16. Antonio
Chapter sixteen
Antonio
Capri
“ L et’s hike to our cove,” Lucia says, jumping up from the stool she’d only just perched on. “We couldn’t do it last time, and I really want to go today.”
Being in Capri has completely transformed Luce. The haunted look shadowing her beautiful eyes last night has been replaced by a sparkle in my favorite shade of green, and a smile hasn’t left her glossy lips. The enthusiasm is contagious.
“And a picnic?” I ask, the weight of worry over business lifting off my shoulders too.
“Of course.” She joins me on the kitchen side of the island to start pulling together an impromptu meal.
We had a snack on the plane, but the idea of a picnic is reminiscent of our youth, and anything that takes us back to the happier, carefree times before Bruno is a good idea.
Together, we place cheese, bread, and fruit into a cooler bag, along with a bottle of my family’s red wine, before refilling our water bottles.
“Come on, wife,” I joke, chuckling and placing my hands on her hips to hold her still for a second so I can kiss her on the forehead. I find myself wanting to hold her every time she’s within arm’s reach. It’s why I’ve been avoiding us being alone since the wedding night.
But for the next five days, it will be just us, and if my wife continues to lean into the casual kisses, then resisting her is going to get a lot tougher. Although, with her hands curled over my shoulders, it feels like she may not want me to resist.
Our cove is a short drive from our villa and sits hidden beneath the island lighthouse.
While it’s not totally private, it’s secluded enough that only locals know how to get to it.
I’m not even sure my brothers knew this was where Lucia and I would escape to all those summers ago.
And that’s what made it even more of a special place for us. It was our little secret.
The stony path down to the sea is steep and dusty. But worth every hot step when we’re standing on the rocky shelf that juts out into the azure water. We find the largest, flattest rock to leave our stuff on, and I strip down to my board shorts.
“I forgot how hot it gets standing on these rocks,” Lucia says, throwing down her beach towel and jumping on it.
“Fuck yeah,” I agree, joining her on the towel island rather than hopping from one foot to the other on the scorching volcanic rock.
My palms find a home on the curve of her hips.
It’s not because the folded towel is a little small for two.
I merely need to touch her soft skin again, and there’s a lot on display thanks to the tiny red bikini she’s wearing.
Lucia’s hands land flat against my chest. “I blame wearing heels and pedicures for making my feet soft. What’s your excuse, big-guy?”
“Not enough time outdoors, and I’m glad we can fix that today. Are you ready to get wet?”
“Let’s do this.”
“Go,” I yell with the excitement of a long-forgotten youth. We dash the remaining feet to the edge and dive in, Luce right beside me as we swim farther out before flipping to our backs to float.
The water laps around me, and my concerns about our marriage drift away.
I reach for Lucia’s hand where she floats alongside me, and my heart drums a steady, contented beat.
The magic of Capri has the power to help us figure out how to blend our two relationships into one when, up until last night, that felt unattainable.
We stay like this for I’ve no idea how long, and that is the beauty of the moment.
But eventually, Luce pops upright to tread water, a signal that she wants to talk.
“I’m glad we came here. Thank you.” Her nose wrinkles as she squints at me through the sun’s glare.
“I think we both needed this. You already look more relaxed.”
“I am. Work has been difficult.” I don’t elaborate, not wanting to think too hard about our business problems until I return.
“Do you want to tell me about that? You know you can.”
“It’s just work.”
She flicks some water at me. “Ant, you don’t get to be the only supportive one.
It’s obvious something is going on in the company.
You leave early in the morning, return late at night, and then if Gio calls, you always rush to your office to speak to him.
I want to help if I can. You’ve looked increasingly exhausted lately. ”
I flip over. “Let’s talk on shore,” I say before swimming back to the rocks.
It’s slippery, but muscle memory and a strict workout schedule have me easily heaving my body up before turning to offer Luce my hand.
She stares up at me with those seductive green eyes, and I stare right back, drowning in them, her auburn hair floating around her on the water’s surface.
Sunlight catching on the dark red strands like fire embers hiding among the chocolate brown.
