Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
OLIVIA
Time moved in slow motion for Olivia in Luca’s arms as he slowly carried her to the kitchen. His words echoed in her ears.
Let me show you how I feel about you.
This quiet man never ceased to completely blow her away with how much he cared.
He laid a kitchen towel out on the counter, then set her down on top of it.
“It’s too cold,” he said, taking his shirt off.
He’d somehow stayed completely clothed during their entire sex marathon, which honestly had only made the whole thing hotter for her.
But she was chilled. He helped her into his pre-warmed Henley, and she shuddered at how good it felt.
“Stay right there,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. “Grilled cheese sound okay?” He started pulling out butter and hearty slices of cheese from the fridge.
“Sounds amazing,” she said, trying to figure out if maybe she’d died during the third orgasm and this was just heaven now.
He picked up an extra flannel shirt from a kitchen chair and tossed it around her shoulders.
“You know,” she said, leaning on her hands and smiling as he fussed at the stove. “You really should try to care a little more for the people that you sleep with. Do something nice for them sometimes.”
She winked at him as he smiled softly at her, buttering the bread.
“I’ve always been bad at making these,” she said offhandedly.
“The secret,” he said with a flourish, “is water. Learned that from Mrs. Brown, my babysitter.”
“You had a babysitter?” she asked, surprised it had never come up.
He smiled to himself. “Sort of. She was a very nice lady who also lived in the trailer park and taught me how to make a home nice, even if you didn’t have a lot.”
She looked around his kitchen and into the living room. His house was nice, tidy. Things were worn but clean. She’d always loved being here.
“She would take pity on Pearl and me sometimes. Feed us when we were running wild. Gave me my first job,” he said, the bread sizzling in the pan. “Picked weeds out of her potted plants. Earned a whole dollar. I still have it,” he told her with a smile.
Her heart. What had he looked like as a little kid? Probably as cute as AB but with that earnest, sweet look that was always hiding behind his eyes. “She sounds like a really nice lady.”
He nodded. “She was. She was pissed at me when I first got my tattoos. Said no one would hire me.” He chuckled.
“She came around, though. Right before she passed, I got this one.” He pointed to a winding branch of weeds on his rib cage.
Olivia’s fingers traced along tall cattails, bushy wildflowers, and spiky leaves.
He tossed the grilled cheese in the pan.
“Do the rest have a story?” she said, taking in his chest, the complicated patterns and scribbles. She let her eyes linger there, kissing his shoulder when he moved close enough to her.
“Yes and no,” he said, pointing to a list of numbers. “Annabelle’s birthday in Roman numerals. Some flash tattoos some buddies and I got after high school on a dare. One that Pearl and I got together when I lost a bet.” He pointed to a lyric.
He turned and reached up, and she spied a tiny unicorn tucked in between spiked vines along the sides of his back.
“Wait a minute,” she said with a laugh. “Did you lose a bet with Annabelle?” She tapped the spot on his back.
He laughed. “Pearl and Annabelle. Want anything to drink? Water?” he asked.
“Oh, I can get it,” she said, scooting to hop down.
“Don’t,” he said seriously. “Liv, don’t put a foot on the floor. Please. I’ll get it.” He stared at her until she relented and scooted back into place.
Let me show you how I feel about you.
He overwhelmed her with how much he cared. How special he made her feel. How beautiful a soul he was under all those muscles and that handsome face.
He got her a glass of water and squeezed her hip as he walked back to the stove.
Taking a chef’s knife, he carefully sliced the gooey grilled cheese exactly diagonally. Hunched over one of the rare ceramic, non-kid plates in his cabinet, he plated it just so.
He handed it to her with a kiss on her temple—a little heart drawn in ketchup sat next to the sandwich, with a neatly folded napkin under the plate.
And then he just… casually walked away.
As if he hadn’t just done the sweetest, most precious thing she’d ever seen.
Hadn’t been the kindest, most considerate person every day for the past two months.
She bit into the grilled cheese. Buttery, gooey love gushed out of the sandwich and into her soul, healing the last crack in her heart she hadn’t even known was there.
Oh my god.
She stared at the plate in her hands, thunderstruck.
Dizzy from the now very obvious truth on her tongue and unable to run from it any longer.
