Page 71 of Luca
“Is everything alright?”
I shook my head, clearing out the images. “Yes, everything is perfect.”
I smiled and took his hand. You’d think we were a happy married couple, not two strangers that came to an agreement. He was helping me, and I was helping him.
Except, it felt like more. A lot more than just that.
The tender dropped us off at the shoreline and we started exploring. I had done my share of traveling with my parents, but I had never visited Greece. White-washed houses with blue shutters and roofs, shops, people… it was so much better than any travel commercial or postcard. We took our time exploring, window shopping, some stores we’d go in, others just passed them by.
“Do you like it?” Luca questioned. He pointed to a beautiful twenty-four carat gold necklace with a pendant of an ancient design that only this local shop crafted. Every store we went in, Luca wanted to buy me something, and I kept resisting. But this one, it captured me.
“It’s beautiful,” I told him. “But we’re just window shopping.”
“We’ll take it,” he told the shop owner.
“Luca, it’s too much,” I told him. Although my eyes kept returning to it. I had never seen anything like it. “Besides, I don’t even wear jewelry.”
Luca ignored my protests. He came up behind me, placed the necklace around my neck and kissed the back of my nape as he buckled it.
“Wear it for me.” As he whispered the words, his mouth moved along my skin, his hot breath on my neck sending shivers down my spine. “Please.”
His lips seared my skin, my heart raced, and desire ignited. Was it really so easy to lose your head for someone? Apparently so. All I had to do was witness my husband jerking off in the shower.
“Okay.” My agreement was breathless and my chest thumped with a strange emotion. “Thank you.”
Hand in hand, we got lost among the locals. The young locals didn’t spare us a second glance, but the older ones would stop us and chat with us like they’d known us for years. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had such a good time.
For the rest of the afternoon, my fingers kept reaching for the necklaces, checking to see if it was still there. And each time, my heart swelled.
This was easy falling.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
LUCA
Two weeks.
We’d been married for two weeks and we were both still alive. That was a good sign. Maybe the two of us had a future ahead of us.
In fact, if you asked me, they were the best weeks of my entire life.
Margaret and I had fallen into a routine. Things were good. But all along, in the back of my mind, a feeling lingered. Maybe it was paranoia. Or fear from losing her now that I had finally gotten her.
Truthfully, I didn’t want to bring my wife back to New York. I wanted to leave her in Sicily with Nonno, but she wouldn’t have it. People would wonder too. I wasn’t the type to separate from what was mine.
And Margaret DiMauro was mine. She was mine in every way.
She had been since the moment I stabbed my father for her. To save her life. I never expected to see her again. She had never been in my plans.
Yet, I couldn’t be happier that she snuck into Temptation all those years ago. She changed the entire course of my life.
She was the only thing worth having. She and our baby.
I had been diligently working at setting up what I needed to wash money from the business I would lead in Sicily. I didn’t want any of that to touch my legitimate businesses, so it took longer than I liked.
But my wife didn’t complain.
She took time to meet with Áine. They set up a shopping trip so she could get everything we needed for our little Penelope. She had protested that the black Amex card was too much, but I disagreed. Only the best for my little girl.
