Chapter 18
Gia’slittle hand reaches for mine, and I grab it. Her distress pulls me to her, into the hotel with Luca and Zar, too, but something slides up my spine, snapping my gaze to the right.
There.
Down the sidewalk.
That woman standing in dusty rose, trendy joggers, and a matching hoodie watching us is her. It’s Brooke. Even under a white baseball cap, I can spot her anywhere.
But I don’t have time. I cover my mark.
Because she’s more than my job.
Gia is mine. This feels like my life now while I follow Luca calmly striding through his fancy lobby with his daughter in his arms.
Stares follow us. Whispers, too. They’re not disapproving. They’re admiring. So am I. The sight of the towering, stern Luca as a tender, protective dad, too, is one to behold.
We halt at the elevator, and he cradles Gia’s head against his chest.
Wade and Jameson stand at the new Lobby Lift podium. They’re changing shifts while I nod, getting their attention while trying not to raise Gia’s.
“Outside,” I snarl, and Jameson immediately reads my eyes, dashing as fast as he can without drawing attention to try to catch Brooke. Though I doubt it. She’s probably already gone.
“Is Miss Mercier, okay?” But Wade keeps his post, reading the situation in Luca’s arms.
“She’ll be okay. Thank you.” Luca’s polite to him.
The elevator doors ding open. Several hotel guests dressed to the nines step out before we step in.
Once it’s just the four of us, I enter the code for the penthouse, and Luca softens. “My kóri, how’s your tummy?”
“Yucky,” she replies, mumbling against his chest. “I threw up gummy bears on Ms. Maren’s carpet. French fries, too.”
“Atta girl.” Zar gently pats her back. “That place needed some decorating.”
I bite back my laugh. So does Luca.
The doors to the penthouse slide open, and Gia warns. “Babaaa…I feel yucky again.”
“Okay.” Luca quickly enters the code to the front door and rushes her in his arms down the hall to his bathroom.
“I got the crackers and Gatorade,” Zar announces, walking toward the kitchen.
“I’ll get her some fresh clothes.” I know what to do, too. Twice, a stomach bug went through my sisters and me when I was growing up.
In Gia’s bedroom, I search her dresser until I find her pajamas. I grab her favorite dinosaur set before I notice the framed photos on her dresser.
There’s a picture of Darby, beautiful and pregnant with Luca caressing her belly. A photo of Darby holding Gia. They’re in the kitchen here, and Darby’s laughing at Gia’s smiling face, which is covered in green baby food. Then there’s a professional photo. It was taken on the beach with Luca holding an infant, Gia, and Darby kissing her downy curls.
Tears bite at my eyes, but it’s not jealousy. I can’t imagine the pain. The grief. Everything that Luca had and lost. It swells my heart with patience and compassion.
He needs time.
But when I work my way to his bathroom…
HOLY SHIT…
I need to remember to breathe.
Luca’s stripped down to his black boxer briefs. He’s drenched and kneeling in his shower with Gia, a pile of her soiled clothes beside them, while he gently washes her hair, getting the gummy bear bits out of it.
His onyx hair drips, hanging in strands over his eyes, but his only focus is his daughter. Her small hand clings to his big bicep while his carved muscles tense with concern, carefully wiping her cheeks clean.
“Baba,” she cries, “I don’t wanna be sick again.”
“It’s okay,” he soothes, his big body shielding her tiny one from the pelting water. “You have it all out of you. You’ll feel better now.”
It’s the sexiest, hottest, most tender sight I’ve ever seen, and my ovaries burst.
I’ll wait a million years to make that man mine.
When Luca catches me, standing with my jaw on the floor, he grins. Like sheepishly, and who is this man? And can I grow old and gray with him, please? Can I have ten of his babies, too? My pussy can take it, I promise, because my heart knows Luca is the father everyone dreams about.
Before he left, my dad was good, but Luca is great. He’d do anything for Gia. Luca keeps his promises, for better or for worse, and for my sake, at least it means he’ll never leave.
He turns the shower off, and I hand him Gia’s unicorn-hooded bath towel from the towel bar before passing him a plush white one. He secures it around his tan Adonis belt, making my mouth water, before he carefully wraps Gia like the cutest burrito, scooping her up.
