I had no response. He made it sound so easy, it almost felt possible. The bold way he seized life made me feel alive when I was with him. I never realized I’d been living life in a hazy dream state until he swept into my world. Now, he’d roused me from my sleep, and I saw the world in bold new colors. When my time with him was over, I wasn’t sure how I’d survive if he took that vibrancy with him.
We were quiet for a few beats as the car rounded closer to the ground, both lost in our thoughts. Eventually, the ride ended, and Luca helped me from the car, leading me away from the throng of people clustered near the ride entrance.
“What do you want to do next?” To my endless embarrassment, my stomach took that moment to rumble its insistent need for sustenance.
“Sounds like it’s time for dinner,” Luca teased. “Come on, let’s get you some food.” He took my hand in his and led me out of the amusement park area toward the boardwalk where he bought us each a hot dog and a bag of cotton candy for us to share.
The sun had begun to drop below the horizon as we sat at a table under a blue umbrella. We’d been lucky to get a table—the boardwalk was packed with people, even more so than it had been hours before when we’d arrived. We ate quickly, fending off the bold seagulls who lay in wait for the smallest window to swoop in and snatch our food.
“Blue or pink?” Luca asked when we’d finished our dogs.
“The cotton candy?” I asked in confusion. “There’s no difference.”
“Don’t be absurd—blue is way better than the pink,” he said as he tore off a chunk and dropped it into his mouth.
I reached over and tore off a section of pink. “I suppose if blue is your favorite, I shall have to suffer through eating the pink.”
Luca winked at me as he tore off another chunk, then reached his non-sticky hand out for mine. “Come on, let’s go walk by the water.”
We removed our shoes and made our way through the thick sand toward the shore. Most of the beachgoers had packed up and gone home for the evening, leaving the beach open for walkers and sightseers. The sand was still warm and felt amazing beneath my feet as we strolled toward the water. It wasn’t exactly the Caribbean, but it was a nice change of pace, and the setting sun was a melted rainbow of colors over the placid waters.
“Which ride was your favorite?” Luca asked, extending a clump of pink candy toward my lips.
“The Brooklyn Flyer,” I replied around the dissolving sugar.
“The swings?” His nose scrunched up in distaste. “Come on, you loved the Cyclone, admit it.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’ve never been much of a thrill-seeker. I was more of a piano and art kind of girl growing up than soccer or lacrosse.”
“I wasn’t one for organized sports either actually, but I could play a mean game of handball. We could go to the Y for free and play for hours. I’d come home with jammed fingers and bloody knuckles, but I loved it.”
“That sounds awful.”
He shrugged. “It kept us out of trouble and didn’t cost anything—no equipment or fees, and no coaching necessary. There was always basketball too, but my friends and I always gravitated toward handball.”
“Do you ever play as an adult?”
“Haven’t in years. Most of the guys I played with moved to different parts of the city. If you weren’t into sports, does that mean you didn’t play anything?”
“I did cross country and still run about three times a week. It’s a lot less risky than most other sports.”
“You’re rather risk averse, are you?” he peered at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Certain types of risk, yes,” I admitted with a defiant tone.
Luca pulled me in close, my body pressed snuggly against his, and lowered his face until our noses just barely touched. “We’ll have to see what we can do about that. The riskiest ventures can yield the greatest prizes.” His eyes dropped to my lips as they parted in breathless anticipation; but instead of kissing me, his lips pulled back in a boyish grin. “Speaking of prizes, I think the carnival awaits.” He stunned me when he pulled away and tugged me back in the direction of the brightly lit boardwalk.
What a tease.
I couldn’t be upset, though. Luca’s eyes lit with excitement at the prospect of carnival games. The enthusiasm was contagious, my heartrate picking up its pace at the prospect of playing for a prize.
The beautiful Saturday evening had drawn out droves of people, which meant every food stand and game booth had a line. After a careful scan of the options, I committed to the ring-toss game and failed miserably. Luca was a different story. He went straight for the shooting game, perfectly picking off each target like a practiced marksman and earning me a large stuffed bear.
“How in the world did you learn to shoot so well?” I gawked at him over the head of my new furry companion.
“Lots of practice at the range,” he explained matter-of-factly.
“We have gun ranges in the city?” I wracked my brain and couldn’t recall ever noticing signs for any gun ranges.
“Of course. Most of them are underground.”
My steps faltered, and the woman walking behind me nearly collided with my back. “You go to illegal gun ranges?” I hissed as he pulled me aside out of the way of the flow of traffic.
“When I said underground, I meant that literally,” he said with an amused grin. “They aren’t illegal—they’re built in basements to make use of the concrete walls.”
Oh. “Illegal sounded much more exciting.”
“Sorry to disappoint—I’ll try to be more lawless with my future hobbies.”
I peered up at him curiously. “What other hobbies do you have?”
