Текст книги "Semper Fi"

Автор книги: Jane Harvey-Berrick

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

“Oh, I’d really like to have some devil inside me right now, Sebastian.”

She was killing me! I sat quickly, pulling her up with me.

“Let’s go.”

She stood and brushed some of the sand from my clothes while I picked up my jacket and the bottle of wine, discreetly rearranging my junk at the same time.

We strolled back to our room, and every now and then I couldn’t resist kissing her hand gently.

But once I’d closed the door to the cabin, I didn’t hold back. Pushing her against the wall, I kissed her hard, one hand roaming across her full, heavy tits, the other working down into her jeans.

“Where’s that fucking condom?” I muttered, my lips against her throat.

“Bedside table,” she gasped.

I strode over and snatched it up, ripping off the foil and unzipping my pants. I’d been hard for the last half an hour and it was getting fucking painful.

“Sebastian, the bed?” she hinted.

“No, here.”

My dick was begging to join the party, weeping with relief when I shoved my jeans over the curve of my ass and rolled the rubber on, wincing when I snapped the latex at the end.

Caro’s zipper went the same way and I lifted her up, my cock rubbing against her.

“Wrap your legs around me, baby,” I said tightly.

“How?” she gasped, pointing at her jeans trapped around her knees.

“Ah, fuck it!”

I tugged hard but they were caught on her boots. I wasn’t going to wait for her to stop and unlace them, so I stepped over the denim, ignoring the trailing material and rammed into her so hard she cried out. I needed her now, and I knew the way her body was responding she felt the same. My breath was becoming labored as I thrust faster and faster, her fingers gripping into my shoulders, and I was about four seconds from coming so hard that...

And then my goddamn phone rang.

“Oh, fuck!”

“What?” she gasped. “Don’t stop, Sebastian!”

I had no intention of stopping, but I had to take the call whether I wanted to or not.

I carried her to the bed, taking care not to trip over her trailing jeans while we were still joined together, then I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket.

“Sebastian,” she whimpered.

“Just a minute, baby, I’ve got to take this call. It’s my CO’s ringtone.” I pressed ‘accept’ while she glared at me. “Hunter, sir.”

She huffed quietly against my chest and wriggled on my cock, sending tremors through my body. I gave her a warning stare. I wasn’t going to be able to concentrate if she did that again, but to keep her quiet, I started to move slowly, sliding my dick in and out of her in a way that I knew she loved.

“At last!” my CO snapped. “Are you still in Europe, Hunter?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Geneva?”

“No, Italy, sir.”

I must have thrust too hard, because Caro moaned loudly.

“What’s that noise, Hunter?”

“Um … I’ve just been out for a run.”

“Hmm, keeping in shape then?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good man. So it’s like this: the word’s come down that they want to move up the mission. Operation Moshtorak has just gone to status critical. There’s friction between Quetta and Peshawar and that appears to have reduced the Taliban’s ability to maintain a strong presence in Helmand. We need to capitalize on that. Our contact is Gal Agha. Your job is to find him and bring him in. We have to move fast because now intel says that the local Taliban are making noises and stopping anyone who’s thinking about collaborating with us. It’s imperative we get to Gal Agha first. It’ll be a political coup, but more importantly, it’ll keep the boots on the ground safer if we can make Southern Helmand a no-go area for Taliban recruitment for at least six months. We can’t trust the ANA interpreters, so we need one of our own. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m sorry, Hunter, but all leave is being cancelled and key personnel are being flown out via Ramstein at oh-nine-hundred hours on Thursday. Once you’re in Kabul, you’ll meet up with Captain Ryan Grant of MEU who’s the mission leader, and he’ll give you your orders. This is important, Hunter, so don’t fuck up. I had a helluva job persuading the powers-that-be that you were the man for this job and to overlook what happened in Paris. Don’t make me out to be a liar. I know it doesn’t give you much time to pack up your place in Geneva, but that’s the way it is. I’ll send a staff car to pick you up at oh-six-hundred.”

