by Lily Zante
She had surprised him again. He had prepared himself for a cold reception, but on the contrary, Gina seemed genuinely happy to see him.
Chapter 35
She caught sight of her reflection in the window of the oven door and almost had a seizure. Being around Christian made her lose her faculties, made her forget she had a huge towel wrapped around her head, and made her forget that she wasn’t wearing a bra.
Excusing herself, she rushed upstairs, and her cheeks flamed crimson as she saw that her nipples had peaked to standing. She hoped he hadn’t noticed, but knew it was a weak hope. She couldn’t imagine something like this going unnoticed by him.
She yanked the towel off her hair, pulled on a sweatshirt and let out her hair, running her fingers through the damp locks. Gazing into the mirror, she gave herself the once-over, and just to freshen up, nothing else, she rinsed her mouth out with mouthwash.
“Hungry?” she asked, when they later sat across the table from one another.
“I am now.” He had taken off his jacket and wore a white polo shirt. With his elbows propped up on the table and his hands steepled together, the line of his biceps was hard to not notice.
“Buon appetito,” she said.
“Buon appetito,” he said, picking up his fork, then “Grazie.”
No, she thought. Thank you.
“I’m glad you came.”
“I had my reservations.” She could be mercurial, and he was never sure how she would interpret things. “I’m good at gauging women and their moods, but with you I can’t tell from one day to the next. I never expected you to get that angry over Rachele. What I had with her wasn’t this.”
“This?”
“What you and I have.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m not sure. I’d like to know that wasn’t it—those few days in Rome.”
“Few days? It was just one night.”
“I’m not talking about that one night. I’m talking about everything else we did. Hanging around with you was more fun than I imagined.” Christian was saying this to her? Christian ‘The Stud’ Russo? Him being here, sitting at the table having dinner with her, talking and saying these words to her, was the best way to end this bitch of a day, and for that reason only, she didn’t want to go back and think about what he’d told her that day.
“I’m really happy you’re here.”
“Me too.”
He lifted his wine glass. “To... to what, Gina?”
“To new beginnings.”
“New beginnings?”
“To a new beginning for our… friendship.”
The light in his eyes dimmed a little. “I’ll drink to that.” They touched glasses, and took a sip each. The wine tasted good, velvety and smooth, going down warm and easy. After her long bath, and a pleasant dinner, after having Christian here, and the house to herself, she felt the most relaxed she had in a while.
She lifted the bottle and went to refill his glass but he stopped her. “I need to be sober,” he said, blocking the top of his glass with his hand. “I’m getting the train back.”
“Are you? I assumed you’d booked to stay in Verona tonight.” She’d been concocting crazy plans in her head to show him around Verona tomorrow, to repay the favor he’d done for her when she’d been in Rome.
“I wish I had.”
“It’s not too late.”
He looked at his watch. “Do you think I can make a reservation for someplace now? Can you recommend anything nearby?”
They looked at one another, and she found herself locking into his gaze, wanting to sink and fall, and go deeper. It felt like it, as if she was being pulled toward him by some invisible string, as if he was reeling her in towards him.
She got up and started to clear the table. “You could always stay here.”
He followed her into the kitchen, taking his dishes in. “Here? I couldn’t.” He chortled. “Uh, no, but thanks for the offer.”
She started to load up the dishwasher. There was no point in him booking a place now, or going back to Rome. Staying here made the most sense, and he could stay tonight, while the coast was clear. She could make him up a bed on the couch.
“It’s your call,” she said, picking up her glass of wine and walking over to the sofa.
“What I was hoping,” he said, following her back into the living room, “Was to clear the air.” He left his wine glass on the table and sat beside her.
“Didn’t we just do that?”
He shook his head. “I want to know what upset you about Rachele. I understand now why you were so cold towards me the first time, when you overheard me and Emilio talking. Emilio was digging for information about you. He didn’t know about the nature of my relationship with Rachele. He thought she was my girlfriend, and I let him think it. He was adamant that something had gone on and everything I said to him that day was to keep him from finding out about us.
“There was no us.”
He flinched from her words as if she had slapped him, his expression darkening. But saying it didn’t sound right. She wasn’t even sure she meant it. Christian Russo had reached someplace deep down inside her soul after one night that Davide hadn’t been able to after all their time together. Christian was one of a kind, and that was the reason she couldn’t stop thinking about him, even after she pretended to be disgusted by his arrangement with Rachele.
She could see why a woman like Rachele would settle for what she could get from him.
“Why?” she asked. “Why have a friend with benefits? You can get any woman you want.”
