Chapter 23
Luciano
After dinner, we end our date with a quiet boat ride down the Chicago River. The whole day played out exactly how I planned it. Maybe even better than I imagined it. After the fiasco that went down in Little Russia, I spent the entire week obsessing over every little detail, torturing myself about how to make this date unforgettable for Frankie. And now, seeing her smile under the city lights? Every second of stress and doubt was worth it.
But this… this right here, right now… is the best part.
Having Frankie curled up against me to keep warm, her head resting on my shoulder, and my arm wrapped around her is the perfect ending. The skyline glows above us while the soft ripple of the water carries us through the heart of the city, making it the highlight of my night.
If only I could make time stop right here. If I could just keep her in my arms like this forever.
“You’re doing it again,” she says, interrupting my sullen thoughts.
“Doing what?” I ask, forcing a smile.
“Making that face.”
“What, you don’t like my face?” I tease, feigning offense.
She giggles, the sound so soft it almost drowns out my melancholy.
“I like your face just fine. Just not when you get that look.”
“And what look is that?” I ask, brushing my knuckles along her cheek, causing her expression to soften.
“The one that says you’re scared I might disappear on you or something.” She leans in a little closer until her face is a hairbreadth away from mine. “I’m right here, Lucky. I’m not going anywhere. You have me for the whole night, remember?”
“I remember,” I say quietly, staring into her eyes, fighting the urge to kiss her.
I’ve been doing that shit all damn day, too. There were a hundred moments throughout our date that I could’ve kissed her—should’ve kissed her—but I held back. Because I knew once I had a taste of her, I wouldn’t stop. I’d forget the trip to the zoo, the fancy surprise dinner, the boat ride, the city lights. I’d forget it all in favor of scooping her up in my arms and carrying her to the nearest bed I could find.
As much as I’d give anything to spend the whole day tangled up with Frankie between bedsheets, I wanted more than that for her. I wanted to give her a memory. One she could keep and cherish, even if everything else fell apart.
If she goes through with her plan after graduation, if she really chooses the convent over me, then I need her to have this. I need her to have a piece of me. Something she can’t pray away, no matter how many Sundays she kneels. Just for this one night, I want her to feel what it’s like to actually live. To forget the rules, the expectations, the life waiting to claim her.
Maybe that makes me selfish. Maybe it makes me cruel. But if she’s going to walk away, if she’s really going to disappear behind stained glass and silence, then damn it, I want tonight to be the one thing she can’t let go of. I want her to remember me not as the boy she left behind but as the man who made her feel like the world could be hers. Even if she’ll never permit it.
“Stop,” she groans gently, slapping her palm on my chest.
Fuck. I’m ruining this. Turning something beautiful into a funeral in my head.
Frankie’s still here. She’s here with me. She hasn’t left. So why am I acting like she already has?
“I’m sorry. I’ll stop. Promise,” I murmur, pressing a kiss on her temple.
“Good,” she says with a soft smile, and just like that, I feel my chest tighten again. She turns her attention back toward the water, letting herself melt into me completely. “I’ve never been in the city at night,” she says quietly. “Chicago really is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Best place in the world,” I say, though the truth is, the most beautiful thing in this whole city is already in my arms.
“I wish the night didn’t have to end.” She sighs wistfully.
“The night only ends when you say it does.”
“Is that so?” She grins, tilting her head back to look up at me. “What else do you have on the agenda, then?”
“Whatever you want,” I say without hesitation. I’d give her the damn moon if she so much as asked for it. “We could go dancing if you want. Head up to the top of the Sears Tower and pop a bottle of champagne.” Then, my voice drops, low and deliberate. “Or… we could go to the hotel suite I booked for us tonight and just hang out there.”
“You booked us a hotel room?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
I nod, my throat suddenly dry. “I figured you might be tired after the day we’ve had. But if a hotel is too much for you, we can go to my house instead. Whatever you feel comfortable with.”
Her eyes search mine, ocean-deep and unwavering, and for a moment, I forget how to breathe.
“I’ve never stayed in a hotel before,” she says softly.
If she keeps looking at me like that, she sure as hell won’t be sleeping tonight in a hotel room, either.
