by Amy Andrews
‘I’ll get another round,’ Luca said. He climbed out of the booth and watched bemused as Mia took a step back. ‘Is that vodka and orange?’
Mia shook her head. ‘Just orange.’
He frowned. ‘You’re not on call, are you?’
‘Nope. Just not drinking.’
Luca slid a glance at the table, where the merits of a journal article were being debated. He looked back at Mia. ‘Are you worried you may lose your inhibitions?’ he murmured, dropping his voice a little. ‘I don’t need alcohol to lose mine.’
Mia, aware of how close he was standing, felt the pronunciation of inhibitions slide right down her spine. His English was perfect but the occasional word leant towards his native Italian.
‘I wasn’t aware you had any,’ she said, her voice steely.
Luca walked away chuckling, deep and low. Unfortunately, that was exactly where Mia felt it—deep and low.
Standing at the bar a couple of minutes later, Luca rattled off the drinks order and waited for Pete to return with them.
‘Here you are, Luca,’ Pete said, placing them on a round tray.
‘Thanks.’ Luca handed over the money.
‘You’re with Mia, I see,’ Pete said casually. ‘Great girl.’
Luca nodded, his gaze straying back to a smiling Mia. She was wearing a long skirt, a turtle-neck skivvy and black knee-high boots. He’d been fantasising about her in those boots, just the boots, all day.
‘Yes,’ he agreed. Except they weren’t the words he’d have used. Sexy, feisty, prickly seemed to suit her so much better.
‘Fantastic doctor,’ Pete pressed, joining Luca in his observation of Mia.
Now, those were words Luca would use. ‘Yes, she is,’ he agreed.
‘Hard to believe someone like that’s still single,’ Pete mused.
Luca looked back at the bartender. ‘And why is that, do you think?’
Pete looked Luca direct in the eye. ‘Men these days scare too easily. They buy into her I’m fine exterior.’
‘And she’s not?’
Pete shook his head. ‘Of course she’s not. She just doesn’t know it yet.’
They watched her again for a moment or two. ‘But don’t tell her I told you that,’ Pete added.
Luca laughed, picking up the tray. ‘Deal.’
‘So, Luca.’ Susie, desperate for a topic change, watched Luca slip back in beside Mia. ‘Sicily, huh?’
Luca nodded as the familiar feeling of dread and loss and yearning threatened to swamp him. He pushed them back. ‘That’s right.’
Mia glanced at Luca as she felt his thigh, jammed against hers, tense. This close to his delectable profile she could see the clench of his jaw.
‘Where exactly?’ Susie continued, unaware of Luca’s reluctance to talk about his past. Especially his home.
Luca forced himself to breathe out, to loosen the suddenly tense muscles of his neck. ‘Marsala.’
‘Like the wine?’ she asked.
Luca nodded. ‘Yes. Like the wine.’
‘We never got to Sicily,’ Susie said. ‘But we adored Italy, didn’t we, John?’
John nodded. ‘Europe as a whole. We’re actually going skiing in France at the end of the year.’
Luca slowly relaxed each muscle group as conversation moved to travel but a pall had been cast over the evening. If it wasn’t for the alluring press of Mia against his side, he’d have excused himself almost immediately.
But her nearness held him in check. He’d been aware of her since she’d first entered the bar and he could tell she was more than aware of him. There was a crackle between them that had nothing to do with the delicious rub of their thighs.
And after the way the conversation had turned tonight he couldn’t think of a better way of keeping the memories of Marsala at bay than getting lost in Mia for a while.
To hell with their one-off pact.
Teo drained his cola and stood. ‘I have to go back to The Harbour and check on a patient then I’d better head home. Emma’s teething and keeping Zoe and me up most of the night.’
‘Teething already?’ Susie marvelled. ‘Isn’t six months a little early?’
Teo shook his head. ‘Every baby is different.’ And he grinned at them because even with the sleepless nights, Zoe and Emma had made him happier than he’d ever thought possible.
‘Aw,’ Rupert, also happily married, teased. ‘Ain’t love grand?’
