When Leo was in, she was careful not to mention Riley in the conversation. But this evening he had arranged to meet her and she knew that anytime now he’d walk in through the door. She felt skittish as she tidied up the office and when the bell sounded, as soon as the door opened, she heard voices and her heart sank. Walking out briskly, she smiled at the sight of Riley, with his familiar backpack on his shoulder.
“You’re early,” she said, smiling, and pulling on her jacket as her handbag dangled on one arm.
“Sorry, I should have called you. I finished up early today.”
“I thought you might have moved on by now,” Leo said, not making any effort to mask his surprise. “Andrea has barely mentioned you.”
She felt a ball of tension lodge in her throat. “What was there to say?” She tried to make light of the conversation.
“I’ve moved in with Andrea,” returned Riley, putting his hand around Andrea’s shoulder as if to claim his prize. “Didn’t she tell you?”
It was information that Andrea had omitted to pass onto Leo. After all, there had been no reason to. But she felt her insides roiling even more from the cold stare Leo gave her.
“I didn’t know you had decided to stop traveling. I thought you had plans to return to the States.” Leo’s eyes narrowed. “Or did you find it?”
“Find what?” She felt the heat of Riley’s fingers on her shoulder as Riley returned a question with a question.
“The inspiration you were looking for?”
Riley tightened his grip on her shoulders. “I have all the inspiration I need right here, at my fingertips.”
Leo gave Riley a stony stare as if surveying his worthy opponent. “I bet.”
“Shall we go?” Andrea asked quickly. Disappointment at the way the two men carried on was beginning to weigh her down.
Leo cleared his throat and held out his hand. “I’m sorry, I really am,” his quick about face surprised Andrea and she watched him suspiciously. “I don’t know if Andrea told you but her brother and I go back a long way. I’m overly protective of her.”
Since when? She wondered. And why?
Riley took his hand. “I get it, buddy. It’s not a problem. I hear ya,” he said, looking at Andrea with his eyes shining. “A woman like this one, who wouldn’t want her to themselves?”
“I wouldn’t have put it quite like that,” said Leo tightly. Andrea felt a little uncomfortable. “I’m having a small informal gathering for drinks next Saturday. Dominic will be there,” Leo said, speaking directly to her. “Why don’t you both come along?”
Her first reaction surprised her. She didn’t think it would be a good idea and she especially wasn’t sure if she was ready for her brother to meet Riley. She was afraid of Dominic asking too many questions like Leo, and she knew it would make Riley uneasy.
“We’ll be there,” said Riley, before she’d had a chance to turn down the invite.
“Great,” said Leo.
16
“I didn’t want to go,” Andrea told him, adjusting her curls away from her shoulder so that they wouldn’t become trapped under her handbag strap.
“Are you sure?” Riley examined her face as they walked around hand in hand in Verona. “This is a beautiful place.”
“I knew you’d like it.”
“There’s a club here that a friend told me about.”
“Which friend?”
He looked at her blankly. “Someone I met.”
She felt disheartened even though she knew it was rash to think this way. He squeezed her hand. “We didn’t avoid Leo’s drinks to argue about petty things, did we?”
“I thought it was more that you didn’t want to go,” she pointed out. He stopped, one hand in the hoop of his smart jeans, with his fitted black shirt hanging out. The contrast of his golden hair against his black shirt made him stand out. But it was his eyes that were the most striking. At least, for her. She could stare into them for hours. But sometimes those good looks of his didn’t match his moods. Like now.
Riley looked dumbfounded. “What do you mean I didn’t want to go? You didn’t sound too keen yourself when Leo mentioned it last week.”
True. But during the week, she’d found herself looking forward to it—if only because it would be the first time the two of them would be going out together as a couple and meeting other people. There was something more settling about it, rather than it just being the two of them going out in the evening.
“I thought it would be a nice evening for the two of us to go out for a change. That’s all. I was looking forward to doing something different instead of eating out, or watching a film.”
She tugged at the hem of her dress. It was blood red and she’d never worn it before but he’d seen it in her wardrobe and had coaxed her into it. She felt like a traffic light, signaling danger to herself and attracting unwanted attention as she walked along. But he liked her in it and he hadn’t been able to stop himself from feasting on her as soon as she’d put it on. She’d never had that effect on a man before and it gave her a feeling of power she’d never experienced until now. That she had this effect on a man like Riley made her feel powerful.
She couldn’t imagine life without him and avoided all talk of his travels, hoping, and secretly wishing that he might forget all about his reason for traveling and settle down here.
But she knew that her bubble would burst soon enough and she tried to prepare herself for that moment—for it would come—when he would venture further without her. In those dark moments she had no illusions that he would leave soon enough. She tried to think about it logically and tried to make herself strong enough to deal with the pain, if and when it would come. But until she reached that stage, she tried to live for the moment and to enjoy every moment she had with him.
