by Bethany-Kris
Penny took the sleek, silver card from the short, redhead with another smile. “Thank you.”
Luca scanned the front entrance of the hotel, slightly uncomfortable with the amount of glass that allowed him a decent view of the street outside. They were far enough inside the business that even if someone did recognize them, they would probably need a second look. He would have preferred a hotel with a less open reception, but maybe that was Penny’s point.
She didn’t actually hide. Everyone was looking for her where she couldn’t be found.
“Mr. Titchens?”
Luca’s distraction cost him the sight of Penny heading for the elevator. The receptionist gave him a smile—probably thinking he was tired and over the entire day after the tale Penny spun for the woman—and then nodded after the piece of art currently looking back over her shoulder at him. The wavy, textured length of her white-blonde hair fell down to her mid-back, swaying just over the spot where he knew she had two dimples above the curve of her backside. But her ass was still quite a sight covered in tight, black cargo pants.
It wasn’t even the time.
He had better—far more important—things to focus on other than how hard he could get just watching Penny walk away from him. Except he couldn’t think about anything else but that because Luca was fucked.
Penny winked and tilted her chin in a silent demand for him to follow. He shook his head with a chuckle, not even bothered by the fact she watched him check her out without shame. Why should he be? Look at her.
She was still there.
Still real.
Things were already looking up.
13.
Penny
LUCA wasn’t a loud man—never had been—and it was one of the things Penny liked about him the most. He was such a presence without actually making himself present. He didn’t fill the silence when someone else was quiet. She couldn’t even remember a time when he had tried to take center stage ahead of anyone in his life.
He reminded her of a pillar. Fortitude in the storm. Strength under pressure. Everything that she was sure he didn’t even realize about himself. Because why would he—the man was too busy trying to make the rest of the world happy instead of taking care of himself.
She was part of that, too.
Penny knew it.
She also knew Luca would never tell her that, so when he was quiet in the elevator ride up to the room she had managed to snag for the night, his presence felt heavier to her. Not for any particular reason that she could pinpoint; his face gave nothing away when those shadowy green-blue eyes of his darted her way.
He just ... was.
Maybe he did want to fill the silence. She could feel the way his gaze crawled over her as the elevator moved higher—beyond the third floor. A slow trek upward. She decided to say something for Luca. Or perhaps she just couldn’t take the quietness anymore.
“You can’t go back to your apartment,” she said, wishing her voice had more strength to it and less ... quiver. Luca’s stare jumped from the spot where it had been lingering on the column of her neck to meet hers. “It’s not safe. Especially if someone connects you to me tonight and—”
“I get it.”
Penny nodded once. If he didn’t want to argue about it, then she was grateful. “Thanks. It’ll still be there when this is over.”
The hint of a smirk teased his features when he asked, “But what does that even mean—when this is over? What’s over, Penny?”
She really wished there was an answer. At least, one that would satisfy him.
But ... “I don’t know. But it will be over. Someday.”
It had to be.
She was kind of banking on that now.
The headiness of her sadness filled up Penny’s chest without warning. She didn’t want to be sad—couldn’t afford an emotion with consequences that had always left her hurt and bleeding in the past. In one way or another.
“Hey,” she heard him say.
He was still watching her. Probably wouldn’t let her out of his sight, she knew. Strangely, she was okay with that.
She thought he had something to tell her—like he was reading her mind—but instead, his hand reached for hers. It started with nothing more than the graze of his pinky against hers. Just the tip, and then the side of the digit brushing hers softly. It took nothing for her to slide her palm in alongside his. Their fingers wove tight, and she watched how well his hand fit with hers.
Still silent, he was the pillar.
There was only one thing she thought about in that moment—one she really wanted. It certainly wasn’t the time, and she had too many other things to focus on except getting Luca Puzza closer to her, but she didn’t care.
Not one bit.
Penny only needed to tug gently on Luca’s hand to make him close the space between them, but there was nothing gentle about his approach. She didn’t mind it at all when he crowded her and backed her hard into the elevator wall. His hand stayed tangled with hers while his other hand came up to flatten against her throat. That tempting mouth of his, never hesitating, meet hers in a kiss that had her heart thumping viciously for more.
His kiss was hungry.
Mouth, and teeth, and tongue.
His palm at her throat flexed when the elevator dared to jump before coming to a stop. Not that it separated the two of them. The weight of him was substantial, keeping Penny pinned in place to melt against a man she didn’t mind letting haunt her dreams.
He smelled like leather and man—like the city and smoke and them. Every strike of his tongue against hers took away another breath from her lungs until the organ ached for any kind of relief.
Between kisses and hard exhales, she managed to whisper, “We’re on our floor, and—”
Luca pulled away all at once, but he dragged her with him, yanking her between the closing elevator doors in the very last second. All she saw was him looking back at her while they headed down the hall.
That was perfect.
