Luca #2
He lifted her without thinking, carrying her down the hall to his bedroom.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, making his heart race.
His breath was uneven, and every sound she made went straight to his soul.
He laid her back on the bed gently, like she was something precious, something he could break if he wasn’t careful.
He hovered over her, his forehead pressed to hers.
“We can stop,” he said quietly. “Anytime.”
She shook her head. “Don’t want to.” That was all it took. It was all he needed to hear from her. She was effectively giving him the green light that he needed to take everything that he wanted from her, and so much more. He’d take everything that she was willing to give to him.
Luca kissed her again—slower now and deeper.
His hands memorized the feel of her skin as he worked them down her body.
He loved the way that she arched into his touch, the soft sounds she tried and failed to hold back.
The world narrowed to the feel of her skin and her breathy little sighs as she squirmed around on the bed beneath him.
“Sophia,” he whispered. “I need you naked.” She smiled up at him and shyly nodded. “Be sure, because once we do this, I won’t want to go back to us just being foster siblings.”
She grimaced when he called her that. He knew how much she hated it when he called her his foster sister, but that’s what she had been to him for so long. Now, if they did this, she’d be so much more than that to him.
“I’ve already told you to stop calling me that, Luca.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. “Would your sister kiss you like this?” she asked, sliding her tongue into his mouth.
She broke the kiss, leaving them both breathless. “Um, I don’t think so, but I’ve never had a sister. All I’m saying is, if we do this, I won’t want us going back to well, us,” he said.
“Agreed,” she said. “I don’t want to go back to us being strangers, Luca, because that was what we had become. I missed you, and I don’t want to have to do that anymore. Promise me that you won’t disappear from my life again,” she said.
He looked into her eyes and nodded. “I promise. I won’t ghost you.
” He planned on keeping her just where he had her, so disappearing from her life wasn’t an option, but they could discuss all that later.
Right now, he wanted to concentrate on getting her naked and making her scream out his name at least a dozen times before they got some shut-eye.
He tugged his T-shirt up her body and helped her pull it off. “Was it okay that I borrowed your shirt?” she asked.
“More than okay,” he hoarsely agreed as he looked her body over. She was lying in his bed wearing only her skimpy, lacy panties, and he damn near swallowed his tongue.
“You all right?” she asked.
“I just need a minute,” he admitted. He was ready to come in his pants if he didn’t get himself under control.
All he really wanted to do was take his time with her.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispered.
She gifted him with another shy smile, and he couldn’t seem to control his roaming hands as they worked their way down her body to her breasts.
She thrust herself into his hands and moaned out his name, telling him that she needed more from him.
He’d give her that and everything else. All she had to do was ask.
He leaned down and kissed her—slow and deep, in a way that claimed her. It wasn’t rushed or careless. His mouth moved over hers like he was sealing a promise, and Sophia melted beneath him, her fingers tangling in his hair as if she were afraid that he might vanish if she let go.
“I’m right here,” he murmured against her lips, as if he’d read the fear beneath her actions.
“And I’m not going anywhere, Sophia.” Her answer was a soft sound in her throat as she arched into him, her body speaking louder than anything she could say in return.
Luca groaned, the sound low and rough, and shifted his weight so he could stretch out beside her instead of over her, giving her space even as he pulled her close.
His hands explored her slowly, reverently, learning the curves of her like he’d been waiting years for permission to do so.
Every brush of his fingers made her shiver and snuggle closer to him.
Every touch made her breathe his name like it was the only word she knew, and he couldn’t get enough of her.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he said again, his voice tight with control. He was on the edge of breaking, but he wouldn’t let her know that.
She shook her head, her eyes dark and her lips swollen from his kisses.
“Don’t stop,” she ordered. Those two words were all he needed.
Luca kissed his way down her throat, taking his time, making her gasp and writhe beneath him.
He wanted to make her feel seen, wanted, and safe all at once.
When her hands slid down his back, urging him closer, he smiled against her skin—slow, satisfied, and certain. The rest of the world faded away.
There was only heat and whispered words between them. The way his name left her lips was like a promise she intended to keep. And when they finally came together, it wasn’t rushed or reckless—it was deliberate, intense, and full of everything they’d been denying for far too long.
He didn’t ask because he didn’t need to.
She had already given him the permission that he needed to take what he wanted from her, and when she cried out his name, he knew that he wasn’t going to last much longer.
Luca pumped in and out of her body until he found his own release, shouting out her name.
They lay tangled up together in his sheets.
Sophia rested her head on his chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart, and he couldn’t remember a time in his life when he had felt so content.
He had told himself for so long now that she wasn’t for him, but he was wrong.
If he had known back then what he knew now, he would have been a better man.
Sophia was his now, and that was all that mattered.
He just hoped that he’d be the kind of man who deserved her, but he had a feeling that he’d never live up to that expectation, even if it was one that he had put on himself.
“This,” she said quietly, tracing lazy circles over his skin, “changes everything.”
Luca kissed the top of her head, holding her tighter. “It does,” he agreed. “This is us now. I just need to know that you’re okay with it.”
“I am,” she breathed.
They lay in bed, tangled up together, the house silent around them. Sophia lay curled against his chest, his arm wrapped around her, his fingers tracing lazy circles on her back.
Luca stared up at the ceiling, his heart pounding—not with adrenaline this time, but with something heavier.
Everything between them had changed, and they both knew it.
For the first time in his life, the thought didn’t scare him nearly as much as it should have.
He was done denying his feelings for Sophia.
He just hoped to God that she felt the same way.