And there bursts my backup pair of ovaries.
I didn’t know I had them until now.
“Let Scarlett get you dressed,” he eases, “while I put on my pajamas, too.”
Quickly, Gia reaches for me, and my heart leaps, taking her into my arms. “Will you spend the night?” she immediately asks, and I don’t know how to answer.
Gently, Luca gazes down at me through his dripping onyx strands, sharing, “Celine is off this weekend. I could use the help.”
“Zar, too.” Gia looks over my shoulder, and Zar stands in the bathroom doorway with crackers and Gatorade in hand.
“Let’s do a sleepover,” Zar insists. “Since Gia didn’t get hers with her cousin, let’s all put on our PJs, watch Moana, and snuggle in bed.”
What progressive version of Full House am I living in?
I thought Zar didn’t do families and picket fences. I stare at him wide-eyed, not recognizing him because he’s not full of mischief. Nope, he makes it sound perfectly wholesome and normal.
“Please,” Gia softly begs, squirming in my arms. “We can all sleep in Baba’s bed.”
What the…?
“Ahem.” Luca clears his throat. “I don’t know if that will work.”
“We’ll make it work.” Zar’s not a sub tonight. He’s taking charge, and I don’t fight him because this suddenly feels natural to me, too.
First, I stand Gia on Luca’s bed and get her dried off and in her pajamas while Luca gets dressed in his closet. Then, Zar feeds Gia a tablespoon of Gatorade before offering her one Saltine.
“My girl gets a cracker and a tablespoon every fifteen minutes,” he soothes, and Gia gently chomps the cracker, trusting his care.
And I marvel, “When did you get so domestic?”
Zar cocks a grin. “My mom was a pediatrician with three sons. I was always her nurse with my little brothers.”
Does Zar burst my ovaries like Luca? No. But he warms my heart. He makes this cozy and easy.
Once Luca gets settled in bed, resting with Gia in the crook of his arm, under the covers, he clicks on the flatscreen while he tells me, “In my dresser in the closet, second drawer from the top, are my T-shirts that’ll fit you like a nightgown.”
Zar disappears to go to his suite for his pajamas, while with his permission, I wander into Luca’s custom closet, admiring the neat rows of black, gray, and dark blue suits. Under them hang rows of starched white shirts, swaying over polished fancy men’s shoes. It’s pristine in here. And it smells like Luca: citrus and cypress.
I don’t recognize the bottle of cologne on the gold tray on his dresser. It’s written in Greek, but I lift the bottle to my nose and inhale him, noticing the framed photos on his dresser, too.
There’s an older picture of his parents’ wedding. A picture of Luca as a cute boy, sitting in a blue rowboat, probably in Greece. There’s a picture of him, Zar, and Darby. It looks like a selfie he took while they’re laughing, lying in a pile of autumn leaves. Then there’s the same photo Gia has on her dresser—Luca holding her while Darby kisses her daughter’s head.
Still, jealousy doesn’t find me.
No, I’m full of hope.
That could be us.
All of us.
I just have to wait.
Grabbing a gray, weathered HARVARD t-shirt from the neat stack I find in his drawer, I grin. It’s like the last time Luca bought activewear was in college, and it’s pretty adorable.
I take off my dress and bra, draping them neatly over a velvet hanger in his closet. I get a warm fuzzy feeling hanging my dress next to Luca’s suit before I take my hair clip out, the one Luca gave me, and set it on his dresser.
When I emerge from his closet in his T-shirt skimming my thighs, Gia’s eyes are glued to the screen, while Luca’s crystal eyes are glued to me, crawling with a grin across his bed.
“My god, my belle,” he murmurs, watching me nestle on the other side of Gia.
Minutes later, Zar returns to the bedroom with a tray loaded with snacks: more crackers, Gatorade, banana slices for Gia, popcorn for us, and whisky, too.
But what amuses me is the Harvard joggers Zar sports like PJs. They match Luca’s. Both wear thin, V-neck white T-shirts, too.
“What did y’all do?” I tuck the covers around my legs. “Raid the Harvard gift shop when you went there?”
“Yep.” Zar flops down on the foot of the bed. “Euro snob here didn’t own sweats until I made him buy some.”
