The hotdogs were enormous—thick and almost twice as long as the bun—and they smelled delicious. We picked out a table in the corner of the room where we could watch the steady stream of people coming in for dinner.
“Sauerkraut is the best way to enjoy a Hiram’s dog, but I have plans for you later that doesn’t involve sauerkraut breath,” he said as he slathered his hotdog in mustard.
I shook my head at his presumption, but I didn’t argue. “This place is great.”
“Yeah. It’s been here since the thirties. Used to be a place called Callahan’s right across the street—the hotdogs were almost identical, but Callahan’s was my favorite because of their killer fries. They sold out a number of years ago—the land got too valuable. They opened another one in a different location, but it was never as good. This place stays busy all the time, especially at lunch. You think it’s packed now; this is nothing compared to the lunch crowd.”
We ate our food as a steady stream of firemen,construction workers, and other laborers came through the doors. Luca was in his element—laid-back and comfortable surrounded by the salt of the earth. Seeing him like that and thinking about him listening to the radio, I realized a good amount of his New Jersey youth had stuck with him. He may have had a gorgeous skyrise apartment right off Central Park, but the poor kid from Hoboken was still there in the shadows.
“You loved growing up here, didn’t you?” I asked as we returned to the car under a sky painted in the soft colors of twilight.
“Absolutely. My friends and I had free rein of the neighborhood—it was great.”
“Tell me about it.”
He cut his eyes over to me mischievously before checking for cars in the rearview mirror. “Outside the buildings where I grew up, there were poles every so often to hang laundry lines. A block over from my place, one of the poles had a rope hanging from it. We could get to the rope from this ledge and swing to the next ledge over, but between was about a ten-foot drop off to the sunken lower level below. If you were gutsy enough to swing, it kept you from having to make the trip all the way around the lower level.
“For weeks after we discovered the rope, I would swing on it every time we’d walk past, but none of my friends would risk it. One night, my best friend and I were out late, tossing pebbles at front doors. Sounds idiotic, I know, but it seemed like fun at the time. At one point, I must have grabbed too big of a rock or thrown too hard, but I managed to bust a window at the top of one of the doors. I can still hear the glass shatter into thousands of pieces and crash to the concrete porch. The two of us took off like maniacs.When we came to the retaining wall ledge, I swung across without a thought. At first, my friend didn’t want to do it, but sirens blared to life behind us, so he grabbed the rope and swung. Damn if that rope didn’t break and send him careening to the concrete below.”
“Oh my God, was he okay?”
“Broke his ankle and the cops found him while I hid in the shadows. He never gave me up, but he was pissed at me for weeks,” he chuckled to himself.
“You just left him there alone?”
“He would have done the same. No sense in us both getting caught.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Did he get arrested?”
“Nah. They took him to the hospital and called his mom. She worked in a diner and knew one of the cops who found him. They figured his broken ankle was punishment enough, although, his parents still made him work off the money it cost to replace the window as soon as his ankle was healed.”
“You really were a little shit,” I teased.
“Baby, you have no idea. What about you? You ever get yourself into any trouble?”
“Nothing compared to you, I’m sure, but I managed a little mischief here and there,” I said coyly.
“Spill. I want to hear what you considermischief.”
I took a deep breath, laying my head back on the headrest. “Back in high school, my sister, Sofia, and I almost got arrested for being on the roof of my high school.”
“Not bad. What were you doing up there?”
“One night she was upset about something—she never would tell me what. We went for a walk and ended up near the school. It wasn’t all that late, but since it was January, itwas already dark. There were a few people at the school, working on preparations for the winter dance, and they had propped open a side door. We decided to check it out, and when we didn’t see anyone right away, she led me upstairs to an exit onto the roof. I hadn’t even known the thing existed, but her gifted and talented class had done some egg drop project where the teacher had taken them onto the roof. Sofia wanted to go out and look at the stars, which was what we did until security showed up. They questioned us, asking if we were smoking cigarettes and crap like that. They couldn’t accept that we didn’t have some nefarious purpose—it wasn’t long after a big school shooting, so they were overly cautious. I was terrified they were going to call my dad or arrest us, but eventually, they let us go with a warning.”
“Aren’t you the little juvenile delinquent,” he said playfully.
I smacked his arm, and he let out a full-blown laugh that made my chest flutter with happiness. There was a lighter, carefree side to Luca that was just as captivating as the intense, stoic man I originally met in that elevator—the two together were the perfect complement.
When we arrived at my apartment building, I was reluctant for our evening to end. “Come up with me?” The words were out of my mouth before I’d had a chance to think about them.
Luca didn’t comment; he simply turned off the engine and came around to help me from the car. It only took the short walk to the elevator for worry to set in. What was I doing inviting this man upstairs? Hadn’t it been bad enough I spent the evening with him? My mind launched into a never-ending cycle of longing and self-loathing.
When the elevator doors closed behind us, Luca caged me in against the wall. He didn’t touch me, yet I could feel his body all over mine. “No more thinking. Let your guard down and just feel.” His rumbled words close to my ear sent an electric shock of lust straight to my belly.
As if obeying his command, my mind blanked—fear and worry evaporated until there was only me and Luca and the insatiable lust that pulsed between us. My lungs forgot how to function as my breathing stuttered and my head swam with his intoxicating closeness.
The elevator dinged our arrival, and Luca pulled away from the wall, taking my hand in his and tugging me toward my apartment. The moment the door closed, he had me pressed against it, his mouth seizing mine. My hands wound behind his neck, pulling him closer, raking through his thick hair. Luca’s deft hands pulled up my skirt, then lifted me against him with his hands on my ass. My legs wrapped naturally around his waist as he carried me back to the bedroom.
