by Piper Rayne
Luca eyes me across the room, non-verbally asking if I’m ready. He kicks the ball through the hoop and I catch it on my back, popping it off, starting off with another twist and turn of my body keeping the ball going. Kicking it high in the air, I hit it off my head through the small hula hoop right to Luca.
Everyone cheers and I see Ollie smiling with everyone else over at Luca who is on his back, his feet pedaling the ball in the air. He kicks it in the air and I’m even floored when it falls into the basketball hoop Sam is now holding up.
Claps roar and Luca springs to his feet, rolling the ball over to me. I stop it with my toe and then roll it up. I’m sure Luca has practiced that move a million times with his friends, but I’ve never tried to get a soccer ball through a basketball hoop.
Luca claps getting the crowd to follow his rhythm while nerves weigh like boulders in my stomach. Delaying the inevitable, I kick the ball, closing my eyes so as not to see when the ball ricochets off the edge of the hula hoop.
At the yells and roars hit my ears, I open one eye to see Luca running toward me with a huge smile. He picks me up and swings me around.
“I knew you could do it!”
My arms tighten around his neck and for a moment he really feels like my fiancé. A man who loves my crazy competitive side and believes I can do whatever I set my mind to. He brings our spinning to a stop and I slide down his hard body until my feet reach the floor.
“Still think it was a stupid idea?” he asks, quirking one eyebrow my way.
“I’ll never admit different,” I say with a smile.
He chuckles, his head falling back, and I stare at his Adam’s apple and five o’clock shadow that starts under his chin. I have the urge to kiss him there, run my tongue over the coarse hairs there until I reach his lips.
Every part of me wants to call a truce for one night only. Get him out of my system because surely that’s all I need. It’s been too long since I’ve had sex and my sudden attraction to him has to be because my hormones are going crazy.
His chin dips back down, his eyes on me. Our vision locks and for a moment I almost rise up to my tiptoes. His slide gaze slides to my hips and I swear he leans forward.
“Great job!” Sam’s voice through the microphone has me jumping back. “Let’s hear it for Lauren and Luca.”
Everyone else claps and we do a bow before leaving the stage where I pull my dress down then strip off the pink lycra, pushing my heels back onto my feet.
We leave the stage to find our seats and all that’s running through my mind is not whether we’ll win or not, but whether he felt the shift between us, too.
Fuck, I should’ve come stag to the Christmas party.
I have to bite down my smile over how happy I am that I didn’t.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lauren
I’m in the middle of a pretty great dream when someone jumps into bed with me.
At least I feel really, really happy until I realize there’s a man pressed to my back and his arm is dangerously close to my breasts.
“What the?” I whip up only to find a bare-chested Luca next to me.
“Shh.” He presses his finger to my lips and he slides forward.
So close that I can feel his small fry pressing against my hip now.
“Luca!” I scold inching away.
He glances down like he doesn’t understand what I’m referring to, then laughs. “It’s the morning. What do you expect?”
I hear a door close downstairs.
My eyes widen and I push him on the chest. “Get out of my bed. What will they think?”
He pulls the blankets up and tries to manhandle me to lay back in bed. I’m not even sure what I got dressed in after the Christmas party, so I lift the covers. A pair of boxer shorts and a cami. Nothing too revealing.
There’s a lot of commotion in the kitchen now.
I throw the covers off me and get out of bed.
“What are you doing?” Luca asks, who I now realize is wearing a pair of boxer briefs with a very large fry bulging out the front.
The throbbing between my thighs is immediate and I quickly avert my gaze.
“I’m going downstairs. We could be getting robbed.”
I peek out my window onto the street and let the curtain fall back when I spot Maddie’s car.
“It’s Maddie and Mauro.”
Luca’s shaking his head. “Not Mauro. He’s working.”
“Which means?
He nods, inviting me back into the bed with him.
“Keep that thing away from me.” I point.
He looks down, impressed with himself he smiles up at me. “You sure about that?”
“UGH,” I say just as I hear footsteps on the stairs.
I hop back into the bed and we flip flop around trying to find a position without his junk touching me.
The doorknob turns and I roll onto my side. Luca panics and rolls in behind me, his hard dick sitting right between my ass cheeks. His hand rests right below my breasts and he brushes my hair from my neck and rests his lips on the skin at the bottom of my neck.
My body ignites like a roaring fire with no extinguisher in sight. I call upon the strong willpower I’ve developed through sports to get through this.
The bedroom door opens and almost immediately all I hear is, “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Maddie rushes out, putting her hand over her eyes and slamming the door.
Luca chuckles into my neck and I swear he circles his hips.
“Stop it,” I say.
“What? I’m literally just lying here,” he whispers.
“Maddie?” I call out.
“I’m so sorry. I forgot…I’ll be downstairs.”
The descending footsteps on the wooden floors and stairs tells us she’s nowhere near us anymore, but still I find myself staying in place. Being pressed against this man feels nice.
Luca doesn’t move either.
I’m not sure what game of Russian roulette we’re playing this morning.
“Lauren,” he whispers and I inhale a deep breath.