“I’ll be there.”

He disconnected the call and I threw the phone in the corner. I’d worry about the implications of that conversation later. Right now, I had a mission of my own to think about.

I dropped Caro onto the bed, raising her hips and grinding into her in a way that made her gasp. She threw back her head and I sank my teeth into her nipple, feeling it harden even through her bra and t-shirt.

She screamed my name so loudly, I thought I’d lose hearing in my left ear. Not that I gave a fuck. It was worth it just to hear her coming apart like that. As she clenched around me, I lost it too, my cock swelling as I pumped into her, then collapsed on top of her, my weight pressing her into the mattress.

We lay there, trying to catch our breath.

“Sebastian?” she gasped, her voice shaky and astonished.

I pulled out carefully and looked down at her, my smile wide and relaxed. “Did you get what you wanted, baby?”

“Excuse me?” she huffed.

“You said you wanted some devil inside you. I aim to please.”

She scowled and slapped my arm, trying to squirm away from me, but my body was still pinning her down.

“Sebastian, you just fucked me while you were talking to your CO!” she hiccupped, sounding breathless and a little pissed.

“What, you think men can’t multitask?”

She stared at me in disbelief.

“I can’t believe you did that!”

I couldn’t help laughing at the outraged expression on her face. She didn’t fool me—she’d needed to come as badly as I had.

“Felt good! Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that because either it was you moaning, baby, or my CO had a stomach ache.”

“I … you … that … unbelievable!”

I rolled off of her and lay down, pulling her firmly into my chest.

“I haven’t even taken my boots off,” she muttered.

“Me neither,” I reminded her.

Reluctantly, I sat up and peeled off the condom, tossing it in the garbage. Then I stood and yanked up my pants, before heading to the bathroom for a much needed piss.

She was still lying on the bed when I came back, not even caring that she was naked from the waist down, her panties and jeans caught around her ankles. I picked up her foot and started to undo the laces, tossing the boot over my shoulder where it landed with a thud. When I tugged off her sock, I couldn’t help wanting to kiss and suck her perfect little toes.

“Sebastian,” she whimpered, “you’re supposed to do foreplay before sex.”

I smiled down at her but didn’t reply, just copying my movements with her right foot. Finally I was able to free her legs from her clothing.

“Very nice,” I said, planting a soft kiss on her belly button.

Then I lifted her limp body so I could take off her t-shirt and reached around to unhook her bra.

Just a quick taste.

“Mmm,” I said, taking a bite of each nipple.

She pushed me away.

“Don’t start what you can’t finish, Sebastian,” she snapped, obviously still a little annoyed with me although I wasn’t sure why.

“Who says I can’t finish? You were the one who said we should be creative. I’m just doing as I’m told, ma’am.”

I turned to unbuckle my motorcycle boots, kicked them into the corner, and dropped the rest of my clothes onto the floor in one quick movement.

Then I scooped her up and carried her into the shower, enjoying the feel of the hot water as I soaped her carefully and kissed every inch of soft, warm skin.

“You want some more, Caro,” I offered, as I massaged between her thighs.

“I’d love to say yes,” she said, yawning, “but really I just want to go and sleep. Rough sex during phone calls always does that to me.”

“Always?” I questioned.

“Always,” she stated with a subtle smile.

“Hmm.” I wasn’t sure I liked that answer. Who else had taken the idea of phone sex to a whole new level with her?

“By the way,” she asked, “why was your CO calling? What did he want at this time of night?”

Damn. I was hoping she wouldn’t ask about that until morning.

“He wanted to know where I was.”

“I gathered that. Because?”

“I’m sorry, Caro; I’m going to have to be back in Geneva in four days … and then back to Afghanistan.”

“Four days?” Her voice shook as she spoke.

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Well,” she said, trying to smile even as her lips quivered, “we’ll just have to make the most of the four days then.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I said quietly. “I promise, Caro.”

