by Reina Torres
“My stomach is a little unsettled,” she confided in her sister, not bothering to change the volume of her voice, “once I get rid of the stress, I’ll be fine.”
He didn’t even cast a glance in her direction as he took another sip from his coffee. “Your ‘stress’ is not leaving, Ana. I’m here and will be here for quite some time.”
“Oh joy,” she sighed, moving toward the door. “Maybe if you weren’t such a pain in my behind, I wouldn’t be so eager to see your back.”
He chuckled, his caution only stretched so far. “First, you don’t need to draw my attention to your behind. And if you’re eager to see my back.” He stood and crossed to the sink to rinse out his coffee cup, “I’m happy to make you happy.”
He heard the groan that fell from her lips and her sister’s fit of giggles.
“If you’d like to touch-”
“I’d rather cut off my hands.” Emiliana left the kitchen with a muttered curse and a rather colorful name for him.
Felisa stepped up beside him with a laughing light in her eyes but a half-smile on her lips. “Are you trying to flirt or get her to murder you?”
He shook his head. “I was trying to hold back, but your sister has a way of throwing me off balance.”
She nodded. “Just try to annoy her ‘outside’ the house,” she gave him a hopeful look, “I don’t want to clean your blood out of the carpets and drapes.”
Tugging her to his side, Uberto gave Felisa a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll do my best, Isa. Wish me luck.”
She pressed a kiss to his cheek and then turned when they heard the window rattling. They caught sight of Emiliana glaring at them through the window.
Felisa shook her head and gave him a push toward the door. “You’ll need more than luck now.”
#
As they approached town riding in Uberto’s car, Emiliana regretted agreeing to go with him. Remembering the last time he was in Italy, she’d expected his rugged Jeep, not a Jaguar convertible. She’d worn a light weight skirt with a fluttery hem.
She had not, she reminded herself, worn the skirt to impress him. It was just one of her favorite skirts. The buttery soft fabric in a deep rose color felt like silk against her skin and when she was nervous she liked to trace her fingertips along the skirt’s edge.
And she had been lying to herself thinking that sitting in a car with Uberto wouldn’t turn her into a bundle of nerves.
It didn’t help that he’d walked around to the passenger side of the car and held the door open. Quite a bit different from the way he’d jump up into the front of his jeep and wait for her to scramble into the passenger seat in her jeans. So she’d put one foot in the car and had felt his hand at her elbow, helping her into the car.
Hurriedly buckling her seatbelt before he had a chance to take it in hand and pull it across her body, Emiliana had hoped it would have diminished his effect on her.
Another hopeful dream dashed.
When they’d turned onto the road, the convertible top down at the back of the car, and the wind had picked up ever so slightly flowing around and through the open car, she’d made a grab for her skirt.
The bucket seats and the force of the air rushing past, pushed the hem of her skirt up and over her knee. She’d managed to literally get a hand on it, placing the flat of her palm on the fabric over her thigh.
She saw the looks he gave her as they drove, felt his attentive gaze like a physical touch.
He’d tried to start a conversation a few times, but she’d given him one or two-word answers before he seemed to understand her feelings and had gone silent.
And his silence had helped her relax.
With the sun on her face and the fervent caress of the wind on her cheek, she’d relaxed into the bucket seat and let her eyes close as she filled her lungs with the fresh air of her home town.
When she opened her eyes, it felt like it had only been a minute, but the tall bricked buildings towering over her told her that she’d likely fallen asleep.
It made sense. At least to her.
The night before, knowing that Uberto was in the house, she’d had a difficult time resting. She wanted to blame it on the unfamiliar bedroom, but what had shaken her awake no less than five times the night before, were dreams of Uberto with his hands and mouth all over her body.
She would never have tried to say that she was unaffected by his visit. Emiliana was more than cognizant of his ability to shake her from across the room. Heaven knows she’d always dreamed of him, even when he was thousands of miles away, but having him so close… only made it worse.
Thousands of times worse.
And now as she turned her head to look at him in the driver’s seat, the look in his eyes said that he was affected by her too.
It wasn’t his natural mischievous smile that greeted her.
No, the look in Uberto’s eyes was focused, on her. As she watched him, she’d seen breath after breath slowly expand his chest, his eyes darkening with his bear.
And her bear, the shameless little hussy, came prowling up to the surface.
She heard a growl in her ears and knew by the way the vibrations tickled along her skin, that it was from him.
Before she could offer up some scathing comment, she felt her bear return the greeting. The vibrations rushed through her like ocean currents, sweeping away her frustration and leaving her in a languid state where the soft caress of her clothes against her skin was almost as arousing as the heat in his gaze.
“You look,” he seemed confused at the sound of his own voice, “lovely, Ana. So very lovely.” His gaze dipped down and she followed it with her own.
Her hand, which had been holding her skirt to her thigh was now resting on the console between them in the convertible, and her skirt had slipped away from her knee toward the top of her thigh, revealing the soft silken shimmer of her stockings, and the lacy edge flirted with the curved flounce of her skirt hem, revealing the outline of her garter clip.
