by Leslie North
Forty-five minutes into the trip, Nicolo angled the kayak’s nose toward a sheer rock face.
“What are you doing?” Adeline asked as they neared the sheer wall of granite. The cliff towered above them, taller than the Romano del Mare would if they were to stand at her door.
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you, but…” Adeline held her breath as the kayak’s tip got closer to the rocks, but then the kayak’s angle changed—and so did Adeline’s whole world. With the side of the kayak practically touching the cliff face, the kayak’s nose now pointed at an opening—a channel with walls as high as the cliff itself. It had not been visible from further away because of how the rocky face of the cliff jutted out and blocked the opening from being seen.
Adeline instinctively pulled her paddle from the waters and held it against the side of the kayak as Nicolo navigated them through the narrow channel of rock. Ten feet in, the channel curved and the tip of the kayak’s bow scraped the wall in front of it, but Nicolo managed to keep them moving forward.
Adeline gasped as the end of the channel came into view and the entire world as she knew it changed yet again. Just like stepping through a door, Adeline found herself in an island bowl of stone and water. The cliffs towered above in every direction, and when she looked at the clear water below, she could just make out an underwater bottom that she guessed to be about ten feet down. It looked to be stone as well.
“How did you find this place?” Adeline asked, her voice full of awe.
“It was actually Leonardo, one of my older brothers. He showed it to me when we were kids. Touch the water, bedda.”
Adeline dipped her fingers into the clear, glass-smooth water as the kayak glided forward. She gasped again. It was as warm as a heated swimming pool.
“It’s all the rock and the shallow bottom. The sun heats it up.”
Adeline was already stripping off her shirt when she eagerly asked, “We’re swimming, right?”
“That’s the plan.” Nicolo laughed.
Adeline shimmied out of her shorts to reveal her string bikini bottom underneath, and then tipped herself, head first, into the water. She dove deep, determined to touch the bottom with the tips of her fingers before shooting back up to the surface for air. She was amazed at how the water got warmer instead of cooler the deeper down she went, as heat radiated off the rock bottom.
Breaching the surface, she splashed Nicolo, then squealed and swam away as he stood up in the kayak and tore his own shirt off. A huge splash followed close behind her as Nicolo cannonballed in, and he had her in his arms just as Adeline was about to reach the bowl’s edge.
Turning to face him, Adeline wrapped her arms and legs around him as he held them aloft with one steadying hand on the cliff’s face. Sinking her fingers into Nicolo’s thick, wet hair, she took charge in a kiss that soon had them both gasping for air.
“I want to make love. Here,” Adeline declared.
Nicolo’s eyes darkened with a smoldering heat that quickened Adeline’s heart and sent tingles through her body. “Take a deep breath, t’amu,” Nicolo instructed. “Take another.” He mimicked her, taking deep breaths as well, then he dove, taking them both down until their bodies separated but they kept one hand linked.
Nicolo led her down, so far down that Adeline feared she would have to break away and go back to the surface for air. But then she saw it. It was a small underwater cavern opening near the bottom of the rock bowl.
Adeline’s heart raced with fear. Underwater caverns were dangerous. People got lost in them and drowned in them, and they weren’t even wearing any scuba gear. Nicolo forged on, though, and this was the adventure she’d requested. So she chose to believe, and followed.
Nicolo’s hand tightened on hers into an unbreakable grip when the light faded to pitch black. The water was instantly colder, but not as cold as the open sea.
Five seconds later, maybe ten, just as true panic had crept its way into her heart, a bending shimmer of light reassured Adeline that the worst had passed. All the while, Nicolo was by her side, swimming and guiding. His strong strokes kept them moving forward faster than she could have done on her own. He moved with confidence and an absence of doubt, and when he angled them upward into the moving, dancing light, she held onto his one hand with both of hers as he torpedoed them up to the surface.
Adeline broke through the water’s surface gasping for air, and she threw her shaking, trembling limbs around Nicolo as he guided them through the water to a rock ledge at the far wall of the small, dark cavern. With an elbow on the ledge and another around her thighs just below her bottom, Nicolo lifted Adeline to sit on the ledge before hoisting himself up as well.
Adeline stared out at the view in front of her. “Where is this place?” she whispered. Even though her voice echoed in the small cavern, she felt as though she were in a cathedral, in a holy place meant for God and angels. Beams of light broke through small cracks in the rock face to create ribbons of light dancing in the water. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”
“I have,” Nicolo said, sliding his arm around her hip, “every day that I look at you. I love you, Adeline. I know that it’s fast, but I will not deny the truth of how my heart feels for you.”
“My grandfather said that he knew he would marry my grandmother within five minutes of meeting her,” Adeline said shyly, kicking herself for bringing up such a subject as marriage.
“If she was anything like you, I understand why.” Sliding a hand behind her neck to cup her head, Nicolo took Adeline in a kiss that curled her toes.
“I love you, too,” she breathed into his mouth.
The rock ledge, just inches above the water, was big enough for one person to lay down—or for two bodies to lay together. That is what Nicolo and Adeline did, and they moved together in their efforts to strip their bathing suits away. Nicolo hung them on the uneven surface of the cavern’s wall before kissing his way down Adeline’s body, then he was off of her and diving into the water.