His eyebrows pushed together. “I don’t have a problem with Leo. It was good of him to invite us especially since he seems to be making an effort.” He glanced at his watch. “We can still go there if you want. It’s not too late.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go.” She was perplexed. That’s not how she remembered their conversation. Recognizing and appreciating Leo’s sudden attitude towards Riley, she’d finally decided it would have been good to go out. It would also have been rude to turn Leo’s offer down. It wasn’t often that she saw Dominic outside of family get togethers which were few and far between. The way she remembered it, Riley had been the one to say they’d be late and had complained that she and Leo would most likely talk about work. He was the one who had suggested an alternative and because it seemed easier for them not to get together, she’d given in and accepted his alternative: a night in Verona.
Their lateness had been down to him. One look at her in that red dress and he’d been desperate to take her. They’d ended up in bed. Again. She’d given in. Again. They spent more time in bed than doing anything else. She attributed it to the attraction between them and knew that these were early days. In time it would die down. But for now, she couldn’t resist him. Any part of him.
“We’re going to Leo’s get-together,” he said, and turned around to look along the street for a passing taxi.
“We’ll be very late now,” she said, “and we’re here now.” Now that they were in Verona there didn’t seem to be any point in going around in circles.
“Are you sure?” asked Riley, taking both her hands in his. “Because I don’t want you saying this is my doing.”
“We’ll make up an excuse. Let’s make the most of Verona,” she said, determined not to let the night go to waste. “Do you want to eat first or go for drinks?” she asked. She pushed the conversation to the back of her mind, tucking it away as she would often tuck a stray curl behind her ear. Out of sight so that it wouldn’t bother her.
“How about we go dancing?” he said.
“Dancing?” There was no way she could dance in these five inch heels. No way at all. “I’m not sure you’ll like these places, or the music.”
&nb
sp; “I’ve been here before.”
Surprise almost knocked her smile sideways. “I thought you hadn’t been to Verona before?”
“I was here the week before I came to see you.”
She blinked. He’d never once mentioned the fact—it wasn’t a big deal, only that she’d assumed he’d never been to Verona because he’d never said he had.
“What’s the big deal?” he asked, rubbing his finger along his chin. He slipped his other hand free of hers. The evening wasn’t working out the way she had hoped it would.
“It’s no big deal.” But it was. “You never said you’d been here before,” she said quietly. That was the thing that was killing her, especially when she’d told him about places to visit here. He’d had plenty of opportunity to tell her if he had been. That he’d chosen not to—until now—was something she found difficult to understand.
“Why does it matter? Whether I have or not?”
“It wouldn’t matter but it does now because you’ve never once said you’d been here. And now you tell me you were here the week before you showed up at my warehouse.” Trying to spell out to him what part of the logic she was having a problem with, made it sound as though she was being paranoid.
She stopped and considered the idea. Was she becoming too needy and desperate?
Riley rested his hand at the back of his neck, looking decidedly angry. “Do you need a map?”
“A map?”
“Because you’re busting my balls about the places I’ve been and where I’m going next.” His face was hard, and it frightened her, this quick change in him. She didn’t want to get into a heated debate about what he’d said or she’d said weeks ago. Perhaps the problem was with her, and even if he had been here before what was the big deal? She looked up and blinked twice.
Was that Rona?
She thought she saw Ava’s sister walking along the piazza with a man by her side. She peered again.
“What is it?” Riley asked her, turning to look in the same direction.
She shook her head. She was sure Ava had said her sister had come alone with her baby. She knew it was definitely Rona; she’d met her before one time at the Casa Adriana when Edmondo had been alive. Andrea looked away, not wishing to be seen by the other woman.
“Come on then,” she said, feeling down about the evening already. “We might as well go to this club.”
17
The bass pulsated and she could feel the vibrations from the floor and walls throbbing in her chest.
Riley pulled her along with him as he manoeuvred his way through a crowd thick with the smell of alcohol and too much designer scent. Andrea had heard of ‘Babel’ a few years ago and was surprised it was still running. Clubs here changed names and ownership so often. And Verona wasn’t really the hotspot for clubbing. The city’s tastes were more refined.
The club had been a place she’d frequented in her twenties when it had been called something else. It had changed names and decor multiple times since then. She felt out of place and much older as she looked around at the others standing around her. Skinny girls, in their early to mid-twenties, she guessed, in tight Lycra dresses and skirts, worn like a second skin. It wasn’t that being in her early thirties made her feel old but her friends had moved onto other pastimes and Spa days, weekend city breaks, wine bars, fine restaurants and art galleries were the types of places she preferred to visit.
For a moment she had wondered whether it might have been better to attend Leo’s drinks gathering instead. Was it too late? Knowing Leo, she assumed it would have been at an upscale cocktail bar where conversation was possible. If there was music it would most likely be a Jazz band playing.
This place, she shivered as she looked around her, was not her outing of choice. The interior was now a garish pink with black mirrored walls and spotlighting ceilings. It was still trashy, albeit a grown up version of its former self. Now there were more booths, curved sofas and seating in an area opposite the bar, with a few steps leading to the sunken dance floor; a glitzy, sparkly dance floor that could barely be seen because the floor was packed and the heaving throng moved in motion on it. Moving like jumping beans.
Riley said something to her but she didn’t hear.
