Best Laid Plans (16 page)

Luca nodded slowly. “All right. Then explain why I’m in love with you?”

“Well, I’m pregnant and I’d think that you’d want to do things right and... Hold on.” Luca cleared his throat and leaned against the counter. What the hell just happened? Did he say what she thought he’d said?

“You think I’m in love with you because you’re pregnant?” Frankie couldn’t speak. It was probably better than squawking at him. “You don’t think I love you because you are the only person in this entire, bitter, lonely world that makes me feel at peace, at home, loved?” He came to take the pestle from her grip and settled himself between her legs. The tip of his nose brushed hers. “Does that sound like a reasonable explanation to you?”

“Maybe,” she muttered, thinking that her heart should probably start beating any time soon if she didn’t want to die on his kitchen floor.

“Oh, only a maybe.” The tip of his tongue brushed over her collarbone and she shuddered violently.  

“And you really love me, and not just because of the baby? Babies? Those two.” Frankie nodded to her belly.

He tugged her from the counter and let her slip down the length of his body. “Can you feel that?” he whispered as she brushed over his erection.

“Could feel that from the other side of the room,” she murmured, looking up at him, her hands bunching his shirt in her fists. Her body was dissolving into a bubbling pool of lava. She didn’t really need to eat that much; she could just have him and she’d be more than satisfied. It’d been too long...

“Ms. Johnson told me to look after you. I’m feeding you first. It’s only fair if I’m going to keep you up for the rest of the night.”

Oh. Well that explained everything, she thought, rocking against him. The feel of his hardened flesh between her thighs forced her eyes closed and her arms to curl around his neck. “Can we have a starter first?”

“No, food will be ready in fifteen minutes,” he said, placing her back on the counter and moving away, taking out a chipping board and slicing kale leaves into bite-size chunks.

“Luca?” she said softly.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“I love you too.” It had never come as easily for her as when she told him that moment. He stared at her, cheeks flushed, eyes soft.

“Not just because I can cook?”

She laughed. “That helps. But no. It’s all you.” He put the knife and kale down only to pull her back into his arms. His lips found hers, mapping his appreciation on her mouth. She could taste love and lust in each and every kiss.

“Stop distracting me,” he murmured. “Have a look at some four-bed houses in the area instead.”

“You want me,” she teased.

“All the time.” He released her once more. “Have a look. We’re going to need the space.”

Frankie saved searches of houses near the flat while Luca finished dinner. She was doing it half heartedly. Instead she watched her man finish their meal and bring it over to the coffee table. They ate with their plates on their knees. Frankie was relieved she ate it all and it didn’t repeat on her. He was a great chef! Luca put his plate down on the table, trailing his fingers through her braids.

“I know you haven’t been well,” he said gently, “but just seeing you, being able to touch you...it’s like water to a man dying of thirst.”

Frankie lost her breath, catching the look in his eyes coinciding with his words. Hastily, she put her plate on the table and wrapped her arms around his neck. She inhaled his soapy, clean scent and pressed herself closer. His huge palms ran over the length of her denim-covered thigh and came to a caressing halt at her waist.

“Drink?” she said cheekily.

“Thought you’d never ask.” He got up to take their plates to the kitchen, and Frankie leapt up to close the blinds over the floor-to-ceiling windows that spanned the length of the flat. “What are you doing?” he asked, coming to wrap his arms around her waist before she even tugged at the cord.

“Making sure everyone on Putney Bridge doesn’t see what they’re not supposed to!”

Luca released her waist only to tug the t-shirt over her head. His hands spanned her breasts and skimmed over her tummy. “What’s there to be scared of? We’ve dealt with worse.”

The heat of his palms blossomed on her skin. “You don’t know what we look like naked together. It must be a scary sight.”

“We’re perfect together.” he promised, unsnapping her jeans, chasing kisses between her braids to her shoulders and along her torso. When his mouth brushed over the small of her back she shuddered. Frankie made to turn, she wanted to touch him so badly, but Luca instead placed both her hands on the glass of the windows. “You can’t see that way.”

He coaxed her out of her jeans, her panties and bra following the same pile near the couch. “Don’t move, sweetheart.”

She obeyed, only so she could watch his reflection. He slowly revealed his golden-hued, marred skin, from his broad shoulders, to his honed torso, thighs corded with tight muscles, and lastly his thick cock, only slightly paler than the rest of him. She’d seen his body over and over in her mind at all times of the day and night, in her dreams. It didn’t seem real that he was here with her again. Right now.

He pressed his body to hers, his hand scooping her braids over her opposite shoulder. Frankie glanced up. At that moment, there was nothing frightening about the vision they created together, all her softness compared to his sharp angles. He braced his hands on her hips. “
Mi manchi tante
,” he whispered, allowing the length of his cock to gently part her pussy lips.

Shaking at the feel of him where she needed him most, she turned her head and caught the corner of his mouth with her own. “I’ve missed you too.”

There was a sweet pressure at her pussy, demanding she open for him. She pushed against the glass as he slowly moved forward. “All of you?” she breathed. He took one hand from the glass. “Feel.”