“Can I?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not true. I think I understand why you might be pissed off at me,” he waved his hand around the room. “I see that you’re fairly religious, and you might look down on the arrangement we had, I can’t say I’m too happy to tell everyone, but it just fit, you know. That type of thing for her and me, it made sense, and it wasn’t even for that long. I never met anyone I wanted to spend time with enough to want to wake up with her every day. Was it really so wrong to enjoy a woman in that way? Rachele wanted it, I wanted it. We just didn’t want the headache of having a relationship. I know you find this strange,” he rubbed his forehead and looked away. “I find it strange, talking about it out loud. It didn’t seem like a crazy idea in the heat of the moment. Now, I’m not so sure.” He turned and faced her again. “I didn’t hurt anyone, and I never expected this would hurt you. I didn’t think that far ahead. I didn’t expect you to turn up in my life and change things around for me—in a good way, Gina. But, even so, I wasn’t prepared.”
She pondered his words. Who was she to judge? She hadn’t stopped thinking of him ever since she had returned home. It was thinking about him that had kept her going these past few weeks, in the face of her mother’s crankiness, and Demetrio’s big-headedness. Each time she hit an obstacle, she thought of Christian. It was impossible not to.
“It hurt, because I thought what you had with Rachele, was what you had with me. That our being together didn’t mean anything to you.”
“That’s what you thought?” he sat up. “That’s not it at all. Not at all.”
“How was I supposed to know?”
“It wasn’t about that night.” He reached for her wrist and circled his thumb around gently in small circles, the heat slowly creeping along her skin, the nerve endings whizzing and whirling in anticipation. “It was about the other things, your little quirks, your headband, and you being so vulnerable that night you got robbed. And then you were always there, even after the things you’d overheard, you were always there when I needed you.”
“That’s because I was trying to figure you out the whole time. I’m still trying to figure you out.”
She licked her lips, her gaze settling on his, the motion from his thumb on her skin made blood flow to all her extremities. She moved over and sat on his lap, her knees hugging his hips. She leaned in closer, inhaling more of the woody citrus
that was as much a mark of him as his touch.
“Stay the night.” She was asking this of him, because she needed him, tonight. Because things happened for a reason, and him showing up on her doorstep tonight was a sign.
He stroked his thumbs along each of her wrists, slowly, and purposefully driving her wild. In the next moment, his lips crushed down on hers, bringing back the flood of heated memories that engulfed her each time she lay down to sleep.
Chapter 36
Her lips on his were soft and wet; the way he remembered them, the way he missed them. He hungered for her touch, for her, not just her body, not just her kisses, but her. He missed the woman. Missed having her around and talking to her, missed her reasoning and rational common sense. With Gina it was never just the sex, he wanted the woman, all of her.
Coming here had been a gamble, he’d almost been tempted to leave it, and just jump on the first train back, but he couldn’t walk away. He couldn’t sit on the train going past Verona, knowing she was here and not see her.
Now she was asking him to stay the night. He moved his face away and stroked her right cheek, before leaning in to kiss it. There was no scar left now.
“You want me to stay the night?” he murmured, “What is it that you’re asking me, Gina?”
She kissed him, further stoking the fire that enflamed his body. Knowing the effect she had on him, it wouldn’t be long before she would feel his excitement. He tried to calm things down, but she put her arms around his neck and clung to him. “After the week I’ve had, I could do with waking up to you tomorrow,” she whispered into his neck. He almost let out a groan as his boxers suddenly grew tight.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said, trying to remember why he had come here. It wasn’t to do this. She opened her eyes. “I want to. I need to,” she pleaded. “It’s been a tough week.”
“Tough week?” His brow furrowed trying to think of what might have gone wrong for her. Was it Nico? Was her ex giving her grief? Was that idiot colleague making her life hell. He cupped her cheek, his thumb moving over her lower lip.
“It can wait,” she whispered, her lips gliding over his, until she took his bottom lip between hers and sucked hard. It took all of his restraint for him not to throw her down on the floor and make love to her.
“What sort of a week?” he asked, needing to know. He wanted to know everything about her, not wanting there to be any secrets between them, even though he didn’t know what they had, or how long he had her for. He was content to stay like this, to have her arms around him, to have her sitting on his lap. This was heaven but she was asking him to stay the night and it could get complicated. He didn’t want to mess things up. There was a dichotomy between what she said and what she did, but having been in her home, he understood her a little better. She looked at him with bedroom eyes. “Everything and nothing,” she murmured.
“Then tell me everything, and leave out nothing.” He couldn’t help his hands, making their way underneath the sweatshirt she wore, slipping under her top and sliding around her waist.
She smelled of flowers, clean and fresh, and try as he would to still his heart, he couldn’t. He was exercising restraint as well as he could, given the fact that Gina was sitting on his lap tantalizing the heck out of him. Making a move on her had been the furthest thing from his mind but he was still a man with a healthy libido and an appreciation for the opposite sex and even though he wanted to make a good impression and to go slow, the way she was now, made it almost impossible for him to resist. Unless he pushed her off, and left the house. She was making it more impossible by the minute, especially when she lifted her arms and pulled off her sweatshirt.
He swallowed, and tried to shift into a position that would be more comfortable for him, even with her sitting on it. But it wasn’t his position that needed shifting. It was a release his body cried out for.
“You…” he swallowed again. “You don’t have to take your top off…”
She disregarded him completely. “I’m hot.”
