All I Believe (7 page)

I let go of his hand, pulled my phone from my pocket, and flipped through a few photos. As I pointed the screen at him, I said, “Like this.” It was a full-length shot, in which I was of course dressed in khakis and a light blue button-down shirt.

“Aw, you’re so cute! All preppy. Are those penny loafers?”

“No. Just loafers.”

Luca asked, “Should I be jealous of the insanely hot guy in that photo with his arm around your shoulders?”

I grinned and told him, “That’s my best friend and cousin Gianni.”

“Why does he seem familiar? Is he famous?”

“His boyfriend is. They’ve both been in the news a lot since Zan came out of hiding.”

“Oh right, Zan Tillane. I love his music. His reappearance was all over the news a few months back after, what, a decade or more where everyone thought he was dead?”

I returned the phone to my pocket and said, “Yeah. It stirred up all of our lives when Gianni and Zan first got together. Nana’s house was inundated by the paparazzi for a while, but now things have returned to normal. Well, for us, anyway. Gianni’s life will never be normal again, but he’s totally in love, so he’s okay with that.”

We reached the hotel, and as we put on our shoes Luca said, “I’m going to go in through the side door and meet you upstairs, if that’s okay with you. I’m in the Corallo suite, seaside on the top floor. Please say goodnight to your family for me.”

“I don’t blame you for not wanting to be seen with a seventies porn star in the hotel lobby,” I told him.

He rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t have a thing to do with how you’re dressed. If you must know, I can’t face Nana right after giving her grandson a blowjob. She’s going to know, and I bet she’ll ask for details.”

“Chicken.”

“I’m going on ahead to clean myself up a bit, too. There’s sand in places it has no business being.”

“But mostly you’re just too embarrassed to face Nana.”

“Absolutely.” He flashed his perfect smile before retreating to the side entrance.

My family was right where I’d left them, but considerably more drunk. “Hey there, Nicky!” Nana called cheerfully as I approached the table. “What happened to that tall drink of water? He was a major fox!”

“I, um, I’m going to go meet him in just a minute,” I admitted, “but I wanted to say goodnight first. Luca said goodnight, too.”

Nana jumped up and exclaimed, “Do you need supplies? Should I ask the waiter for some butter? You know where the condoms are that I brought along, right? I left them on the shelf in the living room. I think technically, butter and condoms are a bad combination, it might break down the latex. So, maybe double-bag it. Safety first!”

She said that so loudly that a couple bar patrons turned and looked in our direction. I just hoped they didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand any of that. “Thanks, Nana, but I’m all set. Good night, everyone. Fi, let’s have lunch tomorrow.”

“Or breakfast. I’m not driving home like this, and Nana’s letting me stay in the suite tonight,” she said before tipping back the rest of what looked like a Cosmo.

“Have fun,” Jessie said cheerfully. “We won’t wait up.”

It was pretty embarrassing that absolutely everyone knew I was going off to get laid, including a few random people in the bar. I didn’t dwell on it, though. I was too busy worrying about the night ahead.

I absently chewed on a nail as I got on the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor. I’d slept with exactly one man in my life. I’d had a couple boyfriends before Erik, but we never took it farther than oral. And in the years Erik and I were together, we were monogamous. Well, I was. I sighed at that as the elevator doors slid open.

Instead of going straight to Luca’s suite, I stopped off in mine first. I couldn’t stand the leather pants and accompanying super attractive ball sweat anymore. I stripped myself and took a two-minute shower, then dressed quickly in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and a sexy pair of underwear (which suddenly had a purpose). Instead of grabbing a fistful of rubbers from the huge box on the shelf in the living room, I found my backpack, located the modest packet of six I’d bought for vacation and crammed them in the pocket of my tight shorts. The word ‘Trojan’ was clearly legible through the light fabric. Awesome.

I pocketed my room key and left the suite barefoot, since my only other option were those high-heeled boots and I was
not
going to pair them with shorts. Luca’s suite was diagonally across the hotel from mine. I read the little oval plackets with the suite names as I went along. They were all sea-themed. The hotel name translated to Hotel Seashell, which somehow sounded better in Italian.

When I got to Corallo, I stood outside the door for a couple minutes, deep-breathing and trying to calm my nerves.
“You can do this,”
I told myself.
“He doesn’t have to know he’s only the second guy you’ve ever been with. I mean, how lame does that sound at twenty-six? Just let him take charge, which he’s probably going to do anyway.”

