Rival Attractions & Innocent Secretary

‘Luca?’ She knew he was awake even if he was ignoring her. ‘How bad was it?’

‘Leave it, Emma.’

‘You can tell me.’

‘I don’t want to.’

And it should have ended it. She expected him to turn away, except he didn’t. Instead, he turned on his side, towards her. ‘Emma, please…’ He didn’t finish what he was saying, or had he just said it? This begging for distraction.

He moved his body over hers, and then his lips were on hers, his kiss catching her by complete surprise. Luca’s mouth was seeking an urgent distraction; it was a frenetic, heated kiss that urged her body into instant response. They had made love over and over, Luca initiating her into the wonders of her body, the marvel of his, only this was nothing like the tender, slow lovemaking of previous times—this an enthralling new facet. Urgency crashed in like a stormy ocean slamming onto the beach, and her body flared in instant response to his potent maleness. He was kissing her, hot, demanding kisses that she reciprocated, her fingers at the back of his head pressing his face closer to hers. His thighs came down hard on hers, his arms swept under her, circling her, craving more contact—as too did she.

She opened her centre to him, parting her legs, yearning for that first thrust of him with the hunger of an addict. Only it didn’t bring relief, the feel of him driving inside her, his skin sliding over her, it just made her want more, energy building like a cyclone, swirling and obliterating and dragging her to its centre. He moved his arms from beneath her and there was the sensation of falling as her back hit the mattress and Luca leant in on his elbows. Over and over he kissed her, over and over he said her name into the air as he gulped it in, into her mouth as he licked her.

Her orgasms had, till now, been slowly coaxed from her, a learned thing, this gradual build-up as he taught her to let go, as he urged her on to lose her mind, herself, to new sensations. But this night in his bed she was swept into a maelstrom of sensation that was as desperate and urgent as Luca’s fierce need.

The shudder of him inside her was met with sweet beats of her own—it wasn’t sex, it was devotion, the intensity of her orgasm startling her. Her hips moved frantically upwards to escape from the relentless throb of her body, but Luca was in instant pursuit, his last throes tipping her to a place there could be no coming back from, to true abandon, to utter trust.

They slept together—the third night in his bed, and this time they truly slept together, coiled around each other in a fierce embrace that didn’t abate with sleep.

* * *

Never did he just glance at his mother in the morning.

Never could he just accept that greeting and coffee without thought.

Always he checked.

And all these years later, still it happened—an instant check that, for Luca, was as natural as breathing.

A cardigan on a hot summer’s morning.

Or the unusual sight of her in full make-up at seven a.m.

Or worse, an empty kitchen and the explanation of a migraine as to why she couldn’t get up.

His dark eyes automatically scanned for clues or confirmation, yearning for that same rush of momentary relief he had sometimes felt as a child, that all was well—for today at least. That surely his father was too old, too sick, too frail to hurt her… Ah, but he had a savage tongue too—and words, if they were savage enough, could sometimes hurt as much as a blow.

‘How was he last night?’ Luca asked in his native language, watching his mother stiffen.

‘It went wonderfully,’ she replied evasively.

‘I meant how were things when you got home? How was Pa?’

‘Tired,’ Mia said briefly. ‘Where is Emma?’

‘Still asleep.’ Climbing out of that bed, feeling her stir, he had hushed her and kissed her back to sleep and then stood and watched her sleeping. Young, innocent, trusting—how could he do it to her? How could he take her by the hand and lead her to hell? He felt as if his home was built on a sewer—he could almost smell the filth beneath the very foundations as he sat at the table and his mother embroidered the lies.

‘He did so well to dance with Daniela… Leo is coming this morning and his nurse Rosa. I am a bit worried, because he coughed all night—it was a very long day for him.’

‘For you too,’ Luca pointed out, and then added, ‘I heard him shout in the night.’

‘He just shouts, Luca, nothing else…’ Mia closed her eyes. ‘He is old and weak and tired…’

‘Yet still he treats you poorly.’

‘Words don’t hurt me, Luca,’ Mia said. ‘Please just leave things alone—it is good that you came.’