“Sebastian, don’t worry,” she said, putting some grit in her voice—for my benefit, I guessed. “Every day with you is a bonus. And we’ve got the rest of our lives to see Italy.”

Hearing her words was the best fucking thing ever.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

And there was no doubt in her voice as she said the words. Then she pulled me into her arms and we stood together, letting the hot water flow over us, trying to reassure each other that it would be okay.

When the water began to cool, she turned off the faucet.

“Come here, let me dry you, tesoro.”

God, this woman. It had been years since anyone had tried to take care of me. Even as a kid, I’d had to look after myself.

I held out my arms while she stroked the towel across my body: my back and shoulders, chest, stomach, arms and legs; slowly, carefully, methodically, soaking up each droplet of moisture.

“There you are—all done.”

A weird, achy feeling settled in my gut. I didn’t know what to call it, but it felt like caring; it felt like love.

Watching her closely, drinking in every feature of her face soft and pink from the shower, I handed her a fresh towel, then carefully rubbed her hair with a small hand towel.

“You shouldn’t sleep with damp hair,” I said.

I don’t know why I said that, because I did it all the time, but it felt like something a guy should say to the woman he loved. And for some reason my words made her smile.

“Sebastian, I’ve done a lot of foolish things—reckless, you might say—since I met you: sleeping with damp hair doesn’t figure particularly high on that list.”

I frowned. I didn’t like her describing being with me as ‘reckless’.

But then she dropped a soft kiss onto the tip of my nose.

“Race you to the bedroom!”

She ran from the bathroom and launched herself onto the bed.

“You’re so slow, Hunter,” she laughed at me. “You’re really out of shape. Maybe you should go for a run, like you told your CO.”

I gave her a wry grin as I walked naked from the bathroom.

“Tomorrow, Caro, I’m getting a fucking shit-load of condoms, and I’m going to make you regret every word you’ve just said.”

She lay there smiling up at me, looking like sin and sex all rolled into one fucking amazing package.

“Like I said, Sebastian, promises, promises. I keep hearing about these fuckathons, but nothing ever happens.”

Damn woman! I was going to make her regret challenging me like that. I just needed to find a fucking farmacia and then I’d buy me enough preservativi to wipe that smug look off of her face. Period.

But then she yawned loudly, and I couldn’t help smiling down at her as she snuggled under the sheet. I slid in beside her and pulled her against my body, breathing in the amazing scent of her damp skin.

With her in my arms, all the bullshit fell away. The years of wanting her and missing her and trying to hate her; surviving boot camp; the hell that was Iraq. Ten, long, lonely years of wanting what I couldn’t have, of seeing Ches fall in love, marry, have children—all the things I thought I’d have with her. And in four days I’d be gone again, knowing what I’d be missing, daring to hope that she’d wait for me this time.

“God, Caro. You make it all worthwhile. Thank God for you.”

“I love you, tesoro,” she whispered.

Waking up in the morning, the first thing I saw was Caro’s beautiful face. She was still sleeping, her breathing slow and steady.

I watched her for the longest time, scared by the depth of emotion I felt for her, that I’d always felt for her. I knew she thought that a 17 year-old boy couldn’t understand adult love, but she’d been wrong about that: nothing had changed for me. She was still the only woman who’d ever owned my heart.

I wondered what sort of man I’d be when I came back from my next deployment in Afghanistan. Each tour changed you, hardened you, closed off a part that you could never talk about. And I couldn’t tell her that this was one of the most dangerous missions I’d ever go on. We’d have to travel deep into the mountains in a region where the Taliban were actively recruiting. It was impossible to tell who was friend and who was enemy. And the whole point of the mission was to make friends with powerful people in hard to reach places. The guy leading the mission was from the Marine Expeditionary Unit. MEU is a quick reaction force, deployed and ready for immediate response to any crisis. Normally, this was 2,000 plus men, with air and ground combat elements and logistics under one commander. They were a tough crew, and I knew that they’d have picked a competent guy to lead our significantly smaller team of a dozen men. But if anything went wrong, air support was more than 30 minutes away. You could do a lot of dying in 30 minutes.

