by Chelle Bliss
I follow him, clutching his hand as we make our way toward the doors. Passing by Vi, I give her a quick glance. I empathize with the double standard she lives with every day. I don’t have to deal with my brothers’ ideas of how I should behave, but being in a corporate world that is mostly dominated by men, I’m held to a different standard too.
“Lauren, this is Mrs. Moretti,” Antonio says, bowing his head slightly at the older woman. “She’s one of my mother’s oldest friends.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you.”
“It’s nice to see my dear Antonio has found a beautiful woman to be at his side.”
“She’s more than a pretty face, Simona. She’s the head of a very impressive company in America.”
Simona purses her lips as her eyes travel up the length of my body, appraising me. “A powerful woman. I wouldn’t have picked you to fall in love with beauty and brains, Antonio.”
I’m not sure if her comment is a dig or a compliment, but I brush it off and decide she’s being nice even if she isn’t.
“How’s your husband?” Antonio pulls me into his side, probably sensing my agitation.
But I wouldn’t do anything to embarrass him or his family after they’ve shown me so much kindness. I think Vi and Stefano made enough of a spectacle already that his mother deserves a little peace and quiet for the rest of the party anyway.
“He’s quite well. He asks about you all the time.”
Catarina pulls me away from Antonio and loops her arm with mine. She doesn’t say anything until we’re near the edge of the veranda overlooking the lake and far away from Simona. “God, that woman is beyond boring and wretched.”
“Thanks for the rescue.”
“We look out for each other. Even Stefano and Vi. Their relationship has always been tense.”
“Always?”
“Always.” She turns, looking over her shoulder toward the dining room where finds Vi, Stefano, and their mother.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about your English. The entire family speaks it so well. Where did you learn?”
“My parents thought it was important for each of us to learn English. They hired a private tutor to teach us. Every summer from the time we were little, we were only allowed to speak English in the house. When we were told you were coming, we were excited because many of us never get to use it unless we’re traveling.”
“Whoever taught you did a wonderful job. I wish I knew Italian.”
“Stick around this family long enough, and you’ll at least learn the bad words.”
“I hope this isn’t my last trip here. Your home is so lovely, and you’ve been very gracious to let us stay.”
A waiter walks by, and Catarina grabs two glasses of champagne off his tray, setting one down in front of me. I hadn’t even noticed that I had polished off my martini and I was carrying around an empty glass.
“Drink it. You’re going to need all the liquor you can to get through this evening.”
“Is it that bad?” I ask, lifting the champagne to my lips.
She touches my hand, tipping my glass. “Drink faster because my mother’s friends are a bunch of stuffy, pretentious women who haven’t had a stiff dick in years.”
I almost spit the champagne in her face when I start to laugh. Catarina’s just like her brother with her quick wit and mannerisms. She has his light blue eyes and the same shade of brown hair, but she is thinner and a good five inches shorter.
“You make them sound horrible.”
“My mother is the sweetest woman you’ll ever meet, but her friends are old, catty Italians who like to brag about their wealth while snubbing their noses at everyone else. I have the biggest house around the lake, yet they all treat me like I don’t belong.”
God, they do sound awful. I chug the glass of bubbly wine, polishing it off quickly based on her account.
“Why is your mother friends with these women?”
Catarina shrugs. “They belong to the same philanthropic organization.”
“Well, at least they do some good with their lives.”
Catarina cackles and holds her stomach. “It’s just another way for them to outdo each other. It has nothing to do with helping people except for my mother.” Her eyes widen as she looks over my shoulder at the guests piling onto the veranda in hordes. “Puttana.”
I’ve lived in Chicago long enough and eaten in enough restaurants in Little Italy to be able to translate that word without any help. My eyes follow hers, landing on a stunning blond woman in a red dress.
“Who’s that?” I ask, unable to take my eyes off her.
“That’s Camilla and it’s a long story, but isn’t mine to tell. I’m going to grab us another drink.”
“Okay,” I mutter.
Camilla, the puttana in the red dress, gives Antonio a sly smile as she stalks toward him. “Antonio,” she says, holding out her hand and continuing to speak in Italian.
Antonio glances down, but he doesn’t touch her even though she lets her hand linger in the air between them for an uncomfortable amount of time.
Even though I can’t understand what they’re saying to each other, I can read his body language perfectly. While she wants him—it’s clear by the way she keeps touching his arm—he has done nothing but constantly try to evade her forwardness.
“I’ll handle this,” Catarina says, handing me two glasses of champagne before striding toward Antonio. The girl has style, and I like her attitude. Catarina isn't afraid of anything or anyone, especially the puttana.
“Camilla, it’s so wonderful you could make it,” Catarina says as she kisses Camilla on the cheeks. “I didn’t think they’d give you a weekend pass for such a small event.”
Weekend pass?
Camilla’s face drains of color as she pulls away from Catarina. “Is your husband still out of the country on business, or is that what he tells you to get away from you?”
Camilla laughs, and so does Catarina. It’s so bizarre, but I can’t stop staring at the odd display of friendly hatred being spewed back and forth.
