Текст книги "Semper Fi"

Автор книги: Jane Harvey-Berrick

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

I let her hips drop to the bed, then positioned myself over her.

“I’ve waited a very long time for this,” I said. Ten fucking years.

I pushed inside her, increasing the pleasure, entering into her soft, wet pussy, inch by slow inch.

“Fuck, you feel so good, Caro. I can feel you all around me. So fucking tight!”

God, this was really familiar. How could it have been 10 years and still feel like it all happened yesterday? My body knew this, here, with her. It was fucking confusing.

She ran her nails lightly down my back again, pressing the tips of her fingers into my muscles.

I was trying to take it slowly, to make it last after all this time, but I couldn’t. My body disengaged from my brain and I started thrusting faster. Caro’s breath was burning across my chest, and I could feel her body trembling again. I looked down, even more aroused to see my dog tags dragging between her breasts, and below, my cock sliding in and out of her. That’s when I lost it. I fucked her hard. I fucked her until there was nothing but sensation joining us.

I stared down into her beautiful brown eyes, eyes that scorched me with their trust, then I kissed her hard. But when she moaned out my name and tilted her hips up to meet me, my body and head exploded at the same time.

She wrapped her legs around me, locking her ankles behind my waist and her pussy clenched, milking every last bit.

My arms give way and I buried my face in her shoulder until my breathing began to return to normal.

After a moment’s silence, I pressed my lips lightly against her neck, then pulled out slowly, holding onto the condom.

Fucking things. They did the job, but it was never as good as going bareback—something I’d only ever done with Caro, and then only a few times.

I rolled onto my back, peeling off the rubber and tossing it into the garbage can.

She still hadn’t spoken and her silence was beginning to unnerve me. So I leaned up on one elbow to look at her, resting my free hand on my stomach and stroking her gently.

“Are you okay?” I asked, planting a quick kiss on the tip of her nose.

She avoided my eyes when she replied.

“Yes, I think so,” she said carefully.

Then she pushed my hand away and sat up.

What the fuck?

“Where are you going?”

“Just to get some water,” she said, still refusing to look at me.

She walked into the bathroom, pushing the door closed.

What the hell had just happened?

A few seconds later, I heard her running water into the sink and I waited for her to come out again, but she didn’t. I rolled out of bed, hesitated for a second then pushed the bathroom door fully open.

She was standing in front of the mirror, a hairbrush held loosely in her hands.

“Caro, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, a weird fake smile on her face. “I’m fine.”

She didn’t look fine. She looked totally freaked out—and her frozen expression was giving me chills.

I took the brush from her hands and carefully brushed out the tangles from her glossy brown hair. It was soft and silky and so familiar—it had haunted my dreams for long enough.

“You have beautiful hair, Caro. I’m glad you kept it long.”

She shrugged, as if my words meant nothing.

“Every now and then I decide to get it cut off, especially after I’ve been somewhere I haven’t been able to shower for a couple of weeks.”

I couldn’t believe she’d even consider it.

“That would be a crime,” I said quietly.

“You can talk!” she snorted, pointing her chin at my buzz cut.

“Believe me, babe, I’d grow it if I could. Maybe I should go to my CO and tell him my girlfriend wants me to…”

Ah shit. So shouldn’t have said that. She wasn’t my girlfriend—I wasn’t anything to her.

She sighed, our attempt at levity gone again, killed by a severe case of foot-in-mouth. I suspected it was terminal.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I keep forgetting which decade I’m in, too. It’s so strange.”

I nodded, relieved that she understood.

“Yeah, this is so weird, I feel the same. It’s as if nothing’s changed but everything’s changed. It’s like being in some crazy time machine. I keep expecting your husband to be banging down the door.”

She winced, and I wanted to kick my own ass.

“Fuck, sorry. I’m doing it again.”

She smiled painfully.

“Oh well, I imagine you’ve had some experience with husbands banging on the door.”