She bit her teeth into her bottom lip as she lifted her gaze to his face.
He was already watching her, his breaths fillings his chest as his eyes went midnight dark.
She knew the moment her eyes matched his. She felt her bear as if she was just under her skin, all over her body. The edges of her sight had darkened with a little halo of light at the edges, like an eclipse.
Emiliana felt her fingers curl on the console, dragging the tips against the hard shell of the car’s interior.
It took everything inside of her to wrestle the building control that her bear wanted to exert on her body. She knew she had to make a move. She had to get out of the car before she climbed over the middle of the console to straddle his lap and steal the breath from his lungs.
She wanted to blame this feeling on him. Excuse this new physical demand on the easy elegance of his tailored clothing, his freshly shaved face, the scent of his skin that reached out across the narrow interior of the car.
But she left her hands where they were.
She worried that any movement would free her bear from her hard-won control.
Almost too late, she was saved by the bell.
The ringing melody of the bells in the church tower seemed to sever the thread that had kept her in thrall.
With a gasping, indrawn breath, Emiliana turned away toward the door and quickly unbuckled her seatbelt. When Uberto opened her door, she took his hand and was proud to see that her own didn’t shake when she touched him.
A small miracle, but she held tightly to the little victory, knowing that it wouldn’t last.
Chapter Five
Having Emiliana at his side as they walked through town, filled his heart to the brim. Dreams it seemed, could come true. They spoke to the people they saw. He seemed to answer the same questions over and over as the inhabitants of Santa Biago made it their particular duty to step outside and greet him.
He enjoyed his morning with Emiliana at his side. She seamlessly provided names wh
en he drew blanks, helping him to appear a little less lost than he felt at times.
And that alone made him smile.
But their easy walk wasn’t meant to last. As they approached the front door of Stanzi’s café, Emiliana touched him.
His rational mind reminded him that it was just his elbow, but his bear hummed with delight.
And even that was short-lived as she narrowed her eyes at him. “Come along.”
And the man in him enjoyed the tug of her fingers but not as much as the fire in her eyes.
“Now.”
He looked at the café, narrowing his eyes to see through the midmorning glare of sun on the glass. “It’s open.”
She nodded, a stilted gesture. “I know, but we should see Miss Mancini soon.”
He grinned and covered her hand with his. “I saw her yesterday when I arrived. We will see her soon, but I want to step inside and see Mr. Stanzi.”
That seemed to lighten her mood. “Oh, well, Mr. Stanzi retired a few years ago and moved to be with his youngest daughter and her family.”
“His youngest,” he had to reach for his memory of the Stanzi family. He heard the bell above the door jangle and a name popped into his head. “You mean Clara?”
“Are you looking for me?”
Uberto turned toward the honey tone of a woman’s voice and saw a pretty woman step outside the Stanzi’s front door. He gave her a smile, the same smile he had given each time he was greeted with an unfamiliar face on their walk through the town.
But the fingers touching his arm pinched into his skin. It wasn’t his shirt that he was worried about, it was Emiliana. He turned to look at her and found her eyes focused on the other young woman. “Ana?”
She swung her gaze back to him and his smile brightened at the sight, but Ana stared back at him with a carefully crafted look of indifference.
“It’s good to see you, Uberto.”
He kept his gaze on Emiliana for a moment before turning to the woman walking up to them. “Clara?”
She grinned, a broad smile that lit her features with joy. “I heard a rumor that you had come back this year for the elders meeting.”
It took him a moment to remember who her family connections were. Her uncle, Joseph was a shifter even though his brother wasn’t.
Holding out his hand in greeting, he kept his other arm still, unwilling to pull away from Emiliana.
Clara took hold of his hand for a moment and then stepped back. “Would you like to come in for some coffee?”
When he hesitated, he felt the change in Emiliana’s hold on his arm. She let go.
He knew better than to look at her and gauge her expression, but a moment later when her hand touched his arm again, it was a soft brush of her fingertips.
“Grazie, Clara,” he swore he could hear Emiliana smile, “that would be lovely.”
And instead of dropping her hand to the side, she slipped her hand around his arm.
He felt his shoulders relax at the potential crisis averted. Uberto touched the fingers of his free hand to the back of hers and smiled at Clara. “Yes, thank you.”
She gave them both a look in turn and the expression on her face was one of genuine affection. “I’m glad. Please,” she gestured toward the door of the café, “come with me.”
Clara propped open the door with a little wooden block and re-entered the café, giving them a little space.
Uberto leaned closer. “We didn’t have to-”
“Yes,” she countered him, “we did. I was being ridiculous.”
He stopped just shy of the door, lowering his voice because as a human, Clara wouldn’t be able to hear his words from that distance. “You are not and never could be ridiculous, Ana. Why did you think that?”
She lifted her chin and forced herself to meet his eyes, he appreciated the effort. Her proud Bruno blood didn’t leave much room for her softer feelings. Her sister was very much like their mother, but Emiliana held the raw power of her bear on a tight leash. Knowing that, the slight tremble of her lower lip made him hungry, but not for the desserts that he could smell in the café. For her
“I could tell,” she confided in him, “I could smell her interest from here.”