I lift her up, and droplets of water run down her body, coating her skin in a sparkly sheen and giving her more of an ethereal presence.
She’s my own little mermaid, stunningly beautiful.
Slipping, she falls into my chest, and I catch her, my hands lingering on her waist while hers remain flat against my pecs. Her light touch as hot as the sun beating down on my shoulders.
“I got you.”
A small smile teases the corners of her lips, turning them up.
“I know. You’re always there to catch me,” she says before stepping back and cautiously walking over to our bags.
The rocks aren’t as hot with wet feet, and we can spread out our towels beside each other without having to do another hopping dance.
It’s a perfect afternoon, and I take a deep breath, drawing the sea breeze into my lungs before releasing it again.
She eyes me with her chin resting on her bent knees. I can tell she hasn’t forgotten my promise to talk. “What’s happening with the company?” she asks, then tilts her head to the side to look out to sea, giving me the space to answer in my own time.
I lean back onto my elbows. “We’ve found fraud.” There’s no point in sugarcoating the problem.
Her head jolts up and turns back in my direction.
Here, the problems at Barbieri Foods seem a million miles away.
But Lucia’s right; I should talk to her about it, especially when it’s been consuming most of my waking hours.
My wife has spent most of her life around businesspeople, with her father’s company being one of the largest in Italy.
I know she understands the stress of being a CEO, with thousands of people relying on me to keep the business afloat.
What’s happening could destroy the foods subsidiary and seriously damage the reputation of the entire family brand.
It might not be my fault, but it’s certainly my responsibility now.
“When I became CEO of Barbieri Foods, I brought in new accountants to understand why the business wasn’t making money.
It didn’t take them long to discover there were problems, and now we’ve got an independent group of forensic auditors in our Manhattan offices combing through the financial data for the last ten years. ”
“It goes back that far?”
“Possibly, but on a much smaller scale.”
“Do you know who?” She leans closer, whispering the question, her hair tickling my chest where it falls forward.
I sit up to tangle my fingers through the wet strands and drop a kiss on her lips. “Luce, I’m pretty sure no one can hear us.”
She glances around, realizing the only other people are sitting a distance away at a café terrace that hangs out over the sea at the top of the soaring cliff. That’s the thing about our cove—it really is just us here.
Her smile is gentle when she glances back at me. “I’m sorry you have to deal with this. But it’s also good to know you weren’t merely avoiding me.”
“No.” But a rise of her eyebrows calls me out on the half-truth. “All right, maybe a little. But only because I was trying to keep my promise to give you time.”
She goes to speak, but I place one finger over her lips to silence her for a moment.
“I’ve been a neglectful husband, but that changes now. For these next five days, we’re going to have the best honeymoon Capri can offer.” It’s a lighthearted promise filled with a heavy dose of hope.
Instead of smiling, Lucia stares at me with a look in her eye I’m not used to seeing from her.
It floors me, but with one blink of her long lashes, it’s gone, and I think I imagined it.
I’ve been trying to keep my hands off her since our wedding night, and the only way that was possible was to stay late in the office.
She huffs out a breath. “I never asked you to give me time. Or to go slow.” She drops a kiss on my finger, which remains in place.
All kinds of possibilities flow through my imagination, and I probably need to shut them down while I’m lying here on a rock in nothing more than my board shorts.
There’s definitely not enough fabric to hide my thickening cock.
“Are you ready to take a leap?” she asks, interrupting my thoughts as I run the last quarter’s financial figures through my head, trying to think of something—anything—that doesn’t involve getting my beautiful wife naked.
“What do you mean?” I ask, needing to be really clear on what she’s offering, because I’m so ready to consummate this marriage that it’s a constant ache, and not just in my cock. There’s a lot at stake, and I don’t want to screw this up.
“That,” she says, pointing up at the rocky outcrop we jumped off as kids.
I choke out a laugh as my gaze travels up the line of the cliff face to the spot about halfway up. I’ve seriously got to stop thinking with my dick.
“I’m always ready to jump with you,” I reply with growing enthusiasm.