Luca grins while I watch in awe at how Zar comfortably props up on his elbow, resting by our feet. Pulling the blanket at the foot of the bed over him, he forms a cozy nest of our bodies, surrounding Gia with the headboard at the top.
Gia alternates between snuggling with me and Luca and crawling down to snack off the tray Zar brought us, letting him feed her tablespoons to stay hydrated. After her full day, she’s subdued tonight, seeming as content as I feel.
Though I keep catching Luca watching me with a look so intense, it sets butterflies alight in my chest, fluttering through my body.
HIF #14: I’m almost afraid to believe this bliss. This future. No way can my life be this perfect.
I have fleeting childhood memories of a warm family feeling. I was very young. My mom was happy, my dad was there, and my sisters and I were safe.
But that feeling faded in my heart like an old photo.
Now, this rush of love with the four of us together is technicolor, and I pray it will last.
We sip whisky, watching Moana as Gia’s eyelids droop until they finally close. She’s nestled beside Luca. We’re all tired, so Zar sets the tray on the floor before resting his head by Luca’s feet and draping his feet over mine. Like he’s perfectly happy, Zar closes his eyes while Luca tells Alexa to turn off the lights.
Darkness gently falls over his bedroom, but I can still see Luca with the dim city lights streaming through the white sheers.
Gia’s fallen asleep between us, but Luca’s awake. Silently, he reaches over, his fingertips gently brushing a lock of my hair off my cheek.
Surrendering on my side, I let him do it. I let Luca make me fall helplessly in love with him. With us. There’s no turning back. I don’t want any other life.
I let him caress my cheek until I have to close my eyes at the tender flutter in my heart, making happy tears well in my eyes.
I love Saturday nights like this, too.
Sleep must’ve claimed me.I awake a couple of hours later, I guess, with my bladder talking to me.
Carefully, I climb out of Luca’s bed and quietly pad into his ensuite. I don’t turn on the lights. There’s a window in here, too; I can see well enough to find the water closet with his porcelain throne. Then I grin because I find it so cute that Luca has kids’ flushable wipes in here. After I’m done, I use one, afraid to flush, but I do, hoping I don’t wake up…my family?
Is that this perfect feeling that has me smiling in the dark?
Yes.
As quietly as possible, I wash my hands in Luca’s marble sink and dry them using his white hand towel with a gold M monogram.
Oh my god, I even love his bathroom.
If my MMA friends could see me now.
This bitch is getting soft over kids’ bath wipes.
But then I turn around, gasping, my fighter’s instinct tensing at the towering figure looming in the doorway.
“Shit,” I softly gasp. “You scared me.”
It’s Luca. I’d know his gargantuan silhouette anywhere.
Quietly, he closes the bathroom door behind him. When he locks it, too, I softly gasp again, seeing the shadow of his growing erection hanging heavy in his joggers.
I whisper, “What are you doing?”
Closing the distance between us, he doesn’t answer. Reaching over his back, he yanks his T-shirt off, tossing it on the floor before he presses against me, ripping the air from my lungs. I’m trapped between Luca’s cool marble vanity and his rock-hard heat.
“I need you.” His whisper is gruff. “I need everything about you.” Taking my hand, he guides it under the waistband of his joggers. “Do you feel this? How much I fucking need you, Scarlett?”
We’re not playing Dom and sub tonight. We’re playing desperate, aching need because that’s how I feel, too.
Gripping his swollen shaft, I moan at his heft. At how hard and thick Luca gets for me. This is more than sex or kink. It’s so powerful between us that it’s hard to breathe.
Guiding my hand to stroke him, his other hand wedges his joggers down until they hang from his hips. “Luca,” I sigh at his exposure, at his urgent need, at the rush of wet lust I feel for it.
“God, my belle.” With his cock, jutting high and demanding between our bodies, together our hands wrap around it, stroking him. He sinks his other hand in my hair, pressing his lips to my forehead. “God, Scarlett, how I fucking need you. All day. All night. I need this life with you. Promise me, my belle.”
I need it, too, so I free my hands, quickly yanking my T-shirt off. I stand before him in my black lace panties, and he groans when I lick my palm for him and spit in it, too. Grabbing his thick shaft, I start pumping my slick hand while he guides me again, growling with his swollen cock wedged between our almost naked bodies.