Mia, barely able to suppress an eye roll at Teo’s goofy expression, saw her second chance at escape. ‘Yep, me too. Early start.’
‘Same here,’ Luca said, letting her out. ‘I’ll walk you to your car.’
Mia felt a thickening in the air between them as their gazes skittered past each other. Yep, like that’s what she needed right now. Sex-on-legs escorting her anywhere.
But, sensing he was as desperate to get away as she was, she nodded her head graciously. They said their goodbyes and made their way through the throng to the coat stands by the front door.
‘I’m not driving,’ Mia said as she shrugged into her coat. ‘I live just down at Kirribilli Views. I walk to work. I don’t need an escort.’
Luca smiled as he adjusted the collar on his suit jacket. ‘What a coincidence. So do I.’
Mia’s fingers fumbled with the tie of her coat. Of course he did. ‘Of course you do,’ she said faintly. She hadn’t seen him around but it was a big place populated with shift workers.
Luca chuckled as he opened the heavy wooden door and gestured for her to precede him. He looked back over his shoulder as he departed. Pete grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
CHAPTER FOUR
MIA buried her hands in her coat pockets as her warm breath fogged into the night air. She glanced at Luca, who had only his suit jacket to fend off cold winter fingers. But he looked warm and vital—like a walking hot-water bottle. She shook the tempting image of her wrapped around him in bed from her head. It was disconcerting to say the least when the streets were dark and practically deserted and they kept passing interesting alcoves and alleyways where two people could warm up really quickly.
Mia clamped down on the direction of her thoughts and the strange undulation of her pelvic floor muscles. ‘Aren’t you cold in that?’ she groused.
Luca shrugged. ‘Two beers help.’
Mia nodded. ‘I don’t drink much,’ she replied.
Why she felt the need to share that she had no idea, but she could feel his pull and knew she was on a slow march towards an inevitable ending. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be between them and she felt suddenly nervous.
‘You don’t like it?’ Luca enquired.
Mia shook her head. ‘I went through a stage where I liked it a little too much.’
‘Ah,’ Luca said, intrigued by the nugget of information. Was this what Pete had alluded to? ‘Care to elaborate?’
Not bloody likely! Mia couldn’t believe she’d told him that much. Damn this man! But there was something about him, a recognition that they were the same, that seemed to loosen her lips around him. Still, she had absolutely no intention of reliving two years of booze and bad men with him.
The past was the past.
‘No,’ she said. He quirked an eyebrow at her and she said, ‘It’s complicated.’
They walked in silence for a few moments. ‘I suppose a man from Marsala probably doesn’t understand that.’
Luca tensed. He’d been enjoying the build-up between them as each footstep took them closer to their apartments. To their beds. The footpath had narrowed and their arms brushed; her body warmth mixed and flirted with his. Their footsteps matched, their breathing synchronised.
But suddenly that was forgotten.
Mia turned her head to face him. ‘How long ago did you leave?’
Luca bit down on the urge to laugh at her choice of words. Leaving implied consent. He hadn’t been given a whole lot of choice. ‘I was sixteen.’
She whistled. ‘That’s a long time.’
Luca chuckled, trying to divert the conversation. ‘Are you implying I’m old?’
Mia laughed too and let it peter out. ‘You’re a long way from home, Luca,’ she mused.
Although she, more than anyone, knew that geographic proximity had nothing to do with that sense of ‘home’. She’d grown up a twenty-minute drive from here and it may as well have been Italy for all the connection Mia felt to the brick and mortar house where her mother still resided. Mainly on the couch.
Luca kept his gaze firmly fixed on the illuminated arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge he could just see through the treetops. ‘Yes.’
Mia smiled. ‘Care to elaborate?’
‘No.’
‘Word on the grapevine is you studied medicine in London. I thought Italian mamas liked to keep tabs on their sons. No decent universities in Italy?’
Luca saw his mother’s broken face again on that horrible day that had changed everything. The sorrow and disappointment etched in lines that had seemed somehow instantly deeper. He schooled his expression as he looked at Mia and repeated her response.
