New Title 1 (21 page)

By the end of the
evening we were practically family, and all on first-name terms. It had been a wonderful evening, full of laughter and quiet enjoyment, as I saw Sebastian chatting to his new, little friend. But I also couldn’t help noticing that Sebastian had drunk almost a whole bottle of wine by himself, although it didn’t seem to have had much effect. On the other hand, I was feeling a little lightheaded after two glasses.

“Having fun, baby?”

“Do you realize this is our first dinner-date?”

He frowned. “What about back in San Diego – that Sicilian place?”

“That doesn’t count: you wouldn’t let me finish our meal because you wanted to drag me back to the hotel.”

“Oh yeah, I definitely remember that!”

“Besides, your
friend
, Brenda, was spying on us. I’m half expecting to see her now, tossing her hair over her shoulder and thrusting her boobs in your face like she used to.”

His expression was amused. “She thrust her boobs in my face?”

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t notice. Anyway, if any boobs are to be thrust in your face, they’ll be mine. Right, Hunter?”

He laughed. “Anything you say, boss. Looking forward to it.”

“But then I was thinking,” I went on, “if this is our first date, I probably shouldn’t sleep with you. I don’t want you thinking I’m easy.”

Sebastian gazed at me appraisingly, then pulled out his
phone and started scrolling through the numbers.

“Who are you calling?”

“Well, my date just told me she wouldn’t sleep with me, so I thought I’d see if I had Brenda’s number on speed dial.”

Ouch.
He was much better at this game than I was.

“Fine, fine. I
’ll sleep with you. But if my reputation is in ruins, it’s all your fault.”

Sebastian grinned at me
, then stood up to pay the bill.

I
realized we hadn’t discussed how we were going to split up the costs for this vacation. Maybe if he paid for one night and I paid for the next: that would be fair.

We left the ristorante with the good wishes and prayers of our new friends, the little girl blowing kisses to her
‘Angelo’.

But the angel p
roved he had a devilish streak because the moment we left the ristorante, he pushed me up against the wall and kissed me hard, holding my waist with one hand, and running his other hand up between my thighs.

He pressed his body up
into me and I could feel his arousal by my hip. I was seriously considering taking him there and then, when the ristorante started emptying, and we were very nearly caught in flagrante delicto.

The women looked envious
, and the men called out several coarse suggestions. I was very glad the darkness hid my embarrassment.

“Shall we try and make it back to our room this time?”

“Good idea,” muttered Sebastian. “I don’t think I could take a third interruption in one evening.”

The moon lit our path as we strolled back down the hill. The air was mild, much warmer than in chilly Geneva, but, of course, we were
at sea level on this side of the Alps. I marveled again that in just a few days, we would be in the town where my father had been born. I don’t know why that filled me with expectation, but I was looking forward to walking where he’d walked, looking at the views that he’d have seen, maybe even talking to people he’d known. Italy was changing, but there were still places where the old folks lived and died in the villages where they’d been born.

When we got back to Casa Giovina, the villa was in near darkness. One, small lamp glowed in the hallway, and we crept up the stairs as if we were naughty teenagers.

I grabbed my toiletry bag before Sebastian could distract me and dashed into the bathroom, scrubbing the wine stains from my teeth, and then massaged a little moisturizer into my face with hope, rather than expectation, that it would erase any wrinkles.

When I
returned to our room, Sebastian was already barefoot and shirtless. I dropped my toiletry bag from nerveless fingers, and he laughed at me.

“Seems like
your
eyeballs are the ones in danger of falling out, Ms. Venzi.”

“That is true, so hurry up and get your ass back in my bed.”

“Yes, boss!”

I stripped off my clothes, tossing them onto the chair, and threw myself into bed. Instead of
it being the fairytale boudoir with the lacy net curtains that I’d imagined, the bed creaked alarmingly with every movement. I was horribly aware that the owner’s mother was in the room next to ours
and didn’t sleep well
. I stifled a giggle: it was not our night.

Sebastian returned, looking all hot and predatory. I was getting aroused just looking at him. But the thought of our noisy bed was making it hard not to laugh.

“What?” said Sebastian, looking annoyed that his entrance hadn’t had quite the effect he’d anticipated.

