And see us together, Ally thought, well aware that she was looking down the gauntlet of a test. Aware of the way the older man was watching them hawkishly, studying them for proof of happiness—or the opposite.
And Luca must have sensed it too. What else explained the way he shifted his whole body, looping both his hands behind her back and pulling her towards him, bending his head so they were close enough to kiss and saying, “I’m sorry,cara.I had no idea.”
Heat flushed her cheeks at the way he was excluding Valentino, speaking purely to her. More so at the way it worked. She felt as though there were only the two of them in the room.
“You know I’ve been looking forward to meeting him,” she said, dredging the words up from deep in the recesses of her brain, in the parts of it still working as it should, more or less.
“I had been looking forward to other things.” Luca brushed his thumb over her lower lip and she closed her eyes on a flutter of unmistakable need. It felt so real. So tantalising. Sensual awareness was pooling in her stomach and heating between her thighs for the first time in Ally’s life. It was drugging and powerful; she couldn’t pull away. In fact, to hell with their witness. To hell with anything butthis.She didn’t care who was watching, who was waiting, standing in Luca’s arms, their bodies melded together, there was nothing for it but to lift onto the tips of her toes and close the rest of the distance between them, brushing her lips to his.
It was intended to be a light kiss, to satisfy the need that was whipping through her, but how foolish she was to have eventhought that was possible. The brushing of their lips might as well have been the splitting open of the earth. She didn’t know if he groaned or she did, but a second later, his lips were pressing to hers, hard and demanding, and the arm around her waist was no longer casually looped there but rather clamped hard, so her body was pressed to all the hard planes of his—and the hardness of his cock, against her belly, was a sparking of a whole new level of need, so intense she hadn’t known it was possible. His mouth pressed harder, separating hers, and then his tongue was taking up all the space, duelling with hers and whispering promises she wanted to hold him to, mastering her completely, easily, taunting her with his command and control.
His hand at her back separated her shirt from her waistband, to connect with bare skin and her eyes flew open, the strength of her arousal almost tearing her apart. Is this what it was meant to feel like? He pressed her forward, harder, more demanding, and this time, she knew it was her that groaned softly into his mouth, surrendering completely to this. Wanting to hold this moment forever. His mouth explored hers with an intensity and urgency that completely neutralised her brain; all she could do wasfeel.Feel his body, his warmth, his touch, his power. Her hands were trapped in the fabric of his shirt, holding on for dear life, and then, he was pulling away, staring down at her with eyes that glittered like black diamonds, a face that was impossible to read, and cheekbones that were slashed with a hint of dark colour.
She wanted to cry out, to beg him not to stop. Her hands almost did, squeezing into his fabric with desperation. Her knees felt as though they might give way.
“We have lost our audience,” he drawled, still holding onto her though, as if he knew how badly she needed the support.
Ally blinked, not understanding his words at first, because she felt so powerfully aware of him, and him alone. Butgradually, the world came back into focus. The room, the view, the fact they were alone.
She jumped back from him as though he’d stabbed her.
“Oh my God,” she lifted her hands to her lips and held them there, like that had the power to wipe away the intensity—the craving—his kiss had invoked. Her kiss! She’d kissed him. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, sure she must have been red to the roots of her hair.
“What for?” he asked, voice equally low, but throaty too, so she knew he wasn’t unaffected by what they’d just shared. Hell, she’d felt that for herself, with his powerful body pressed to hers, his hardness impossible to miss.
“For kissing you,” she hissed, looking around to see the enormous space completely devoid of anyone but them.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what I’m paying you for.”
A shiver ran the length of her spine. Her brain flooded with sparks and pain. His words cut through her much more sharply than they should have. He was right. He was paying her. And for this! But it hurt anyway, because nothing about that kiss had been performative for Ally. From the second he’d pulled her towards his body, instinct and need had taken over. She’d kissed him because she’d found it impossible not to. She’d kissed him because she’d had no other choice.
And he’d kissed her back as a performance? Oh, he’d obviously enjoyed it regardless, but what did Ally know? That was probably just normal, in that sort of situation. Suddenly, she felt completely out of her depth in every way. She pulled away from him quickly, running her hands down her sides, butterflies battering the insides of her stomach.
What the hell had she agreed to?
How could she have thought she would be capable of this?
Not without losing herself completely. Oh, God…
Luca had not beenready to begin their performance, yet. He’d wanted Allegra to have time to settle into this life, to become familiar with him, the requirements of the role. Or had he been the one who needed that time and space?
Marriage was not something he’d had on his bingo card—ever—yet here he was, somehow accidentally married to a virtual stranger, and worse than that was the fact he found he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Staring at her. Lusting after her like some horny teenager. In fact, even as a pubescent schoolboy he hadn’t felt likethis,as though the very blood in his veins had become his mortal enemy, determined to singe and burn him from the inside out.
He hadn’t been prepared for what seeing Allegra in Italy would do to him. It wasn’t Italy, but the way she looked at all things with such wonderment. Things he had long since taken for granted, and barely even noticed, she treated like gold dust. Even the damned view had made her face look like something from a fairytale.
Never mind how the Italian sun had caught the blondest of her waves and turned them into starlight and shine. As for the noises she’d made as they’d kissed, the fevered, desperate, passionate cries that had gone from her choked mouth to his, he’d been about three seconds away from dragging her through the house and to his bedroom, to hell with Valentino and their agreement about no sex. To hell with anything about what they did to each other.
Which made the twenty minutes they spent on the terrace with his grandfather an agony. It was an exercise in restraint and dishonesty. He sat beside Ally with one hand resting casually on her thigh, even when his fingers ached to snake higher, to find the most sensitive flesh between her legs and tease her there, driving her wild. Even when he wanted to tell his grandfather to leave, so he could make love to Allegra beneath the perfectblue sky, with the sea she adored so much lapping far beneath them, he did not. He sat and talked to his grandfather of their shared interests, their acquaintance, their business, aware that by keeping control of the conversation he was shielding Allegra from potentially revealing how little she knew of Luca, and his family. After all, how could she be expected to fake the role of his wife having known him for less than seventy two hours?
He'd thought they’d have this week for her to get up to speed—and for him to learn what he needed of her, as well. He’d thought, and been wrong.
And to Allegra’s credit, she was coping a hell of a lot better than he was. Despite the way she’d looked earlier, after their kiss—could it even be called a kiss when they’d basically showed that they both wanted to rip each other’s clothes off?—she was now a study in relaxed contentment. One leg crossed over the other, leaning just close enough towards him to look comfortably in love, listening to their conversation with a serenely engaged smile on her face.
“This is very boring for you, I suspect,” Valentino said, as if reading Luca’s thoughts, turning to face Allegra.
“Not at all,” she said, widening her smile. “I love seeing Luc speak so passionately about his business—I know how much it means to him.”
Luca regarded her without a shift in his expression, but inwardly, admiration was surging, at the way she was fighting for his cause without making it obvious.
