Something hotter and even more turbulent than anger charged the air.
His head lowered and Annah hated herself for closing her eyes and raising her mouth to receive his kiss. For craving his touch even when she was mad at him. Maybe she was overreacting to the puppy. She’d felt off-kilter ever since Luca had told her that shocking story.
Suddenly, he cursed and straightened. He eased her away from him, and she opened her eyes, torn between disappointment and relief.
He stared down at her for a moment, tight-jawed, then took her hand and led her in a different direction through the trees. They emerged at the swimming pool, near the hot tub where they’d fooled around late last night after everyone else had retired. By the time he sat her down in a chair beside the pool, she wasn’t sure whether the brisk walk or a sudden case of nerves had rendered her breathless.
Luca pulled his chair round so he faced her. ‘Tell me what I have done wrong, cara.’
She took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘Ethan will miss that puppy when we go home,’ she said after a moment.
‘Is that a bad thing? He will look forward to returning.’
‘Exactly.’ Luca frowned, and she bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I don’t mean it like that. I know Sicily will become Ethan’s home as much as England. It’s just...’ She looked down at her hands.
‘Just what?’ he prompted.
She gave a helpless shrug. ‘It’s not just the puppy. I can’t compete with all of this, Luca.’ She swept her hand at their surroundings. ‘It’s amazing. Sooner or later, Ethan will realise it, too. What if he chooses this over England? What if—?’ Her throat closed. Swallowing, she forced herself to voice her greatest fear. ‘What if he chooses you over me?’
Luca reached for her hand, lifted it to his mouth, and kissed her fingers in that very Italian way of his. ‘This is not a competition, cara. We both want what is best for our son, yes?’
‘Of course.’
He leaned forward, forearms on his thighs, her hand clasped between both of his. ‘What if Ethan did not have to choose between England and Sicily?’
She frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘What if he had just one home—a stable home with both parents?’
‘You mean...here?’
‘Yes.’
Her heart rate sped up. ‘You’re suggesting Ethan and I live here...permanently?’
‘As a family.’
She stared. ‘You and I...’
‘Would marry.’
Shock jolted through Annah’s body. Her mouth went dry, her jaw slack.
Was he serious?
‘Yes,’ he said, making her realise she’d voiced the question aloud.
‘Luca...’ She fell silent, her brain grappling with the enormity of what he suggested. ‘I... I don’t know what to say...’
‘Say you will think about it.’
His thumb stroked circles across her palm, sending hot streaks of sensation through her. Making it hard to concentrate. ‘It... It seems so drastic.’
Luca’s eyebrows drew down. ‘Giving our son a stable home and family life is drastic?’ His dark eyes sharpened on hers. ‘Do you like the idea of shipping him back and forth between two countries?’
‘No, but—’
‘Then why would you not at least consider an alternative?’
She took an unsteady breath. ‘You’re talking about a marriage of convenience, Luca.’
‘Or a marriage with benefits,’ he countered, ‘depending on how you look at it.’ One side of his mouth kicked up in a smile that drove a barb of heat straight into her feminine core.
She swallowed. Oh, how easy it was to imagine spending a lifetime in Luca’s bed! But great sex was hardly a strong foundation for marriage. What about when they hit a rough patch? Or grew tired of each other? Would Luca look elsewhere for pleasure?
The thought made her chest tighten painfully.
And what of love?
Luca had a clear opinion on the subject, but Annah’s thoughts were muddled. Her mother’s endless, desperate quest for romantic love had only ever left Rachel miserable and unfulfilled, so wasn’t it better not to look for love in the first place?
Or did she want Luca to love her?
Annah pushed the thought away and rubbed her forehead. ‘I wouldn’t just be leaving England,’ she said, focusing on practicalities. ‘I’d be leaving Chloe and our business. My work. What would I do here, Luca? Swan around being pampered and waited on?’ She shook her head. ‘It’s not my style.’
