Page 56 of The Secrets We Keep

“You’re terrible.” She chuckled. “Do you have a few hours to spare for me? I can get us a room at that hotel close to the casino. The one with the good room service.”

“Come to the villa.”

There was a pause as his words sank in. It was risky, inviting her to the house. Even with Matteo off island for the day, there was still staff wandering around. But now that he’d said it out loud, he wanted nothing else.

“That’s an unnecessary risk, Luca.”

“It’ll be fine. No one knows who you are or that we were seeing each other before. We’ll use your alias.”

“I don’t want you to call me Anna while you fuck me,” she snapped.

“That’s not what I meant. I’m not required to explain you to the staff, Sienna.”

“But they’ll talk. And if your brother finds out?”

Luca shoved a hand into his pocket and stalked back to the couch. “If they talk, they’ll tell him I had a hot blonde named Anna over while he was out. I’m not a child, and this is my home too.” His heart beat wildly in the silence. “If you really don’t want—”

“What’s the address?”

A wide grin split his face. “I’ll text it to you.”

Disconnecting the call, he shot her a quick text with the address and directions for parking in the lower garage if she wanted her car out of sight. Work forgotten, he paced the foyer until the rumble of an engine caught his attention. Peeking out the front window, he smiled when he saw a flash of black pull around the side of the house to the lower garage instead of Matteo’s bright red Alfa Romeo.

Circling away from the front of the house toward the side entrance he’d guided her to, he pulled open the heavy door just as she was making her way up the path. She looked nervous, but she smiled when she saw him.

He held his hand out for hers and laced their fingers together when she laid her hand into his palm. Drawing her in close, he brushed a soft kiss against her lips and breathed her in.

“You actually came.”

“I’m not sure there’s much of anything I wouldn’t do for you,” she murmured, pressing another kiss to his lips. “But we should probably go inside.”

He drew her through the door and bolted it. There was something indescribably exhilarating about leading her through his home, past things that were familiar and important to him. Her hand was warm and solid in his as they climbed the stairs and turned down the long hallway to his bedroom.

Motioning for her to go ahead of him, he closed and locked the door, leaning back against it. She spun in a slow circle, studying the room and pausing when her eyes caught sight of something that had been sitting on top of his dresser for the last three years.

Moving forward, she reached out to touch it, pulling her hand back at the last second and curling it into a fist. He crossed the room, pressing against her from behind and wrapping his arms around her waist.

“I thought I lost this.” She brushed her fingertips over the antique hair clip, making it wobble so the tiny gems caught the light.

“You were wearing it the last time I saw you.” He brushed his lips against her jaw. “When I surprised you for your birthday.”

Picking it up, she turned it over gently in her fingers. “I remember every moment I spent with you that day, but I don’t remember wearing this.”

“It flew off the blanket when I shook it out. I figured I’d give it back to you the next time we were together.” His hands tightened on her waist, and she leaned back against him. “Then it was all I had left of you.”

“It’s been three years.” She set it carefully back on the dresser. “You could have gotten rid of it. Moved on. Why didn’t you?”

He turned her in his arms, pressing his fingers under her chin and tilting her head back until she met his gaze. “I won’t pretend I was a saint these last three years, Sienna. But I didn’t want anyone else. None of them were you.”

“But you’ll move on eventually. Get married, have kids.”

He frowned at the tears swimming in her eyes. She said it like he’d have those things without her. Except he didn’t want them with anyone else.

“I wanted all of that with you, Sienna. No one else. No one before and no one since. Only you. And once Nero’s gone and you’re free again, if you don’t want that anymore, that’s fine. I’ll take you in whatever way I can have you. But I won’t lose you again.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but changed her mind and closed it again. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she drew him down for a kiss. He let her take her time, building it slowly with teasing nips of her teeth and the soft glide of her tongue and the scratch of her fingernails through the hair at the base of his skull.

He slid his hands under the hem of her sweater, and she sighed, leaning into him and taking more from his mouth. He would eagerly give her whatever she wanted whenever she wanted it.

---