‘It’s complicated.’
Mia nodded. If anyone understood that, she did. And she understood the underlying message—butt out. She got that too.
They lapsed into silence again but she was aware of him large and silent beside her. Aware of his tension and his potent, brooding masculinity.
‘Here we are,’ she announced unnecessarily as the doors to the ten-storey apartment complex loomed ahead.
Luca dragged himself out of the sticky web of his past. ‘Yes,’ he murmured. He looked down at her. ‘Your place or mine?’
Mia swallowed. She should have been outraged at his assumption. But he was looking at her intently with that devil mouth and heat was flooding through her belly and tightening her breasts.
She didn’t do repeat performances, that was her golden rule, but, heavens above, she wanted him.
‘Yours,’ she murmured huskily. ‘I share with Evie.’
He held her gaze for a moment before opening the door for her and following her to the lift. They rode it to the ninth floor in silence, Luca propped against one wall, staring across at Mia propped against the opposite wall. The bold way she returned his gaze tugged at his groin and his whole body tightened in anticipation.
Mia felt utterly dominated as Luca lounged against the wall, arms crossed. His gaze raked her body lingering on her breasts, her thighs, her boots. Then travelled all the way back up again to rest on her mouth.
The seconds ticked by as his eyes locked on her lips. Her tongue darted out to moisten them, a nervous gesture.
His nostrils flared. She swallowed.
His arms dropped. Her heart skipped a beat.
He took a step towards her. She tensed.
The lift dinged. He stopped. She breathed again.
‘Ladies first,’ he murmured. ‘Number nineteen.’
Mia walked on legs made of Plasticine to the indicated apartment, aware of his eyes on her the whole time. She could barely breathe by the time she pulled up in front of his door.
Absently she reached for the doorhandle the same time he did. He sucked in a breath. ‘Your hands are freezing,’ he murmured.
‘Yes,’ she agreed. That was because all her blood had drained to her belly and breasts. In fact, apart from her torso she felt cold right through to her bones. She even shivered involuntarily.
Luca grinned at her as he pushed open the door. ‘I have the perfect solution.’
He tugged on her hand and she followed him into the toasty centrally heated apartment.
Luca strode into his bedroom, Mia in tow, flipping lights on as he went. He walked straight past his bed, turning right into a spacious en suite. He ushered her in, shut the door, flipped on a wall-mounted heater, opened the shower screen and turned the hot tap on full bore. Instant heat puffed into the air from the shower head.
He turned to look at Mia, shrugging out of his jacket. ‘Get naked.’
Mia quirked an eyebrow at his imperious command. ‘Boy, you sure know how to seduce a woman.’
Luca grabbed her by her coat lapels and hauled her up against him. He lowered his mouth and on a groan unleashed a truly devastating kiss.
Mia’s response was instantaneous. His mouth was hot, hot, hot and it fanned the flames burning in her belly to the rest of her body. Raising herself on tiptoe, she tunnelled her hands into his hair, pressed her breasts hard against the solid warmth of his chest.
His hands cupped her bottom, dragging their hips into alignment. Mia rubbed herself against him, causing a delicious friction that spread more warmth to every part of her body.
Luca groped for the tie of her coat and yanked it loose, his hands invading the cocoon of heat around her belly and stroking down her sides and back. He felt for her zip and undid it, pushing the skirt off her hips.
Mia broke away from the drugging intensity of his mouth, her rough breath almost as loud as the teeming shower that poured an endless supply of steam into the hothouse atmosphere.
She was hot now. Very, very hot.
She quickly stepped out of her skirt, removed her jacket and followed it with her skivvy.
Luca’s breath caught in his throat as she stood before him in matching champagne-coloured underwear and a pair of black knee-high boots.
He breathed out reverentially. ‘Mia bella,’ he murmured. Thoughts of the mess he’d left behind in Marsala were now a distant memory.
