Hot Chocolate

by Charlotte De Pace

  Annabella moaned, arching against the hard wall as Alessandro’s tantalising kisses worked their way from her mouth to the base of her neck.

  ‘Ale,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I think we should talk before—’

  She let out another moan as Alessandro moved one hand up to trace the lace of her bustline while he continued to nuzzle at her nape. He gently pulled down the fabric, leaving her upper body naked and ripe for his touch.

  ‘All we’ve done—’ He paused to softly lick her aching nipple. ‘Is talk. Enough talk, bella.’

  Alessandro moved to her other breast, taking its firm peak in his mouth, electrifying her entire body beyond reason. And Annabella wouldn’t protest this time. In this moment, in Ale’s seductive hold, this was exactly what she wanted.

  In one swift motion Alessandro lifted her, wrapping her legs around his waist, his hands supporting her behind as he strode them into the kitchen.

  He continued to tease her nipple with the flick of his tongue as he carefully sat her on the cool marble bench top. He paused to look at her directly, his eyes blazing with primal intensity. He reached behind her head to release her hair from its clasp. The thick tresses fell around her bare shoulders and down her back; the freeing movement was both empowering and sexy.

  Alessandro gently pushed her back onto the counter and ran his hand across her bare breasts and torso. She rose slightly to his electrifying touch that at once awakened her entire being. He slowly peeled off her dress entirely.

  ‘Amore mia,’ he groaned as he realised she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  Mariela had insisted that the fabric of the dress was so delicate even a G-string would ruin its line. Annabella had reluctantly complied at the time but was now glad she had, seeing Alessandro’s obvious appreciation.

  He slowly trailed kisses back up along Annabella’s stomach to her bare breasts, circling one nipple with his tongue. Annabella closed her eyes and leant back, raising her chest to his glorious touch.

  The countertop was the perfect height for Alessandro’s tall frame; his rock-hard arousal strained against the soft fabric of his trousers, pulsing between her thighs and already sending waves of pleasure to her core. Annabella couldn’t believe he seemed to be as turned on as she was; she ached to release him from his fabric confines and feel him directly against her aroused skin.

  Surprising herself with her boldness, she leant forward to lightly stroke his gloriously hard shaft.

  ‘Oh Dio,’ Alessandro moaned at her touch. Momentarily distracted from her breast.

  Emboldened by his obvious delight in her taking the lead, Annabella undid his fly and slipped her hand under the elastic band of his boxer shorts. She gasped as she wrapped her fingers around his silky smooth length, its breadth promising a world of pleasure. Holding Alessandro like this, in control of his increasing need, she’d never felt so empowered.

  ‘You’re driving me crazy,’ Alessandro moaned deeply. He moved over her and took her mouth in his, his tongue entwined with hers in perfect harmony.

  Annabella yearned to be closer to him. Any voices of doubt were silenced by her aching need to be consumed by Alessandro. She guided him towards her most intimate place as though that’s where he was destined to be. A perfect fit.

  She shivered with anticipation as she brushed the velvety tip of Alessandro’s erection against her own arousal. She controlled its direction, around and around her wet tender warmth as they both moaned with indescribable, aching pleasure.

  ‘Let me taste you.’ With a sudden urgency, Alessandro shifted, leaning down between her legs. He gently licked and sucked her swollen arousal as his fingers slipped inside her. His other hand possessed her breast as Annabella writhed on the benchtop. Intense desire surged through her body, the slow current quickly gaining speed with each awakening touch.

  ‘Now, Ale,’ she pleaded breathlessly as he increased the intensity of his strokes. She believed in delayed gratification but this was ridiculous. ‘Please.’

  ‘Oh, bella,’ he groaned, as he stood up between her legs, her need reflected in his enraptured eyes. He held her gaze as he teased her moist entrance with the soft tip of his erection. He dipped into her just slightly then achingly withdrew, then again and again, each time pushing her a little closer to the edge.

  Annabella lay back on the bench lifting her hips, urging him to go deeper, deeper.

  She was overcome with such delicious anticipation that she barely noticed Alessandro pull out a condom.