No, I wasn’t taking that hit.

“Don’t, Caro.”

Our eyes met in the mirror, then she pushed past me, back into the bedroom.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why did I keep on saying the wrong thing? I took a deep breath, then remembered that she’d come in here to get some water. I took the glass from beside the sink and filled it from the faucet.

When I walked back into the bedroom, she was sitting on the bed, her back toward me. I walked around and handed it to her. She took a small sip before placing it on the cabinet.

“Thank you.”

I sat back on the bed, covering my lower half with the sheet. I tried to think of how to explain the confusion I felt—the confusion that she must feel, too. Our relationship, if you could call it that, had fallen apart 10 years ago, and now we were trying to fix it based on an hour of sex? Even I knew it would take more than that.

“Caro, I know this is fucking weird but it’s good, too, isn’t it? I mean, not everyone gets a second chance.”

“Is that what this is, a second chance?” she snapped. “But a second chance at what? A second chance to rip ourselves apart again?”

She sounded pissed and made an obvious effort to calm herself.

“Today was fun,” she said carefully, “and tonight was … good…”

Just good? I came so hard I saw stars.

“But the reality is this: I’m based in New York and spend between three and six months of the year away from home. You’re a Marine and go wherever they send you. Presumably this next tour of Afghanistan will be six months or maybe longer? And then where, because let’s face it, Sebastian, the chances of you getting posted to the Corps’ Division of Public Affairs in New York is slim to none—especially with your record. So I’m not sure what sort of ‘second chance’ you have in mind.”

No way! No fucking way was she going to fuck us up again with this dumb crap!

I leapt off the bed, glaring down at her, fists clenched and trying not to yell.

“Christ, it’s like listening to an old record, Caro! You always try to think of reasons why we can’t be together!”

Her expression was confused.

“What do you mean ‘always’? I haven’t seen you for ten years.”

“That’s the whole fucking point!” I yelled, my determination to keep calm crumbling. “You used to say this shit to me when I was 17, and you’re still doing it now. We wasted 10 years and you’re worried about a few thousand miles? Hell, we’ve got airplanes, we’ve got email, they’ve invented fucking cell phones. I could even take the shitty option of a billet on recruiting duty anywhere in the US. Jesus, if it comes down to it, I’ll even write you a fucking letter!”

Her mouth dropped open then twisted as if she wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry.

“You write letters?” she asked.

My shoulders relaxed slightly, but I was still angry and determined to force the point.

“I’ll write you on both sides of the fucking paper, Caro.”

A smile quivered at the corners of her mouth.

“How can I refuse such an astonishing offer?”

“Are you laughing at me?” I snapped.

“Are you shouting at me?” she shot back.

“Yes!”

“Then, ‘yes’ to you, too.” She sighed again. “Look, today, tonight—it’s been fun. But like I said to you before, I’m really not looking to get tied down again. I work a lot and I love what I do. I’m still mad at you for screwing up my travel papers. I won’t get paid until I’ve filed a story, and I won’t be able to do that until I get to Leatherneck. All this time, I’m not earning—and I have a very expensive mortgage to finance.”

I let my hands rest on my hips, not caring that I was utterly naked, and I looked her in the eye.

“I’m sorry about the money, Caro, and I’m sorry that I made you mad at me again, but I’m not sorry about what I did. I hoped I’d get a chance to spend some time with you, but I would have done it just to keep you safe.”

She shook her head. “This is getting us nowhere.”

Defeated, I sat down on the edge of the bed with my back to her, letting my head hang down.

Nothing I said seemed to change her mind. I took my final shot.

“Caro, I’ve got 17 days before I ship out. I’d like to spend them with you. That’s all. If you don’t want to see me after that … well, I guess that’s it.”

I turned to look at her over my shoulder.

“What do you say?”

She didn’t reply. I stood up, preparing to dress and leave before she broke me completely.

But then she spoke.