He was all she wanted to see, anyway.
PENNY DIDN’T REALLY remember how they made their way into the shower, but the hot water pelted at her chest while Luca’s hands did wonderful things to her thighs. His deft fingers worked into knots she didn’t even realize had been keeping her muscles tight until he got every single one of them out. Her little moans of relief drowned in the waterfall spray of water overhead.
“Good?”
Penny smiled, her eyes still closed when she felt his hands dance lower to her calves. “Better.”
“How many miles have you clocked?”
On her feet?
In the past week, too many. More than she ever would again. It was just faster to walk to get where she wanted to go—the subway did the major distance, but even still, she didn’t regret investing in boots for work that didn’t do a number on her feet.
“A lot,” she settled on saying.
Luca hummed a dark and delicious sound that had Penny opening her eyes. He was quite a sight kneeled down in front of her, naked, back wet with water droplets and skin pebbled from the cold air. He wasn’t under the spray like she was, not that he seemed to mind. The man was content doing not being.
She would rather do something for him.
“Come here,” Penny said, reaching for him through the water and foggy space. He didn’t hesitate to stand, never questioning her. Like everything else going on, too. He was just there—letting her be. As he stood, leaning in and unbothered by the spray of hot water, she mouthed the words, “Kiss me.”
And he did.
Again.
Like in the elevator.
Or how he devoured her the second they were hidden within the privacy of the hotel room. There wasn’t much to look at in there but each other, anyway. If for the moment, she couldn’t do anything to further what was happening outside these walls, then she wanted to do nothing at all with Luca.
If nothing meant doing him.
Of course.
&nbs
p; But this time when he kissed her, she let him take his taste of her mouth while her hands dipped lower between them. One tightened around the base of his semi-hard shaft, stroking him from base to tip before swiping the tip of her thumb over the head of his cock. He shuddered, his teeth catching her bottom lip when she dared to cup and stroke his balls with her other hand at the same time.
“Fuck,” he hissed.
His pupils blew wide when their kiss slowed because her hands picked up the pace. Tugging faster, tightening with a twist of her wrist, and then stroking his balls while her tongue teased the seam of his lips, too.
She had to ask, “Does anyone ever take care of you?”
Luca blinked.
He didn’t answer.
She really didn’t need him to.
Her name came out of his mouth like someone had slammed a fist against his chest when he came. Spilling sticky cum on her fingers that the water washed away.
Mostly.
She kneeled down to lick the rest off while he watched.
“I HAVE TO LEAVE IN the morning,” Penny said, although it was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to interrupt the quiet stillness she and Luca had found tangled naked in bed. They could have closed the blinds but instead, they watched the dark sky stretch on for hours.
What was sleep?
Luca’s arms tightened around Penny’s middle. She even felt the twitch of his jaw when his stubble scraped tantalizingly against her scarred stomach. He never shied away from the history she had cut into her skin. In fact, the canvas of her skin, from the soft spots behind her knees to the one that made her shiver at the back of her neck became his personal map to do with what he wanted. She’d never enjoyed being studied more.
“I’ll go with—”
“Better not,” she said, meeting his gaze when he lifted his head from her stomach. “I have to grab some things from a shitty motel. Less foot travel from both of us is best right now. I’ll be back. Maybe before you wake up.”
Luca arched a brow.
He didn’t believe her.
“Are you going to run again?” he asked.
She should have expected that. Hell, he was owed it.
“I’ll be back,” she said.
As good as a promise.
And she wouldn’t argue.
If people hadn’t figured it out yet, Penny was going to do whatever she wanted and needed to do whether someone else wanted her to do it or not. It would happen. They could get in line, or move out of the way.
She adored Luca.
But he wasn’t an exception.
“Come back,” he murmured.
“I said I would.”
“And still—”
“I will.”
The sharpness of her words sent him rising up to hover above her. He was quite a sight—every hard line of his muscles from the ropes that made up his arms to the bands of his shoulders, and even the hard expanse of his chest. If living artwork was a thing, then Luca was surely it.
A drug.
Made just for her.
She wanted another hit.
As quickly as the two had melted into silence to watch the darkness creep through the skies, they as easily moved back into something carnal. All it took was the widening of her thighs when he pressed in between her, and the way she dragged her fingernails from his chest down to his stomach and over his sides.
He got himself hard by kissing her while she rubbed against him. She found paradise when he filled her full, the sting of being stretched open again that night too delicious not to share. Her nails bit into his skin to give it back just as much.
He said nothing.
No dark words.
No dirty promises.
Not while he watched and fucked her. He just took in everything she gave. Each little sound. How her air started to catch when his pace came in with fast, long relentless strokes. His hands tightened to her small waist, holding tight enough to hurt while her fingers locked around his wrists.
She came hard like that.
She bet he still didn’t believe her, though. He wouldn’t say it—but he was hurt. Because she left him. She didn’t give him a reason not to be.