Caro shifted against me and her eyes fluttered open.

“Hey.”

“Ciao, bello!” she said, her voice husky with sleep. “How long have you been awake?”

“Not long. Just enough time to remind me that I’m a lucky bastard.”

She smiled sleepily and stretched, her warm body pressing against mine.

“I could get used to this, Sebastian, waking up next to you.”

But then her smile turned sad, and I knew that she was thinking about the time expiration on that.

“So, what’s the new plan?” she asked, forcing herself to be cheerful. “Do you want to see some more of Tuscany, or should we go further north?”

I was confused. Since when was that the plan? “What about Salerno?”

“It’s too much driving, Sebastian,” she said, shaking her head. “We don’t have a lot of time and you…”

“Hell, no! I want to see where your dad came from as much as you do. Fuck the driving, Caro! We’re going to Salerno. If you get your beautiful ass out of bed, we can be there in maybe five hours.”

I could see that she wanted to give in, but was worried about the miles we’d be clocking up if we carried on heading south.

“Anyway,” I said, “we’re out of condoms, and much as I’m enjoying being creative, I really just want to fuck you into next week.”

She rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide the huge smile on her face.

“Such sweet words, Sebastian. How did you get to be such a smooth talker?”

“I don’t know, baby,” I grinned, “but it works every time.”

“Every time, huh? But you know, I have to say, last night wasn’t particularly creative—we weren’t even naked.”

I laughed loudly.

“Not creative? Hell, Caro, I managed to keep a conversation going with Cardozo; I thought that was pretty fucking creative.”

“Is that the name of your CO?”

“Yeah, he’s an okay guy.”

“He must have his hands full dealing with you.” She paused, giving me the stink-eye. “What’s his wife like?”

I grinned back at her. “Blonde, attractive … about forty. Why, are you jealous?”

“Of course,” she said, without missing a beat.

I shook my head and kissed her gently. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, baby.”

I’d meant to reassure her, but as soon as our lips touched she moaned low in her throat, pushing her body against mine, her tongue plunging into my mouth. It was so fucking hot, my body ignited.

“Caro,” I groaned, as she ran her hands over my thighs.

“Shh, tesoro.”

She kissed down my chest and stomach, then took my dick in her mouth, which shut off every lucid thought I had. The feel of her warm, wet tongue working over the head of my cock—you could have shot off my kneecaps and I’d still be a happy man.

I was just about coherent enough to slide my fingers towards her pussy, working her clit so she got hers, too.

Ten minutes later, we were both flat on our backs, panting. I had the biggest fucking smile on my face.

“You ready to get up, baby?” I asked, stroking her perfect ass.

“Mmm, if I have to,” she mumbled. “But to tell you the truth, I’d be quite happy staying here all day, if someone brought us food. And condoms.”

Her comment was very fucking motivating, so I kissed her tits quickly, just to be polite, then kicked the sheets back, making her flinch.

“Hey!” she complained.

“Up,” I ordered, standing over her, waiting for her to move.

When she pouted and glared up at me, I leaned down and fastened my teeth over her left nipple, tugging gently.

“You cheat,” she grumbled, finally rolling out of bed and staggering the short distance to the shower.

I swatted her ass, just to help her along.

The water wasn’t hot, so we showered quickly, avoiding touching too much so we didn’t get turned on. It wasn’t working. I mean, come on! Hot woman naked in my shower—it was asking too much. I tried to ignore my ever-ready dick and stuffed it inside a pair of jeans, then watched as Caro ran a comb through her wet hair and tied it back.

“It doesn’t take you long to get ready, does it, Caro? You never even bother to put on makeup.

“I do sometimes,” she huffed, sounding a little defensive, although I wasn’t sure of the reason. “If I’m going out somewhere dressy. But not usually, no. Why?”