“Want to get out of here?” Antonio asks, and I jump. I had been so transfixed by his sister and Camilla, I hadn’t seen him walking toward me.
“Who is that?” I ask as he takes my arm and ushers me down the stairs toward the backyard.
“No one.”
I stop walking and give him an “I don’t believe you” look as I cross my arms in front of my chest.
He runs his fingers through his soft brown hair and glances down at the ground, kicking at the grass with his perfectly shined black shoes. “Camilla and I had a very brief and fiery past.”
He hasn’t said anything I didn’t already know. It was evident from their behavior that they knew each other intimately. I step away from him, wandering toward the bench that I sat on with his mother near the edge of the water.
“Lauren, wait.” He jogs after me, grabbing on to my arm before I reach the bench and stopping me. “I shouldn’t have been so vague about Camilla. We dated, but it was only a few times when we were in college.”
“We’ve all dated, Antonio. You seem to be leaving something out.”
The caginess in his response leaves me feeling uneasy.
“When I told her that I didn’t want to see her anymore, she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“So she stalked you?”
“Not exactly.” He glances up toward the sky and sighs. “Camilla tried to commit suicide when I broke up with her. Unbeknownst to me, Stefano decided to pass himself off as me and visited her in the hospital. He led her on and used her. It was all sick and twisted, but that’s Stefano.”
“Wow. He’s a piece of work.”
“We were young and foolish, but I’ve never gotten over the shame of Camilla trying to take her own life after we broke up, and then what Stefano did. When she found out, she came unglued, and her family had her committed to a mental institution for a few years.”
I’m horrified an
d a little shocked by the admission. I don’t know who I feel worse for, Antonio or Camilla.
“After she tried to kill herself, I never allowed myself to get close to anyone. I never wanted to be put in that situation again.”
I reach out and touch his face, cradling his cheek in my palm. “What she did is not your fault and neither is Stefano’s behavior. Did you lead her on?”
“No.” He smiles somberly. “But I did nothing when I found out what Stefano had done. I should’ve stopped his games, but I didn’t want to get involved with her again. I let my mother handle it, and it wasn’t pretty.”
“We all make mistakes, Antonio. As long as you learned something from the experience.”
“I don’t know if I learned anything useful besides not trusting my brother. What makes it worse is that Camilla ended up pregnant with Stefano’s child.”
I cover my mouth with my hand and gasp. “What happened?”
“When she found out that it wasn’t me, she went into hysterics. She lost the baby and then ended up in the mental ward for longer than she probably should have.”
“Again, it wasn’t your fault. She knew about Stefano, didn’t she?” He nods, but I haven’t eased his pain. “I’ve only been around him for a short while, but I’d never confuse the two of you. Maybe she knew the entire time. Sometimes living with a replacement, especially one that’s a dead ringer like Stefano, is easier than being alone and missing the person we love. Maybe she didn’t allow herself to believe what she knew was true until the walls came crashing down.”
He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me flush against him. “You’re wise beyond your years, Lauren.”
“It’s easy when I haven’t walked in your shoes. I don’t know what I would’ve done in the same circumstances, but it’s time to let the past go, along with the regrets that follow you around like a dark cloud.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please join us in the dining room,” a voice, which sounds like Stefano, says on the veranda above us.
I sigh and rest my head against his shoulder, wishing we could stay along the shore with the spring breeze of Lake Como licking across our skin.
“Let’s sing happy birthday and sneak away afterward. I want to show you something.” He grabs my hand, taking bigger strides than I can manage in my high heels on the grass. When I move too slowly, he lifts me into his arms and takes the stairs two at a time.
As soon as his feet touch the veranda, he lowers me down, but he presses my body against his until we’re face-to-face. “I want to show you something I’ve never shared with anyone, not even Stefano.”
Now the man’s piqued my curiosity. It’s my turn to grab his hand and pull him toward the dining room. I’ve had about as much party as I can take for one evening, and I’ll do anything and go anywhere to keep him away from Camilla.
Chapter Fourteen
ANTONIO
Holding Lauren’s hand, I guide her forward on the small, worn path around the lake. “We’re almost there.”
Even though this is now my sister’s house, I grew up right down the street in an equally large estate dotting the coast of Lake Como. The house had ten bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, and could’ve easily housed a small village. I thought I lived in a castle straight out of the fairy tales my mother used to tell us at bedtime. As I grew older, the house didn’t seem as large, especially with five other children and staff roaming the halls.
“Where are we going?”
“To my favorite place as a kid.”
Pushing the overgrown tree limbs out of the way, I walk forward and clear the path for Lauren. The moon overhead is full, shimmering off the lake, and it gives us enough light to make the walk possible. When we come to the clearing and the spot where I spent hours dreaming as a child, I turn to Lauren and take the blanket from her hands.
She watches me as I spread the blanket out on top of the flattened rocks that line the shore. “It’s beautiful here,” she says as her eyes peer across the lake, sweeping over the dim lights of the houses in the distance.
