One Step Closer (Erotic Romance) Book 1 (The DeLuca Brothers) (3 page)

Eight years.

It had been eight
years since she'd seen or spoken to Frank and the sound of his voice still had
the power to freeze her in her tracks. She'd come by to see if Maria needed
anything, just like she'd been doing since she was a child. Back then, it had
been her parents who'd offered the help through her, but as she'd gotten older,
she'd started doing things on her own. It was she who'd baby-sat Sal for free
when the older boys were busy, she who'd helped around the house when Maria had
twisted her knee and not wanted her sons to know. When Frank had left, it had
been Sofia who'd stopped in every weekend to check in, Sofia who Sal had called
to come pick him up when he'd gotten a flat tire on his way home from a party.
When her parents had retired to Florida two years ago, Maria had stepped in as
a surrogate to the then twenty-eight year-old.

Sofia couldn't
breathe. She knew where he'd be sitting and the slightest movement would take
her into his line of sight. She couldn't have that. He couldn't see her, not
after all this time, not when there were so many things left unsaid between
them. Then she heard Sergio ask if Frank was seeing anyone and a sharp pain
went through her heart, as if it had been wounded yesterday and not years ago.
She found herself powerless to stop as she took a step forward. She needed to
know the answer.

Her heart leaped at
the first part of his response, accompanied by an unreasonable stab of
jealousy, but then fell as soon as he'd said the words that had kept her away
all those years ago. She took a step back, gasping as Frank's head shot up.
Those dark blue eyes had seen her, she knew instantly. She saw the slight
widening of recognition, the flash of something deeper that she didn't want to
analyze. His feet moved, ever so slightly, and that was enough to break her
paralysis. Forgetting all pretense of stealth, she turned and fled.

She ran blindly
through the kitchen and out the backdoor. Her feet knew the path and kept her
from falling as she raced down the porch steps and across the yard. As she
pulled open the back gate, she heard a familiar noise behind her. Someone had
followed her outside. She couldn't help herself and, as she slipped through the
gate, she glanced over her shoulder. The glimpse she caught of Frank standing
on the back porch was enough to spur her flight once more. She wasn't certain,
but she thought she heard him call her name as the gate shut behind her.

She knew the way
back to her house by heart and it was a good thing that she did because by the
time she arrived at her back door, breathless and confused, she couldn't
remember the trip. She kicked off her shoes out of habit and crossed to her
kitchen table. As she sank down at her usual seat, the numbness of panic that
she'd had as she'd run began to fade away and she buried her face in her hands
as if to hide from the onslaught of emotion.

Love. Safety.
Disappointment. Loss. Pain. Abandonment.

Each one was as
strong as the last and all, it seemed, were still relevant. She'd worked hard
to forget about Frank. The fact that he'd never come back to the city had
helped. None of the DeLucas talked about him to her, not even Maria. Sofia's ex
had been all too willing not to talk about his cousin. Though Sofia had never
spoken ill of Gio, not even during that last year when they'd known during
every fight that it would end in divorce, she knew he'd always felt like he'd
been in Frank's shadow. It was understandable, she supposed, even if she'd
never behaved as if she was comparing them. Her feelings for Frank had never
exactly been a secret.

She'd met the DeLuca
boys only a few months after she'd been born, or at least that's what she'd
been told. Her first memory was of following the three older boys as they
headed to the little park at the end of their street. She couldn't have been
more than four because she remembered Mr. DeLuca following behind, far enough
back that the boys had still felt like they were on their own, but close enough
to keep an eye on them.