I shrugged. “Nothing. Just saying. It drives me crazy when women spend hours getting ready to go out.”

Not that I had to suffer that too often—I was more a hit it and quit it kind of guy; I didn’t stick around for dates so much. Until now. But my words had dug up another memory.

“You remember that time we went clothes shopping in San Diego? You had to buy a new dress?”

“Oh, sure, I remember that! The sales assistant was flirting with you?”

Huh, didn’t remember that.

“She was?”

I wondered if she’d been hot. Whatever.

Caro looked equal parts annoyed and amused. “Don’t you remember, she was asking you if you were a pilot from Miramar?”

Nope, definitely didn’t remember that.

“Well, I’m not surprised,” she said, smiling to herself, “in those days you never used to notice other women flirting with you. You were such an innocent. Not like now.”

“Hell, you should complain, Caro! You were the one I lost my innocence to—a hot, older woman.”

“You know what I mean,” she laughed slapping my arm away as I reached for her.

Damn, I’d really thought I was the shit back then, catching the eye of a seriously hot woman—not a girl—even though she was married. And hell, I couldn’t deny it was a turn on … fucking her behind her husband’s back, in his bed even. Not that it was the reason I’d fallen for Caro—she’d always been special to me. But yeah, I felt like The Man when she let me into her bed and into her body. No woman had meant a thing to me since then, except to scratch an itch. I knew I’d behaved like a bastard, but I was finding it hard to care. There was only one woman whose feelings mattered to me.

I caught her hand, pulling her down, until she was sitting in my lap.

“Caro,” I said seriously, “you’re all I want. You don’t have to worry about other women. Yeah, so I fucked around a lot, but you know what? It was just a game—I was using them, they were using me. It gets pretty old after a while.” I paused, tucking her hair behind her ear and kissing her throat. “But I might have to hunt down those old boyfriends of yours and beat them to a pulp.”

She laughed, which was the reaction I’d hoped for. “Double standards, Sebastian?”

“Nope, just two sets of rules … but I was thinking about the black dress you bought back in San Diego. You looked so fucking hot in that.”

“I’ve still got it somewhere,” she said, frowning, “although I haven’t worn it in years.”

Her words gave me an idea.

“We should do that, Caro; go out somewhere you can dress up.”

She sighed softly. “I used to fantasize about seeing you in a tux.”

“Really?”

“Sebastian, I spent far too many hours fantasizing about you in a variety of, um, situations. And just recently, it’s become my new hobby.”

I laughed, making a mental note to find out more about these fantasies at some point in the near future. But for now, I let her off the hook.

“I’ve never worn a tux,” I said off-handedly.

“Never?” She sounded surprised. “Not even at your high school prom?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t go. I hadn’t met you again, and I’d split up with Brenda. Ches didn’t have a date either—he swiped some of Mitch’s beer, I scored some weed—and we got trashed on the beach instead. It was a pretty good night—I think. I don’t remember that much about it. We didn’t need any women to have a good time … but that was before I met you again.”

“Hmm, very virtuous of you,” she smiled. “But didn’t you wear a tux for Ches and Amy’s wedding?”

“Nah, Amy kind of got off on the whole military thing, even though she didn’t want Ches enlisting, so she asked me and Mitch to come in our Dress Blues. I don’t know, I think she thought it would look cool in the wedding pictures.”

I rolled my eyes, remembering the psycho that was pre-wedding Amy.

“She turned into a complete nightmare-bitch-from-hell over the whole wedding thing. Ches was freaking out, thinking he was about to marry some crazy person. She even tried to ban him from having a bachelor party.” And she failed, because Ches’s bachelor party was epic—a whole weekend of drinking, dancing and dicking around in Tijuana.

“Gee, I wonder why,” Caro said, oozing sarcasm. “Maybe she didn’t trust you.”

I grinned at her.

“Yeah, well, she was probably right about that…”

“I don’t want to know, Sebastian!” Caro said quickly.