  ‘I almost forgot,’ he said huskily as he deftly removed it from its foil and sheathed his shaft in one swift movement. He pulled Annabella closer, locking her gaze; ravenousness intent stormed around his Mediterranean blue eyes.

  This time he took control and Annabella was willingly at the mercy of his exhilarating touch. Keeping eye contact, he circled her glistening opening once more with the tip of his shaft. Gently pushing inside her before pulling out again. Over and over, deeper and deeper. She had never known such intimacy and longing.

  Unable to take much more, she arched her back, physically begging for him to fill her completely and deliver her to the pure ecstasy that was just within her reach.

  As though sensing her need, or unable to control himself any longer, Alessandro plunged into her with such intensity she whimpered with wild delight. She wrapped her legs around his hips, drawing him even closer. He let out an animalistic groan and Annabella thrilled in the pleasure she was giving him.

  In one motion he lifted her with ease and strode them over to the sofa. Still inside her, he carefully sat them down on the soft leather with Annabella straddled on his lap.

  ‘Let me see you, bella,’ he groaned.

  He cupped her breast with one hand as his other worked on heightening her pleasure between her legs. She moved slowly up and down on Alessandro; an intense shot of ecstasy coursed through her each time she lowered onto him. His touch was almost too much to bear.

  Annabella arched backwards as she shifted her movements, now rocking back and forth increasing her tempo, her hair swaying freely as she rode Alessandro with wild abandon.

  ‘Come for me, amore mia,’ he whispered.

  His sensual words pushed her beyond her limit as she relinquished all control to the euphoria that consumed her entire being. Alessandro pulsed inside her as he clenched her hips and they rode the crest together. Wave after wave of absolute pleasure. Pleasure that, until being with Alessandro, had always eluded her.

  Annabella collapsed into his embrace, her chest against his. As though breathing as one, they slowly returned to the real world.

  ***

  The piercing ring of Alessandro’s phone jolted him awake. He couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t woken up of his own accord. He didn’t need alarms; he barely needed sleep. However, after last night’s mind-blowing sex marathon with Annabella, he’d fallen into the most restful sleep of his life.

  He looked at the phone. It was the hospital.

  ‘Pronto?’ He answered immediately, his chest tightening as he listened to his father’s doctor. ‘Si, si. Ciao.’ He hung up abruptly.

  ‘Ale? Is everything okay?’ Annabella asked sleepily as she sat up beside him on the edge of the bed.

  ‘I don’t … I don’t think so.’ He strode over to the wardrobe in a half-daze. ‘It’s my father. I’ve gotta get to the hospital,’ he said pulling on a T-shirt and jeans.

  ‘I’m coming with you.’

  ‘No, bella. It’s okay, you stay, rest. Take the day off.’

  ‘No, Ale. I’m coming with you.’ She was already out of bed, pulling on her clothes.

  ‘Fine, let’s go.’ He didn’t have the emotional strength to protest. He had to get to the hospital before it was too late.

  ***

  The smell of hospital antiseptic was now as familiar to Ale as the aroma of fine cacao. Both forever ingrained in his conscious because of his father. Since he’d arrived back in Turin, Ale had spent more time pacing up and down these
sanitary corridors than he had in his family’s villa.

  How he longed to be there again with his father. Sitting on the terrace in the afternoon sun, sipping limoncello while discussing their latest creations. Working together. It was a lifetime ago but the memory hadn’t faded.

  If Ale closed his eyes he could instantly picture those relaxing afternoons after a long day in the kitchen. The sweet scent of the creeping wisteria that covered the facade of the terrace enlivening his senses as he listened to his father’s melodic voice, full of enthusiasm for their shared passion. He’d been so proud this extraordinary man was his father and he had the privilege to work with him, learn from him.

  But that was before Ale’s life had changed forever. Before he realised that you couldn’t even trust those closest to you. And now here they were. The chance for redemption slowly fading away as his father lay motionless in a sterile hospital bed. Ale wasn’t ready for this.