His finger runs down the length of my torso until his long fingers wrap around my hip and this time I’m not imagining the circling of his hips and the hard length of his cock pressing against me.
“What?” I ask, breathless and intoxicated from his scent, his touch, his everything.
“Last night,” he says softly, not stopping the rhythm of his hips. His breath tickles me right under my earlobe. “I had a good time.”
“Me, too.” I sound like I’m panting. Maybe I am.
I allow my eyes to drift closed and push my ass back into him. My clit throbs, begging for some attention of its own.
“I have a confession.”
This is it. He’s going to tell me what he said at the party about us as teenagers was true. That he did have a crush on me. We can address it and maybe figure out this thing between us.
“Yeah.”
He shifts forward, leaving no space between us.
“No!” a scream sounds from downstairs.
Luca throws the covers off us and flies out of bed. I follow, running down the stairs.
Each of us find Maddie with the phone clutched in her hand, her teary eyes on the television.
“Another one.” She points.
Luca and I follow her finger to read the breaking news that there’s another fire at an abandoned warehouse and at least one firefighter is being transferred to the hospital.
“I keep getting Mauro’s voicemail.” She pulls the phone from her ear with a shaky hand only to immediately hit redial.
“Sit down for a second. I’m sure it’s not Mauro,” I say.
Maddie allows me to guide her to the couch. When I turn to find Luca for some guidance on how to handle this, he isn’t there.
I take the phone out of Maddie’s hands. “You know he can’t call you. He won’t have his phone on him on a call anyway.” I place it on the other side of my hips.
She rock
s back and forth, her body trembling as her eyes stay laser-focused on the television.
The cameraman zooms out and three firetrucks with their ladders extended and water shooting down show on the screen. The ground is a mess of yellow, blue and red flashing lights. I have no idea how Maddie’s been handling this with everything that’s happened in the past months.
“I’ll be back.” Luca runs down the stairs, dressed now and out of the house.
“I’m coming!” Maddie runs out, forgetting her jacket and phone.
“Maddie!” I screech.
Luckily, Luca stops her at the bottom of the stairs outside. “It’s fine. I’ll message you as soon as I have word. Just do me a favor, someone go over to Ma’s.” His gaze rests on me.
I nod.
“I’m sure he’s fine. Mauro is the best firefighter I know and…” He lowers his eyes to hers. “I know a lot.”
Figures, Luca can pull a laugh out of someone at a time like this.
His phone rings in his pocket, he stares at it for a second and then answers. “Cris. Yeah, I’m at the house. Maddie’s here.” He listens and walks away for a moment. I shiver, clinging to Maddie for comfort.
Luca walks back over to us, where he shrugs off his jacket and hands it to me. “Cris is on it. He was already on his way for a run so he’ll stop by the fire station.” Luca doesn’t look very convinced at this new plan, but he nods for us to get back in the house.
We all head back into the house, Maddie taking her place on the couch, her eyes searching for Mauro with every firefighter they show on screen. Luca nods for me to follow him.
When we reach the kitchen, we discover bags of groceries sitting on the counter.
Luca sneaks a peek in them, shaking his head. “Sauce ingredients. When will they ever fucking trust me?” He slams the bag of tomatoes back down on the counter, the insides leaking from under his palm.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, the fact we were in the middle of something and now.” He gestures to the tomatoes dripping down the cabinet.
“Yeah, let’s talk,” I urge. The topic is long overdue.
“I think we both got carried away which is probably normal since we’re pretending to be engaged and all.” His voice is whisper soft.
I tense for a moment before I’m able to get a response out. “Yeah, of course.”
“I mean unless…” He almost seems like he’s waiting for me.
“No, you’re right and last night was just so...”
“It was.” His confirmation pulls a smile from me. “Except for the part where we came in second.”
Who would have thought that yodeling could outdo our soccer skills?
“True. But still…”
“Yeah.” He sighs.
“I’ll run up and take a shower.” I need something to shed this skin of bitter disappointment.
He glances down at the tomatoes. “I’ll clean this up. And Lauren?”
I turn back to him from the archway of the room. “Thanks for…understanding.”
I nod not sure if he means the fact that he was allowing his dick to rule him upstairs and now he’s made it clear where he stands or if he means for today, going to his mom’s.
I shrug like it’s nothing. “Sure. I kind of owe you after last night.”
He glances down to the ground one more time and back to me, his honest and genuine coffee-colored hues burning through me. “You owe me nothing.”
I nod. “Yeah, but last night…”
“What happened last night?” Maddie comes breezing into the kitchen like the last ten minutes never happened. “Oh, your Christmas party. How was it?”
She sits down on the stool at the breakfast bar and notices the smashed tomatoes. “You ruined the tomatoes, how are we going to make sauce?”
“Maddie?” I ask.
“I saw him on the television getting back on the truck so I’m sure he’ll call me soon. I’m so sorry for worrying you. You guys looked so comfy in bed.” She starts unpacking the bags. “I already called your mom and Cristian to apologize for ruining their morning.” She crunches the plastic bags in her hands. “So, the plan is that we’re going to make the sauce here and take it over because Zia says she’s got a lot going on over there today and there’s no room for our mess.”