Instead, I kissed her, changing the subject back.

“So what do you think?”

“About what?”

“Going somewhere upscale, really dressing up? I’d love to see you like that again.”

“Well, okay,” she said thoughtfully. “Let’s do that when you get back from this tour. Then we can really celebrate.”

“Let’s do it now,” I said.

If there’s one thing that being a Marine teaches you, it’s to take an opportunity when it arises—we don’t stand around with our thumbs up our asses waiting for someone else to tell us what to do.

“There must be some place in Salerno you can get women’s stuff,” I encouraged her.

“Stuff?!”

“Yeah, silky dress, stockings, high heels … stuff. And then I could undress you—slowly.”

I really liked the idea of that. There’s nothing like the feel of a woman’s silk panties as she straddles your body, hot and ready to make the beast with two backs.

“Okay,” she smiled. “I’ll do it if you do—dress up.”

I wasn’t really interested in fancy clothes for myself, but if it was what Caro wanted, why the hell not?

“Sure, if I can find somewhere that will rent me a tux, why not? It’ll make a change from being in uniform.”

Then I kissed her quickly, scooping her off of my lap and setting her back on the floor.

“We’d better get going. Got me a date planned with a really hot woman.”

Instead of traveling along the coast road, we headed inland for the Autostrada del Sole, the highway that runs from Milan to Naples. I could tell the heavy traffic made Caro nervous, but it was the fastest route to Salerno.

We stopped briefly just outside Rome to give Caro a chance to work some of the stiffness out of her body, and then we pushed on south, past Naples until we ran out of road.

Salerno was just how she’d described it to me all those years ago, terracotta roofs, whitewashed square buildings built into the cliff, the Mediterranean Sea deep blue in the evening sun.

I pulled off my helmet, stretching out my back muscles, before climbing off and holding my hand out to Caro.

“You alright, baby?”

“I’m fine,” she said, hiding a wince as she massaged her ass, a job I’d happily have done for her. “How are you?”

“Yeah, good. Look, I think it might be easier to find a pensione or hotel in Salerno than in your dad’s village. We’re only a couple of miles away so we could easily shoot on over there in the morning. What do you think?”

She nodded readily, stretching her arms above her head, and unconsciously pushing her tits out in a way that would be rude to ignore.

“Anything that doesn’t involve getting back on your bike sounds good, Sebastian,” she said with a grimace. “My ass is numb already.”

I pulled her into a hug, willingly laying hands on that peachy ass, and rubbing gently.

“Better, baby?”

“Mmm, much,” she sighed, resting her head on my chest.

I kissed her lightly, loving the soft smile that made her eyes glow. I swallowed, fighting to control the feelings that threatened to overwhelm me. Goddamn it! I was a US Marine, not some lovesick teenager. Pity my body couldn’t tell the difference.

“Come on then,” I said quickly, “let’s walk for a while. We’ll find a room—and a pharmacy.”

“Good to see you’ve got your priorities in order, Sebastian,” she laughed.

“Trained by the Marines, baby. What can I say?”

We walked lazily through the warm streets, as crazy drivers in cars and scooters raced past us. A few of the men were giving Caro sleazy stares, so I slung my arm around her and glared at the ones who were the most obvious. I felt her hand slide around my waist as she smiled up at me.

When I saw a small sidewalk café I realized how thirsty I was.

“I could really use a beer,” I suggested.

But Caro shook her head.

“This is the home of limoncello, Sebastian, the real thing—made with Sorrento lemons. I think we should try some.”

“Yeah! You used to make those amazing ones when I was a kid.”

She shrugged, wincing slightly as we both remembered that I’d first met her when I was eight years old and she was a newly married woman. Other than my fucking parents, Ches and his family were the only people who knew that. No one else would ever understand what we’d been to each other then. She’d been the only person in the world who cared for me then, and even as a little kid, I knew that I wanted to save her. It was fairytale stuff, and it wasn’t until we met again when I was 17 that I recognized what a douche her husband was. Those memories were private.