Eventually, I psyched myself up enough to actually knock, and when Luca answered I launched myself at him. I didn’t want to give myself a chance to panic and run, so instead, I dove in completely. Luca lifted me off my feet when I landed in his arms and pressed me against the wall beside the front door as he kissed me passionately. I wrapped my legs around him as lust shot through me, pushing out shyness and worry and self-doubt.

Luca began fumbling with my clothes, and I returned my feet to the floor and raised my arms as he pulled my t-shirt over my head and began kissing and nibbling my neck and shoulder. My shorts were next, and Luca let out something close to a growl when he got a look at the little yellow pseudo-jockstrap I was wearing. He grabbed my bare ass and pulled me against him, rubbing his hard cock against mine through his clothes. He’d changed too, into a black t-shirt and shorts, and I popped the button and slid down his zipper before plunging my hand into his briefs and grabbing his thick erection.

His mouth found mine again as I pushed down his shorts and briefs and he stepped out of them. Luca pulled my underwear beneath my balls, grabbed his cock and mine in his big fist and began stroking both of us. I stared in awe at the incredibly erotic sight of his big, thick cock pressed to mine, its tip glistening with precum, and moaned as sensation overwhelmed me.

As he stroked us, I ran my hands over his broad, lightly hairy chest and caressed his hard little nipples. Luca grabbed my hand and towed me across his spacious suite. I assumed we were heading for the bed, but he bypassed it and pulled me into the bathroom where he grabbed his black leather toiletry case, dumped the contents into one of the twin sinks, and rifled through the contents. After a moment, he unearthed a small bottle of lube and an unopened ten-pack of condoms and tossed them on the floor.

I didn’t understand why he did that until he pulled my underwear off, bent me over the counter, and dropped to his knees. A startled little sound escaped me when he spread my ass with both hands and stuck his face between my cheeks. He lapped at my hole before pushing his tongue inside me, and I moaned and reached for my hard, leaking cock as I rested the side of my head against the cool marble counter.

I’d never been rimmed before. Normally, I would have been embarrassed by how incredibly intimate it was, but right then, I was way too turned on to care. I jerked myself off as his mouth and lips and tongue explored me, his razor stubble rough on my ass, adding to the sensation. When he worked a lubed finger into my hole and began massaging my prostate, my moans grew louder and I began rocking back and forth a little.

After fingering me for a while, he rolled on a condom and slicked it with lube, then pushed into me. I exhaled slowly as I relaxed and let him in. I then propped myself up on my elbows and watched Luca in the big mirror in front of us as he seated himself in me fully.

Once he was in me to his balls, he locked eyes with me in the mirror as he began to move in me. He slid almost all the way out before slowly sliding back in, stopping when his hips rested against my ass. He did that again and again, driving me absolutely wild as he dragged the head of his cock back and forth over my prostate and made me shake with pleasure. I turned my head and looked at him over my shoulder, then arched my back and widened my stance a bit, trying to give him more of me.

The slow pace was maddening and erotic at the same time. He was obviously doing it on purpose. When I met his gaze again, he grinned and winked at me.

Luca changed the pace all of a sudden, and pulled me against him with my back pressed to his chest. I leaned forward a bit, and he leaned with me as he held me tightly and began to absolutely pound me. We watched each other in the mirror, eyes locked as he fucked me, my body rocking from the force of his thrusts. He wrapped both arms around my chest, holding me securely, and my hands came up and grasped his forearms as the intense pleasure all but consumed me.

I was startled when I started to cum hands-free, just from the way he was fucking me. I cried out as I shot all over the counter and myself, and that set him off, too. Luca yelled and drove his cock into me as he came. I flung a hand out to brace myself against the mirror, my other hand still clutching his arm. He moaned as both of us rode out his orgasm, thrust after thrust, his hips slamming into my ass again and again until we were both finally spent.

I fell forward onto the counter and Luca went with me, still holding me. I looked up at him in the mirror again, and a delighted laugh burst from him. “Holy shit, Nicky, that was intense,” he exclaimed. It was the first time we’d spoken since I arrived at his suite. He kissed my shoulder and eased out of me carefully, and I crawled up onto the counter as he discarded the condom, because I didn’t think my legs would hold me.

I grinned as he pushed my knees apart so he could stand between them, and gathered me into an embrace. “Nicky?”

He nodded as he snuggled against me. “Oh yeah. An endearing pet name is definitely called for after sex that good.”

“So, what’s the equivalent? Louie? That doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.”