  ‘Ale, it’s going to be okay. I just spoke to one of the nurses, they seem really positive,’ Annabella said as she sat down on the waiting-room chair beside him, squeezing his hand gently.

  ‘That’s their job, bella. They’re paid to be positive.’ He knew how he sounded and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her and see the optimism in her eyes. He was a realist.

  ‘Maybe,’ she said gently. ‘But they’ve known your father for a while now and they really care about him.’

  ‘Sure, he’s a real ladies’ man,’ Alessandro said dryly. He ran his hands through his hair as he leant back in his chair and rested his head against the wall. ‘He wouldn’t be here if he’d been able to keep it in his pants.’

  ‘Ale!’

  ‘I’m sorry, bella, I know you mean well. But you don’t understand.’ Ale sighed as he closed his eyes, he barely understood his father himself.

  ‘Tell me,’ Annabella said softly, taking his hand in hers. ‘Help me understand.’

  Ale opened his eyes and looked down at her slender fingers entwined with his, her fair skin starkly contrasted against his dark tan. Her hand was warm, just like her heart.

  ‘My father loves his work. His company is more important to him than anything else. It’s always been that way. And I respect that. But the old fool let himself be seduced by his young protégée and Frederica took his precious work straight to the enemy.’ Alessandro shook his head disbelievingly. He couldn’t believe how easily his father had been fooled.

  ‘Enemy?’

  ‘Conti Creations.’

  ‘Right.’ Annabella sat back in her chair. After a moment she turned to him purposefully. ‘But maybe your father thought Frederica loved him. You can’t blame him for that. You can’t control who you fall for, right?’

  The pleading tenderness in her voice drew Alessandro’s gaze to hers. This beautiful, empathetic woman. Could she really have fallen for him?

  He laughed softly. ‘I’ve done exactly the same thing, haven’t I? Except in my situation I’m the protégé.’

  ‘Just the way I like it.’ She grinned at him playfully.

  He reached over with one hand and gently cupped her cheek. She leant into his touch and closed her eyes.

  ‘Ah, bella mia. Thank you for being here with me. And for the last few weeks. You have completely surpassed my expectations.’

  Annabella opened her eyes, straightening her posture. She lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed it softly.

  Alessandro sighed. ‘I just want him to wake up.’

  ‘I know,’ she whispered.

  ‘You’re right, it’s not my father’s fault he’s here. Or even Frederica’s, for that matter.’ Alessandro exhaled deeply as he raked his hands through his hair. ‘It’s mine.’

  ‘Oh, Ale. No—’

  ‘It’s true, bella. Three years ago, my father asked me, no, begged me to return to the company and work beside him. But I was too proud, I refused.’ Alessandro paused, his stomach knotted with the memory of their conversation. Go to hell, he’d spat before hanging up on his father. ‘So he employed Frederica Pucci as his sous-chef. Well, you know what happened after that.’

  ‘But why didn’t you come back? I thought you loved working with your father?’

  ‘Oh, I did. Once. He was my mentor. Watching him at work was like … magic.’ Ale laughed softly. ‘That sounds corny, but I don’t know how else to describe it. I idolised him. Respected him. I trusted him absolutely, no? But then—’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He lied, about the most important thing in my life.’ Alessandro clenched his jaw as he closed his eyes, unable to forget the pain of that fateful moment when he’d discovered that his father had betrayed him.

  ‘Ale, you don’t have to—’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Alessandro looked at Annabella; her soulful eyes seemed to look right into the heart of him.

  He’d never spoken about this to anyone, but with her the words came easily. He’d delighted in every inch of her body but it was this touching gesture; holding his hand tenderly and wanting to know him, comfort him, that was a closeness he’d never known. Talking to Annabella somehow made the pain easier to bear.

  ‘Valentino lied to you?’ she asked.

  ‘When I was a child I kept an old photo of my mother hidden in my pillowcase. I’d whisper to her each night before I went to sleep. You know, what had happened that day, stories about my friends, just … stuff. That photo was all I knew of her but it helped, as though she was still with me in a way. I guess like your mother’s journal did for you.’