“I’m going to need a cushion to sit on if you expect me to ride on that motorcycle of yours all the way to Salerno.”

She was saying yes?

“Really? You’re sure?”

“Well, to paraphrase you, what the hell.” She paused. “But I reserve the right to fly back if you’re being too much of an ass.”

I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.

“Huh, well, you’d better give me a sliding scale of assaholic behavior, just so I know.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That could be quite a long list.”

“Try me.”

“Okay,” she said, sitting up straight and diving right in. “First, no getting drunk and passing out in my bed; second, no more interference in my career of any kind—that’s a deal breaker; third, no territorial displays of adolescent jealousy; fourth…”

Wow, that list was getting long already.

I jumped on her, pinning her to the mattress, my kisses hard and determined. They weren’t the only things that were hard—just being near her was enough to get the juices flowing, and my dick was fighting its way through her bathrobe. But then she pushed me off.

“What was that all about?” she asked breathlessly.

I shrugged.

“It sounded like a very long list, I thought I’d try to distract you.”

“Diversionary tactics?”

“Yeah, we’re schooled on that in the Marines,” I agreed, my lips twitching with a smile.

“I bet you are! And by the way,” she said, pointing at my dick, “you can put that away—I’m exhausted. Somebody dragged me all over Switzerland and half of France today.”

“Sure I can’t persuade you?” I asked, leaning down to bite her thigh.

She jumped and pulled her robe together tightly.

“Quite sure, thank you. This forty-year-old woman needs her beauty sleep.”

God, that made me furious. She was beautiful—anyone could see it. Anyone but her, apparently. It irritated the fuck out of me that she was still playing the same riff from ten years ago.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that, Caro.”

“Do what?” she asked, blinking in surprise.

“Keep going on about your age. You’re older than me—I get it. And guess what? I don’t give a shit. I never did. I just wish you weren’t so hung up about it. It’s kind of annoying.”

Her mouth dropped open in shock.

“Feel free to say what you really mean, Hunter!”

I grinned at her. “Okay.”

She shook her head and folded her arms across her chest, but I could tell that she wasn’t really angry.

“So, we can go tomorrow?” I asked. “Start our road trip?”

“Well, I suppose so. But I don’t know how we’ll get my suitcase on the back of your motorcycle.”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll just take what you need and leave it at my place till we get back.” So far, so good. Time to take another step. “So, can I stay the night, or are you going to kick me out into the cold, dark world, all alone in a strange city, where foreign women might try and have their evil way with me?”

Her eyebrow lifted as she stared back at me.

“That’s a sob story, if ever I heard one, although I strongly suspect it’s a highly edited one.”

“Is that a yes?” I asked hopefully.

“It’s a yes, providing sleep is what you had in mind.”

Nope. “Mostly. Good enough?”

She shook her head, capitulating immediately. She really hadn’t put up much of a fight.

“Fine. You want to use the bathroom first?”

“No, go ahead.”

I lay back on the bed, grinning up at the ceiling. Twenty-four hours ago it had seemed impossible that I’d ever be here again. Then I frowned, wondering what the reality was of making this work. I was a Marine: I went where they sent me. But then I figured other guys had wives and families—why couldn’t I? Sure, there’d be compromises, problems, but we’d deal.

I took my turn in the bathroom and let her enjoy the floor show as I strolled around naked. If using my body was going to get her to give me a chance, that worked just fine for me. So, wearing my dog tags and a big smile, I sat down next to her then crawled across her body, dipping down to take a nipple in my mouth.

“Sebastian, what are you doing?” she gasped.

“Taking a shortcut,” I said, then stole another kiss.

She reached up and pulled me deeper into the kiss before pushing lightly on my chest.

“Sleep! Now!”

“Sure I can’t change your mind?” I asked, eyeing the boner that was beginning to make its presence felt.

“Oh, put it away!” she gulped, unable to take her eyes off my dick. “I’m tired.”

