Rival Attractions & Innocent Secretary

‘I hate this,’ Luca admitted to the darkness, knowing she was awake beside him.

‘I know.’

‘This day has been coming for a long time.’

‘You can never prepare for losing someone you love.’

‘I don’t love him.’ She lay still beside him, her heart stopping for a moment as she heard his truth. ‘I have never loved him.’

‘Luca…’ She shook her head on the pillow. ‘You shouldn’t speak like that on the eve—’

‘So he is a saint now?’ She heard the flash of anger in his voice. ‘All those people out there think they are mourning a good man, a loving husband, a wonderful father, when the truth is…’ He halted, but Emma wouldn’t let him leave it.

‘What is the truth, Luca? How bad was it?’

‘He beat her.’ Here in the dark, with her hand slipping into his, he said it. ‘Over and over he beat her, yet she never cried, she just took it. Only even if she made no noise, you could still hear it…’ The marrow chilled in her bones as he continued. ‘Of course, we were not allowed to tell, of course Ma covered her bruises.’

‘What was he like…’ Emma swallowed ‘…to you and Daniela?’

‘Daniela was his angel—people say children know, but I am not sure as Ma and I hid it well, even from her.’

‘And you?’

He didn’t answer, so she asked again, her hand reaching out to the scar on his cheek, and he held her hand against it for a moment.

‘Did he do this?’

He didn’t say anything more and it took a moment for Emma to realise that he was finally asleep—exhaustion catching up with him at last.

He reached for her in sleep, one strong arm dragging her that little bit closer, and she lay rigid in his arms, telling herself to pull away, except she had never felt closer to him, remembering his tension when they’d lain here all those weeks ago, when every noise, every creak of the house must for Luca have screamed danger.

Sleep didn’t let him rest quietly, though.

With every noise she felt the slight jump of muscle still loaded with adrenaline, his arms pulling her further in until she could feel the press of his groin against hers.

She could feel the hardness of his erection, the tense heat of him, a need so demanding it must have woken him, because he turned away, moved onto his back, remembering their rules.

But distance didn’t help it abate.

She knew that, could feel the thick energy in the room, could hear his tense breathing as he willed it to pass, for sleep to rescue him. For this hell to be over.

She turned on her side, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see his were closed, could see the muscled outline of his stomach and the sheet that didn’t disguise his need in the slightest.

Her hand reached out, resting on his stomach, and she heard his hiss of frustration as he thought inadvertent contact had been made, knew he assumed her asleep beside him—that, like himself, her body had forgotten the rules.

Well, it hadn’t.

Slowly she traced the line of hair that snaked from his umbilicus, then nervous, tentative but bold she touched him, hearing his moan, running her finger along a thick vein, then tracing the path back, then doing it again.

‘Emma…’

‘Shh…’ She didn’t want questions and she didn’t want answers. She was stroking him more firmly now, and then his hand was over hers.

‘You don’t have to…’

‘I want to.’

‘Why?’

Because she loved him, because she wanted him, because always, always she would—and despite her promises to herself, she could never lie in a bed beside him and not want him.

And because he needed this—in the thick of night, for Emma it really was that simple.

So she kissed him.

Kissed him in a place she’d never once have considered.

Licked his lovely length so slowly it took for ever to get to the top as he moaned again.

The dark made her brave, braver with each kiss, with each stroke of her tongue. She could feel his fingers in her hair now, guiding her, hear his breath quicken, her hair a thick curtain around his centre, shielding her from the world, to a place where she could just be, where it was just them and she could focus only on this. It was an act of pure giving and it came from the heart with no hope of return. She was crying when he climaxed, her salt mingling with his as he shuddered his release.

He pulled her up to his arms, and he held her, he spooned right into her and held her close and then he asked, ‘Why would you do that for me?’

Only Emma didn’t reply. She could feel him unwound and relaxed beside her now, felt his breath even out as he drifted into decent sleep. She knew her answer.