I’m in love with him.
Her heart beat faster as she stared at him in shock.
He stood on one side of the double sink, washing a dish.
She knew in her bones she was supposed to be in the open spot beside him.
As long as we both shall live.
I’m in capital-L, he’s-the-one, have-his-babies love.
How had it taken her so long to realize it?
The warmth and kindness in those deep brown eyes, the care in his every movement. How she wanted to protect him and be protected by him.
Luca turned around with a dish towel slung over his bare shoulder. She gulped, a feral want tugging at her.
Their gazes caught. “Do you need another one?” he asked.
She hadn’t realized she’d eaten the whole thing while ogling him. She slowly shook her head no.
She set the plate down slowly, never taking her eyes off him. An ache hummed in her core.
She wanted him.
Grasping the waistband of his jeans, she pulled him between her legs.
He looked smug as he yanked the towel off his shoulder. “Take it you liked the grilled cheese?”
“Buddy.” She shook her head in disbelief, her fingers tracing the dark stubble on his face. “You have no idea.”
He swept her up from the counter and carried her upstairs. The buckle of his open belt clanked as he walked, stoking her lust higher and higher.
She studied just how much pressure was needed to make him shudder as she nibbled his neck while he carried her upstairs.
He laid her down on his bed. The flannel comforter that smelled like him puffed up around her.
She pushed up to watch him push off his jeans, his boxers.
She took him in, seeing him naked for the first time. Thick, meaty thighs with more tattoos made her clench her inner muscles.
“Want to lick them,” she said, reaching out to trace the snaking thorns and patterns. His cock hung down, heavy with wanting her again.
She licked her lips at seeing it, but instead of giving her what she wanted, he caught her lips in a needy kiss. Never breaking it, he pushed her back onto the bed with a sigh, crawling over her until he surrounded her.
Thick arms wrapped around her, heavy thighs bracketed hers, and his kisses pushed her further into the blankets that smelled like cedar and felt like home. She savored each kiss like sips of champagne, dragging each one out on her tongue as they went to her head.
He pulled the shirt up over her breasts. A moan sighed out from them both as he licked and sucked her nipple, rolling the other with his hands.
She scraped her nails down his back, and goosebumps appeared on his thick arms.
Oh my god, I even love his goosebumps.
The sweet, aching sensation of his sucking and licking was intensified by all the love she had for him.
He stayed there, licking broad strokes around her breasts, moving from one to the other, pinching and teasing with his thumb.
Squirming for more, she sighed at what was becoming torture. “Luca, please.”
He pressed her breasts together, his jaw ticking as he handled her. “I’ve wanted to take my time here for months.” He licked a path between her breasts. Licked the crease under them. “Show you how I feel about you, and them.” He sucked harder, and she arched into him.
When he repositioned himself, she took the opportunity and rolled him over.
Show him how I feel about him.
She shimmied down his body, kissing every tattoo she found along the way. Kissing the cattails and the weeds, loving his soul and ambition. Kissing each silly flash tattoo because she loved that this serious, dependable man had been a carefree kid once too.
She licked and kissed each one on the way down his solid, soft core, trying to put as much love into each kiss as possible.
“I’ve never felt more safe than when I’m with you,” she said, brushing her lips across his hip bone.
A stuttering sigh wrenched out of him.
“How you make me melt, and laugh.” She brushed her cheek against his thigh as his cock brushed her other cheek. She stared up at him, her hands clenching his thighs, squeezing.
She inhaled his scent as she kissed her way across his hip bones, licking up the track of precum that had dripped there.
He stroked her cheek.
She leaned into it, eyeing him. “I don’t know if you’re mine to keep, but I wish you would be.”
“Liv—” Her name was sighed out, like his heart was leaping out of his chest.
Licking up his cock from the base, she slowly ran her tongue up to the head. He arched off the bed with a moan. Sucking on the head of his cock, she licked up the precum like a lollipop as his hand ran into her hair.
Yes.
She sucked him down deeper and felt him tremble under her. His muscles trembled but he never took his eyes from hers.
The power of him in her mouth while he restrained himself made her blood pulse.
She licked him playfully, enjoying it. “Tell me one of your fantasies.”