“Nicolo? Nicolo!” Adeline called at his sudden disappearance, but she needn’t have worried because his head resurfaced inches away from the ledge.
“I’m going to devour you,” he proclaimed as he anchored his arms on the ledge and then took control of Adeline’s hips to swivel her toward him. His large hands guided her to drape her legs over his broad shoulders before he pulled her hips to the very edge of the rock shelf.
She was completely open to him and completely vulnerable, and she loved it. Every minute she spent with him was quickly becoming the best minutes of her life. Everything before was fading away, and every time she thought of her future, he was there.
Curling her fingers into his thick hair, she held on to him as he kissed his way up her thigh to the hot core that already throbbed in anticipation of his touch. When his lips finally closed on her, she gasped and then cried out at the intense, sudden pleasure. Her toes curled and she lifted her legs to balance her feet on his shoulders as he took what he wanted from her. His lips kissed, his teeth nipped and pulled, and his tongue plundered.
It was not long before Adeline’s body was shaking uncontrollably and her breath was coming in whimpered gasps.
“Nicolo… Nicolo, I need you inside of me. All of you! Please. Now!”
It was torture when his mouth left her body, then a surge of water slapped over her as he hoisted himself up onto the ledge next to her. But, this time he did not sit and he did not lay down. He stood to his full height on the narrow ledge, then bent deep. Nicolo slid an arm behind her back and beneath her legs and then lifted her from the rock’s ledge.
Water cascaded off of her, and she melted into Nicolo’s powerful embrace. He turned his back to the cavern and then shifted her, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. Nicolo’s thickly muscled arms were around her torso, one hand high on her ribs and the other under the curve of her hip. Nicolo’s mouth kissed a trail down her neck and shoulder before lifting her h
igher so that his mouth could capture her nipple.
Adeline’s fingers lost themselves in Nicolo’s hair once more as he flicked her tightened rosebud with his tongue before pulling it in for a hard, suctioned kiss. The want of having him inside of her coupled with the sensations of his mouth on her breast was almost more than Adeline could stand, and just about when she was ready to cry out that she could take no more, Nicolo’s mouth stopped his torture of her nipple… and moved to her other one. He was a little rougher this time, a little hungrier—in a way that felt good beyond reason to Adeline—and growled his frustration when she pushed his head away.
She pulled his head back by the grip of her hand on the crown of his head. Once his mouth could be reached, she attacked, kissing him with a ferocious need that left all of her sensibilities undone. She adjusted her hold on him as he let her slide down his chest. Then, she felt him reach below her and guide himself. His round head was swollen large, and she moaned into Nicolo’s kiss when he found his way inside of her.
The fight softened between them as a quiet, steady rhythm took its place. Adeline’s swollen nipples throbbed in time with the pulse of growing urgency at the depth of her core. There was something about the position. Something about the way he moved within her. He touched everything just right, and her entire body was trembling again within seconds. It took Nicolo’s strong arms to help her stay in place and the thrust of his talented hips to drive ecstacy into depths never before reached.
“Nicolo,” she whimpered as waves of tingling traveled up her spine.
“I’ve got you, t’amu.”
“It’s too intense.”
“Let go, t’amu. Let it happen.”
“It’s never felt like this.” Her head was dizzy as all the sensations from her core threatened to overwhelm her. With his mouth against her neck, Nicolo’s words lost their English and transformed into lyrical Italian as he drove his thick length into her at a relentless pace that had a spot at her greatest depth spasming out of control. Then, her womb seized and Adeline forgot how to speak as a tidal wave of pleasure overcame everything that she thought she knew about herself. Her body jerked uncontrollably and from somewhere within the all consuming pleasure, Adeline heard Nicolo growl again. His hips quickened their pace and all of his muscles beneath Adeline’s touch became like rigid steel.
“Adeline… Adeline!”
Molten heat flooded her insides as Nicolo shuddered in her arms. A moment later and they were in the water, holding onto each other with a desperation that was new to them. This was different than it had been at the resort, Adeline knew. Even though Nicolo was no longer inside of her, she could feel him as if he were still there and still moving. It made it difficult to think, but she struggled through as she tightened her arms around Nicolo’s shoulders and held on as if her life depended on it.
Don’t fall. Don’t do it. But, it was no use. Her heart was gone, and she leaned her ear against his whispering lips as he continued to espouse her beauty to the heavens above in the language of his homeland.
"I love you." She let her mouth form the words, but she did not give them voice. He might have her heart, but she wasn't ready to let him know that. Not yet. Someday—soon—she hoped, but not yet.
11
Adeline
Adeline had to swallow hard to keep from getting sick. Through the small window of Nicolo’s private jet she could see the rolling hills of Tuscany’s southern region—with its olive orchards and grape vineyards—ease past. It was beautiful, but she couldn’t get any pleasure out of it. All she could think of was the lie that hung between her and Nicolo. Every time she looked at him now, it was her deception that she saw. It was the misuse of the man she now knew she loved. She had to tell him the truth. Tonight. It was going to destroy what they had. It was going to ruin everything, but she couldn’t go on hiding the truth anymore. Keeping that secret was tearing her apart.