“Is that what you want to do?” I ask, trying like hell to keep my voice steady.
She nods, slow and certain, then reaches up and traces her finger along my jaw, sending a jolt through every nerve in my body like a live wire. The touch is featherlight, but it ignites something primal in me as if she just struck a match against my skin.
“Do you want to go now?” I manage to get out, the tension crawling up my spine like fire.
“Yes.”
“Take us back to the pier!” I call to the captain, holding Frankie tighter, like I need to keep her anchored to me, or risk coming undone.
“You don’t have that look on your face anymore,” she teases, still tracing lazy circles along my jaw.
Then her finger glides over the seam of my lips, coaxing me to nip at it and I do, gently.
“Behave,” I mutter, my voice already fraying. “I’m trying really fucking hard to be a gentleman right now.”
“Is that why you haven’t kissed me all day?” she asks, half laughing, half curious. Still, I’m too focused on how the wind catches her hair, turning her golden and glowing—and fucking too beautiful for words.
“Would you have preferred I went full caveman on you?” I try to joke, though there’s nothing lighthearted about how I feel.
“Hmm…” she muses, eyes glinting. “How does a caveman act on a date?”
My hand moves before I can order it to, threading into her hair and tugging her head back just enough to make her gasp. Her lids go heavy the second my mouth brushes her ear. “Does that answer your question?” I growl, then graze my teeth over her earlobe.
She stares at me, her gaze laced with heat, and licks her lips. “How far away is that hotel you mentioned again?”
“Not fucking close enough,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Captain!” she shouts, half-laughing, half-begging. “Can this boat go any faster? Step on it!”
I want to laugh at her urgency, but I’m way past the point of amusement.
I pull her into my lap and tilt her chin toward me, my mouth hovering just over hers. “Are you sure about this?”
She meets my gaze without hesitation, her voice low and sure. “That depends… Do you want me?”
“Yes,” I grunt, my fingers tightening around her waist as if she were the only thing tethering me to this world.
“How much do you want me?” she teases, arms draped around my neck, relishing torturing me.
“How much time do you have?”
“Apparently, all night,” she murmurs, brushing her nose along mine, the gesture intimate and infuriatingly soft.
“Then I’ll use every second showing you exactly how much.”
“How about starting with a kiss?” she whispers, batting those lashes as if she didn’t already own my ass.
“Is that all you want? Just a kiss?” I ask, my gaze devouring every inch of her face as if I were starving.
“It’s a good start,” she smirks. “Unless you’ve got something better to offer.”
“Does my heart count?”
The words are out before I can stop them, raw and real, stripped of all bravado.
Her body stills in my lap. The playfulness in her expression slips away as her eyes search mine.
“What did you just say?” she asks, her voice catching.
“You heard me,” I say quietly, brushing her wind-tossed hair away from her face, needing to see every inch of her clearly.
“Lucky—”
“No,” I cut in, the words barreling out now, unstoppable. “Let me say this before I lose my damn nerve.” I take a shaky breath and dive in. “I love you. I fucking love you, Frances O’Malley. More than I knew was even possible. So if you don’t feel the same… if you’re not in this with me like I am with you, then maybe… maybe we shouldn’t spend the night together.”
What the hell am I doing? Did I just lose my goddamn mind?
Sex was on the table—finally. And I just flipped the whole fucking thing over because of what?
Feelings?
It’s official. Love is the biggest cockblocker there is.
Argh.
Instead of pulling away, bolting, or flinging herself off the side of the boat to escape my emotional ambush, Frankie just stares at me. Her eyes shimmer under the city lights, lips slightly parted as if caught between shock and something deeper.
“You love me?”
“Yeah.” My voice cracks a little. “I do. With all my fucking heart. Do you…” I swallow hard. “Do you think you could ever love me back?”
Her expression softens like dawn breaking. And then… she laughs.
“God, you’re dumb.”
“What?”
“I thought you were supposed to be this mad genius, but you’re really dumb sometimes.”
“Babe, I’m pouring my heart out over here, and you’re insulting me? Ouch.”
“You can take it,” she says, her voice warm and rich, before placing a kiss on my jaw, then my cheek, then the corner of my lips. “I love you too,” she whispers.