She was eight when
she'd first noticed that thirteen year-old Frank DeLuca was actually kind of
cute. By the time she was twelve and Frank was a senior in high school, she'd
been certain that he'd never notice her in any way other than as an annoying
little sister type. Vincent and cousin Gio had noticed her and, at some point,
so had Sergio, though Vincent and Sergio's affections hadn't lasted long.
Sofia, however, only ever had eyes for Frank. The boys in school had quickly
learned not to bother asking her out. She'd go on a few dates, hoping she'd
fall for someone who wasn't completely oblivious to her, but it had always
ended the same: a rebuffed attempt at a kiss and then an awkward 'let's just be
friends' speech. By her senior year of high school, she'd stopped getting asked
out, but it didn't really bother her. She just couldn't keep Frank out of her
mind, even if he didn't feel the same way. She'd given up trying to find
someone else in high school, and had settled for hoping that college would be
different.

A month before her
senior prom, however, everything had changed. Sofia had been over at the
DeLuca's house, watching twelve year-old Sal when Frank had come home from one
of his part-time jobs early. While Sal had played video games in his room,
Frank and Sofia had sat on the couch and talked. She'd been surprised to find
that Frank was aware of her school activities and of her desire to take nursing
classes. When she'd finally gotten up the courage to ask him what had prompted
the sudden attention, his answer had left her speechless. With an almost shy
smile, he'd confessed that he'd been watching her all year, seeing her in a
different light. He'd kissed her that night, a fairly chaste one, but it had
been her first. The month that had followed had been one of other firsts – her
first boyfriend, her first make-out session, her first time introducing a guy
to her parents as someone other than a friend – all leading up to her
eighteenth birthday and the night of her senior prom.

Even as she thought
it, the memory of that night came back with enough force to make her gasp. It
rolled over her and she didn't fight it. She wasn't sure that she wanted to.

When he'd first
shown her the hotel room key, he'd almost been embarrassed, as if Sofia would
think the action juvenile, but she'd been thrilled. They may have only been
dating for a month, but Sofia had been dreaming about him from before she was old
enough to understand what a relationship entailed. He had starred in the first
erotic dream she'd ever had. It had been his face in her mind the first time
she'd touched herself. She may have been a virgin, but she knew what she
wanted.

She'd barely been
able to contain her delight when they'd entered the room. Frank must have been
saving all month to afford a room at The Plaza. It was obvious he wasn't
looking at this as some kind of quick fuck, but something special. And it had
been.

***

Sofia stood at the
end of the bed, hands clasped tightly together to keep them from shaking. She'd
told Frank that she wanted it, had even hinted that it would be a great
birthday present as well as a perfect way to end prom night. But, she knew her
boyfriend. While their age difference wouldn't seem so strange once she was out
of school, at the moment, it still made him nervous, though slightly less so
now that she was eighteen. Now that the moment was here, she was almost
trembling, though the reason for her nerves had nothing to do with whether or
not she was ready to take the next step.

“We don't have to do
this if you don't want to,” Frank looked down at her, his eyes almost black. “I
don't want to rush you.”

Sofia gave Frank a
half-smile. “I want to,” she hesitated.

“What is it?” Frank
brushed his fingers across Sofia's cheekbone, leaving a burning trail in their
wake.

“What if -” she
paused, then continued, afraid that if she didn't answer him honestly, he would
call the whole thing off. “What if I'm not any good? You know,” she glanced
meaningfully at the bed behind her.

“Sofia,” Frank's
voice caressed her name. “I don't want to make love to you because I want you
to make me feel good. I want to make love to you because I love you.” He
lowered his head to brush his lips across hers. It was a brief kiss, a mere
touch of mouths, but it sent a thrill through Sofia's body all the same. “And,
trust me, we're going to be brilliant together.”

“How can you be
sure?” Now that she'd told him her concern, it was easier to ask.

“Simple,” Frank ran
his hands up her arms. “Every time I touch you, I feel like I'm going to jump
out of my skin. When you touch me, every cell in my body heats up. I want to be
close to you in every way possible. I want to feel you against me, beneath me.”
He tucked a strand of wayward hair behind her ear. “Sofia, I need you to
understand something. I will do anything, be anyone, if it means that I can be
with you. If all you wanted to do was sit and watch a movie, I'd be content
because we were together.”