There was always tomorrow. And I was a big fan of morning sex.

So I let her win that one, sliding under the duvet on the other side of the bed.

She turned off the light, and in the darkness of the room I sighed in contentment as my hand drifted over her waist. I kissed the back of her neck softly.

“Night, baby.”

As I fell into a deep sleep, I wondered if this time life would bring us back together or push us further apart.

It was barely light when I woke abruptly. Caro was thrashing around in the bed, fighting the duvet, her eyes screwed shut and a terrified wail surging from her throat. Whatever she was dreaming about, it was some scary shit.

I shook her awake and her panicked eyes blinked up at me.

“Caro, are you okay?”

She didn’t reply immediately, rubbing her hands over her face as awareness leaked back into her eyes.

“Oh, sorry, did I wake you up?” her voice trembled. “I was dreaming.”

“It sounded more like a nightmare.”

“Sorry. Yes, I’m okay.”

It hurt that she wouldn’t tell me what had upset her. It made me realize there was a lot we didn’t know about each other. And a hell of a lot I had to hide.

She shivered and sat up, the duvet slipping down to her waist. I lost my train of thought as I stared hungrily at her breasts.

“Your eyes are going to fall out, Hunter,” she muttered.

“Just looking, boss,” I grinned.

She stood up, stretching stiffly, then picked up her bathrobe and shuffled into the bathroom.

I lay back on the pillows with my hands behind my head, planning out the route and how long it would take to get to Genoa. I’d planned on driving further than that, but Caro had made it clear that riding pillion wasn’t her most favorite thing.

But when she reappeared from bathroom, her whole face was lit with a sexy smile. Damn, that was a turn on.

“Hi,” I said, wondering what she was thinking.

“Hi yourself.”

“You seem better.”

“Why, Warrant Officer Hunter,” she smirked at me, “what masterful skills of observation you have.”

“Yeah, much better.”

“Well, now that you mention it, I am in a much better mood, although I’m rather hungry.”

“Do you want to go down for breakfast or should I call room service?”

“Let me think about that for a minute.”

I was already reaching for the phone when she untied her robe and pulled the belt out of the loops, winding it through her fingers. I froze, watching the robe slide to the floor, leaving a very naked Caro standing there. Fuck. Me.

“I was thinking about eating you,” she purred, “but as you’re such a stubborn, annoying man, who makes me pissed with every other sentence he utters from between his beautiful, badly-behaved lips, I thought I’d better tie you up first. What do you say?”

My mouth dropped open.

“I’d say, where is Carolina Venzi and what have you done with her?” I managed to croak out.

Her grin grew wider. “I’m just taking your advice, Hunter.”

I shook my head, confused, but liking where this conversation was going.

“I don’t know what advice I gave you, but it must have been damn good.”

“Let’s find out, should we? Put your hands on the headboard.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I wrapped my hands through the metal framework as Caro crawled up the bed, her thighs straddling my body. Then she threaded the belt through the headboard and tied both wrists tightly.

“Have you done this before?” I breathed out.

“Only in my dreams, Hunter. Now, be quiet, or I might have to gag you, too.”

My mouth went dry. “Fuck!”

“Maybe later,” she replied, her voice low and teasing.

Then she whipped the duvet off the bed and stared down at my erection.

“Now that’s a sight for sore eyes, Sebastian. Maybe I should just leave you here: the hotel maids might appreciate that. Or, better still, maybe I’ll take a photograph of you on my phone. Don’t worry, I won’t post it on the internet, it’ll just be my screensaver.”

What the fuck? Was she serious? Was this some sort of payback? The look in her eye was making me nervous.

“Caro!” I said, a serious warning in my voice.

“Spoilsport,” she said, pretending to pout at me. “No sense of adventure.”

I was relieved this was part of the game, but I felt vulnerable, too. I’d never let a woman tie me up before. I mean yeah, I was all for bedroom games, but I preferred to be the one in control. Everything was different with Caro.