Her eyes flick to mine, full of certainty, before pressing her lips on mine in a kiss, soft and slow, like a secret shared in the dark. It’s sweet and aching, tender and deep. The kind that says I see you. I want you. I choose you.
Neither of us rushes the kiss. We stay wrapped up in each other, suspended in that perfect, quiet moment, until the gentle thud of the boat docking at the pier reminds us that the night is still waiting for us to live it.
Feeling like I’m walking on air, I help her off the boat, wrapping my hand around hers to ground me. My body buzzes with adrenaline, nerves, joy, all of it tangled together in this wild, beautiful mess.
Once we reach the car, instead of opening the door for her to get in, I cage her against it, unable to wait another second to kiss her again. However, this kiss is nothing like the one we had on the boat. This one is heat and hunger. It’s desperation and relief. It’s two people who’ve waited way too long to stop pretending and just gave in to what they both feel.
She clutches my shirt like she might fall apart without me, and I kiss her like I’ll die if I stop.
“We’re not going to make it to the hotel, are we?” she pants, her voice a trembling whisper against my throat as I trail kisses on the side of her face, lifting one of her legs onto my hip.
“I can stop,” I grit out, though it nearly kills me to say it, especially with my cock straining hard against the heat between her thighs.
“Don’t you dare,” she breathes, threading her fingers into my hair and tugging, yanking me back to her mouth.
Our lips crash together with a hunger of pure chaos—all teeth, tongue, and aching need. Everything else disappears—the city, the night, the careful plans I made back at the hotel.
There’s only her. My Frankie.
“Baby, if we don’t stop now…” I try, but the warning dies when her hand presses over my cock, squeezing hard enough to make my vision blur, precum instantly soaking through the fabric of my boxers.
“Do you want me?” she asks again, her voice thick, low, and sultry as her tongue traces a path along the slope of my throat, melting any self-control I had left.
“Fuck, yes,” I groan, reaching for her breast, cupping it greedily as I give it a gentle squeeze. She moans, arching into me, and hooks the heel of her boot behind my back as if anchoring me to her.
“And do you love me?”
“With every fiber of my being,” I rasp. “I couldn’t stop even if you ordered me to.”
Her eyes lock on mine, fierce and shining, full of heat and something far more meaningful. Something that looks a lot like the love she swore she had for me.
“Then show me,” she whispers. “Show me how much.”
That’s all it takes. My last thread of restraint snaps at her command.
My mouth crashes into hers as I lift her effortlessly, her legs wrapping tight around my hips. I fumble to open the car’s back door, lowering her onto the seat as gently as I can, given how fast we’re both becoming unhinged with lust.
This isn’t the five-star hotel suite I envisioned for our first time, but right now, I wouldn’t trade this cramped space, this realness, this raw need, for anything.
“Hurry,” she pleads, hands already working on my belt and zipper. Her eyes are wild, stormy, desperate. And oh so perfect. And mine.
“Baby…” I try to slow her down again, but when her hand wraps around the base of my cock to squeeze it, I nearly black out. “Jesus, fuck, Frankie.”
We’re frantic, tugging and fumbling through layers of clothes as if it were the only thing keeping us from salvation. When we’re finally skin-to-skin, every frantic beat slows.
The moment shifts. She’s under me, her golden hair fanned out like a halo. Her blue eyes shine up at me, filled with trust, love, and want. And for a second, my heart stops.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I whisper reverently. “So goddamn beautiful.”
I kiss every inch I can reach – her cheeks, her lips, her collarbone, the soft curve of her breast. She wraps herself around me, as our mouths mold together. I grind against her slowly, feeling the slick heat of her center teasing my length.
“I’m ready,” she gasps, chest rising and falling fast. “Please, Lucky. I want you.”
It takes everything in me to pull away, just long enough to grab a condom from my jeans on the floor. I rip the foil open with my teeth, rolling it on with shaking hands, then settle back between her thighs.
“This might hurt,” I whisper, cupping her cheek while searching her eyes for any doubt that she might still have.
“I trust you,” she says, her voice steady, soft yet sure.
