She spun around; I’d startled her. “I couldn’t sleep,” she answered.
After the intimacy she’d unknowingly shared, I had to touch her. I walked over to where she stood and put my arms around her waist. She rested her hands on mine, leaned back into me, and I kissed her neck. Not being able to resist, I moved one hand up to her breast, tucking it inside the hotel’s terry-cloth robe, and swirled her nipple with my index finger.
“Catarina,” I murmured the name I’d begun thinking of as a term of affection for her.
She turned in my arms, put her arms around my neck, reached up, and kissed me. I pushed my tongue between her lips and began the assault on her mouth I’d imagined while I listened as she pleasured herself.
I grabbed her ass with both hands and pulled her against me. It would be so easy for me to lift her in my arms, press my hardness into her heat, and take her in the moonlight, but I couldn’t. Not until I knew who the other man was and what he meant to her.
When I released her, she whimpered, but not like before. This was disappointment. I pulled her over to sit beside me on the sofa. “This thing between us…is moving quite fast, Catarina. While I’d like nothing more than to know what it feels like to hold your naked body next to mine, I think we should get to know each other better first, don’t you?”
She turned her head away from me and tried to stand, but I wouldn’t let her. “Please don’t,” she whispered when I attempted to get her to look at me.
“If I let you go, it would be the antithesis of our knowing each other better, sweetheart. Talk to me.”
When she turned and her eyes met mine, the heat I saw wasn’t desire, it was anger. This time when she tried to stand, I let her.
“Get to know each other better? You came in my mouth, Ben, and vice versa. As far as being intimate, I’d say that ranks at the top.”
She stumbled when she walked away; I stood to catch her.
“Don’t touch me.”
I held both her arms. “Why are you angry?”
“Angry? There are several words to describe how I’m feeling, but that isn’t one of them. I’m embarrassed, Ben. Humiliated. Please allow me t
he smallest amount of dignity and let me go.”
I released her arms, and she fled into the bedroom, closing rather than slamming the door behind her.
Telling her the truth about why I wasn’t ready to have sex with her, not that I could do that, wouldn’t have made any difference, except she’d know I was just as humiliated thinking I wasn’t the only man in her life.
I stayed awake most of the night, wondering if I’d handled things wrong. I just couldn’t imagine looking into her eyes as I sunk deep into her body and not think of what I’d witnessed at the casina at Valentini.
When the sun rose, I ordered coffee for her and tea for me. Not long after it arrived, Tara came out of the bedroom.
“Good morning,” she murmured without meeting my eyes.
“Good morning, Catarina.”
“When did you want to head back?”
I poured her a cup of coffee, added the amount of cream I knew she liked, and brought it to her.
“I could’ve gotten it, but thank you.”
“To answer your question, I thought we’d spend another day in Florence.”
Tara looked up at me. “I don’t think that is a good idea.”
“You might change your mind when I tell you what I have planned for us today.”
“Ben, I—”
I put my finger on her lips. “Last night, I told you I want us to get to know each other better. At least hear me out.”
She nodded, and I removed my finger.