Her fingers touched the few millimetres of his length outside of her, strained, hard and covered in her juices. Just as her hand moved lower, Luca caught her by the wrist and brought her fingers to his mouth. His lashes lifted, meeting her gaze in the glass as he tasted her. She almost wished someone would look up from the bridge and see them just like this. Her pussy flexed around him, adjusting to the width of him inside her. He placed her hand back on the glass and moved his hips against the cushion of her bottom, and she pushed back hard.

“We’ve got all night,” he murmured, slowly withdrawing from her. Her knees trembled. He felt delicious inside her without the barrier of a condom.

“Quantity is more important right now,” she demanded, clenching her pussy around the tip of his cock. He gave a deep groan, pressing his body more tightly to her own.

“But I wanted to savour this. We’ve been apart for so long, sweetheart.”

“Later,” she promised. “Now’s a different story. Please...”

The one word was enough to move Luca. He thrust deep and hard to the sound of her cry. They tested the reinforced glass, Luca’s hands covering her own as they found their rhythm together. She was so wet, her juices snaked a path over her thigh each time he drove into her. This was just what she’d needed so desperately and nothing, no fantasy, no one who’d come before could even begin to compare to the way Luca loved her.

He bent his knees a little, spreading her legs farther apart and catching her breasts in both of his large palms. Frankie began to teeter over the edge of an orgasm. Luca moved faster. She opened her eyes for a brief moment and in the glass, she saw his cock rapidly delving into her pussy. Tremors brushed over her skin before sinking deep, radiating outwards with every convulsion. Luca’s hands tightened on her breasts, and he pushed as deep as possible before bathing her in his hot liquid.

Any doubts about Dafne and the intensity of Luca’s feelings for her were finally erased in full view of the Putney Bridge. Now
that
was a homecoming...

Angelo had a sixth sense when turncoats were in his vicinity, although he was surprised when he turned from his prize Ducati to see Giulia Caristo standing there, looking like a frightened church mouse. He’d had a suspicion that it would have been La Madama again, but with Dafne and Clemente Falco using their cards in Spain, they hadn’t come back to ask any stupid, awkward questions. Luca was in the clear where Dafne was concerned. Shame the same couldn’t be said about his family.

He rolled his eyes. Natural selection should still exist in humans, he thought—that way he wouldn’t have to put up with the reoccurring stupidity that seemed rampant only in Luca’s immediate family. Angelo wanted to blame the parents, but Luca was a solid guy. How he’d turned out all right, he could only attribute to the benefit of Angelo’s gracious friendship. With a self-mocking grin, he picked up a cloth and wiped the oil from his hands. “What’s the matter, Giulia?”

“Have you heard from Luca?” she asked, on a whisper.

“Can’t hear you,” he drawled. “You’ll have to speak up.”

“Luca, have you heard from him? I mean in the last few days?”

Angelo tweaked a brow. “What are you talking about?”

Giulia nervously pulled at the sleeves of her shirt. “Dafne came to the house a week ago. She threatened Mama.”

Angelo blinked. “And I should care because...?”

“She’s going after Luca, that’s what she said.”

“Why can’t you pick up the phone?” he asked mildly, enjoying watching her squirm. This wasn’t care, this was her making sure the gravy train didn’t stop. “You’ve got his number.”

“He’s not answering!”

Angelo turned back to his bike. “He answers me. He’s fine, Giulia.”

“Aren’t you going to warn him?” she demanded.

“About?”

“Dafne!”

He gave a grumbling laugh. “Giulia, my poor, uncomplicated Giulia. Your brother not only built a career on dealing with people who made themselves a problem, his new, gorgeous, little girlfriend is cut from the same cloth. I call her little, everyone’s little to me. If Dafne is stupid enough to try and go after that man, who has been gracious enough to leave her alive on this planet, it’s her bad luck.”

He heard Giulia’s surprised intake of breath. “He’s...met someone?”

“I know, surprising given how hideous he is,” he mocked. “Is that all, Giulia, or are you waiting for a tip?”

She sighed heavily and Angelo risked a look at her. No, no, no pathetic in his garage. That wasn’t the way things should be. He hustled her toward the exit. “If she hurt Mama...”

“Then it's possible that she shaved your brother bald and had him thrown into prison. Surprise! You knew what type of person she is from what she did to him, and you still thought to defend her.”

Giulia looked hurt. “That’s not fair. What else could I say when it looked like he’d been beating her black and blue?”

Angelo struggled to control his temper. He’d been annoyed in the past when Luca had escaped to London to stay with his cousin with excessive frequency, but with relations like this? He was more surprised Luca hadn’t just stayed in London sooner. “If I had family like you, I wouldn’t bother ignoring you. I’d wipe you out myself.” He bared his teeth in a grin. “He’s got himself a new family now. Be a good girl and fuck off, please.”

He gave her a gentle shove out of the garage and realised he’d left a huge black mark on the back of her shirt. Well, if her husband wasn’t going to divorce her before, he surely would now. Whistling, he carried on fine-tuning his bike. No way was he either giving this bike back or telling Luca that his sister had trotted around. Either would start a fight, and he rather liked having Luca as a friend.