Chapter 38 – Luca
LUCA
Four days into our honeymoon, and I’m surprised to say that doing nothing all day is starting to grow on me.
No meetings. No places to be or decisions to make. Just the sound of the ocean, the gentle swaying of palm trees in the breeze, and Sienna's laughter drifting up from the pool below.
The private villa sits on a cliff at the southern tip of the island, surrounded by nothing but sea and sky.
There's a housekeeper who comes in the morning and leaves by noon, a stocked fridge and a chef on call, plus a security detail stationed at the perimeter that Sienna doesn't know about and doesn't need to.
As far as she's concerned, we're alone, and I intend to keep it that way.
I'm on the terrace when my phone buzzes. Corso promised only to call if the situation demands it. His name on the screen tells me it does. And there’s only one thing I can think of that he’d disturb me over.
"Talk to me."
Corso comes through, steady as always. Nothing rattles the man, which is exactly why I trust him with my life, and more importantly, with Sienna’s.
"We have him. Nico picked him up two nights ago trying to cross into Canada with a bag full of cash and a new passport. Not a very good one."
I lean against the railing, looking out at the water, and feel nothing. No spike of anger and no surge of satisfaction. This was only ever going to end one way, with me victorious. He should have known that. And he deserves what he gets for being stupid enough not to.
"Where is he now?"
"Onyx. Enzo's been keeping him company." A pause. "Says it was all Alfonso's idea, and he was just following orders."
I scoff.
“Of course, he is.” It’s easy to shift the blame now that father is dead, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he was egging him on. The arrogant shit is still convinced he can negotiate his way out of this, still believing that being blood comes before everything else.
And it does, just not for him.
"Do you want to handle it yourself?" Corso asks. "I can hold him here. Or bring him to you."
I straighten and look down at the pool below.
Sienna climbs out of the water, rivulets streaming down her tanned skin as she pushes her long dark hair back from her face with both hands. She's topless, completely unselfconscious, knowing nobody is watching her here.
Except me.
She looks up and gives me a saucy grin, knowing exactly what she’s doing to me, and how to get me off the phone.
“Don’t bring him here.”
Leaving him at Onyx for that long is risky, and I have no intention of returning early. Part of me wants to be there, to be the last thing he sees, but Sienna's finally relaxed. Not recovered, but the constant tension in her body has begun to ease.
She woke up in a panic the first night here, clawing at the sheets, and I held her until she eventually dozed off. We’ve done nothing but laugh and eat, and it’s been good for both of us. Just like the old times.
I'm not cutting that short for a man who isn't worth the fuel.
She stretches out on the beach chair, face tipped up toward the sun, with one arm hanging over the side. The white bikini bottoms sit low on her hips, and water still glistens across her stomach, begging me to come down there and lick it off.
"No." Sienna shifts one knee bending. "I have better things to do."
A beat of silence.
"Just make sure they never find him."
"Understood." No questions, no hesitation. "Anything else?"
I could ask about the shipments coming in this week, about the renovations at Bellini’s, but frankly, right now, I couldn’t care less.
"No. That's all."
I end the call, turn the phone off, and take the stairs down to the pool two at a time.
Sienna doesn't look up when she hears my footsteps on the deck, just smiles, that slow, lazy curve of her lips that gets me every time.
"You're blocking my sun," she murmurs.
"I know." I don't move, just drink her in.
Her breathing picks up, and her exposed nipples stiffen, her body's reaction to my mere presence making me hard already.
She opens one eye, squinting up at me, and her smile widens when she sees the way I'm staring at her.
I reach down and pull the bikini strings on either side of her hips.
She gasps and sits up, laughing, swatting at my hand while trying to keep the tiny triangle of her bikini bottoms in place, but I'm already kneeling over her, one knee on either side of her hips, caging her in.
"Luca, we're outside."
"We're in a private villa." I argue, lowering my mouth to her neck, tasting salt and sunscreen. "There's nobody here but us."
Her protest dissolves into a soft sound as I trace my tongue along her collarbone and take her nipple into my mouth, still cool from the pool. Her back arches, her fingers sliding into my hair as my thumb pushes her bottoms aside and swipes across her entrance.
“You really are a bad man,” she whispers, giving my bottom lip a gentle nip as I press a finger inside her.
She melts into the beach chair with a loud moan, surrendering.
I take my time with her. Out here, while the ocean crashes against the rocks below and with the sun warm on my back, there's no urgency. I worship every inch of her because I can, and because she's mine and nobody is ever going to take her from me again.
When she comes apart beneath me, gasping my name against the bright blue sky, I hold her through it, stroking her hair back from her flushed face.
"Inside," she whispers, pulling me closer, wrapping her legs around my waist. "Take me inside."