Luca’s expression was undaunted. ‘When we expand the winery, I’ll need an events manager,’ he said. ‘I think you’d be amazing at something like that.’
She glanced at him. ‘Really?’
‘Yes.’
Her heart gave a little kick. She wasn’t naive—she understood he was sweetening the pot—but she got the feeling his faith in her ability was genuine.
But if she said yes, it wasn’t the only role she’d fulfil. She would become Luca’s wife.
His wife.
The idea made her feel as giddy and breathless as she had in the helicopter the other day when they’d flown over the gaping craters of Mount Etna.
She snatched a breath. ‘This is...a lot to take in. I need time to think.’
‘Of course,’ he said smoothly. ‘Why don’t you extend your stay for another week, or a few days at least? Use the time to think. Talk with me about your concerns.’
She hesitated, her pulse leaping at the prospect of more time with Luca. ‘I’d have to call Chloe,’ she said carefully. ‘See if she can do without me for a bit longer.’
With any luck, her friend would talk some sense into her.
* * *
Luca took Annah’s hand and helped her from the back of the SUV.
When she stood next to him on the cobbled sidewalk, he murmured in her ear, ‘You look stunning tonight, dolcezza.’
A pretty pink blush stained her cheeks. ‘Thank you.’ She glanced down at her dress. ‘Your mother spotted this and encouraged me to try it on when we were shopping yesterday.’
Luca’s eyebrows rose. His mother had helped Annah choose this sexy, shimmery midnight-blue dress? He ran his gaze over the fitted bodice and short, flared skirt that swished tantalisingly around her long legs.
Points to Eva, he conceded—on top of points for looking after Ethan this evening.
He pressed his hand to Annah’s back and guided her through the entrance to the small, elegant restaurant tucked down a quiet side street in the heart of the old city.
Almost a week had passed since he’d put his proposal to her by the pool. He’d resisted pressing for an answer. Her request for time to consider his proposal wasn’t unreasonable. Yet with each day, each hour that went by without her announcing her decision, his patience dwindled.
He wanted Annah.
That realisation had crystallised in his mind this last week.
Not just because she was his child’s mother and legally binding her to him guaranteed Luca a permanent role in their son’s life.
He wanted her. As his lover. His partner.
He was thirty years old. Even had he not discovered he had a son, he would have contemplated marriage and children within the next few years.
Why look elsewhere for a suitable wife when the perfect woman was under his nose?
In the restaurant, a waiter seated them at an intimate, candlelit table, filled their water glasses, and smiled approvingly when Luca ordered an expensive bottle of wine.
Once they were alone, he settled his gaze on Annah and felt the slow glide of heat through his body. She was exquisite. He couldn’t imagine a time when he would stop desiring her. He dropped his gaze to her shapely lips and recalled how she’d knelt before him last night and boldly taken him in her
mouth.
Her cheeks coloured. She knew what he was thinking. ‘Luca,’ she whispered, a hint of admonishment in her tone. ‘Stop.’
He let a slow smile curve his mouth. ‘I missed you, cara.’
Her laugh was breathy. ‘You saw me just this morning.’
He turned his smile into a semi-serious scowl. He’d seen a flash of delectable derriere in the grey predawn light as she’d thrown on her clothes and scurried from his room some time before six a.m. Without thinking, he said, ‘I look forward to the day we don’t have to sneak about like teenagers.’
Too late, he realised his mistake. She drew back, and the muscles at his nape tightened. Reaching across the table, he clasped her hand before she could pull it into her lap.
She frowned. ‘You’re assuming—’
‘I’m hoping,’ he said. ‘As I have done every day for the last week. I am trying to be patient—’ frustration crept into his voice despite his best efforts to keep it at bay ‘—but you must know only one answer will make me happy.’
Her delicate throat worked as she swallowed. ‘It’s a big decision...’
‘Of course.’ He kept his tone reasonable, even as he wondered what the hell else he had to do to convince her. ‘This week has been good, yes?’