It’s been years since we leapt from the spot the local cliff divers like to practice their jumps. A high ledge where the sea at the bottom is deep and protected from the rough waves that crash against other parts of the coastline.
“Let’s do this,” I yell, jumping up. Adrenaline and a heavy dose of fear coursing through my veins. It feels good to be alive today, and even better to have Lucia by my side.
We scramble up the stony path, climbing on all fours in the steeper areas. The track has only ever been used by goats and the locals who’ve dared to jump from the cliffside into the turquoise waters.
“This was a lot easier as children,” Luce pants out behind me. She’s right; the bravery—or perhaps foolishness—of youth didn’t have my heart trying to race out of my chest.
I stop a few steps from the edge. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“No, but that never stopped me in the past.”
She always was brave, and adulting has only sharpened that trait.
I reach for her hand and take a step closer to the edge.
Fuck, it’s higher than I remember. Another step closer, and her hand grips mine tighter.
We line up our feet near the edge. Luce looks straight ahead to the horizon, something she’s done since the very first time we did this.
“I got you,” I say, looking down at her.
“I know,” she mutters, the wind whipping her words away.
My chest squeezes tight against my heart, her confidence in me making me braver too.
“On three. One. Two. Three.” And we’re soaring through the air. Free-falling together. It lasts no more than a second before we splash into the sea, sinking into the cool depths separately. Then kicking hard and swimming up toward the light on the surface. I break through it just behind her.
“That was amazing,” she shouts.
“Fucking brilliant,” I agree, laughing hysterically like I’m high on life.
We swim back to our rocky platform, and again, I offer Luce my hand.
But this time, I pull her into my chest. Her arms wrap around my neck, and our lips meet in a crushing kiss.
Everything I’ve been holding back is poured into this one moment when our mouths are sealed together.
The kiss is more frenzied than the ones in Vegas, more passionate than the ones last night, and more all-consuming than any other kiss I’ve shared with a woman.
It shouldn’t shock me that she’s so much more, but it does, because I never imagined it could be like this.
I trail kisses along her jawline. “Let’s go,” I whisper against the shell of her ear.
“You don’t want to eat?” she asks as she tilts her head to the side, exposing the column of her neck to my mouth.
“What I’m hungry for isn’t in the cooler bag. And should probably be consumed in private.”
A breathy giggle slips from her lips, and she twists away, then bends to pick up her towel and bag. I’m standing mute when she straightens. “I’m ready to go.”
I’ve never moved so fast to gather the rest of our things.
The climb back up to the car is also done in record time, our gear tossed on the back seat before we jump in.
Our labored breaths fill the interior silence.
But before I can even buckle up the seat belt, she’s crawling over the console to straddle my lap.
“Is this private enough?” she asks before swallowing my answer. I reach down the side of my seat to move it back as far as it will go. It’s barely enough space for Lucia to reach up and undo the tie on her bikini, but she manages it.
A groan is forced from my body as she pushes her tits in my face. Fuck, I’m in heaven. My wife has turned into a wildcat, and I fucking love it. I palm her breasts, massaging their fullness, while my mouth searches for hers.
Pain and pleasure swirl together as her fingernails dig into the nape of my neck while we suck and nip on each other’s lips.
I tug on her nipples, then pinch the peaks between my forefinger and thumb.
“Antonio,” she gasps, the breathiness of her voice shooting bolts of pleasure straight to my hard, rigid cock. “I fucking want you so badly,” I manage to growl out between ragged breaths.
She rocks her hips, rubbing her pussy along the length of my erection. “I-I-I’m so cl-close,” she mutters, barely coherent.
Fuck, so am I . And the scratch of the fabric between us as it rolls along my cock isn’t helping the situation.
“I want to be inside you so badly.” I run my hand down the side of her body, but she grabs at my wrist to stop me.
“Too late,” she gasps, as she grinds harder against my cock. “I-I’m, ohhhh .” Her arms tighten like a vise around my neck as she arches back over the steering wheel. It’s the sexiest sight I’ve ever seen.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I’m coming too. Thick streams of cum filling my board shorts. That’s what my wife does to me.
She owns me.