“What?” She put her hand to her ear.
He leaned in close. “What will you have to drink?” he asked, taking her by the hand to the bar.
“Vodka and lime, please.”
“What’s that?” he shouted.
“A vodka and lime,” she shouted straight into his ear.
He rubbed his ear, pretending to be in pain, then grinned at her and she couldn’t help but return the sentiment, wondering at the same time how his smile could make her feel as though everything was alright again.
“Thanks,” she said, taking her drink. Riley led her to a couple of empty seats at a quieter corner of the bar since the sofas and cosy booths were taken. She looked around at the outlines of people, unable to make out people’s faces. People sat scattered around here and there; a few girls sat on their boyfriends’ laps, others huddled close together. A sense of suggestion and anticipation hung thick in the air. It definitely wasn’t her scene, but if Riley wanted to come here then she wasn’t going to stop him. For him it was part of savoring the city and a part of his journey, she thought, bemused. He caught her smiling and leaned over, still grasping her hand.
“What?”
She shook her head. Having a conversation here wasn’t going to be easy; these kinds of places weren’t made for talking. Instead, she sipped her drink and let the liquid seep through her body, warming her. Everything around her seemed surreal; the smoke effect on the dance floor, the pulsating dance music that blasted from the speakers.
“Having a good time?” Riley asked, his lips tickled her ears while his breath heated her neck.
She was having a good time, she decided. She was out with Riley, otherwise what else would she have been doing? Watching TV? Or, more likely, checking something to do with her sales or product lines. By default she was having a good time. As if to acknowledge the fact, she turned her head towards him and kissed him.
He leaned in close. “Drink up,” he said. “Then let’s go and dance.” She did as he asked and wondered what to do with her handbag which was superfluous to needs and now she wished she hadn’t brought it with her.
He pulled her up and led her to the dancefloor where they were hemmed in from all sides by people lost in their own space and oblivious to anything and everything else around them.
Riley took her by the hands and held her close to him before turning her around so that her body was flush with his; her back tight against his chest as they moved slowly in tune to the music. The beat had slowed and he ground into her deliberately. She lifted her head and sank back further into him, felt his lips sink into her neck and in the flashing lights and deafening music, she felt his mouth on her neck, sucking her skin. Heat scorched her wherever he touched her and she arched her back in anticipation, lost in the sensations he aroused in her. Then, unable to contain herself, she turned around to face him, desperate to taste his lips as she ground her hips against him. It was hypnotic, and sensual, this semi-state of euphoria that swept over her and her inhibitions; thought and common sense fell away easily. She didn’t care what it looked like, the blatant suggestion of two bodies rubbing together. She didn’t care if anybody was watching. She ground into him again knowing that it was driving him insane. He kissed her deeply and for the longest time. It wasn’t that the vodka had gone to her head. One drink didn’t cause such a drastic loss of self-control. He had done that to her with his searing sexuality; sweat glazed their bodies in the heat of the dancefloor as electricity sparked between them.
She closed her eyes, lost in sensual fervor and felt his hand slide down lower until it rested between her legs. With her dress in the way, as a barrier, the palm of his hand lay flat. She closed her eyes, wanting more as she settled in close against his hard and familiar chest, but j
ust as quickly, her eyes flew open.
She couldn’t do this, even though her body wanted to. Stretching out her neck, she tried to see reason. Looking at him, his lips moist with want, his face shimmering in the lights, she wanted to leave and go back home. But he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her away from the thick, throbbing crowd. She staggered through the throng, vaguely conscious of the vibrations of the music and the throbbing, angry beat that reverberated through her body. The sounds meshed together into a deafening noise that she was desperate to get away from.
Where was he taking her?
She was curious but not worried and he seemed to know exactly where he was going.
They passed the toilets and then stumbled into a dark passage that was barely illuminated by the lights from the other end of the entrance. At the end was a small square area with doors on two sides and a window. He tried the doors but they were locked causing him to grunt in irritation.
“What are you?—” she began, but he spun her up against the corner and towered over her. She felt hot and sticky, and in the next moment his mouth came down firmly against hers and she gave in to the sweet relief of his hot lips on hers. Her body relaxed, became liquid as they kissed.
“Riley,” she said, panting, when he finally broke away for air. “We can’t—not here.”
“You are so sexy,” he breathed, his voice thick like molasses. It didn’t matter what she said because even in the dim light she could hear the need in his voice. He reached down and pulled her dress up enough to slip his hand along her inner thighs. She moaned at the feel of his warm skin against hers and relaxed, knowing that with his body flush against hers and nothing but the wall and a window to her side, nobody would see what they were doing. Her breathing sped up, and she arched her back as he slipped his hands into her panties. She stared into his eyes, becoming liquid at his touch, knowing that he was watching her reaction. She murmured his name softly and sank into his hand, unable to pull away. Her mind was caught in a fight between pulling away and stopping, and her urgent need for a release. His fingers worked their magic and left her panting and once again she was lost in him, in desire and was ready for all of him.
Hearts on Fire: Romance Multi-Author Box Set Anthology Page 82