“Scarlett,” he grunts, his grip on my hair getting tighter, his breath thinning, rasping against my strands like he’s losing his mind. “Fuck, I can’t feel this way and be this close to you and not have you,” he confesses, gently thrusting his hips in my grasp. “I can’t watch you in my life, in my family, in my bed, and not have every inch of you. Always.”
It wets my pussy instantly. His passion. His hard cock and body. His ache, so vulnerable. His heart so soft. He desperately needs release, and it’s so damn hot to give it to him.
I press my breasts against him, letting him feel my hard nipples urging over his flexing abs. I try to rub every inch of me against him; I can’t get enough of him either. His satin skin. His concrete form. His tense need. His wild breath.
“I kept getting hard for you all day.” His lips confess, steaming over my scalp. His heat burns through me. “I can’t watch you be so goddamn beautiful and perfect for me and not have you. Please.” He’s dripping for me, so I smear my thumb through his precum, swirling it over his swollen velvet tip, and he shudders. “Fuckkkk, Scarlett, I need to be so deep inside you.”
“You are, Luca,” I sigh back. “You’re inside me. Feel this with me.”
We can do this. We can imagine everything we can’t have together, not yet, but we will one day.
I understand Luca’s pain. I’ll protect it. I live with that void of losing someone you love, too. You’re afraid to open your heart again, so I’ll wait for him. I’ll make him change. Fate cracks across our flesh whenever we’re near; we belong together. He can’t keep fighting me.
Pressing his huffing lips to my hair, he gazes down with me at the desperate fervor in our pumping hands, giving him what he’s shaking for.
I love it when I make his thighs shake, his lips, too, but I’ve never seen Luca like this.
He’s not a Dom tonight. He’s a lonely dad. He’s a man who’s denied himself for so long, and how it makes me ache because I’m the one he needs.
“I’m yours, Luca.” I give him everything. I grab him and our future, and I take it so hard I make him grunt, lurching forward about to release. “You have my body to torture. You have my pussy that’s so wet for you.” I’m watching. He’s watching. He’s panting, thrusting for it, and I give it to him. “You have my heart, Luca.”
“Scarlett,” he grunts before silence falls over him. His body locks while he growls back his roar, barely letting go with a deep, urging groan from his throat before he spurts, drops hitting my chin, my breasts too, but I keep giving. I squeeze, pumping more of his breath away, and he quakes, moaning and spilling over our fists, coating my hand with his cum.
He drags in three deep, ragged breaths before he grabs my drizzled hand and demands, “Take me, Belle.” Quickly, he shoves our cum-coated hands over my pussy. “Put my cum inside you,” he demands. “Now.”
With his sticky hand cupping mine, he guides my fingers to plunge inside my slick heat. Pressing his palm over my hand, his grinding force gives my clit the pleasure it’s aching for.
Urging his hard body against mine, splattered in his cum, this is so erotic and beautiful. I gaze up at him, the shadows falling over Luca’s exquisite face, his eyes searching mine, and his full lips still shaking with desire. His cock hasn’t fallen soft yet, but I’m going fast.
I want Luca too much.
I need Luca too much.
My clit is electric. My pussy starts clenching, but my fingers aren’t enough. I’m pumping two inside me and aching for more of him. So much more. So I hang on to the promise in his eyes, to the dream I want so badly with him, and that takes me over the edge.
“Luca,” I moan, trying to be quiet while I fall into a million pieces, coming over our hands. My thighs shake. They get weak. But I’m pressed between the vanity and him so I don’t fall.
Well, my heart does. She falls to the bottom of his ocean.
Because Luca gently lifts my glistening hand in his, pressing it over his pounding heart. Mine is, too, while he whispers in my hair, “You know the word for this, Scarlett. The word I feel for you. The one word I wish I could say.”
Then he lets go of my hair with his other hand, wrapping his arm around me and holding me tight, cleaving my body to his, my head on his hard chest while I fight back my soft tears.
I feel every word between us.
Ache. Passion. Pain. Happiness. Hurt. Peace. Fate. Family. Lust.
Love.