He licked his lips again, craving water, a cold shower even. His mouth and throat had dried up in seconds. “Nothing and everything,” he repeated, trying to steer the conversation back to normality. “What everything?”
“It doesn’t matter right now,” she moaned, sinking her body against his. She ran her fingers through his hair, giving him another inhale of her scent. He couldn’t help but cup her breast then, heard her whimper and lean towards him. He tweaked her nipple between his finger and thumb and felt it rise and peak, then did the same to the other one. Another moan, sexier than the last, escaped her lips, and she threw her head back slightly, exposing more of her neck. He couldn’t resist, and put his mouth to her neck, dropping a line of kisses along it, up and down and from side to side. She was moaning his name, running her hands over his chest and feeling her way across his shoulders and biceps.
“Ohhhh,” he groaned, moving around. Sitting down was becoming impossible.
“You want me,” she giggled, bearing down on him, pushing her weight on him. There was no way he could get on the train to Rome like this.
“Yes.”
He reached down for the hem of her top and rolled it off her, throwing it behind him and his eyes feasted on the sight of her topless, his mouth drooling to taste her pert little breasts.
He put his mouth to her breast and sucked as if he’d never tasted breast before. She quivered, and threw her head back, pressing him to her hard. “Upstairs,” she whimpered. He stood up easily, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he climbed the stairs.
Two steps from reaching the top, he sat her on a step. “What are you—”
“Hold on,” he ordered.
She grabbed the banister hard, as he drew back and started to peel off her lounge pants. “Christian…” He heard her breaths, short and shallow.
Then another drawn out gasp as he pulled off her panties. Fully naked, she tried to cover up, bringing her knees together and folding an arm across her chest. He stared at her and fought the urge to thrust into her at this moment.
“You’ve still got your clothes on,” she whispered. “Take them off. Give me something to look at.” But her words fell on deaf ears. He had no intention of getting naked just yet. “I’ll give you something,” he said, gently prising her knees apart.
“Here?” she cried. “We’ll fall down the stairs.”
“We won’t.” He had a firm footing. “Trust me?” He knelt on a step, slightly lower than the one she was on.
“If you don’t, you can tell me to stop.” Her lips were parted as she stared back at him, her eyes dark, her expression wanton. She didn’t say a word and he saw the swell of her breasts as her chest heaved. She answered him with compliance, her knees falling apart. With his hands under her thighs, he gently pulled her towards him until her cheeks rested almost on the edge of the stair, her hips tilted upwards. He didn’t know where to place his mouth first, on her breasts again or lower down. Excitement pooled inside him like a white hot rod of heat. He was eager for release, but willing to be patient, to savor her, and to take her slowly. The scent of her arousal called to his most animal desires, and he bent forward, leaving a trail of kisses from her navel all the way down to her thighs.
She moaned out his name, her voice breathless, and ragged and desperate for him. But he took his time, his lips and tongue all over her inner thighs, kissing and licking her while his fingers skated over her hot skin. When she arched her back, thrusting her breasts out, he lowered his face and sank his lips between her legs. The sound of her moans, soft and silky, just like her, drove him insane.
Chapter 37
His tongue gave her the kind of pleasure she had only dreamt about, and she moaned and writhed like a cat in heat. It lasted for hours, or at least it seemed like hours, she couldn’t tell, because she had lost all track of time. When he was done with her, when she lay with her back against the topmost step, and her core like liquid, he lifted her up. She clu
ng to his neck, her head leaning on his shoulder, her heart racing as he carried her into her bedroom.
He gently laid her on the bed, then stripped off his jeans and polo shirt and lay down next to her. The hunger started low in her belly, spurring her on to undress him, and she started to pull down his boxers but he stopped her. “I don’t have protection, Gina.”
“But I do.” Not one for taking risks, she had never left it completely to the men in her life to take care of these things. “I’ll be back,” she said, sliding off the bed and rummaging through her closet drawers. She climbed back onto the bed, saw that he had propped himself up on his elbows, and pushed him back down on the mattress. Slowly, and surely, inch by inch, she pulled down his boxers, suitably impressed. A deeper hunger possessed her, and now that he was completely naked, she rolled a condom over him before getting on top of him herself.
She watched his eyes roll back in his head as she sat up and slowly teased her way onto him. His lips parted, and she rode him slowly, watching his face, feeling triumphant and reveling in the power of her body over his.
He had unleashed something wild in her, and all that pent-up frustration had finally found an outlet. She took the lead, giving him everything, and claiming her release with selfish abandon. Not holding back, and later, exhausted, hot and sticky, she fell into his arms.
When she awoke, it was daylight. She turned her head to the side sharply, and saw Christian lying next to her, his eyes wide open. A smile danced on his lips.
“She awakens,” he murmured in a hoarse whisper.
“What time is it?” she asked, snuggling closer to him and laying her hand against his chest.
“Midday.”
“Midday?” It was way past the time she normally got up, but then, last night hadn’t been a normal night.
“I don’t want to get out of bed,” he said, kissing the top of her head.