I help her to the blanket so she doesn’t lose her balance on the rocks and tumble into the cold lake water, ruining the entire evening. “It’s even more beautiful in the daylight.”
“I’m sure.” She steps onto the blanket and takes my hand before we sit down next to each other. “Why haven’t you brought anyone else here?”
“In a house filled with so many people, and with Stefano constantly around me, I used this as my escape for a little peace and quiet. It’s the only place I could come to think without being interrupted.”
“I imagine that must’ve been a problem. My entire childhood was filled with solitude, but I can guess it would get annoying sometimes.”
I’m saddened by her words. “I didn’t mean to sound so…”
“No,” she says quickly, squeezing my hand gently. “I wish I had what you did, but I can understand how you must’ve felt. Your family can be a little overwhelming.”
“And loud.” I laugh. God, were they loud. We’ve quieted down over the years, but as teenagers, it was more like a rock concert in the house with all the screaming. I lie back and pull Lauren down with me to look up at the cloudless sky.
“This has always been my place and only my place, but I wanted to share it with you.”
She shimmies her body closer and rests her head in the crook of my arm, staring upward. “I like that I know something about you that nobody else does. It makes me feel special.”
I roll onto my side, peering down at her beautiful, moon-kissed face as she lies against my arm. “But you are special, Lauren. I’ve shared bits of myself I’ve never shown to anyone before. I’ve said words to you that I’ve never uttered to another living soul outside my family. I want you to know how very special you are to me.”
She lifts her hand, resting it against my cheek. “I know you feel differently about me. I know that I love you as you love me. You’re flawed, but I accept you for who you are and who we could be.”
“I’m not flawed.”
She sweeps her fingers across my skin as she peers up at me with a smile. “We’re all flawed, Antonio. It’s what makes us human.”
Lauren is one of the most magnificent creatures I’ve ever met. Her life hasn’t been easy, losing her mother and then her father early in life with no one else to lean on but herself. I don’t know if I could be so optimistic in her shoes. Hell, I’m jaded, and I’ve had an easy life compared to her.
Unable to resist the pull of her in the quiet darkness, I lean forward and press my lips to hers. My hands slide under her body as I cradle her in my arms and deepen the kiss, needing her more than I need anything else in the world.
When my hand slides up her leg, she grabs my face and pulls away slightly. “Not out here,” she says softly.
“But I need you,” I admit, inching my fingers higher on her warm, soft thigh.
“What about the party?”
“The only party I care about is here. They won’t even know we’re gone,” I say against her lips before devouring her response with a more demanding kiss because nothing is stopping me or making me leave this rock until I’ve had my fill of her.
Her fingers curl into my hair as she holds me close and kisses me back deeper and harder. My fingers slide up her skirt, finding the garter belt underneath, and I almost lose it. The vivid picture in my mind of her standing in the light in nothing but her garter belt and sexy matching lingerie makes it impossible to stop and pull back even if I wanted to, but I don’t.
Skipping over the garter, my fingertips find the edge of her lace panties and dip underneath. She’s wet, ready for my taking. I don’t want to rush a single moment. I swallow her moans of pleasure while the pads of my fingers glide over her clit, slowly stroking the very spot that makes her legs fall to the sides as she opens to me.
LAUREN
Antonio’s fingers dip inside my pussy and my back arches, pushing against the rock, but the pleasure h
is hands deliver outweigh the painful bite of the hardness underneath me.
“Antonio,” I moan against his mouth.
When his thumb finds my clit, drawing slow torturous circles around the most sensitive part of my body, I gasp for air and shudder against his body. My hand curls around his bicep to keep him in place and as a silent plea for him to keep going. His fingers thrust in and pull out repeatedly, driving me precariously closer to the edge and ready to burst with so much pleasure I’m worried I won’t be able to stay quiet.
As if on a mission, he drives forward, pumping more of his fingers through my wetness and deep into my core. Unable to wait another minute, I lift my hips in offering. I want everything he has to offer and more.
Antonio’s tongue sweeps inside my mouth, capturing my moans as his thumb closes in on my clit. My bottom shifts against the rock, pushing my clit harder against his fingers as my entire body tightens. Colors explode behind my eyelids so vividly it’s like a firework display on the Fourth of July. I gasp for air, drowning in the orgasm that’s ripping through my system. My moans are swallowed by his lips to keep our location private. My calves ache from the delicious bliss that starts between my legs and emanates to every extremity and fiber of my being.
His lips leave mine first, followed by his fingers slowly slipping out of my body. When I open my eyes, Antonio’s staring down at me with nothing but lust in his eyes. He brings his finger to his mouth, slowly licking away my wetness with his tongue, savoring it like it’s the best thing he’s ever tasted.
“Never anything sweeter than this,” he says, closing his eyes as he slides his fingers backward across his tongue and closes his lips around the base.
I thrust myself upright and place my hand on his chest, pushing him back against the rocks. I tear at the buckle of his belt and make quick work of the button and zipper. He lifts his ass off the ground, making it easier for me to slide his dress pants down his legs and exposing his glorious hard cock to the cool night air.