“This.” His ragged breaths caught on the edge of control as she sucked him hard. “You.”
He looked down as she smiled around his cock. “Oh fuck, that too. I can’t look at you. It’s too good.”
She climbed up his body and grabbed a condom from the bedside table, rolling it on. He squeezed her thighs as she straddled him.
She kissed his chest, wanting to know him more, wanting to know everything about him.
Wanting to make this so good for him.
“C’mon,” she teased breathlessly.
“Can’t,” he said, sitting up and kissing her breast, her neck.
“Too dirty?” she said with a wicked grin.
“No,” he said, his eyes connecting with hers, swallowing. “Too real.”
Now she had to know.
“Please,” she said, sliding down onto him. They sighed together as she seated herself onto his cock, feeling full.
A sudden, desperate urge to know every part of him urged her on.
“Please,” she begged into his mouth. He held her head as he kissed her, and she was lost momentarily in how perfect it was with him.
He lay down, rocked her hard against him, and a moan ripped out of her.
“Luca, please,” she sighed against his mouth, staring at him as they slowly moved together.
He looked so tortured, holding something back.
“Tell me,” she said, tracing his bottom lip with her tongue. “I want it all.”
She pinned her forehead on his as he grabbed the back of her neck, and they moved together on the bed, noses nuzzling, breathy kisses drifting back and forth.
“Please,” she sighed, begging.
His breaths were shaky. “It’s you, in the morning. In our bed.”
Their eyes met and the nervous, vulnerable look in his made her realize just how real he meant.
He closed his eyes, looking pained. “It’s bright, and I’ve made you pancakes and orange juice. And…” His voice shook.
“I can take it,” she whispered. “Trust me. It’s me, Luca.”
His eyes burned with raw desire. “It’s morning, and,” he sighed out as she clenched around him. “And… god, you’re pregnant, and my head is between your thighs, eating you.”
She clenched hard around his cock in surprise at the visual, wanting it so bad.
A groan ripped out of both of them as they grasped and clutched at each other, each thrust becoming more intense, more needy.
“You look like a goddess,” he said against her cheek as she moved faster over him. “Gorgeous and round and safe. Your hair is everywhere, and you fuck my face, taking exactly what you need.”
“Yes, yes,” she panted, lost in the fantasy with him.
“Not too much?” he said worriedly as his eyes found hers.
“About to come,” she moaned, looking helplessly at him as the fantasy tugged at her secret desires.
He held her jaw as she rode him harder and harder. “That’s it, Liv. Give it to me. Give me all of you.”
“You have me.”
You have my heart.
All of it.
The rhythm of their hard thrusts sounded like love you, love you, love you to her ears.
“I… I…” The pleasure of him holding her, treasuring her, was too much. Too good. She might explode from the clenching need if she didn’t have him.
He squeezed her, pumping into her harder. “I want it all with you, Liv.”
Her climax pitched up through her clit and ripped into every limb as she grasped him. He rocked harder up against her, coming with a shout as both of their muscles seized, still at the apex with the pleasure of it, until finally, they sighed out on the other side.
Her forehead rested against his neck, sweaty and delicious.
“So beautiful when you come,” he sighed.
“So hot when you come,” she said with a smile, and he chuckled.
He wants it all with me.
They finally caught their breath.
“I think…” He nuzzled her into him and wrapped a thigh around hers, sighing like what he was about to say was heavy. “It’s time we go on a real date.”
Her mind raced.
He stroked her hair. “I can ask Pearl to babysit. She’s been encouraging me to, quote, ‘finally get your shit together with Olivia.’”
She bit the inside of her cheek, feeling nervous. “What about the no-dating rule?”
He shifted so she looked at him and ran a thumb over her lips.
“The rule was created in a universe where I didn’t know you existed. Simple as that. Had I known, the rule would have been: I don’t date, except for Olivia Maroo. If she were to ever feel the same way about me.”
Falling a little more in love with him, she nodded and then kissed him.
They fell asleep, with his arm wrapped tight around her middle. He lay on her hair and nuzzled the back of her neck.
As Olivia fell asleep tucked into him, a quiet murmur behind her of “Best day ever” made her smile before she drifted off into a dream that could never compete with the day she’d just had.