“Mess? When did this turn into a we? It was supposed to be me?” Luca asks.
“Well, they said you know the recipe and I really want to learn it.” She sheepishly looks to Luca who smiles over at me and shakes his head.
“I’ll be in the shower.” I escape the room and Luca’s eyes that feel like they can see my every thought.
Once I’m secure in my bedroom with the door locked, I lean against the door and bang the back of my head against it a few times. Another day of acting ahead of me.
“This is a good thing, Lauren. Nothing good could come of you and Luca.”
I get in the shower and rinse off last night’s makeup and hopefully all the feelings I’m starting to have for Luca.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Luca
I come in through the back door because I finally got Lauren to give me a garage door opener for my car. I step out of my shoes, head out of the kitchen, through the dining room to the family room where I find Lauren with a spoonful of cookie dough in her mouth. She’s in a pair of sweatpants with a tight cami and an unzipped sweatshirt. I know she’s sans bra since her nipples greet me first. Her hair is in a high bun revealing her slender neck that I’ve wanted to bite and nibble my way up and down.
She spots me from the corner of her eye and scrambles for the remote. The spoon falling into the bowl of cookie dough in her lap. I wait patiently because it’s a funny scene.
She flicks the channel and an announcer talking stats turns my attention to the television. I’m fairly sure that’s not what was on when I walked in.
It’s been a whole week since I almost confessed my feelings to her. We’ve been able to co-exist in this house because I’ve had a million things on the go this week and she has, too. Other than Sunday dinner, I’ve seen her once on the way out of the shower and another time in the garage. Having nothing else to do today, I wouldn’t mind falling down next to her and sharing that spoon to indulge in a little cookie dough.
“Good morning,” I say, sitting next to her.
“You want the TV?” she asks, already collecting all her things. I notice that one of those things is the crumpled tissues next to her.
“What were you watching?” I reach for the remote, but she grabs it off the cushion before I can. “You’re hiding something,” I slide closer, reaching over her body for the remote.
She tries to hold it up higher. “No, I’m not. I’m watching the highlights from last night. Speaking of which, when do I get to go to the next Blackhawks game?” She raises those perfect eyebrows at me while moving the remote under her leg since she knows I have her beat in height.
“I’ve had to work most of their play days and then Saturday…” I leave it hanging because Saturday were my tickets but I swapped so I could go to her party.
“You gave up your Blackhawks tickets for my party?”
“Of course. That was a stipulation for you to act like my fiancée, remember?
“Yeah but… I’m sorry.” She puts the bowl of cookie dough on the table.
“Don’t be. I had a lot of fun.”
Just as I have her feeling bad about me missing the Blackhawks game I move my hand over her and under her thigh to grab the remote.
“You sneak!” she yells, her hand gripping mine, nails digging into my skin.
“Ouch!” I retract my hand and she stands up, hiding the remote behind her back. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“No.” She shakes her head.
I’m sure she’s gripping it pretty hard behind her, but I stand, towering over her and putting our bodies flush so I can wrap my arms around her.
“You play unfair,” she says, wiggling around in my
arms.
I could tighten my grip, but this is way too much fun, so I let her flail in my arms like a fish out of water.
“Come on.” My hands feel the metal and plastic but she pushes her breasts right into me, and her nipples poke me through my thin shirt. My dick stirs to life in my pants.
“Why do you care?” she asks, escaping my hold.
I knew I should’ve tightened my arms. She jumps up on the couch, barely getting the height advantage now. I could step up on the couch, but her tits are in my face now and what heterosexual man wouldn’t want that?
Her arms are held up straight in the air and she’s shimmying back and forth giving me a tease I’m quite enjoying, but I need to keep playing this game of keep away, otherwise, she’ll be on to me.
I pick her up by the waist and this time I do tighten my arms.
Her fists nail my shoulder blades and I figured this would go no other way. Laying her down on the couch, I lean over her, searching for the remote. Her one leg winds around mine, her body like a python. How do I continue to underestimate her strength?
“Luca!” she yells when I try to tickle her and she dodges my fingers.
“You’re ticklish?” I go after her again, but she shifts her weight farther into the couch.
I have no idea where the remote is now.
Her hips shoot off the couch, her leg gripping mine. “Oh my God.”
She’s got a smile on her face, laughing. And it’s beautiful.
Her hands grab mine, jarring me from my thoughts and I lose my balance, falling on top of her. We both hold still.
Our eyes meet and everything disappears except her lips. They’re all I see. Her tongue slides out of her mouth and she licks her fuller lower lip and it feels like an invitation. Does she mean it as one? All the reasons this won’t work evaporates from my thoughts, leaving me with one subject on my mind—how good would it feel to kiss Lauren Hunt? Are her lips as soft as I’ve imagined? Will she try to take the reins or let me control the pace?
I can’t pull my vision from her lips. The shine from where she licked them teases me and I can practically taste the cookie dough she was eating when I walked in. Shifting, she opens her legs and I fall between them. My athletic pants and her sweatpants leave only the thinnest layer between us and I can feel the heat between her legs calling to me. It has to be a sign that she’s into this.