I tested the strength of her knots—they were pretty tight. I could probably get out of them, but only by destroying the headboard. That was plan B—I hoped plan A involved more sex and less damage to property.

She leaned forward and placed a kiss on each of my biceps before sliding back down my body.

I licked my lips as she knelt across my shins and then ran her tongue from my balls to my tip. Holy fuck! That was…

But then she climbed off the bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Where are you going?”

“Back in a minute,” she called.

Shit. What was she doing? I rattled the headboard and yelled out.

“Caro! What the fuck?”

“Are you getting impatient, Sebastian?” she called back.

“Fuck, Caro!”

But then she strolled back into the bedroom, pulling her hair into a ponytail. “Couldn’t see what I was doing,” she explained, her impassive face hiding a grin.

“There’s going to be payback for this, Venzi,” I warned her.

“Bring it on, Marine.”

She knelt back on the bed and ran her hands over my chest and stomach, then took my dog tags in her mouth and sucked hard.

Damn, she looked sexy doing that. I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply.

My whole body was on fire as she kissed, nipped, bit, licked and sucked her way downwards. When she found a sensitive spot, I couldn’t help bucking my hips, cursing wildly, losing my final shred of control.

“Sebastian, your language!” she teased.

When she ran her tongue down my dick and held my precious man-jewels in her teeth, I stopped breathing altogether. If she didn’t stop soon, this was going to get very ugly.

I may have sent up a prayer of thanks when she released me without injury or maiming, but I wouldn’t say I relaxed because she kissed the tip of my dick and then took the whole all of me in her mouth. It was the mother, father and holy spirit of all blow jobs, and I think she took me from heaven to hell and back again.

She started increasing the speed at the same time she increased the pressure, and I knew I was close. I tried to warn her, but it was too late. I thought I was going to pass out as I shot my wad into her mouth and she swallowed around me. I saw stars, galaxies, whole fucking universes as my heart pounded hard enough to break through my chest.

When I felt strong enough to push against the ton weights that were resting on my eyelids, she was snuggled up on the bed next to me. I swallowed several times before I could speak.

“Jeez, Caro! That was … that was … wow!” I tried to pull her into my arms but realized I was still tied to the headboard. “Are you going to untie me now?”

She shook her head sleepily. “Don’t think so. I like having you as my beck-and-call boy.”

I laughed quietly, then rattled the headboard again. “Seriously, I want to hold you.”

Grumbling to herself, she untied my wrists. I flexed my hands as the blood began to flow again, a tingling sensation shooting up each arm.

“Where did you teach yourself to do that?” I asked teasingly, as she settled back onto my chest.

“Night school,” she said with a yawn.

I laughed and kissed her shoulder. “Is it my turn now?”

“I thought you wanted to take me on a road trip,” she said sleepily

“Yeah, but I could be quick…”

She was definitely considering it and my dick twitched back into life. Bastard never knew when he was beaten.

“I’ll take a rain check,” she said at last.

Wrong answer.

“Okay. In that case, I guess we should get going.”

I started stroking her ass with one hand, and teasing her nipple with the other.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes still closed.

“Nothing,” I whispered, as my hands drifted down and I slipped a finger inside her.

She gasped and her eyes flew open.

“Sebastian!”

My name came out in a long moan.

“Shh, baby,” I said, reaching for another condom.

She wouldn’t let me shower with her afterward, on the grounds that we wanted to leave the hotel before nightfall. She was packing up her suitcase when I finished my shower, although that didn’t stop her checking me out, and yeah, I may have posed for her, enjoying the feel of her eyes on my body again after all these years.

I dressed quickly and watched as she pushed her camera into her bag. That and the laptop she used looked expensive. I guess they were the tools of her trade, but it also showed that she was a serious and successful journalist. I was proud of her for achieving her goals, but it made me wonder what she was doing with me. God, I hoped this wasn’t just a pity fuck.

