself with the feel of her new do, which she had apparently forgotten, causing Gio to laugh.
“Only if you’ll take me to see more sights later.”
“You’re coming to the office with me.”
“I am?”
“Up and out.” He pointed toward her guest cottage. “Go get dressed.”
After he heard her pad down the stairs and out the door, he stepped into a hot shower. For a minute he regretted not inviting her to join him, as the travertine shower was easily an ample size for two. But he really did need to get to work, and Luciana plus a steamy shower plus a bar of fragrant soap was not going to add up to getting him out of the house anytime soon.
They reunited in the courtyard. Viggo was outside and quickly ferried them to Grasstech headquarters.
“We’ll go in through the back, shall we? I have a private entrance to my office. Better that the staff doesn’t have something to gossip about.”
“Absolutely, thank you. I appreciate that.”
Her eyes were a bit glazed and something about her didn’t look as princess-proper as she usually did. Gio bit back the craving that threatened when he realized that the change was due to the girl who had now blossomed into a woman.
In his office, he slid one of his small desks to face opposite his large one. That way, he could easily work with her on the interview while he mapped out the design for the chipset.
Several hours passed in a most pleasant fashion. Gio not only liked glancing up from his computer to find Luciana opposite him, but she was really quite helpful assisting him in how to phrase his answers to the interview questions.
Despite the unalterable fact that she was going to be returning to Izerote, Gio’s mind wandered in a direction it shouldn’t have. He speculated on what it might be like to see Luciana every day.
In her perfect world, she’d be a teacher so she wouldn’t be sharing an office with him. But perhaps in the mornings, after they made love and learned how to prepare breakfast, Viggo would drop her off at school on the way to Gio’s office. On days when he didn’t have meetings, he could meet her for her lunch break. And after the long day had passed, they’d rush home to each other’s arms, where they’d stay entwined until the morning light arose once again.
There was nothing about that fantasy that had anything to do with reality. He was just daydreaming because he hadn’t wanted to be with a woman this much in...well...he couldn’t think of a time.
“Do you want to say something about the origin of the hacking incident?” she asked.
He was finally ready to share with Luciana the detail he’d withheld. “I’m not going public with this information, but the hacker was a woman I dated.” If that’s how it could be categorized. Dated. More like worked and slept with. There were no candlelight dinners or tickets for the theater.
“Oh.” Luciana looked up from the laptop with raised eyebrows. “I don’t know why I assumed it was a man.”
“In grungy black clothes surrounded by computers in a dark basement, right?”
“Something like that.”
“I was fooled, too.”
There wasn’t much more to say on the topic. It was a humiliation he’d have to live with. But it was something he’d wanted to tell Luciana. Then he busied himself with other matters.
When the sun set over the city, Luciana asked him, “So, tour guide. Where are you taking me?”
He’d already thought that through. And he’d also come to the conclusion that he had every right to enjoy himself with this delightful woman. Circumstances were such that it was never meant to be more than a fleeting affair. A coming-of-age for Luciana. Why shouldn’t he bask in her company while she was here and leave it at that? He’d had short-term flings with women before. He knew how to do that. When the goodbyes came, he and Luciana would part knowing that for that short time one autumn in Florence, two people were good to each other.
So why was it his heart had a hard time believing it would be easy to let her go?
* * *
“We’re going back to the mercato?” Luciana inquired when Viggo dropped off her and Gio at the now familiar sight. Recognizing the old market building and the outdoor stalls where she had bargained for that green scarf, she knew exactly where they were.
“Follow me.” Gio took her by the hand and maneuvered through the people heading this way and that. Entering the food market, they reached the stand where they had bought the pasta that they’d managed to render inedible. Gio walked her past the sign she remembered from last time: Pasta-Making Classes Here.
Through a doorway was a small commercial kitchen. Work counters were wedged in wherever they would fit. A pink-cheeked woman in a chef’s coat welcomed them. “I am Chef Katia. You are here for the class?”
Gio provided her with his name, which she checked off from a clipboard she held in her hand.
“We’re taking a cooking class?” Giddiness wiggled through Luciana. With her father considering the domestic arts irrelevant to royalty, and her and Gio’s culinary debacle last night, if there was ever a person who needed a cooking class it was her. How thoughtful of Gio to plan this activity.
Speaking of activities, she was still in shock about the one she’d participated in last night. She blamed Luci for talking Her Royal Highness Princess Luciana into it, but nonetheless, it was clear to her from the first kiss that she was going to make love with Gio. She’d had to experience the hunger and intensity and ecstasy that two people could share. Need insisted she act with abandon, wildness even, and to learn the profound strength of her femaleness and her sexuality.
For all she might have hoped the intimacy would bring, it was infinitely more divine than anything she could have ever have imagined.
It was hard to picture leaving Gio now. She felt so close to him in a way she’d never have thought possible. He’d even confided in her that the company hack that caused him so much anguish was of his own doing in trusting a woman who’d systematically figured out how to work through him to get what she wanted.
The pieces fit together. How suspicious he’d been of Luciana when she’d first run into him on the street after those boys harassed her. And how he’d said that some women he’d known were predators. This one, Francesca, had really got the best of him. It was utterly horrible that she’d pretended to genuinely care for him when, really, she was out for personal gain. His work and his designs meant so much to him, there could be almost no worse betrayal than to steal that. No wonder he’d resigned to stay single.
How would it play out if she didn’t go back to Izerote? Would Gio come to trust again? She envisioned a life fil
led with freedom and peace where they could go anywhere, do everything, be anything. As long as they had each other, nothing could harm them. Would he take that leap of faith if it was offered?
“If everyone will take a place, we will begin.” Chef Katia called the class to attention and pointed to the stations she had set up on the worktables. Each area had a wooden board, bowls of flour and eggs, rolling pins, towels and other accessories.
Gio and Luciana took spaces next to each other as the chef began her instruction.
“We’ll make a mound of flour and then dig a well into the center of it.” Glee filled Luciana as she burrowed her hands into the flour. She loved the cool, powdery texture of it through her fingers. “Into the center, we’ll crack the eggs.”
Neither she nor Gio knew how to properly crack an egg and both struggled, with giggles, to remove the shells that weren’t part of the recipe. Chef Katia came over and demonstrated her technique. On the second egg, both Gio and Luciana shocked themselves by performing perfectly.
After forking through the eggs as instructed, the chef taught them how to gradually incorporate the dry flour into the wet well.
“You were right,” Luciana said. “This is chemistry. Cooking is the magic combination of science meets art.”
“Perhaps, then, I’ll have an aptitude for it, after all.”
“I think children should be taught basic cooking. Not only for practical survival purposes, but it’s an excellent way to learn mathematics, don’t you think?”
“Teaching children is something you’ve given a lot of thought to.”
Luciana’s forehead creased. Yes, of course, she’d contemplated how she’d like to teach if she ever had the chance. To make learning engaging and fun, and a discovery.
“Can I ask you something?” Gio reached over with the side of his wrist to brush some flour that had landed on Luciana’s nose. “When you marry King Agustin and you develop these resorts on the island that are to bring jobs to your people, won’t those employees need child care?”
“Yes, why?”
“Shouldn’t that be provided for them, organized to make it a workable lifestyle for families?”
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