“Nothing,” I said, snorting back a giggle.

“What’s so funny?”

I shook my head, holding a hand over my mouth.

Huffily, he pulled down his pants and kicked them off, then slid his briefs down his slim hips. For practically the first time, there was no hint of an erection: my laughter obviously had a dampening effect.

He threw the sheets back on his side of the bed, looking sulky, then sat down and started to slide over to me.

The bed creaked loudly and his eyebrows shot up. I laughed out loud.

“Sorry! I think we got
the you’re-not-married-so-you-damn-well-won’t-be-getting-any bed. It’s got a built-in anti-screwing alarm.”

Sebastian smirked at me. “You think a noisy bed is going to stop me?”

“The old lady is right next door! She ‘doesn’t sleep well’ – remember?”

“I can
’t help that. Besides, it’ll bring back happy memories for her.”

“Huh, you think you
’re that good?”

Uh-oh, wrong question.

He gave me a dark smile, and then his head disappeared under the sheets. I really wasn’t laughing now. I tried to stifle a groan as a powerful sensation, beginning at my toes, raced up through my entire body. I pulled a pillow over my face and moaned into the soft mound of feathers.

“Oh, God!”

“Yes, baby?” said Sebastian, his amused voice muffled by the sheets.

I heard him
crawling back up the bed, the mattress articulating every movement, and he tugged the pillow from my face and grinned down. His long, skillful fingers continued to dip in and out of me, bringing me to the edge of orgasm. When he fastened his teeth over my left nipple, I fell, spiraling down and choking out his name.

“Still embarrassed by the bed?” he said, smiling at me wickedly.

The question was unfair: I wasn’t capable of speaking, let alone forming a rational answer.

The mattress creaked again as he slid off it to dig a condom out of his
toiletry bag.

“You want to do this, baby?”
he said, holding out the condom towards me.

He
waited for all of two seconds before he gave up trying to get an answer. As if from a long way away, I heard the foil being ripped and the distinctive sound of a condom being tugged up an impressive erection.

“Roll over, baby, I want you from behind.”

When I didn’t move, Sebastian sucked my right nipple until he was guaranteed a reaction.

“Give me a minute,” I grumbled.

But the Chief had waited long enough. He picked me up bodily and tossed me face down on the bed, before hauling me onto my knees so my ass was pointing to the ceiling.

He stroked my cheeks and then I felt his
hot tongue between the cleft of my buttocks.

Oh, that was new
.

I wiggled, not sure I
was liking that. Hmm, okay, maybe.

But then he pulled away and I felt him position himself b
efore sinking into me.

“Fuck, Caro!”

He groaned loudly. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was because he’d finally gotten around to fucking me from his favorite position, but he seemed to have less control than usual. He started pounding into me and I could feel him unraveling rapidly. The bed creaked in sympathy, the antique springs urging him on.

Oh, hell, no! Not another orgasm! I forced my face into the pillow and moaned into it. We were racing towards the finish
, and I was afraid the bed was going to collapse before I did.

But then Sebastian shuddered into me and stilled
, and I gasped out some wordless sounds.

“Oh fuck!” he hissed, pulling out of me roughly.

My body gave way, and I lay splayed on the bed, thoroughly fucked.

And then, through the thin wall that separated us from the owner
’s mother, I heard the sound of someone clapping, and her reedy voice called out, “Bravo! Bravo!”

“What the fuck?” said Sebastian, still breathless.

I started to laugh. “I think… I think we just got a round of applause!”

“You
’re fucking kidding me!”

I shook my head weakly. “That
’s what it sounded like. I guess she was impressed by your performance.”

I heard the bed creak again as Sebastian sat up and called out loudly, “Grazie,
signora!”

“Prego!” she
replied.

He lay back on the bed, his hands behind his head. When I rolled onto my side to look at him, he
seemed very pleased with himself.

“So
mething making you smile, Hunter?”

“Yeah! I never got a round of applause before
.”

“Maybe she was applauding me.”

“Nah, she thinks I’m a stud, I can tell.”

He peeled off the used condom as if to emphasize his words.

“Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have performance anxiety; that can put a man off his stride, so they say.”

He smirked at me, then his smile faded and he looked serious.

“Do you ever think about the first time we were together? You know, when…”