Not having to tell me twice, I carry her through the open doors and into the cool shade of the bedroom. Laying her down on the crisp, white sheets, still damp from the pool, her skin leaves wet impressions on the cotton. I follow her down, kissing her deeply, slowly.
She sighs against my mouth, content and unhurried, as I climb over her, thrusting deep in one firm stroke, taking my time, bringing us both to the edge with slow, steady rolls of my hips, ignoring her impatient pleas for me to go faster and harder.
Afterward, she relaxes while I go to the bathroom, soaking a cloth under warm water. Her toiletries are lined up along the vanity in neat rows, a contrast to the chaos she leaves everywhere else.
The foil package is sitting beside her toothbrush. I pick it up without thinking, turning it over in my hand, irrationally disappointed by its presence in our suite. Small pink pills in a blister pack, half the days already popped from the strip.
I stand there for a long moment, staring at it, the bathroom tiles cool under my bare feet, and I know exactly what I want for us next.
The sonogram is in my wallet. I've carried it every day since the wedding, folded carefully into a square, tucked behind my driver’s license. I don't need to look at it to see the tiny form that was supposed to be ours.
Gripping the edge of the sink, I think about what my father took from us. Not just the pregnancy, but the years after. The years Sienna spent alone, grieving the trauma she couldn't tell anyone about, while I fought with my own wounds.
We could have had a child by now. A nine-year-old who would have Sienna's dark hair and fierce spirit, and who would have grown up knowing they were loved unconditionally.
I take the packet and the warm cloth and go back to the bedroom.
Sienna stirs as I sit on the edge of the bed, opening her eyes to find me cleaning her gently, carefully, the way I always do. She watches me with an adoration that still catches me off guard, like she can tell exactly what’s going on inside my head.
"What's that?" She points to the packet in my other hand.
"I want a baby." The words come out quieter than I intend. Direct, and with no preamble, because I've never been good at easing into things, and she knows that about me by now. “Someday. It doesn’t have to be now…”
Sienna goes very still, her lips parting, but she looks pleased rather than terrified. "Luca..."
Warming to the theme, I run my hand up her thigh.
"I want to see you pregnant, walking around our home with my child growing inside you.
" I turn the packet over in my fingers, staring down at the little pink pills behind their foil, my other hand resting against her flat belly.
"I want kids running through the house, making a mess, driving Carmella insane, and terrorizing your cat.
" I look up at her. "I want what he stole from us. "
She pushes herself upright, tucking her legs beneath her, the sheet falling around her waist.
"I want that too," she says softly, then cheeks pink, adds, “whenever you’re ready.”
I hold up the packet so she can see it, then press my thumb against the first pill, popping it through the foil. It drops onto the sheets between us, then the next one, and the next, one by one, until they're all scattered across the white cotton like confetti.
"There's no time like the present." I gather the pills together in my palm and toss them into the trash can beside the bed. I take her face in my hands and kiss her. "You're going to be an incredible mother, Sienna. And I'll try very hard not to be the fuck-up my father was."
A fierce look crosses her face, and she pushes my hands away, only to take them in hers and press me back against the pillows. I let her, curious, as she straddles my lap and leans over me, forcing me to look up at her.
"You are nothing like your father." She says, absolutely certain, leaving no room for argument. "Nothing. Do you hear me?"
She kisses me before I can respond, pouring everything she has into it. Then she pulls back and starts kissing down my pecs, her lips tracing a path along my sternum and across the ridges of my stomach, then lower.
When her mouth closes around me, her tongue swirling around the tip of my cock, my head falls back against the pillow, and I groan, my hand finding the back of her head while I fight the urge to raise my hips and drive into her mouth.
She takes her time, and I let her, watching in wonder as she works me with that combination of sweetness and seductiveness that drives me out of my mind. But when the pressure starts building, when my balls tighten and I’m close to coming, I tug gently on her hair.
"If you want a baby," I manage to growl out, "you’re going about it the wrong way."
She lifts her head, mouth swollen, then gives me a look of pure mischief. "There's lots of time for that."
I shake my head. "I disagree."
She laughs and it's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Then she rises up on her knees, edging forward until she’s hovering over me, and sinks down, inch by agonizing inch, until I'm buried inside her completely. “Better?”
“Fuck yes.” My hands grip her hips, every muscle in my body taut as she rolls forward and sets a rhythm that's going to end me embarrassingly fast.
She braces her hands on the headboard, looking down at me with adoration that I don’t think I’ll ever feel like I deserve.
"Do you always get your way?" she whispers with a teasing smile.
I pull her down and kiss her, one hand holding the back of her neck, so she’s pressed against me, feeling pretty fucking smug about how things worked out.
"I got you to be my wife, didn't I?"