Chapter 15
She’d slipped under the warm water of the Mediterranean and didn’t want to come up for air. Or maybe this was another dimension where her life was drenched in sunlight and tenderness.
His mouth was soft – too soft for the churning in her stomach. Reverent, the friction of his lips over hers filled with something like gratitude – praise. She felt the touch to the tips of her fingers, spreading through her veins.
It stole into her like ink in water.
Then it was over, the world righting itself as the soft kiss gave way to the suddenly urgent need to breathe.
Except the other dimension had been wonderful.
Toni wanted to chase it. Nothing bad could happen here among Gabri’s plants on his precious island.
She could have another minute of what ifs – if they would just—
He gave a ragged, ‘Ohh,’ and kissed her again.
Relief surged in her chest. The pressure was a little more and in the harder kiss, she felt the light scratch of his moustache and even that was wonderful. The pout of his lips on hers drew all her nerve endings to the surface of her skin until everything was unbearable.
Her fist crushing the cotton of his shirt, she teetered closer, her head spinning. One of his hands dropped from her hair to her waist, which she needed as her balance deserted her, but when she came into full contact with him, body to body, sparks caught and flared.
She felt the vibration of his groan under her hand. The sound short-circuited her brain with a flash of realisation: he was right. This wasn’t an experiment. It was an indulgence she might regret later.
But right now, it was too good to regret, especially when he increased the pressure and her lips fell open.
She’d forgotten a kiss could feel like a force of nature – waves on the beach or a whipping coastal wind.
Even if it was only because this was a week outside of time, it was a revelation that she could still experience these human feelings – with another human.
With this human.
The slow kiss simmered, gathering momentum, her thoughts as hazy as the sea in the distance.
When it wasn’t enough, she pulled him close, demanding, needing, and after a final, pent-up sigh, he obliged, deepening the kiss, setting her on fire.
The world suddenly sped up. The open-mouthed kisses, the touch of his tongue weren’t enough – but also far too much for her senses.
Her fingers found their way to the skin on his chest, making him flinch. His hand on her back was splayed and roaming. She could feel him trying to resist – and failing. She was too worked up to resist, her mouth dropping to his neck to drag her lips over his skin.
‘Toni!’ His hands fisted in her dress at her waist. ‘What do you want to do with your experiment?’
She’d feared he’d draw away immediately, so his question didn’t feel like discouragement, although that’s probably the way he’d meant it. ‘I think it worked.’ At least, she felt good, soaking up his warm skin over muscle.
‘It was awkward and terrible?’ he asked, but his hand smoothed up her back to her nape, keeping her close even as his words seemed meant as a warning. ‘That was your hypothesis.’
‘Was it?’ she asked, growing dazed as he pressed a kiss to her temple and then just below her ear. ‘I’m sure it was an experiment to see what would happen if we acted on the attraction.’
‘It was always clear to me what would happen,’ he said, his voice low and rough and affecting her like another touch. ‘But what do you want to do now we know? I will step away if that’s what you want, but you’re making it very difficult.’
‘I am?’ she asked, her breath feathering his ear.
Her impression of herself and her place in the world unravelling slowly under the island sky, she followed only the glowing pressure in her body and sank her teeth into his lobe.
A smile tugged at her lips when the action drew a tortured groan from him.
‘We should talk about this,’ he said, but his lips were still at her neck.
‘We’ve already talked,’ she whispered, her palm growing warm from the skin of his back. ‘This isn’t real life – not for me – but I’m here to enjoy it for a week. I’m not asking you to take on my complicated life or meet my son.’
He stilled under her hands, his gaze lifting to hers. ‘I wish I were the man for you.’
The bliss of the past few minutes developed a crack. ‘You don’t have to be the man for me. I don’t want the complication of someone else in my life. This is sex, Gabri, and it’s a bloody miracle that I’m here, contemplating this without a shred of embarrassment – although that could change.’
‘Cazzo,’ he said under his breath, tugging her close again with a roughness that sent a thrill through her. ‘You know I want this – you. Surely you can feel it. But what happens to our friendship?’
His gaze was level with hers, close enough for her to memorise the shade of his irises.
‘We only interact online. How could this interfere? It’s the perfect chance – probably the only chance for me.’
‘Chance for what? Good sex?’ His amused smile was familiar.
‘Yes,’ she admitted, burying her fingers in his hair until his eyelids drooped. She almost felt him purring at the touch. ‘A summer fling on an Italian island,’ she said with a smile.
‘I’m your bucket-list item?’ One brow lifted doubtfully.
‘Yes,’ she said again. ‘Is that a problem?’
He came closer, feathering a kiss over her lips to her cheek. ‘No problem,’ he said with a dry tone. ‘All right. I’ll be your bucket-list fling, Toni.’ The words sizzled over her skin. ‘As long as you keep talking to me.’
Talking wasn’t usually her strong point when it came to intimacy, but she nodded and pulled him back for another kiss. His hold on her was firm, kisses increasingly urgent.
‘Do you want dinner?’ he asked, his lips against her shoulder.
He seemed relieved when she shook her head. If they didn’t see this through now, doubt and worry might creep in.
‘Shower,’ he choked out when she pushed his shirt over his shoulders and off.
She resented the necessity of washing for a moment, loving the hint of the ocean on him, but she didn’t resent anything five minutes later when the spray from the shower was hitting her skin in delicious counterpoint to the brush of his rough fingertips.
He was efficient; soaping up his hands, he washed her, from the spot below her ears all the way down her back.
It was a kind of magic that worked on her spirit as well as her body – quieting one and waking the other.
As his touch skimmed over the places that were coming alive with wanting, she grew impatient, taking his hands and pressing one to her breast, one between her legs.
With her friend, her bucket-list island fling, she could demand what she wanted.
Her knees giving out, she leaned heavily against him. His choppy breath in her ear and the intriguing press of him against her lower back were enough proof that he was right there with her.
He seemed in a hurry after that, drying her perfunctorily and then dragging her into the bedroom with both hands. Tumbling onto the bed and tugging her after him, he shot her a giddy, lopsided smile as his hands found her waist again, sliding higher.
Toni was floating, shedding years of limits and dilemmas.
It might be a time out of her usual life – she might not really be this woman who enjoyed her body, and his, freely – but for a few days, it didn’t matter.
The brief thought for her mother when she ripped open a condom packet didn’t even pull her out of this trance.
All that mattered was the way he touched her, as though she were as beautiful as any flower, as delicious as the natural flavours of his herb garden and as refreshing as the wind.
And when he urged her knee up, the way their bodies found each other and merged with a rush of gratification was as elemental as life itself.
‘So sweet. Toni, you feel amazing,’ he murmured as his lips travelled up her chest to her jaw, then over her mouth in clumsy kisses, interrupted by the demands of their bodies for friction. ‘I knew this. You… us… right now.’
She understood what he meant, even if he couldn’t finish his thoughts. This would be a spectacular memory one day. The prospect loosened her own tongue.
‘I think you were at the top of my bucket list from the moment I saw you.’
He smiled, a chuckle making his chest move even more frantically than his rough breathing.
When he dropped to his elbows, the new angle intensified all the sensations shooting through her and barely a moment later, they were clinging to each other, gasping, his fingers tangling with hers and squeezing as they were dragged under together.