Nicolo’s fingers laced with hers on the arm rest, and she turned to give him a weak smile, the best smile she could muster.
“You’ve been so quiet,” Nicolo said, his brows pinched with worry.
“I thought for sure you’d have to cancel again.” She hated herself a little more in that moment for putting the blame for her being out of sorts on him. That she was a wreck wasn’t his fault, and she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
“I’m so sorry, bedda. Negotiations for the new development project in India is requiring a lot more attention than I’d expected.”
“What about after the negotiations are done? What happens then?” If she were being honest with herself, she had to admit that she was not their only problem. Nicolo had been more and more absent from her life. Over the last six weeks his visits to Sicily had become less and less frequent and increasingly shorter. Even the nightly phone calls had dropped to a call once every three nights or so. He was drifting away from her like an unmoored boat being pulled out with the tide. All she could do was stand on the shore and watch it happen.
Nicolo’s lips parted in preparation to say something, but the pilot’s voice over the intercom interrupted him, leaving Adeline’s question unanswered.
“Arrival in Montepuciano in five minutes. Please prepare for landing by returning to your seats and buckling your safety belts.”
“The pilot has made arrangements to land on an airfield not far from the town,” Nicolo said as he buckled her in. “It’s not a full-fledged airport. It’s mostly just a landing strip for planes to land and then take back off. Then,” he said with an uptick of excitement in his voice, “instead of a car, I’ve requested a Vespa be waiting for us.”
“Like a motorcycle, right?”
“Si, bedda. I want to show you a good time tonight. A fun time. No stress and no worry.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it before shifting his attention to buckling himself in. “I have a confession to make, bedda.”
Adeline’s heart skipped a beat and hope surged within her. If he already knew her secret and was not mad at her, that meant that all was fine. It meant that they would be fine!
“I got a call from the boss man himself today. They were holding a last minute meeting and they wanted me to be there, but their last minute meets can go on all night. I knew that I would have to cancel on you yet again, and I couldn’t do it. So, I told the boss man no. Neerij was not happy.” Nicolo shifted so that he could look directly into Adeline’s eyes. “But it didn’t matter. I had to get back to you. I couldn’t go one more day without seeing you, bedda.”
Adeline’s heart sank but she did her best to keep a smile on her face. Her stomach turned over and once again she thought she might be sick. Nicolo didn’t know what she had done, and things between them would be far, far from okay.
The plane landed smoothly, and the two of them disembarked before climbing onto the waiting cream colored Vespa. With a helmet already on, Adeline leaned into Nicolo’s strong back and wrapped her arms around his tight waist. Nicolo started the Vespa’s engine and then gave her hands a rub where they lay flat against his abs, as if letting her know that they were about to move. He was always thinking of her, always looking out for her. He wanted to protect her, she knew, and it made her betrayal of him sit all the more painfully inside of her.
Holding onto him with every ounce of love that she could pour into him, Adeline lost herself in the passing countryside. It was more beautiful than anywhere she’d ever seen, except for Sicily, of course. There was no traffic on the road as they headed into Montepuciano. There was only good, clean air and a sense of time having slowed down. Nobody rushed here. Everything happened in its due time, and Adeline wished that she could hit pause so that their night together would never end.
I’ll do better, I promise! She just needed him to let them get past this coming moment when she would tell him everything. If he would do that, then they would be okay. But, if he cut her off and would have nothing more to do with her, that would be the end of them. She’d have no chance to show him that ever
ything else about their relationship had been genuine. She cared more about him than he knew. She cared more about him than anything else. But, they had to face tomorrow together or she’d have no chance to regain his trust. They’d be done.
In the sky, the day’s soft glow had reached the magic hour not long before nightfall, that time when the whole world seemed gentle and serene. By the time they reached the restaurant, Locanda Cicolina, the sun had reached its laziest spot in the sky just above the horizon. Inside the restaurant, they sat next to a window in order to enjoy the view of the sweeping olive orchard. Nicolo ordered maltagliati made with fresh herbs, garden vegetables, and local cheeses, and Adeline ordered pappardelle made with scallops and wild mushrooms. She wasn’t sure how she’d manage to eat, but she’d force herself through it.
Course after course of food came before and after their main selection, starting with aperitivo, a light selection of drinks and appetizers. An assortment of wines were brought for tasting throughout.
Through it all, Adeline remained demure as Nicolo tried again and again to pull her into spirited conversation. She could see his efforts, but she couldn’t make herself rise to them. Her heart was bleeding out from inside her chest and the room’s air was getting thicker, making it hard to breathe. Soon—so soon—she was going to destroy what mattered most to her, but she couldn’t go on without telling him the truth. She had to go through with it. She couldn’t face one more sleepless night thinking about it.
“Adeline,” Nicolo said, reaching between them, “you worry my heart.”
Adeline smiled weakly. It was the best she could do. “I’m sorry. I’ve been feeling a little worn down lately.”