The warmth in
Sofia's belly turned from embers to flames at his words. She reached behind
her, all apprehension gone. She locked eyes with Frank as she slowly unzipped
the back of her dress. He swallowed hard as her dress slid from her body to
pool at her feet. Unlike some of the other girls her age, she needed to wear a
bra with her dress and she'd specially purchased this particular strapless bra
and nearly sheer panty set with tonight in mind. The sharp exhalation that left
Frank's lips at the sight of her curves hugged by elegant black lace told her
that she'd made the right choice.

“Oh, baby,” he
breathed the words in a voice of complete reverence.

Sofia felt her
entire body flush with pleasure. She'd always dreamed of hearing Frank speak to
her in that tone of voice, but she'd never truly believed it would happen. She
took a step to close the distance between the two of them and reached for his
shirt. One by one, she undid each button, exposing his tanned flesh inch by
inch. When she pushed the shirt off his shoulders, her palms skimmed over his
arms and he shivered beneath her touch.

“Lie back on the
bed,” his voice was rough. When she gave him a puzzled look, he added, “I'm
going to take care of you.”

Without taking her
eyes from his face, Sofia did as Frank had asked. When she'd settled back on
the pillows, he took a step towards the bed, then stopped. He reached into his
pocket and produced a small square packet. His devout Catholic mother wouldn't
be happy if she knew he was using birth control, but Sofia had a feeling that
Maria would be even less thrilled if her oldest knocked up his little brother's
babysitter. It was nice to know that he'd thought of it. Frank tossed the
packet onto the bed and gave Sofia the roguish grin that always left her weak
in the knees and more than a little wet.

“Always be
prepared.”

Sofia sat up and
stretched out her hand to retrieve the packet. She set it on the bedside table.
“I already beat you to it.” Off of
Frank's look, she explained. “For some health reasons that overrode my parents
disapproval, I've been on the pill for a couple of years. So, unless there's
another reason you need to wear that, it's not necessary.”

Frank just stared,
his mouth open slightly.

“It's my first time,
Frank,” Sofia's voice was soft. “I don't want anything between us.”

“Shit,” Frank
whispered. “Keep talking like that and I'm not going to last long.”

Sofia grinned, a
stab of pride going through her at the realization of what she could do. She
returned to her previous position. “Would
you do something for me before you join me?” Her newfound power gave her the
courage to ask for what she wanted.

“Anything.”

That single word
held so much promise.

“I want to see you,”
Sofia let her eyes do the clarification as they ran over Frank's lean torso,
down to the dark curls below his bellybutton that disappeared beneath his
waistband and finally coming to rest on the sizable bulge in his black tuxedo
pants.

This time, it was
Frank who blushed, though Sofia wasn't sure why. She knew enough about his dating
history to know he'd had at least four lovers since he and Missy Stillwell had
gone upstairs at Clayton Howell's end of year bash freshman year. Some rumors
had the number as high as twelve, but Sofia didn't think it was quite that
high. Then she wasn't thinking about his other lovers at all because Frank had
complied with her request and was kicking aside his pants and boxers.

“Oh,” the sound she
made was small, but it filled the room. She knew what a penis looked like, of
course. She wanted to be a nurse, not a nun. But this was different. At least
nine inches, Frank's cock was swollen and thick, curving up out of a nest of
dark curls. As Sofia stared, the mood in the room shifted and Frank took
control once more.

He climbed onto the
bed and knelt at Sofia's feet. He wrapped his long fingers around her ankles
and parted her legs until he could kneel between them. His eyes were as wild
and dark as a hot summer night sky and he bent over her, capturing her mouth
with his. She opened her mouth, eagerly accepting his questing tongue. As he
explored the moist cavern, she buried her fingers in his hair, reveling in the
silky softness.

Their tongues twined
together, chasing each other back and forth between dancing lips. Sofia lifted
her back as she felt Frank's hands slide beneath her. A moment later, the lace
garment covering her breasts was removed, baring her flesh to another's eyes
for the first time.