Her expression softened. ‘It’s been wonderful.’
His tension eased a little. They agreed on this, at least. His frustration with her indecision aside, these last seven days had been everything he had anticipated and more. When Annah insisted he not neglect his work, he recognised her desire for space and gave it to her. Each day—except for today when non-stop conference calls had occupied him—he joined Annah and Ethan for mealtimes, including breakfast.
Luca looked forward to every one of those mealtimes, many of which, at Annah’s gentle urging, included his mother. Invariably, there was chatter and laughter. Ethan always greeted him with a hug that made something in his chest pull tight, and accepted, without too much pouting, that his father needed to work sometimes.
At the beginning of the week, he’d given Annah exclusive use of a four-wheel drive and knew she’d explored the far reaches of the estate. When she wanted to venture farther afield, a driver and bodyguard were at her disposal. Yesterday, for the first time, she’d entrusted Ethan’s care to Luca while she and Eva went on a shopping trip. The day before, she met up with Mia and the women took Ethan and Liliana to a petting zoo.
But it was the nights that truly blew his expectations out of the water. And not only because of the mind-blowing sex. Annah was intelligent and inquisitive, genuinely interested in his work and the strides he’d made towards legitimising the family business. Their discussions invigorated him. He had never talked with a woman—never opened himself up—the way he did with Annah.
They were a good match. A great match. Why did she hesitate to take the next logical step?
The waiter returned with the wine. Luca banked his frustration, and they slipped into easier, safer conversation.
Throughout the meal, however, he sensed she held something back. After they’d ordered dessert, he finally said, ‘What’s on your mind, dolcezza?’
Her eyes met his. She hesitated, bit her lip. Then, ‘Will you tell me what happened to your brother?’
Instantly, his stomach went hard. Once before, during the week, she had broached the subject of Enzo, but Luca had quickly deflected—as he did now. ‘That’s not a conversation for the dinner table.’
A determined light entered her eyes. ‘Why do I get the feeling there’s no right place for that conversation?’
‘Because I don’t want to talk about it,’ he said, tension zinging into his shoulders.
‘Why?’
He set his jaw. ‘Why do you care?’ he shot back.
She blinked, hurt flashing across her face, and he cursed inwardly.
Her voice was quiet. ‘Because you’re the man I’m thinking about marrying. About spending the rest of my life with. I want to understand you. I think your brother’s death affected you deeply, and I think you’ve probably never talked about it to anyone.’ She paused, her chin tilted at a slightly defiant angle, blue eyes glistening in the candlelight. ‘And because I do care, Luca. Our lives are inextricably linked now through Ethan. Regardless of what decision I make, I will always care about you.’
* * *
Annah’s heart thudded unevenly. She had just told Luca she cared about him, and the admission made her feel as stripped bare and vulnerable as if she sat in the restaurant naked.
Silence blanketed the table, Luca’s expression so taut she longed to reach across, cup his face, and smooth her thumbs over his ravaged features.
She balled her hands tightly in her lap.
She could barely credit she was here and not back in England. Agreeing to extend her and Ethan’s stay had surprised herself as much as it delighted Luca.
Chloe had not proven the fount of good sense Annah had hoped for.
‘Oh, my God!’ she’d cried, her squeal forcing Annah to pull the phone away from her ear. ‘He’s fallen for you!’
Annah had tried to temper her friend’s excitement. ‘He hasn’t. This is about Ethan. Luca’s proposing has nothing to do with love.’ Not that it’d been a proposal in the traditional sense. Which was fine. She didn’t need romance.
Or love? a little voice had whispered before Annah quickly silenced it.
‘Stay,’ Chloe had insisted. ‘Everything’s ticking along here just fine.’
And now here she sat, her pulse racing, knowing instinctively this was important. A puzzle piece she had to slot into place if she were to have any hope of truly understanding Luca.
‘My brother died in prison,’ he said suddenly.