“Do you want to get breakfast here?” I asked, going for a casual tone. “You didn’t eat anything after lunch yesterday.”

She shook her head.

“No, it’ll take too long. You must know some little café we could stop at? Maybe on the lake?”

“Yeah, okay. But I need to swing by my place first and pick up a few things.”

We headed down to the lobby, and while she went to settle her bill, I collected my bike from the hotel’s underground garage.

Then I drove to the front entrance and lifted the visor as I reached for her suitcase.

“Where are you going to put it?” she asked, her voice bemused.

It was a good thing she traveled light, because I was going to have wedge the suitcase between me and the handlebars. I nodded at her to get on behind me.

It wasn’t exactly legal to travel like that, but we weren’t going far.

When I cut the engine outside my apartment, Caro pulled off her helmet and almost fell sideways off of the bike. I couldn’t help smiling at the chagrined look on her face.

“Nothing to laugh at, Hunter. Just because you’re about a foot taller than me,” she huffed.

“Shrimp,” I said, then had to dodge out of the way as she tried to swat my backside.

“You’re feisty this morning,” I grinned at her. “I think I like it.”

She muttered something I couldn’t hear—probably just as well.

I grabbed her suitcase and opened the door into the hallway.

“Sorry,” I told her, “no lights.”

My apartment was at the top of three flights and I’d chosen it for the view. I didn’t need much, but it occurred to me that it might look a bit bare to her.

“This is it.”

She stepped into the room and gazed around, an oddly blank look on her face. I frowned, trying to see the place through her eyes. The walls were painted white, and my single bed was covered with a USMC-issue blanket and pushed against one wall. Some old paperbacks were resting on the bookshelf and my dress uniform was hanging from a hook on the wall, still inside a drycleaner’s bag.

I had a wooden chair by the window and a chest of drawers next to the door with my iPod and laptop.

I pointed toward the window.

“It’s got a great view.”

Caro walked over to stare out across the tiled rooftops toward the lake.

“Yes,” she agreed softly, “very pretty.”

I shrugged. “It’s all I need.”

She turned away, taking a moment to flick through my books.

I resisted shoving my hands into my pockets. Shit like that got drilled out of you in the Marines, but I felt exposed having her here in my room.

“Still the Conrad fan,” she said, her voice sounding tight, like she was in the grip of some strong emotion.

Because I read Conrad? I know ‘Heart of Darkness’ isn’t exactly a chuckle a page, but it’s a classic, right?

“You should get yourself an e-reader,” she said, trying to find a normal tone of voice. “The whole of Conrad’s oeuvre for two bucks.”

I was reaching under the bed for my overnight bag, so my voice came out muffled.

“Yeah, I guess I should—if I knew there’d always be somewhere to charge it up when I’m in some shithole Stone Age village.”

I was being polite, but an e-reader would have been fucking useless for me when I was in Iraq or Afghanistan. With the kind of jobs I was given, I didn’t get to go back to the main camp at night; I’d be in some godforsaken village, eating air-dried goat, and trying to persuade some village elders to work with us. I could be gone for weeks at a time. And even some of the guys who got stationed in the ass-end of nowhere like Helmand Province where I was going next, they could be there for months. No laptops or skype chats, just 20 minutes of sat-phone home a week, if you were lucky. Not that I’d ever had anyone to call. Most of the time I gave up my minutes to one of the married guys. It was hard enough to keep a relationship going when you were overseas.

I tossed my bag on the bed, then pulled a bunch of my t-shirts out of the drawers, along with skivvies and a couple of pairs of socks.

“What happened to all the colors?” Caro blurted out suddenly.

Puzzled, I turned to look at her. For some reason she looked upset.

“Sebastian, the most colorful thing in this room are your Dress Blues,” she cried. “The first time I saw you again, you were wearing those ridiculously bright red boardshorts.”

I looked down at the pile of white t-shirts, gray briefs and black socks. I kind of saw what she meant. And I remembered those boardshorts.

