Chapter 16
Allegra
LUCIANA WAS LIKE royalty at the club. When she walked through, the crowd seemed to part, and everyone said hello.
She approached a giant of a man with an earpiece, who I was pretty sure was a bouncer.
They spoke for a minute, Luciana tossed her thick locks around, and then he showed us to a roped-off area.
I felt the house music pulsing inside my chest and tried to yell over it.
“You’re like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. ”
Her face scrunched up. “Who?”
I laughed. “No one.”
A waitress brought over a bottle of something in an iced bucket and told us to let her know what we needed. “How did they know what to bring you?” I yelled. “You didn’t even order.”
“I’m here all the time.” She leaned closer to me. “I’m also banging da owner.”
“Oh, wow.”
“His name is Lorenzo.” She pointed up to the mirrors at the top of the wall. They went along the length of the club. “He watches everything dat goes on from up there.”
“Does that mean you have to be good?”
She smirked. “Just da opposite. His kink is pissed-off sex. So I get to come drink all night for free and dance with as many men as my heart desires, and den he takes me home and we have passionate sex. He’s a great lover, so it’s a win-win for me.”
I laughed. “You are soo different from your brother.”
She pulled the bottle out of the ice. “Shot of tequila?”
Oh boy. The last time I drank too much, I wound up in the men’s room insulting my boss’s manhood and quitting my job. I’d have to make sure to pace myself. But a shot to take the edge off sounded good, so I nodded. “Sure, why not?”
Luciana and I wound up having two shots, and then the waitress appeared with water bottles. Luciana twisted the cap off one and held it up to the mirror like a toast. “The delivery means he doesn’t want me to get too drunk,” she explained.
We stood at the railing, watching bodies sway to the electronic dance music on the floor down below until Luciana finished her water and tossed the empty bottle onto the tray of a passing waitress. “Come. Let’s dance.”
It had been years since I’d danced at a club, but it didn’t take long for the rhythm of the place to slip under my skin.
The heavy pulse of the music, the warmth of bodies pressing close—it pulled me under, and I closed my eyes and allowed it all to wash over me, surrendering to the beat and forgetting all the stress of the last forty-eight hours, of the last month.
One song bled to the next, and before I knew it, more than an hour had gone by.
Various men had tried to dance with us, but Luciana and I were having fun, and most took the hint when we paid them no attention.
Though at one point, a very handsome guy walked over, and Luciana threw her arms around his neck.
He lifted her off her feet and spun her around.
When he set her down, she attempted to introduce us, but the music was so loud I couldn’t make out anything she was saying.
The guy stuck around to dance with the two of us, and I wondered if it might be the man she was seeing who owned the club.
Then a few minutes later, another guy came over.
Luciana and the first guy seemed to know him, so he joined in the dancing in our little area, and our party of three turned into two parties of two.
The man I was coupled with danced close—it was practically impossible not to with how many people were crammed onto the dance floor.
But he never pushed up against me like some guys had attempted to do.
I closed my eyes again, enjoying the beat of the song, until I felt a hard body against my back—this time too close.
Not wanting to cause a scene, I took a few steps forward to put some distance between us.
But a hand snaked around my waist and pulled me back.
I whipped around, about to go all New York on the asshole, only to find it was Matteo.
I blinked. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been asking myself that question for twenty minutes.”
“You’ve been here that long?”
He nodded.
“Where were you?”
He thumbed over his shoulder. “Watching you.” His eyes lifted over my head, and he raised his chin. I followed his line of sight and found a beaming Luciana. She winked at me and went back to dancing with whoever that guy was.
I turned to Matteo. “Do you want to go sit?”
He reached for my hand and used it to spin me around so he was behind me again.
“In a minute.” Pressed up against me, with fingers digging into my hip, Matteo led, and our bodies moved as one to the beat.
Every brush, every touch sparked a fire.
I leaned back into him, lifting my arms and hooking them behind his neck.
Our hips gyrated in unison, and I let myself fall into him completely.
