Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Maurizio
We had barely gotten two minutes away from the baby shower when the sound of the children’s snoring sounded around us.
“I’m sorry,” Flora blurted out, reaching across the space between us to rest a hand on my knee before quickly retreating and folding her arms across her chest.
I didn’t know what she was apologising for, although, I could hazard a guess.
“Our plan for discretion. I think I may have blown that with my fumbling attempt to introduce you and Ash.”
I shook my head. She wasn’t wrong, her introduction would have told anyone with eyes, ears or an ounce of common sense that we were more than employee and employer.
However, Ash wasn’t surprised to see us together.
“Flora, I think us was many things to Ash, none of them a surprise, after all he was the one who suggested making my headboard bang like a barn door in a storm.”
Gazing across at her, I allowed myself a half smirk at the small flush of colour across her cheeks along with a coy smile. “Exactly. Nothing to apologise for.”
“Do you suppose anyone suspected anything about us? You and me being, well, whatever?”
Suddenly all warmth and lightness left me with her inarticulate phrasing of the word whatever. “We need a conversation about us and the discretion.”
Before I could say any more, I heard her breathing change and as she responded her voice carried a nervous and sad lilt. “Of course.”
“Flora, you misunderstand,” I told her as we turned off the road and headed towards the house.
Other than the gentle snores of my children, the space around us was filled with silence until my car came to a stop next to hers, and then, with my seatbelt undone, I turned to face her.
“I don’t want you to think that we are a dirty secret or a temporary stopgap for me.
It, we, you are neither. I like you, a lot.
I was nervous about us, you know that. I wanted it but wasn’t sure it was wise and as such, I didn’t want it to happen .
. . I obviously wanted you, but the complication of a relationship, especially one with my children’s nanny is what I didn’t want to happen because it had the potential to be messy.
It still does and for the children, it would be disastrous for them to lose you, but from the second you didn’t tell me to stop, there was no going back. Discretion was a pipe dream.”
“What are you saying?”
Fuck me! I was a barrister, paid handsomely to be articulate and she sounded and looked as if I made no sense at all.
“Today, we had a nice time, didn’t we?”
She nodded and a smile lit up her face.
Reaching across the space between us, I took her hand and pulled it to me, kissing her knuckles before lowering my own hand that still held hers into my lap. “Even when I thought there was a good chance that Charlotte was going to take Bea down, I had fun.”
She laughed and I was certain I could feel the vibration of it rattling in my chest, my heart. I was well and truly fucked with thoughts like that. When did I get flowery and all romantic? Yup, fucked, just like Seb and Gabe had told me weeks, months ago.
“I want to have more fun, with you, tesoro mio .”
“Fun?”
Shit! Did she think I meant sexy fun because I didn’t. Obviously, I did want more sexy fun with her but that’s not what I meant right now.
She giggled and I realised she knew I hadn’t meant that.
“You naughty minx.”
“Naughty? Do I need to be punished?”
My mouth went dry and the world stood still.
Did she want to be punished, and what was she thinking might be a suitable punishment?
She was fucking with my head and in the fifteen minutes since we had left the baby shower, I had worked through the whole spectrum of feelings and right now horny was in pole position.
“Sorry—”
I cut her off because apart from anything else, I didn’t want her to be sorry, not for speaking her mind and sharing her thoughts, even if she hadn’t meant it and was playing with me.
“Something else not to be sorry for and with no pressure whatsoever, we can talk about that later, but for now, let’s focus on the other fun.
The being together, enjoying spending time together and getting to know each other kind of fun. ”
“Me too.”
Raising her knuckles back to my mouth, I kissed them again. “Then let’s do that.”
“And discretion?” With her eyes lowered she looked awkward but was that because she did or didn’t want to be discreet, or perhaps she was still unsure whether she could truly believe what I was saying.
“Look at me.” My tone was sharper than I had intended but it served the purpose of focusing her gaze on me once more.
“We can be as discreet as you want or don’t want, however, we are in a relationship, a non-professional one and whilst I don’t think the children need front row seats to that right now, in time, I’d like them to know about us. ”
She looked stunned, but why wouldn’t she be, I was and the words I’d uttered had been in my brain at some point before I spoke them.
“We don’t need labels, at least not now, unless you do, but it’s just us and whether other people know it or not, we know it .
. .” I reached across and undid her seat belt, trying and failing not to watch as it recoiled, moving slowly across her body, tantalisingly so as it passed through the valley between her breasts, her magnificent breasts that just the thought of had my cock stiffening further and twitching.
“And feel it . . .” My hand moved to her face, pushing a stray lock of her golden curls behind her ear, then stroking along her jaw until my thumb rubbed across her lips that parted a little, inviting me in.
“And believe it, right?” Before she answered my hand had moved to cup her head, my fingers flexing between the strands of her hair and then I was pulling her to me, determined not to stop until my lips and hers were one.
“What does it mean, tesoro mio?”
I had wondered how long it was going to take for her to finally ask this. Her pronunciation wasn’t too shabby either. “My treasure, and you are.”
She grinned. “You said something else when you, you know.”
I laughed at her flustered face and language as she recalled me being between her thighs, my mouth bringing her pleasure. “Dolcezza means sweetness, which you are, in every way, especially on my tongue.”
The taste of her was an aphrodisiac and might just be my undoing, but right now, I needed the taste of her lips so closed the remaining distance between us.
We fitted together perfectly, our lips blended as one and our tongues worked in perfect harmony.
I was drunk on her, unaware of anything that wasn’t her.
Right up to the point where the sound of a car moving through the gravel of the drive got louder.
Breaking our kiss, I felt as flustered as Flora looked and in the split second it took me to turn and see the driver and the car coming to a stop next to mine, I came down to earth with an almighty bump.
“Sophie.” The irony of my car being sandwiched between those of my wife, my soon-to-be ex-wife and the car I had handpicked for Flora, the woman I had just committed myself to.
I was unsure how much Sophie may have seen until I saw the smirk spreading across her face. She knew that Flora and I were together even if she hadn’t seen us kissing. So much for not giving my children a front row seat. Had they woken, that is exactly what they would have had.
Rediscovering the power of speech and movement, I briefly looked at Flora. “Sorry.” It was my turn to be apologetic now, even if I didn’t know what for, except I did. Sophie and I were dead and buried but her reappearance was going to be a mindfuck for Flora, and I suspected for me, too.