His eyes became hooded, and a lazy smile spread across his face. “There are a number of things I excel at—shooting is only one of them.” The heat in his eyes was so prolific, I could feel the warming effects across every inch of my skin. Luca closed the distance between us and slammed his mouth down on mine, devouring my surprised gasp with his hungry kiss.
We were starving for one another, tongues tangling with urgency, hands groping frantically. I wasn’t normally prudish—public displays of affection never bothered me—but I had always had enough common decency not to be overly showy. In Luca’s arms, with the cool ocean breeze blowing through my hair, there was no such thing as decency. There was only me and Luca, and I couldn’t get enough of him.
He made me feel desired and precious.
He made me feel … everything.
Before we got too carried away, his phone began to ring. The interruption was probably for the best, but I still wanted to throw the infernal device in the ocean. Luca pulled away reluctantly, sucking at my bottom lip, his eyes simmering pools of liquid heat. He groaned at the caller ID.
“What is it?” he snapped at the caller, surprising me with his clipped anger. “You can’t handle that on your own?” He shuffled his feet agitatedly as the person on the other end answered his question.
I couldn’t hear if it was a man or woman, let alone the nature of the call, but an urgent call on a Saturday evening had me curious.
Luca offered a resigned, “I’ll be there in thirty,” then hung up the phone. His lips pursed as he peered off toward the water and took in a deep breath. “I have to take you home,” he said coolly.
I stepped close to him and laid my hands on his chest. “What was that all about?” I asked quietly, knowing my question was likely prying into private matters.
He dropped his gaze and cupped my jaw with both hands. “Just business.”
“On a Saturday night?”
“Some of my associates can be more demanding than others. This one’s a pain in my ass.”
I smiled up at him, and he placed a soft kiss to my forehead.
“Come on, let’s get you home.” Luca wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me back to the car.
As he drove, I wondered why a cli
ent might need his banker on a Saturday night. Credit card fraud? With twenty-four-hour internet sales, bankers might be on call longer hours than I had originally assumed. Perhaps corporate lending was more time-intensive than I realized. There were viable reasons for the call, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was odd. However, I’d had such an amazing night, I refused to let the phone call spoil the evening.
Luca had been fun-loving, engaging, and even romantic, despite his claims otherwise. I was hardly out of his car before I was already longing for the next time I’d see him.
9
Alessia
My driver, Leo, was supposed to pick me up at five to take me out to my parent’s house for Sunday dinner. Until that time, I spent the day moping around the apartment. It was insane. I’d only just met Luca less than a week before, but I’d seen him each of the last five days, and a day without him felt like an eternity. I hardly knew the man, but it didn’t seem to matter.
Luca had swept into my life with the force of a freight train. When the train passed through the station, the only thing left was dirt wafting in the air, making it hard for me to breathe. Everything about the situation was crazy. How could I be so caught up in a man I’d just met? The intensity of my feelings for him worried me, and I wondered if I needed to put distance between us to regain my bearings.
The thought alone made my chest hurt.
These intense emotions weren’t like me. I didn’t sit around and pine for men. Time spent with Luca was changing me as I expected it would. The process had begun, and the only question now was, how would it end? Would he leave me malformed and broken or fill in my missing pieces so that I was stronger and more complete than before?
If I walked away now, I ensured I would survive my encounter with Luca Romano. It would still be difficult, even after only a week, but I could do it. Much more time with him, and I wasn’t sure I could drag myself away. However, ending our relationship before it had begun felt weak. My dad would say only a coward walks away in fear, and that’s what I would be doing—running in fear when there was no way to know I was in any real danger to begin with.
Had there been some tangible reason to back up my fears, some legitimate concern that supported the fact that he would be bad for me, I might have had reason to push him away. As it stood, I had no viable complaints with Luca—my only issue was my fear that I was already in too deep with a man who could destroy me.
I was no coward.
Fear would not dictate my decisions. Allowing myself to fall for him would be risky, but it might be the best thing to ever happen to me. There was no way to know unless I allowed our relationship to play out. That didn’t mean I couldn’t keep my wits about me rather than let my hormones run the show.
First and foremost on that front would be keeping myself from sitting around and pining for the man. Attempting to keep busy, I spent the day doing laundry and other household chores. I refrained from texting Luca, which I considered a success—I wasn’t trying to play games, but I didn’t want to be that clingy girl who couldn’t stand on her own two feet. I had lived many years without Luca and would easily survive a day without him now, or so I tried to tell myself.
When five o’clock rolled around, I was relieved for the distraction. Our weekly family dinners were often a chore, but on a day when I didn’t want to think, I welcomed anything that might draw my attention, for however long, from the beguiling man who haunted my thoughts.
My parents lived in my childhood home on Staten Island in a small waterfront community named Annadale. It was near the city, but we always stuck close to our neighborhood, so it was almost like growing up in the suburbs. The house was a two-story Mediterranean home with customary marble columns and glossy marble floors. It had been updated through the years but held much of its original old-world charm. The best part of the house was the expansive back patio looking out over the bay. The patio was outfitted with a wealth of wrought-iron furniture and was often used to host family gatherings.
