‘Okay.’ She nuzzled into his neck. ‘All that talk of food has made me hungry.’
‘Do you want to get up and have breakfast?’
‘Not yet. Let’s stay here for a while.’ She was very aware that this was the last chance she’d have this weekend to spend time with Luca, and she wanted to make the most of every minute.
‘When’s your mother getting out?’
‘She’s being “released”, as she calls it, tomorrow morning.’
‘Well, you can stay here tonight, then.’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I really need to go home and get the house ready – clean up a bit, do some shopping. I haven’t spent much time there the past few weeks.I’ll have to leave around lunchtime. Why don’t we hang on and go out for a big brunch later? My treat.’
‘Sounds good.’
‘And in the meantime I’ll just have to find something else to nibble on.’ She raised herself up on an elbow and started kissing his neck and shoulder.
‘Hey, that was pretty good sexy-talk.’ He pushed his hand into her hair.
‘Thanks. How’s your dick now?’
‘It’ll live.’
‘Aw, poor thing.’ She began kissing her way down his chest. ‘Would it help if I kissed it better?’
‘It couldn’t hurt.’
She was just swirling her tongue around the tip when they were interrupted by the door buzzer. They ignored it at first, but it just got more and more insistent.
‘Bloody hell!’ Luca grumbled, gently extricating himself from Claire and getting out of bed. ‘This had better be good.’
He stormed into the living room naked and Claire heard him speaking into the intercom.
‘It’s my sister,’ he told her, as he came back into the bedroom and pulled on his jeans and a T-shirt. ‘You’d better get dressed. She won’t go away – she’s kind of an unstoppable force.’
As he stalked off to let her in, Claire got out of bed and scrabbled for her clothes. She was just buttoning her shirt when she heard Luca letting himself back into the flat. She froze, not sure if he would want her to meet his sister or if she should hide in the bedroom until she was gone.
‘Claire!’ he called from the other room, resolving her dilemma. She smoothed her hair and went into the living room where Luca was standing with the petite, dark-hairedgirl she had bumped into the other morning. She was dressed casually, but expensively, and she was immaculately groomed.
‘This is my sister, Ali,’ Luca said. ‘Ali, this is Claire.’
‘Hi, Claire. We sort of met before.’ Ali smiled wryly. She gave Claire the once-over as they shook hands, and threw Luca a jaundiced look that spoke volumes. It obviously wasn’t the first time she’d encountered a strange half-dressed woman in his flat.
‘Yes, well… sorry I had to run off that time,’ Claire said. ‘It’s nice to meet you properly.’
‘Well, I’d ask what you two are up to, but I’m afraid you’d tell me,’ Ali said. ‘I was going to see if you wanted feeding,’ she said to Luca, ‘but I can see you’re busy.’
‘Oh, we’d fin— I mean, I was just leaving anyway,’ Claire said hastily. She was gutted that her last day with Luca would be cut short, but she didn’t want to get in the way.
‘No, you weren’t,’ Luca said shortly. ‘We were going to go out for brunch,’ he said to Ali.
‘We?’ Ali’s eyebrows shot up and she turned to her brother.
‘Yes, we.’ He shot her a warning look. ‘You’re welcome to join us, if you promise not to be a brat. If that’s okay with you, Claire?’ he asked.
‘Yes, come!’ Part of her didn’t want to share Luca with anyone for her last precious hours, but it was better than nothing. Besides, she was intrigued to learn more about his family.
‘Oh, this is brilliant!’ Ali said, looking from one of them to the other. She turned the full beam of her dazzling smile on her brother. ‘You have a girlfriend! I knew it!’
