You can keep me. ‘Cause I sure as hell am keepingyou.
I step closer. She steps back automatically, hit with nerves she tries to hide. But I’m not letting her run from this.
From me.
I hold up one pill between my fingers. “Open.”
Her eyes widen. “Riccardo?—”
“Open your mouth.”
Color rises in her cheeks. Her throat moves with a swallow. Slowly, she parts her lips.
“Good girl.”
Her eyes go deliciously dark at that.
I place the pill on her tongue, gentle but deliberate, and tip her chin up with two fingers.
“Close,” I say.
She closes.
“Swallow.”
She does. Her breath stutters on the exhale. Her lashes flutter. The moment hangs between us—charged, intimate, deeper than anything we’ve said out loud.
I don’t look away. Neither does she.
After a beat, she blurts, “I… I made tiramisu for dessert.”
“I know,” I say without missing a beat.
She blinks. “You do?”
“It’s in the fridge,” I say, leaning in. “I can smell it from here. Also, I saw it earlier.”
“Oh.” Her voice is small. Soft. Wanting. “That’s cheating, you know. It was supposed to be a surprise.”
“It was a great surprise,” I murmur. “But we’re not having it tonight.”
Surprise flickers across her face. “We’re not?”
“No.” I touch her jaw, slow and careful, because I don’t want her running from this either. “Breakfast tomorrow. I’m hungry for something else now.”
I let the implications sink in. Keep my grip lax enough that she could slip out if she wanted to.
But she doesn’t.
So I tilt up her head and kiss her.
11
SAVANNAH
The first kiss is slow. Careful. His lips are warm, steady, and he waits—actuallywaits—for me to press closer before he deepens it. My breath catches when he does. His hand comes up to cup my jaw, guiding me gently but with purpose.
I’ve kissed before. A few times, actually. But none has ever felt like this. The kiss with Riccardo is making my whole body go light and heavy at the same time.