I had loved growing up in that house. There were darker moments, but most of my childhood memories were good. I was comfortable in my parents’ house, and each week when I crossed the threshold, a part of me always drifted back to my youth. It was hard not to regress when surrounded by the people and things of the past. I had to make a concentrated effort to pull forth the successful businesswoman I’d become and not allow my inner angsty teen to resurface.
On this particular instance, when I entered my parents’ home, I found my Uncle Sal in the entry, preparing to leave.
“Hey, Uncle Sal,” I greeted as I gave him a warm hug.
“Alessia! My God, you look more beautiful every time I see you.”
I chuckled an embarrassed laugh. “You aren’t sticking around for dinner?”
“No, I was just heading out. We’ll have to have you girls over to our place soon so we can spend more than a couple minutes catching up.”
“I’d love that. How’s Aunt Tina?”
Uncle Sal had married a woman much younger than himself. Martina, Tina for short, was plenty nice, but I was pretty sure Sal married more for function than substance. He was still an attractive man for his age, and I could see how he’d snagged a woman twenty years his junior. I didn’t understand why, but I could see how.
“Tina’s great. She’s buying me out of house and home,” he teased playfully. “Alright, I gotta get outta here. You enjoy your dinner, and I’ll see you soon.”
“Sounds good, see ya.”
I closed the door behind him and made my way toward the back of the house, which overlooked the patio and waterfront. Crossing paths with my dad just outside the dining room, I offered him a hug, and he wrapped his strong arms around me.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Alessia, I’m glad you made it.” As if I had a choice. “I have to make a quick call; I’ll be right back.” He strode down the hall, and I momentarily watched his retreating form. He may have had high expectations for us, but he wasn’t a bad man. I loved my father. I just wished he looked at me the way he looked at Maria.
My older sister was already seated at the expansive dining table—she was never one to help in the kitchen. Mom and Sofia entered the room from the other door, placing dinner on the table. We all took our places—the three of us girls sitting in the same spots we’d had since we graduated from our highchairs. Dad joined us minutes later, and we began the ritual dance that was Sunday dinner.
Mom asked what we had been up to that week, and we each volunteered some scrap of information to satisfy her curiosity. Dad mostly ate in silence, occasionally interjecting a question or brief comment. Once our portion of the show was over, Mom launched into her lengthy updates on her bridge group, charities, family gossip, and latest projects.
“Enzo, I know you said no party discussions, but I just want everyone to know I was able to rearrange the seating charts to include Vica’s plus one,” Mom informed us as if this had been a great feat of engineering. “I need to know now, though, if any of you are going to end up bringing someone. Sofia, this is your party, sweetie—surely there’s someone you want to bring.”
All our attention turned to Sofia. Her eyes flitted about like a little mouse trapped in a cage until they landed on me apologetically. I knew instantly what she was about to do, but there was no time to stop her.
“Alessia is dating someone,” she blurted out to everyone’s astonishment.
As one, the group all turned their eyes on me.
I glared at Sofia, promising payback. “We’ve only gone out a couple of times—there’s nothing to tell. I don’t have plans to ask him to the party, so don’t worry about that.”
I was stunned when my father was the first to respond. “What’s his name?”
“Why?” I asked cautiously, making sure not to sound too flippant.
Dad wiped his mouth with his napkin before leaning back in his chair. “I want to know if we know this man. There are too many
predators out there to be handing yourself over to someone we don’t know.”
“Sticking to people we know makes for a pretty small dating pool, Dad.” I didn’t want to argue with him, so I tried to respond with as much respect as I could and still say my piece.
“This guy could be a pervert or a serial liar, and you’d never know. It’s good to find someone with references—people who can vouch for him.”
“Just because we know people doesn’t mean we know if they’re good people.”
“No, but it helps reduce the risk. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel—we have plenty of friends and family who could recommend good dating options—might as well give those a try first before you branch out to random people on the street.”
Stunning us all, Maria chose that moment to interject her opinion. “I have to agree with Alessia. There’s no telling what goes on behind closed doors. Even the people we know could be completely different when no one’s around.” She so rarely contributed to our conversations, we were all speechless. I wasn’t sure if she even realized what she’d done, but I was enormously grateful she’d backed my position.
“It’s not like I’m marrying the man,” I said, downplaying the relationship. “We just started dating, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Dad frowned but picked up his fork and returned to eating. “What does this man do for a living?”
“He’s a banker.”
His eyes looked me over for a brief moment, then nodded as if in answer to an unspoken question. A few awkward seconds passed in silence, so I used the opening to divert the conversation away from me.
“Speaking of news, Sofia failed to mention she got a job.” I looked over at my younger sister, who’s eyes rounded in surprise. No doubt she would have kicked me under the table if she could have reached me; instead, she stuck out her tongue, and I responded with a wink. Payback was a bitch.
Forever Lies (The Five Families Book 1) Page 7