Page 146 of All at Once

He puts the fabric down. And then my heart starts to pitter-patter when he walks toward me. Craving his hands on me again, he grips onto my hips, his lips barely brushing over mine, teasing me with the most arrogant glare. “You sure you want to start this?”

“Try me,” I tease with my lips.

The flicker in his eyes must match the excitement in mine when he pushes his lips into mine in a way that he hasn’t done before. Although I don’t have much of a reference to make, I wouldstronglybet that it isn’t common for just kissing to feel this way.

Placing his hand on the back of my head, Luca pins me up against the wall effortlessly, yet so abruptly without moving his lips from mine. Not even for a second. The strength behind his movement juxtaposed by the thoughtful way he made sure to protect me sends an even deeper rush of pleasure down my body.

My breath grows shakier when I feel his fingers roam underneath my yellow sundress and up my stomach. Just as agonizingly slowly traveling down to my waistline. But he doesn’t move his hand.

And when he stops, my pulse screams.

His lips luckily continue as he slips them between mine with so much urgency, and yet his tonguebarelybrushes against me. I moan, needingmorecontact. And he notices the desperate shift in my sighs when he pushes his tongue just that much closer to reaching the tip of mine, making me whimper even more than a second ago. Just when I’m getting satisfied at the pace, he pulls hislips off mine so smoothly. Before I even have a chance to pull him in again, he hooks my bottom lip between his, making sure I feel each second of the sensation before he slowly releases me from his lips. Then he does the cruelest thing.

He tilts his head and places the most innocent kiss on my lips, leans in as if he’s going to continue but then pulls himself away. Andcompletelythis time.

I stare at him, now with daggers in my eyes.

Luca looks way too composed, his smug glare confirming this was intentional.

He kisses my cheek. “Let me get my things so we can go.”

Still practically panting when he returns, I say, “If you’re trying to sexually frustrate me, then your plan worked.”

He meets my eyes with a cocky smirk as he walks toward the suite’s front door. “Still a lot on your mind?”

My heartbeat starts to pick up again.

That son of a bitch.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t overthinking about any of the things that seemed terrifying before meeting him. All my mind was focused on a second ago is how badly I want to feel him. Andallof him.

If anyone knows how much I overthink, it’s Luca. Pausing our kiss feels more than just teasing. It’s taking what I communicated with him about and doing everything he can to help me overcome something that was never his responsibility to fix.

And suddenly my chest’s feeling warmer than moments ago.

_________

My adrenaline rush stays with me as we’re driving along the coast to the point where I almost miss when Luca mentions, “I’m just going to drop the fruit off for my mom on our way.”

At least this distracts me from the pressing thoughts from just moments ago. I also wondered why he got a few extra bowls of fruit earlier.

“You got them for her?” I ask. “That’s so sweet of you.”

“She loves fresh mango from that place, and they don’t always have it,” he explains. “We’re pretty close by anyway.”

There he goes trying to downplay his kindness as usual. But it’s then when I realize what his suggestion actually entails. “Does that mean I’m going to meet your mom?” I ask.

A shyness appears in his eyes, as if he wasn’t really thinking about it yet. “Do you want to? I think she’s home.”

Not surprised by his reaction since this seems more like it was a coincidence rather than something he planned on doing this early on, I casually reply, “Yeah, that would be nice. But only if you want me to.”

“Yeah, of course. I’m sure she’ll be happy to meet you,” he says with a warm grin.

My heart flutters at the thought that maybe he’s already talked to her about me. There I go getting my hopes up too high.

After a few seconds pass, I look out the window and take in the view of the coastline. My mind drifts again to last night. I feel bad for Enrique. I feel even worse that we may have shared some common ground yet didn’t commiserate on those experiences with each other. “Have you talked to Enrique?” I ask cautiously. For a second I wonder if I shouldn’t have even brought it up when Luca’s chest tightens the way it did last night.

“I called him before we left,” he replies. “But he couldn’t talk for too long since he had a meeting to go to. He was feeling better and didn’t really remember what happened.” Luca sighs, while a sadness I only saw from before we got together reappears in hiseyes. “He keeps a lot of things inside. It’s hard sometimes to know exactly what’s going on with him.”

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