Either way ...
Penny would come back.
“ACTUALLY, SHE JUST walked through the door, Naz,” Luca said as the hotel’s door clicked shut under Penny’s hand.
She hadn’t expected to sleep beyond nine—she blamed Luca for that—so the trip to the motel took longer than she expected. With the sun crawling high in the sky, it was already well past noon. At least, Luca didn’t seem surprised that she was back.
Maybe he had believed her.
She didn’t expect to get back and find him on the phone with Nazio, though. She didn’t know whether to deal with that first, or the fact that the small nineteen-inch flatscreen television was turned on showcasing a news reporter discussing her mother.
Allegra’s face—in a photograph from her wedding to Penny’s father—stayed plastered in the top, left-hand corner of the screen as the woman behind the glass desk spoke.
“Thousands of images of Allegra Dunsworth’s estranged—and currently missing—daughter, Penny Dunsworth, have surfaced all over the internet. What appeared as a file dump of child pornography on the dark web quickly made its way to the public interwebs on chat forums. It was a quick leap from there to being widely shared across social media platforms as people connected—”
“Shut it off,” Penny said, air stinging in her chest.
She knew it was going to hurt. She knew it would be bad. Yet. Penny hadn’t been ready.
Luca didn’t say anything, simply reached for the small remote to point at the television. It took a press of one button for the screen to blank out entirely. Immediately, she felt better. The anxiety ebbed away, but it was a false sense of security. Everything was still out there. She couldn’t take that back.
Ever.
Luca muttered something to the man on the phone. A quick, “Yeah, all right.” Then, he set it down on the small table beside the loveseat at the foot of the bed. She thought he hung it up, but apparently, he just put it on speakerphone.
“She there?” Naz asked.
Penny swallowed hard, giving Luca a look.
He only shrugged back.
Damn.
“I’m here,” she said.
Naz took a second.
And then another.
“You dumped the files?”
Penny glanced Luca’s way, but he watched the dark screen of the television like he couldn’t get the image out of his head of the reporter discussing the thousands of files—she knew it was horrifying. The images and videos of her abuse ranged from simple scenes of grooming to totally debasing acts.
Had he seen some?
It was an unfortunate by-product of her choice. Innocent people would have to be affected—and subjected—to the dark reality in the world. She was sorry for that. Regret was a whole other matter entirely.
“I had someone else dump the files,” Penny told Naz. “Yes.”
Had he wanted a different answer?
Penny didn’t care to ask.
“I’ve essentially plastered Allegra’s history and the things she would rather hide where everyone can see,” Penny said. “I’ve ruined any chance of her soon-to-be husband continuing his political career beyond what he has. I’m sure the consensus among his team is no comment, and I assume Allegra’s side of things will be the same. Let them lick their wounds while they plan a funeral for her father. It gives me some time to get ahead.”
Luca let out a hard breath. “Well ...”
“Yeah,” Naz muttered in reply on the phone.
Penny never said this would be easy.
None of it.
“We miss you, Penny,” Naz said suddenly. “I hope you know that.”
Luca gave her a small smile. She couldn’t help but do the same back when she replied to the man on the phone, “I know, and when this is all o
ver ...”
She stopped herself from saying more.
Naz chuckled, saying, “Yeah, when this is all over.”
Things would be different.
She needed that.
14.
Luca
PENNY dropped a single duffle bag to the couch when the call clicked off with Naz. Luca dipped his chin in the direction of the bag, asking, “Did you get everything you needed?”
“Well, I didn’t bring anything I don’t need.”
Smartass.
He liked it, though.
Penny shrugged and ripped open the zipper on the bag to show him what was inside. Other than the pack for the dismantled sniper rifle she’d been using the night before, she hadn’t been traveling with more. He gave the items at the top of the bag a cursory glance; it wasn’t anything particularly interesting and everything that he expected.
Bands of cash.
Clothes.
Knives.
He suspected there were probably a couple of guns at the bottom, and whatever else Penny might need to get by.
“I had more,” she said, pulling the zipper closed again, “just in case. But I don’t really need it. Dumped it on the way back here.”
“As long as you’re satisfied.”
She gave him a second look.
Fuck.
Maybe Luca hadn’t tempered his tone enough to hide the anxious note lingering in his words.
“You didn’t think I would come back,” she said.
Luca sighed. “You really don’t give me many reasons to assume otherwise.”
“That’s fair.”
But here she was.
And they had bigger things to deal with. Even Luca knew that. His hurt feelings and anything else that might get in the way and complicate shit could wait a while. He was fine with that.
“And consider before you make another phone call,” Penny said, pointing at the phone he had left sitting where he put it on speakerphone earlier, “that if Allegra or anyone else from her side of things manages to connect you to me right now, we are one step away from Naz, Roz, or—”
“I don’t need the reminder. And I think we’re safe.”