He looked at the doorway and nodded, but they continued on as if she wasn’t sure he had accepted her explanation.
“She wants you. Even when we were younger,” she cleared her throat, “she wanted you.”
Uberto held back the smile that threatened to touch his lips. Emiliana would surely misunderstand his humor. “I don’t remember her very well.”
“She made her feelings very clear,” she assured him. “The way she looked at you made her interest impossible to ignore.”
He turned slightly and drew her closer to him, leaning down to meet her gaze with his own. “And yet, I don’t remember her.”
She nodded her head, but he could see that she hadn’t gotten over her earlier upset.
“What’s wrong, Ana?” A smile tugged at her lips for a heartbeat, but he could tell she wasn’t really happy. “Tell me.”
He watched her lips tighten to a white line. The contrast against her full lips was distracting, but he managed to focus on her rather than his need to taste her lips.
“I’m not jealous.”
Uberto nodded carefully. “Okay.”
“I’m not,” she insisted.
And he nodded again. “I believe you.”
She took in a breath and quickly let it out. “You shouldn’t, because while I have no reason to be jealous, I am. I didn’t like seeing her rush to the door. I didn’t like how she looked at you.”
He lightly trailed his fingertips along her forearm and felt her shiver. “And I didn’t notice either of those things, Ana. I was thinking about you.”
Nodding she blinked and looked up at him. He drew her closer, just enough that he could almost feel her warmth from his knees to his chest.
“Don’t ever doubt that I’m thinking about you, Ana. No matter what happens, you are the one for me.”
He saw a shadow pass over her features and felt himself studying her closely. Hesitant wasn’t something he wanted to see on her features, ever. Emiliana was a force of nature, and even when that force was filled with anger, she was the most breathtaking sight he’d ever seen. He just wasn’t sure he could stand to see any of that fade, especially if he had a hand in the cause.
“If you don’t want to go in and have some coffee, we can move on and come back later,” he felt her tense in his arms, “or not at all.”
He set his hands on her hips and gently smoothing them up her back.
“I’m not terribly jealous.” She looked up at him with a smile on her lips. “Still, if she tries to touch you, I may have to rip her hand off.”
His eyes opened in shock. “Blood thirsty, are we?”
“If you try to touch her-”
He held up his hands in surrender. “You’ll have no problems from me. I meant what I said. It’s you, Ana. Just you.”
She turned her head slightly to look at him. “Even after all of these years? Even after I pushed you away?”
He nodded. “You’re my mate. I want to make you happy. I need to make you happy.” He shook his head. “I did a horrible job in the past. The only thing I did right was leave. And now-”
“Now you’re here for the elder’s meeting, and I shouldn’t have given you a problem about coming home. What I wanted-”
He pulled in a breath and waited for her to tell him she wanted him gone again.
“What I wanted back then was because I didn’t understand who I was. Your mate was one thing. But I was a woman who could shift, and all I wanted to do was figure out one thing at a time. Between you and my father, there was only so much time and energy that I had for my own. I was selfish when I asked you to leave.” She shrugged. “Truth be known, I didn’t think you’d actually go. It was probably the first time you’d ever stopped arguing with me.”
“Then why didn�
��t you stop me?”
She shook her head. “Because I thought, foolishly, that if I did, you’d never let me hear the end of it and then you’d never listen to me again.
“I was half hoping you’d come right back home a few weeks later.”
He listened to her and wondered if that was why she’d moved into his room, waiting for him to come back. Whether or not that was her reason, this wasn’t the time or place to bring it up.
Still, there was something he could do, for her. Taking hold of her shoulders he stepped up and pressed a kiss on her cheek, trailing the gentle touch up to her temple. “Wait one moment.” He saw the way she raised her brows at him and added on one word. “Please.”
She nodded, and her shoulders shook with laughter.
Crossing to the door, Uberto pulled it open and looked inside. Clara?”
She popped up, peering over the glass display case. “Mmmhmm?” She looked at the empty space behind him. “She’s not coming with you?”
He shook his head. “We won’t be able to stay.”
He wasn’t sure what kind of disappointment crossed her features, but he didn’t worry about it. She was still smiling.
“No problem, Uberto. If you have time some other day, bring her with you.”
He nodded. “Grazie, Clara. Grazie.”
She waved him off. “We’ll be here.”
#
Neither of them made a big deal of the change in plans, but when Uberto gave her a pointed look and asked her where she wanted to go, she told him. Laughing, they continued down the street and down a side street to one of Emiliana’s favorite places. They were greeted at the door by the rounded form of Maria Bianci, daughter-in-law of the owner. With one hand on the lower swell of her belly and the other holding their menus, she showed them to a table near the window.
Uberto watched as Emiliana spoke with Maria, asked after her health and her family. Maria’s already rosy complexion deepened to a becoming flush as she enjoyed the conversation and assured them that her husband Daniel would come out to speak with them when he could be spared from the kitchen. With a quick word to Uberto, Maria disappeared into the kitchen with their order of wine.