Chapter Fifteen #2
She wrinkled her nose as she cut her first mouthful. ‘Vittoria and Carlotta are both leaving.’ Her voice carried a tiny tremor.
‘Shit.’ He dropped his fork onto his plate. ‘How will you manage? You’re always under pressure as it is.’
‘I am. I hadn’t realised how much Gran did until I ended up hardly having time off.
’ She sipped the rich red wine and it slipped down her throat like liquid velvet.
‘I’ll need to recruit.’ The scrap of paper bearing Geneva’s name and phone number seemed to hang before her eyes, as if it had physically flown to her from Gran’s jewellery box.
‘I’ll help you again until you have new staff,’ he said, breaking off a piece of bread.
Surprised pleasure crept over her like a warm breath. ‘You don’t have to.’
‘It’ll keep me busy. I’ve finished the little jobs that needed doing here,’ he gestured at Villetta Nascosta with his fork, ‘and I’m stuck financially until the bank comes back to me.’ A shadow crossed his face, but then he smiled and banished it.
Her throat constricted at his easy commitment to get up with the birds that were presently filling the evening with song, and work alongside her. It tightened and tightened, until she was unable to force out words of thanks. Then the table, the food, the garden around them, seemed awash.
A scraping of a chair and then he was lifting her, resettling with her on his lap. ‘Hey, hey. That was meant to cheer you up. Don’t cry, tesoro.’
‘I’ve depended on them. I’ll miss them so much.’ Jade managed to gasp the words out. ‘Thank you. I’ll pay you, of course.’
He laughed, stroking her back, kissing away a tear. ‘I’m not that desperate yet.’
And he wouldn’t be moved from that, even when she’d dried her eyes on a napkin – losing most of the mascara she’d applied before leaving home – and he’d returned to his own chair so they could enjoy their fast-cooling crispy potatoes and herby, melt-in-the-mouth veal.
While they ate, he gave her time to recover by telling her how funny Massimo was, clucking around Sofi as if no other woman had ever been pregnant. ‘Mum’s as bad. She can’t wait to meet her grandchild. She said I should practice being Zio Leo.’
When he flitted from one family anecdote to another, she touched his warm, bare forearm. ‘Don’t put an act on for me. You must still be worried sick about your money being stolen.’
He halted, all laughter gone. Slowly, his gaze dropped to his plate. ‘Of course I’m worried sick,’ he said with quiet savagery. ‘It’s made me acutely aware of how you must have felt this summer, with your entire life feeling under threat and out of your control.’
She smoothed her palm over his hot skin, enjoying the brush of his soft body hair. ‘You can’t let me sob all over you – again – and yet cover up your feelings about your shitty situation.’
On a long, long sigh, he reached for his wine. ‘The shitty situation is definitely shit.’ He drank deeply, his handsome face sombre. ‘The bank’s silence is deafening. I knew Isabella’s dad was an arsehole, but not that he was a villain. Maybe I let his cuddly name fool me.’
‘You know it’s definitely him?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘No. I just don’t have any other suspects.’
Desultorily, they finished their main course and then the bottle of Chianti. Leo cleared the plates and produced a black-cherry sorbet. ‘Coffee? Or shall I open more wine?’
‘A small coffee.’ She smiled. ‘I get up early.’
Afterwards, when they were loading the dishwasher together, Jade found her heartrate accelerating as she realised Leo was taking care not to brush against her. When she glanced at him, she caught him gazing back.
One corner of his mouth quirked, as if he could hear her heart racing. Maybe she should go now. It would draw a line that said, Sex is not an option, or, I’m not ready, or even, I can’t move on from how you once hurt me.
But her feet remained planted on the tiles.
She breathed in, heated despite the air con that had hummed into action when he’d shut the door.
His body heat seemed to reach across the small space, drawing her towards him.
His eyes grew darker. She licked her lips.
‘I like how you look with your hair longer. Relaxed. Slightly scruffy.’ Reaching up, she touched a fingertip to the soft, straight lock that fell against his cheek, shining in the ceiling light.
His eyelids lowered. ‘I like everything about you, top-of-head to tip-of-toe. Amore mio, sei bellissima.’ Then he reached for her and eased her close against his body, giving her time to rebuff him.
When she didn’t, he touched his mouth to hers with tiny, tingling kisses.
With a murmur, she leant into it, stroking his mouth with her tongue tip until he groaned and parted his lips in invitation.
The kiss felt like a promise. A new beginning.
She pressed her breasts against him, enjoying his growl against her mouth.
Instantly, his erection was hard against her as they nibbled jawlines and nuzzled necks.
His stubble rasped against her skin. His fingers dug into her buttocks as if straining to be ever closer.
His muscles bunched and he lifted her onto the kitchen counter, sending a stray fork clattering to the floor.
He touched and stroked her, pressing his hips between her open legs as if he could enter her through their clothes if he tried hard enough.
‘Not here, in the kitchen,’ he murmured, his breathing hot and fast.
She nodded, blinking. Her breathing was choppy, as if she’d run too far and was out of training. Maybe she was.
Tenderly, he stroked her hair back from her face. ‘Are you sure you want . . . ?’
Again, more emphatically, she nodded, lightheaded with wanting. ‘I’m sure.’ Her voice emerged huskily. ‘If you are.’
‘Oh, I’m sure!’ He answered as if her question was ludicrous.
Then he surged against her to kiss her again, long and slow and searching, before gently lifting her down from the counter and leading her up the short hall to his bedroom.
She’d seen it when Sheenagh had shown her around the villetta.
Then, as Leo hadn’t unpacked, the room had been unlived in, white bedcovers as smooth and cool as icing.
Now, the pillows were dented, a book lying face down on the sheets.
A comfortably worn brown wallet sat on the bedside along with a laptop.
He reached out a long arm and closed the window blind, then turned to her, searching her face one more time as if checking for a change of mind.
Then he eased down the straps of her dress so he could set his scalding lips on her skin, kissing and licking her shoulders, moving on to her throat, flicking his tongue into her cleavage with a groan.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, partly for balance, but also to enjoy the strength of him.
When he found her dress wouldn’t slip further down, she breathed, ‘Zip.’
‘Mm.’ Mouth travelling on to a spot at the crook of her neck that lanced hot desire through her body, he felt for the fastener that began between her shoulder blades and slipped it down with a soft zzz to the small of her back.
The fabric fell away to reveal her breasts in their pearly white bra, and he paused.
‘Bellissima.’ The dress drifted down her body, setting her skin afire where it touched.
She lifted her hands to his chest, stroking, acquainting herself with the broader, more mature version of the body she’d once known so well, sliding her hands into his T-shirt to stroke his skin, hearing his breath catch as he snatched the top over his head out of the way.
His eyes closed to slits as she smoothed her palms over him, around to his back, his muscles quivering as she tongued his nipple.
‘Jade.’ He gasped, a note of hopelessness in his voice. ‘I want this to last for ever but . . .’
She laughed as he made short work of the rest of their clothes and pulled her down onto the cool bedsheets, where they explored with mouth and hands until she thought she’d cry if he wasn’t inside her soon.
Finally, he pulled a condom from the bedside drawer and she was happy she didn’t have to call a halt for the conversation about responsibility.
She’d only slept with one man since Edoardo and wasn’t currently on the pill.
But her mind emptied as he began to edge inside her and a tidal wave of lust drowned out pragmatic thoughts. She surged up to pull him into her body. Joy and heat combined to whirl her off to a place where only the man inside her mattered.