Mia blushed. She had no idea what that meant but it sounded pretty damn complimentary to her. Which spurred her on even more. Removing the clasp from her hair, she shook it free so it fell down her back and flowed over her shoulders in a golden stream.
Aware that Luca, hands on hips, was watching her every move between heavy eyelids, she lifted a booted foot and placed it on the edge of the bath. She leaned forward until her breasts were brushing her thigh and slowly—very, very slowly—undid the side zipper on her boots.
Luca heard every one of the zip teeth release as he watched Mia intently. She had her back to him and his gaze roved hungrily over the brief triangle of fabric encasing the enticing wiggle of her butt cheeks. He lifted it higher to the indentation that formed the small of her back. Higher still to the long delicate stretch of her spine partially obscured by her long blonde tresses.
Mia looked over her shoulder at him and smiled as she straightened and flicked the boot off. The steam was building in the bathroom and her face felt flushed, although the kick in her pulse told her it had more to do with Luca’s smouldering look than the atmospheric conditions.
When she turned back to bend over the other boot, Luca couldn’t hold back. He moved in close behind her, pushing her hair off one shoulder and leaning forward to drop a kiss. His hands gripped her hips and pulled her against him, snuggling her bottom into the heat of his groin.
Luca was consumed with the erotic image in front of him. He fully clothed, his erection straining for release, Mia scantily clad and bent provocatively in front of him. He wanted to tear her knickers off and take her right here and now.
He pulled her in tight.
Mia’s hand faltered on the zip as Luca circled his hips against her. She shut her eyes as he created delicious havoc in just the right spot, her breath coming faster. The boot forgotten, one foot still propped on the bath edge, she straightened, arching her back against him, her arms snaking up behind her to clasp around his neck, gratified to feel both of his hands slide up from her hips, over her belly and higher.
‘Mia,’ he groaned into her ear as his hands found her satin-clad breasts.
Mia whimpered, biting her lip as he squeezed and flattened then peeled the cups aside and ran the pads of his thumbs against her tight, bare nipples.
‘I want to be inside you,’ he murmured, his lips finding her neck and licking all the sensitive areas.
Mia opened her mouth to answer but one of his hands moved lower and dipped beneath the band of her underwear, seeking
the slick heat of her. He ploughed a finger through her aching sex and found just the right spot, causing her to lose all vocal ability.
‘Mia,’ he murmured as she bucked against him. ‘You are hot here. Very, very hot.’
Mia couldn’t speak as one hand teased a nipple and the other moved rhythmically between her thighs. Her knee buckled slightly and she was vaguely aware of Luca pulling her back against him.
Her hands, however, had a mind of their own and while she left one anchored around his neck the other one sought to touch him as intimately as he was touching her.
She reached behind her, grabbing for his belt as her brain liquefied. One-handed and on an inexorable march towards orgasm, she managed the buckle and the zip and finally she was freeing him, his hard length surging into her palm.
Luca threw his head back on a groan, squeezing his eyes shut as she gripped him firmly and ran her hand up and down the length of him. The urge to bury himself in her, ram into all that slick heat as far as he could go, roared through him as his fingers picked up their pace.
Mia could feel the edges of her world starting to fray and she gripped his neck hard as a wild heat started to boil out of control in the deepest part of her. Her hand clamped around his girth became dysfunctional and uncoordinated as the all-consuming urge to ride his finger, seek her own pleasure, became a blinding imperative.
She sagged against him as standing upright became impossible. ‘Luca,’ she moaned.
‘Yes,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘Yes.’
‘Luca-a-a-a!’
She bucked as the orgasm slammed into her. It picked her up, whirled her round and smashed her back down only to lift her again—higher. She gasped and jerked against him, rocking her pelvis in sync with his fingers, squeezing every last liquid drop of pleasure out of it.
‘Yes, Mia, yes,’ he urged, rubbing harder and faster, pushing a finger deep inside her, feeling her clamp hard around him.
Mia moaned loudly as her body automatically accepted his penetration. It was shockingly satisfying and she cried out as another finger filled her.