“It really doesn’t. You can keep working on it. Maybe you’ll be inspired the second time we have mind-blowing sex,” he joked. After a few moments, he kissed me and said, “I’m going to fire up the whirlpool tub. You’re not going to go pitching off this counter if I let go, are you?”

“I don’t know, I might. I feel like a boneless chicken right now.”

He chuckled and asked, “Like a what?”

I grinned at him. “It’s a reference to an old Gary Larson cartoon. There were all these floppy chickens laying around on a farm, and a sign said ‘boneless chicken ranch’ or something. That’s how I feel right now, floppy.”

He was still smiling as he said, “Don’t worry,
pollo disossato
, I’ll take care of you.”

“Your Italian is a lot better than mine. I wouldn’t have known how to say boneless chicken,” I told him. When he picked me up and started carrying me toward the huge tub at the far end of the bathroom, I exclaimed, “Holy crap, put me down, Luca! I’m way too heavy for this.”

“No you’re not.” He sat on the edge of the tub with me on his lap and turned on the water. It took a while for the tub to fill, and we passed the time by kissing each other, softly and tenderly, as he kept me on his lap. Finally, he shut off the tap and we both eased into the hot water. He reached over and opened a window to let in the sea breeze, then activated the jets with the push of a button.

“This is heaven,” I said as I put my head on his chest and he wrapped his arms and legs around me. “You, this setting, what we just did, it’s all absolutely perfect. Even if I flew back to the states in the morning, this would still go down in the record books as the best vacation ever.”

“Even though you got molested by a pack of dogs and have been forced to dress like an adult film star?”

“Totally worth it. That chain of events led me right here, so I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Luca lightly ran his fingertips up and down my arm, and after a while he asked, “What are you looking for, Nicky? Just a summer fling? Or something more than that?”

“I….” Suddenly, the answer to that question didn’t feel so cut and dried. “I don’t know. What are you looking for?”

“I guess I’m looking for the opposite of my last relationship. He wanted to keep it open and sleep with other people. It sounded great at first, the best of both worlds. But after a while, it just started to hurt. I stopped sleeping around because I cared about him, but he refused to do the same. I wanted to be enough for him. When it became clear I never would be, I broke it off.”

I was quiet for a while before saying, “My last relationship ended when I caught my live-in boyfriend cheating with someone who’d been my best friend since childhood. It’s taken me a long time to move past it. Over two years, actually. After something like that, I guess what I really want is to be able to trust someone again. I hate feeling like they took that from me.”

Luca kissed the top of my head and held me a little tighter. “Your ex was a total and complete idiot.”

“So was yours.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.”

After we soaked for a while, I looked up at Luca and asked, “Do you hate the idea of going downstairs with me and seeing if my family is still at the bar? I kind of feel like I ditched them, and even though Nana was acting like the thing with her sister didn’t hurt, I’ll bet it did. I should point out that if they’re still down there, they’re probably very drunk, know we just had sex, and are definitely going to ask about it.”

He surprised me by saying, “You’re right, they are. But let’s go anyway.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. I think it’s a nice idea. Besides, we can pick up right where we left off after they finally conk out.”

We got out of the tub and dried off, and Luca loaned me some clothes. He got dressed in a long-sleeved white button-down and black pants. I watched him as he rolled back his cuffs, then ran a comb though his collar-length hair. I was struck once again by how stunningly handsome and effortlessly sexy he was, and when he looked up and smiled at me, I felt an unfamiliar rush of happiness. It made me realize how long it had been missing from my life.

*****

Downstairs in the bar, my family had gotten a bit of a party started. A young lesbian couple visiting from Croatia, two waiters who’d gone off-duty, and a forty-something husband and wife on holiday from Scotland had joined Nana, Jessie and Fiona. Someone (probably Nana) had convinced the manager of the normally sedate bar to play dance music, and Nana was leading a conga line among the tables to, of all things, an old Spice Girls song. Luca took that completely in stride and joined the end of the line, grasping Fiona’s waist, and I got behind him and did the same to him. We were all laughing by the time the song ended.

We then had to catch up with the drinking. Jessie lined up four shots in front of both Luca and me, and by the time we did the fourth, I was feeling no pain.

Luca asked me, “Do you dance?”

“Yes and no. I took a class in ballroom dancing at one point, but I can’t do the modern stuff. I look all spazzy, like a cat chasing a laser pointer,” I told him.

“I want to see that some time,” he said with a grin.