I kiss her again, then slowly, so fucking slowly, I press into her, inch by inch, until I’m buried to the hilt, surrounded by the heat of her. She gasps and tightens around me, her fingers digging into my shoulders. I still, giving her time, my forehead pressed against hers, trying not to come with the way her pussy strangles me inside her.
“You okay?” I breathe, my heart pounding so fast that I’m almost positive I might die if I don’t move already.
She nods, lips parted, eyes wet with something tender and overwhelming. “Don’t stop.”
Like I could ever stop now?
Like I haven’t fantasized about this moment since she walked into my life.
So I move. Gently at first, just enough to let her adjust to my size, while I memorize the way she feels around me. I relish in her heat, the tightness, the way her breath hitches every time I thrust into her a little deeper.
Our bodies find a rhythm, a language of their own, a dance that only they know how to speak.
Unlike my Frankie, this isn’t my first rodeo.
I’ve fucked before. Fucked myself into a blind haze before.
However, this doesn’t feel like fucking.
This is better.
This is our souls talking to each other, making promises with our hearts and bodies, one thrust and kiss at a time. Everything we haven’t said yet, everything we’re afraid of losing, is now all out in the open. And as the city lights flicker through the fogged windows, I make love to her like it’s the first and last time I’ll have the privilege to. Like she’s the only thing I’ve ever needed to be complete.
Because she is.
My heart is full of her.
Each thrust sinks me deeper into her, and with every stroke, I feel something start to unravel. Not just in her, but in me too. We’re not just making love, we’re making promises. Vows to one another. I’m promising her my forevers. I’m promising her my very life if she wants it. I’m giving her all of myself, trusting that she will keep me safe in her heart.
Forget what I said about love being a cockblocker. Fucking the girl you’re in love with is the best sex of my entire life.
“Lucky,” she whimpers, clutching at my back, her breath hot against my cheek, her moans growing louder with each roll of my hips.
“I’m here, baby. I’m right here. I love you so much. So goddamn much. Frankie,” I promise, kissing her again, slower this time, savoring her taste as she arches into me, her legs trembling around my waist.
“Oh, my God! Lucky!” she gasps, her voice cracking as if on the verge of breaking open.
“I’ve got you, baby,” I whisper against her mouth, cupping the back of her head and holding her close as I move deeper, harder, but still with a tenderness I didn’t know I had. “I’m right here.”
Our bodies are slick now, sweat clinging to our skin in the humid car, the windows completely covered in condensation. Her nails rake down my back, and it only drives me harder into her, chasing the edge, chasing the sound of her falling apart underneath me.
She tilts her head back with a cry, her entire body tensing, and that’s when I feel her walls clench around me, and I know she’s there, right on the edge of falling over the precipice.
“That’s it, baby. Let go,” I groan, losing my rhythm as I chase after her, the coil in my spine pulling tighter and tighter.
She comes with a strangled moan, her legs shaking, opening her mouth to gasp out my name. The way she looks at me right then, raw, wrecked, and full of love, pushes me over the cliff with her.
My hips jerk, and I bury myself deep, groaning as release crashes through me, stealing the breath from my lungs. I spill into her, hips stuttering, heart pounding so loud it drowns out everything but the sound of our mingled breaths and her name echoing in my skull.
For a long moment, neither of us moves. We just lie there tangled together in the tight space, our bodies spent and trembling, our skin slick and hot. My forehead drops against hers as we both gasp for air, still connected, still pulsing with aftershocks.
Her fingers brush through my damp hair, her chest rising and falling beneath mine. I stare down at her and order myself to memorize her face. The way her cheeks are flushed, her lips swollen, her eyes dazed and shining with something that goes far deeper than just the high of sex—love.
She continues to stare back at me, her lips parting to speak, but no words come. Only the softest of smiles comes to the surface instead. A smile so fucking tender that it cracks my heart right down the middle.
As we lie there, panting, sweating, lost in each other’s eyes, it almost feels like the whole world has stopped turning. Stopped just to give us this moment.
“I knew you’d be trouble,” she finally says, slaying me with that smile of hers. “Everything is going to change now, isn’t it?”
Eyes shut, I breathe her in and nod. “Yeah, Frankie. There’s no way I’ll let you get rid of me now.”