She ran her fingernails through his hair and held him close.
He lifted her slightly and unhooked her bra, tossed it to the side.
He returned to long, lingering kisses that drove her absolutely mad.
Every touch, every sweep of his tongue, made her body tighter with need.
Brooke pressed against his knee, dug her fingers into his back, his butt. “Luca,” she called with a cry.
“Tell me what you want, bella.”
“Anything. Something. You . . . more.”
His hand slid down her stomach and under the lace of her panties. One finger slipped between the folds of her sex and then a second. “This?”
Her hips surged. “Th-that’s a good start.”
A little dance of fingers playing in and out, circling her clit. Nothing hurried about Luca’s moves, just a well-choreographed waltz that brought her close to the edge time and time again. She’d find her breath hitch, and an orgasm within reach, and he’d pull away. The third time she placed her hand over his. “Please don’t stop.”
“Anything you say, love.”
Luca kissed her hard and took her to the edge again, and when she went over, she called his name as her release crashed through her.
“Better?” he asked close to her ear.
“So much better.” Brooke smiled up at him, reached for his cock. “Tell me you have a condom.”
He grinned and pulled away from her briefly to retrieve his pants from the floor.
A condom was removed from his wallet, and Luca shed his briefs.
She took the condom from his hand before he had a chance to open it. “My turn,” she said and pushed him onto his back.
Luca lay back and placed his hands behind his head with a grin.
Brooke removed the wrapper and waved the plastic in the air. “I learned this in college,” she said before placing the condom between her lips and her teeth.
Luca narrowed his eyes and Brooke bent over his cock and slowly rolled the condom in place with her mouth.
One of those hands so casually tossed behind his head now sat at the back of her head as she did all she could to take him in. His hips surged, two, three times, and then Luca pulled her away. “I will not last like that,” he warned.
She lowered her lips to him again, up for the challenge.
Only he lifted her away. “No, love . . . climb on.”
Smiling, she did. Slowly taking him in and feeling every inch of him filling her.
He was not a small man, but he’d prepared her body for his and once she opened for him, he started to move. “God, Luca . . .”
He pulled her down, kissed her hard, and thrust into her over and over.
They rolled together, changed angles, and Luca found yet another spot on her body that drove her off the cliff.
Brooke was swimming in pixie dust and rainbows, her body pulsating with aftercurrents as Luca told her his orgasm was close.
She squeezed every internal muscle she had to aid him in his pleasure and was rewarded with her name on his lips as he shuddered his release.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Luca slipped out of Brooke’s bed before five in the morning.
She’d been awake enough to know he was leaving and satisfied enough to ask him to come back soon.
He tiptoed down the stairs to his apartment, double-checked that Francesca wasn’t there, and fell into his own bed. He could have used a couple more hours sleep but found himself staring at the ceiling and thinking of the woman who had been in his arms for hours.
Brooke was, without a doubt, the best thing to happen to him in a very long time. It wasn’t just the sex, although the night before had been everything he’d hoped and more. She was caring and sensitive. Deep in her convictions and how she loved.
Her father, who, from what Luca could tell, didn’t deserve the devotion she bestowed upon him, still was given all the care Luca himself would give to his own family.
Although Luca wouldn’t wish anything bad upon her, he was happy that her past relationship had crashed and burned.
What an idiot this Marshall must have been to let Brooke slip away.
That idiocy was Luca’s gain.
If he ever met the man, Luca would probably thank him, crazy as that sounded.
Luca rolled onto his side and looked at the empty pillow beside him.
He would bring her there, as soon as she’d let him, to give him the image he wanted in his head of her in his space, calling his name.
He closed his eyes.
This was all good.
Everything about it.
All he had to do was enjoy and see where and how the two of them fell into place.
“You look very . . . relaxed,” Chloe observed out loud when she and Brooke met on the terrace for a yoga session.
Brooke smiled at Chloe, who was grinning like a cat with a yellow feather hanging out of its mouth. “I’m a little sore, truth be told. Your brother is—”
Chloe closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears. “No. Stop. I don’t want to hear this.”
They started laughing.
Chloe tilted her head. “I’m really happy for you both. I know my brother is a wonderful and loving man. He just needed the right woman.”
“Let’s not jump ahead too far. We just started this . . . relationship.”
“I have a good feeling about it.”
Brooke sat on her new yoga mat and stretched her legs out in front of her. “I’m a bit older than you, and with that, a few more failed starts under my belt. Sometimes, the more you get to know someone, the less you like them. Or the attraction fades . . . or someone else comes along that makes the sparks fly higher. You name it, I’ve been on the other end of that line more than I care to admit.”
“Luca is loyal to a fault. We were all happy when Antonia walked away. He wouldn’t have done it, no matter how unhappy he was.”
“For Franny.”
Chloe nodded. “My niece is his world.”
“As she should be.”
“Have you dated someone with kids before?” she asked.
Brooke shook her head. “No.”
“It will be a learning curve for both of you. He hasn’t dated, not that any of us knows about anyway, since the ex.”
Brooke thought of the comment Luca had made the night before, about how if she were casual, his family would know nothing about her. It made her wonder if he’d been a saint since his divorce, or just very good at keeping his private life private.
She moved to her feet. “Unless you want details of how amazing your brother is in bed, we might want to get moving here or I’m going to start singing a song you don’t want to hear.”
Chloe shook her head and fake screamed. “I’m happy for you, but ewhh.”
Sunday’s family dinner was met with a little preamble Luca wasn’t expecting from Brooke.
She showed up at his door an hour before their meal, an apron in her hand.
“What’s this?” he asked, looking over his shoulder to see if Franny had heard the door.
Not seeing her, he leaned in and kissed Brooke and pulled her inside.
“Teach me.”
He looked at her. The apron. “What?”
“You’re making dinner, right?”
“If I don’t, my mother will insist she does.”
Brooke moved straight to his kitchen. “Then teach me so I can help. You shouldn’t have to do it all.”