  Annabella nodded. ‘Like a lifeline.’

  ‘Exactly. It was all I had, a faded snapshot of a beautiful smiling stranger squinting in the sunlight. I thought she was perfect. I didn’t tell my father, whenever I mentioned her he’d get upset. The only time he’d talked to me about her was when he told me she’d passed away giving birth to me.’

  ‘Oh Ale.’ Annabella gasped, squeezing his hand tightly.

  ‘You can’t imagine the guilt I felt, as a child. I thought I was the cause of my mother’s death. She was the love of my father’s life and I thought he couldn’t talk about her because the pain was too great. I thought I was the cause of that pain.’

  Ale clenched his jaw again as he fought the sudden swell of emotion rising inside him. ‘So I spent my whole childhood trying to please him, let him know that she hadn’t died for nothing. When I wasn’t at school, I was in the kitchen with him, learning to be the best.’

  ‘Ale, he would have been so proud. He still is.’

  ‘But it was a lie. He lied to me, all those years. My mother hadn’t died. She’d just … left. I was only three months old and she’d wanted another life. So she left us.’

  ‘Oh Ale, that’s heartbreaking. I’m so sorry.’ Annabella stroked his arm tenderly. ‘So you father told you eventually?’

  ‘When I was eighteen, my mother wrote to my father asking for a divorce so she could marry someone else. I found the letter and, only then, he told me the truth.’

  ‘But you were so close; it must have been so hard for him to keep that secret from you all that time. I guess he was trying to protect you?’

  Alessandro turned to face Annabella. ‘I love that you try to see the best in people, bella. But believe me, my father is completely ego-driven. He told me my mother had died because he didn’t want me to think she’d abandoned him, not me.’

  ‘Ale, do you really believe that? I don’t know Valentino well, but from what you’ve told me and from what I’ve seen, he loves you, Ale. Surely he lied because he was trying to protect you.’

  ‘Si, si. He does love me, I know that now. But I couldn’t trust him. What sort of son is unable to trust his own father?’

  ‘So after you found out, that’s when you left Turin?’

  ‘Uh-huh, I went to Rome, started a new life. My father begged me not to go, he told me he’d written many letters to my mother pleading for her to return, to know her son. But I didn’t believe him, how could I? So I searched for her. She’d been liv
ing in Milan with her new family. But by the time I found out it was too late. She’d passed away two years before.’

  Alessandro leant forward, cradling his head in his hands. He breathed heavily, refusing to give in to the tide of emotion that always threatened to drown him when he thought about that time. His mother didn’t deserve his tears.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Ale.’ Annabella stroked his back soothingly drawing him back from the brink of despair. ‘Did you meet her family?’

  ‘No. What’s the point? They wouldn’t have even known about me,’ Alessandro said, sitting up to look at Annabella. ‘In her letter to my father she didn’t even mention me. I was so angry at him for depriving me of a relationship with her, but she knew where I was. She could have contacted me any time. But she didn’t. I was nothing to her. After Milan, I threw her photo away.’

  They sat quietly, holding hands. The ambient sounds of the hospital and the faint ticking of a clock bringing Alessandro back to the present.

  ‘I should have come back when he asked me. Hell, I never should have left.’ Ale sighed heavily unable to shake the guilt that had plagued him for the last six months.

  ‘But you did come back, in the end.’

  ‘My father nearly died after Frederica left. It was like, like a sudden jolt to reality, no? He’s my father and once he was my world. And his world was an amazing place to grow up. Being in his orbit was inspiring and wonderful. It made me who I am. It took him nearly dying for me to remember that and realise what’s important.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘It’s the ones who stay, who endure, who are present. They’re the ones to rely on, despite their faults. Growing up my father was always there, he was my centre. I never even thought to worry that he would leave. Not like my mother. Not like Rachel.’

  ‘Rachel?’

  Alessandro couldn’t remember the last time he’d spoken Rachel’s name. For a long time he’d suppressed that period in his life, unable to make sense of what had happened and the pain he’d felt. Unlike when his mother left, he’d been old enough to remember Rachel’s face, her voice, her love.