“Sure, but these are alcoholic,” she said, glancing up at me with a smile. “We could order them with a pitcher of water, too.”

“Sounds good,” I said, knowing that it was her way of challenging me not to get wasted. Whatever, but it wasn’t like the military made many teetotalers.

The waiter was a kid who needed a fucking lesson in manners. He cheered up when Caro spoke to him in Italian, but I stared him down when I caught his eyes on her tits.

“And would you know of anywhere we could rent a room for a couple of nights?” Caro asked him. “Nothing too expensive?”

“My Uncle Aberto might,” said the kid, smiling at her, caught in her spell like so many other guys. “I’ll go and ask him.”

“You didn’t have to flirt with him, Caro,” I said, at the same time kicking myself for sounding like the jealous asshole she’d been married to.

She stared at me, completely confused.

“Excuse me? Flirt with him? I was being friendly, that’s all.”

“Well, it didn’t look like that from here,” I snapped, trying to rein in my temper—and failing.

She shook her head and held up a finger. “Rule number three, Sebastian, of my conditions for coming on this road trip with you: no displays of adolescent jealousy. Remember?”

I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. I definitely needed a moment.

The kid waiter returned with the limoncellos, water, and an older guy with black hair and dark olive skin.

“My nephew tells me you’re looking for a room. For how long?”

“Just a couple of nights,” Caro replied, smiling at him.

Yep, that jealousy wasn’t going away anytime soon.

“Somewhere in town,” she continued, “nothing too upscale—although somewhere with a bath would be great. We’ve been on our motorcycle all day.”

“I have just the thing,” he said, returning her smile a little too happily. “My mother-in-law’s sister’s neighbor rents rooms. Her villa overlooks the sea—very pretty rooms. Only €50 a night. I could call her for you, if you like?”

“Thanks,” I said, letting him know who was in charge. “We’ll take a look.”

Caro’s expression told me that she wasn’t impressed, but I didn’t care. No one was hitting on my woman in front of me. Fuck that!

The older guy returned, addressing himself to me this time.

“You’re in luck, signore, signora. She has a room available. I’ve written the address down for you.”

“Thank you,” Caro said, “that’s very kind of you.”

He nodded and turned to leave.

“Aberto, can I ask you something else?” she said, her voice hesitant. “My father was from Capezzano Inferiore. He left many years ago, but I was wondering, do you know anyone with the surname of ‘Venzi’?”

He scratched his head but then shrugged, and Caro’s face fell. I wanted to beat the shit out of the man who put that look on her face, even though I knew it wasn’t his fault.

“No, I’m sorry, signora, I don’t know that name. I could look in the phone book for you?”

“Thank you,” she said, trying to smile. “That would be so helpful.”

I held her hand while we waited for him to return, and I could feel the tension in her.

“Ah, I’m sorry, signora,” he said a few minutes later, “there’s no one with that surname in the town—some in the province, but none within 70km.”

Caro’s shoulders slumped.

“Thank you for looking, Aberto,” she said quietly.

He smiled sympathetically then walked away.

“Sorry, baby,” I said. “I know you had gotten your hopes up.”

“I was just being stupid,” she said, smiling weakly. “I just wanted … I just hoped I’d find some family.”

“Hey, I get that. I know what it’s like.”

She swiped a finger under her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she was trying not to cry.

“I never even asked you, Sebastian, but do you have grandparents? You never mentioned any.”

I shrugged. “No, not really. Mom’s parents died when I was a kid; Dad never spoke to his. Big surprise. I don’t even know where they live.”

“And you’ve never wanted to find out?” she asked

Her eyes were so full of compassion, it fucking slayed me.

“I thought about it once. Anyway, I’m not sure I’d want to find anyone who was related to that bastard. Besides, they never showed any interest in me … it made me wonder if the bastard was really my dad. I dunno…” I shrugged. “Ches and his kids, Mitch and Shirley—they’re my family.”