“Oh yeah. I’ve still got those somewhere. In a box in Ches’s garage, I think.”

“It sounds like Ches has all your worldly possessions.”

I could hear something that sounded like sadness in her voice, although I didn’t understand why.

“Pretty much. I didn’t take a lot when I left my parents’ place. But what the hell—it’s easy to pack up and move on when you’re not laden down.”

She looked so sad and I hated to think that look was for me. I didn’t need her pity. I changed the subject.

“Caro, how much of this stuff do you need?” I asked, pointing at her suitcase. No way we could take that into Italy.

“I definitely need my laptop and notebooks…”

“I mean clothes, Caro. I wouldn’t dare suggest to a reporter that she goes anywhere without the tools of her trade.”

“That’s right,” she said sharply. “You’d just stop her going where she needed to go in the first place.”

Were we back to that? I wasn’t going to apologize again for wanting to spend time with her. I decided that ignoring her comment would be best for both of us. Maybe she thought the same thing, because she started digging through her suitcase and putting clothes into my overnight bag.

“See,” she said, pointing. “Pink, green, blue, yellow and orange t-shirts. These are called ‘colors’. They’re what you get when you’re not wearing black, white or gray.”

“My jeans are blue,” I smirked at her.

She rolled her eyes. “So they are, Sebastian. Way to go.”

“I could maybe get into colors,” I commented, holding up a really fucking sexy lace bra in dark pink.

“I don’t think it would suit you,” she smiled.

“No,” I said evenly, “but I’m really looking forward to taking it off you.”

“That’s assuming you get lucky, Hunter,” she shot back. “You promised me separate rooms, remember?”

Ah shit, I did say that, didn’t I?

“You’re not going to hold me to that, are you, Caro?”

Her bright smile was teasing.

“I don’t know—depends how irritating you are.”

“What if I promise to be on my best behavior, ma’am?”

“Mmm, maybe. I was impressed how well you took orders earlier today.”

Oh fucking yeah!

“And there’ll be payback for that, Ms. Venzi,” I said challengingly.

She tried to step away as I paced toward her, but I caught her in my arms, brushing against her cheek and kissing her throat.

“And I’m looking forward to collecting. Maybe we should christen this bed,” I said, tugging her toward it.

“Christen it?” she said, sounding surprised. “I would have thought it had seen plenty of action.”

I paused, looking up at her. She still didn’t get it.

“No, you’re the first woman I’ve brought here. It’s … private.”

Her eyes widened, then she wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling my head down, meeting my lips with a kiss that had me hardening against her thigh.

“We’ll christen it when we get back,” she whispered.

“Something to look forward to.”

She pulled away and continued with her packing. It didn’t take long. Not like some women who take an hour just to re-touch their lipstick and put on a sweater. I guessed that being a journalist she was used to packing fast.

“Okay, I’m done,” she said, zipping up the bag. “By the way, where exactly are we going? It’s a pretty long way to Salerno, so I presume we’re going to stop somewhere en route.”

“Yeah, it’s just over 1100 kilometers, so…”

“Give me that in good, old-fashioned US miles.”

I laughed. “Seven hundred miles. I thought we’d stop at Genoa tonight—that’s just under 200 miles—take us about four hours.”

Or less, if she let me drive the speed I liked to go.

“How come you know all these distances off the top of your head?” she asked, as I stuffed a map of Italy into my jacket pocket.

“I’ve been planning to do this road trip for a while.” She seemed surprised. “You and I talked about it once, you remember? All the things we were going to do, all the places we were going to see? I just figured that as I was here, I’d go anyway. And … I remembered that you said your dad came from that village near Salerno. I thought I might find … I don’t know what I thought. I just wanted to see it.”

Shit, I was telling her too much too soon. I didn’t want to come over like I’d done nothing but obsess over her for the last ten years, even though that was pretty close to the truth.