Shock sent her eyes wide, but she stifled her gasp and kept silent, afraid that so much as a murmur of sympathy might stop him telling the story.
He picked up his wine, finished it in a single gulp, and put the glass down. ‘Enzo was younger than me and more susceptible to our father’s influence,’ he said, his gaze fixating on his empty glass. ‘When I came back after my first year at university in the States, he was...different. It cemented my determination to return when I completed my studies. I thought I could not only change Franco, but save Enzo from ending up like him.’
He shook his head, his mouth hard. ‘But he was too entrenched. Too far gone. I couldn’t get through to him. After I fell out with Franco and moved to New York, Enzo refused to accept even a phone call from me.’
He was silent a moment. Annah’s throat grew painfully tight. She badly wanted to reach for his hand, offer comfort, but his gaze was turned inward, focused on the past, and she didn’t want to jolt him.
‘Enzo was imprisoned for arson and manslaughter. He was doing our father’s dirty work and set fire to a retail shop. His defence counsel claimed he didn’t know the owner was inside the premises at the time.’ His gaze found hers, and the torment in his eyes broke her heart. ‘I want to believe that, but I... I don’t know.’
Annah couldn’t hold back. She slid her hand across the white linen tablecloth and gripped Luca’s. ‘What happened?’ she asked.
‘A fight in the prison... He took a shiv in the chest, didn’t survive the wound.’
It was so horrible she couldn’t think of any words to say. Her heart wrenched for Eva, too. In a way, she’d lost her youngest son twice—first to corruption, then to death.
‘I’m so sorry you lost him,’ she whispered.
He turned his palm up, wrapped his fingers around Annah’s. ‘Sometimes life takes, sometimes it gives. I lost Enzo, but I found Ethan...’ he looked up from their joined hands ‘...and you.’
Annah’s heart gave a wild flutter. How was she supposed to resist this beautiful, tortured man? A desire to be skin to skin with him, to entwine her body with his and feel him moving inside her, rose w
ith such intensity it stole her breath. She sent him a look she hoped was sultry enough to telegraph her need. ‘I know we’ve already ordered dessert, but...’ She let the sentence hang, her breath catching when one of those slow smiles that always accelerated her heart rate touched Luca’s mouth.
‘I’ll get the bill,’ he said.
Minutes later they stood outside on the cobblestones waiting for Mario, who was both their driver and bodyguard tonight.
Luca pulled Annah’s hips against him, letting her feel the hard ridge of his arousal, and kissed her intimately. ‘I’m not sure I can wait,’ he growled against her mouth. ‘How do you feel about sex in the back of the SUV?’
A breathless laugh tumbled from Annah’s throat, and when Mario pulled up seconds later she couldn’t stop a hot blush from engulfing her cheeks. He leapt out to open the rear door, and she moved towards the vehicle. But the heel of her stiletto caught in the uneven cobblestones and she stepped right out of it.
‘I’ve got it,’ said Mario, dropping to his haunches to retrieve the shoe.
She turned an embarrassed smile to Luca, but found herself staring at his back. Her smile turned quizzical. ‘Luca?’
He didn’t turn around. ‘Go inside the restaurant, Annah.’
His voice was calm, but something in his tone made the hairs at her nape stand on end. ‘What’s wrong?’ she breathed, stepping sideways to see around Luca at the same instant Mario dropped her shoe and bolted to his feet.
Annah froze, her heart slamming violently against her ribs.
A man—a young man, possibly even a teenager—stood in the darkened cobblestone street about three metres from them. His face was flushed and screwed up in a grimace, but she couldn’t tell if it was rage or fear contorting his features. His right arm was fully extended in front of him. In his hand he gripped a gun—and the gun was aimed at Luca’s heart.
A terrible sound tore from Annah’s throat. She lunged for Luca, not thinking. Acting on impulse. Driven by fear and a deep, powerful instinct to protect her child’s father.
The boy’s eyes widened and the gun swung wildly towards her.
The Sicilian's Secret Son Page 13