The crowded club faded away, and all I felt were the tips of his fingers trailing up my side, his hard against my soft, and a delicious ache for more.
After a few songs, Matteo leaned and spoke into my ear with a gravelly voice. “Take a break for a bit?”
I nodded, and he led us off the dance floor. “We have a table.” I pointed. “Up there.”
We went upstairs, and the waitress came over as soon as we sat down. Both Matteo and I ordered waters. I fanned myself. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“That makes two of us.”
“Have you been here the whole time since you dropped us off?”
He shook his head. “I was halfway home when I changed my mind about staying.” His eyes dipped, sweeping over me before meeting mine again. “Or maybe I couldn’t get my mind off how you look tonight.”
I smiled. “I’m happy you came back.”
Matteo’s eyes bounced back and forth between mine. “Are you? Because I debated leaving a half dozen times while I was watching you. You looked like you were having a good time out there, and yesterday, I wasn’t sure you were too happy to see me at your door. I don’t want to overstep.”
“I’m just…” I shook my head. “Dealing with some stuff.”
He caught my eyes. “You sure?”
I didn’t want to make Matteo feel bad, and the truth was, I’d liked dancing with him. A lot—whether I wanted to enjoy it or not. So I smiled. “I’m happy you came back. I had no idea you could dance like that.”
“Only with the right partner.”
My feet had started to hurt on the dance floor before Matteo showed up, but now that they weren’t holding weight anymore, they began to throb. “I think I need to take these shoes off for a few minutes. I’m used to wearing heels to work, but not stilettos this high.”
I reached down to undo the ankle straps. Once my feet were free, I let out a big sigh. “Ahh. That feels good.”
Matteo leaned beneath the table and scooped up my feet. “Let me make them feel even better.”
“You don’t have to…” He pressed two thumbs into the arch of my right foot, and my sentence trailed off. “Oh God, don’t stop. That feels amazing.”
He smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
There were probably two hundred people in the club, yet just like when we were on the dance floor, it felt like only the two of us again.
Matteo’s attention always felt special, like his focus was solely on me.
I’d figured that was because most of the times we’d been together, there was nothing to distract him.
But now we were in a place with dozens of scantily clad women and people gyrating all over each other on the dance floor, yet he still made me feel like the only woman in the room.
“I didn’t take you for a clubber,” I said.
Matteo put down my right foot and picked up the left, kneading into the arch. “I’m not. It’s only the second time I’ve ever stepped foot inna one.”
“Really? Ever?”
“Yep.”
“Was the first time so bad that you never came again?”
He shrugged. “Nothing terrible happened. It’s just not my thing, and I didn’t need more than once to know that.”
I tilted my head. “What is your thing?”
His eyes met mine. “I’m pretty sure I’m looking at it.”
The waitress brought two more waters, and we immediately gulped down half our bottles. “Is it a coincidence that you only joined me on the dance floor once the guy I was dancing with got a bit friendlier?”
Matteo’s eyebrows jumped. “Something tells me you already know the answer to that question.”
“I didn’t take you for the jealous type.”
Matteo shifted to face me head-on. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
“Then why did you turn me down the other night?”
“Because wanting you isn’t the problem, Matteo.”
He pushed a lock of my hair from my face. “Tell me what is, then.”
“Me. You live four thousand miles away from New York. And I’ve had my heart broken enough lately.
Plus, I have a lot of trust issues. In fact, I’ve added some new ones in the last forty-eight hours.
None of them have anything to do with you, but they still make me nervous about getting close to someone. ”
“Of course.” Matteo looked down. “I understand.”
I didn’t think he did. As much as I didn’t want to go into details about things, I wanted him to understand the truth better. “Yesterday I found out I have a sister. A half sister.”
Matteo’s brows drew together. “You knew nothing about her? How is that possible?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea, other than she lives here in Italy, and I live in New York.”
“She is half? So she belongs to only one parent, then?”
“We have the same dad.”
“From before your parents were together?”
I shook my head. “Apparently, she’s four years younger than me.”
“And your parents, they were always together?”
I nodded.
“I’m sorry.”