or more whole. Or more free of the shadows that had dogged her for as long as she could remember. They weren’t gone completely, but it was enough for now.
He took her hand and led her into the bathroom, which was fogged with steam that curled over their sticky, sandy bodies. Standing under the hot spray, Serena lifted her face and Luca covered her mouth with his, his huge body making the space tiny.
When he took his mouth off hers she opened her eyes to see his hot gaze devouring her. And just like that she was ready, her body ripening and moistening for him, ravenous at the sight of Luca’s gleaming wet and aroused body. He lifted her and instructed her to put her legs around him—then groaned and stopped.
She looked at him, breathless with anticipation. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘No protection, preciosa. We need to move.’
Serena was dazed as he carried her out of the shower, her legs still wrapped around his waist. She could see the pain on his face at the interruption but she was glad... She’d been too far gone to think about protection herself.
He put her down on the bed and reached for a condom from his cabinet, ripping the foil and sheathing himself with big, capable hands. Serena felt completely wanton as she watched this display of masculine virility.
And then he was coming back down over her, pushing her legs apart, settling between them, asking huskily, ‘Okay?’
She nodded, her chest tightening ominously, and then Luca was thrusting in so deep her back arched and her legs went around his waist. It was fast and furious, his gaze holding hers, not letting her look away.
Bliss broke over her after mere minutes. She was so primed—as if now it was the easiest thing in the world and not something that had been torturously elusive when they’d first made love.
Serena bit into Luca’s shoulder as powerful spasms racked her body just as he reached his own climax, his body thrusting rhythmically against hers until he was spent. He collapsed over her and she tightened her arms and legs around him, loving the feel of him pressing her into the bed, his body still big inside hers.
Eventually he withdrew, and Serena winced as her muscles protested. Luca collapsed on his back beside her, his breathing as uneven as hers. She looked at him to find him watching her with a small enigmatic smile playing around his mouth.
He came up on one arm and touched his fingers to her jaw. ‘You make me lose my mind every time...’ he admitted gruffly.
Serena looked at him. Somehow his confession wasn’t as comforting as she’d thought it might be. It left her with a definite sense that Luca did not welcome such a revelation.
And then he was kissing her again, wiping everything from her mind, and she welcomed it weakly. She was far too afraid to face the suspicion that she had fallen in love with this man and there was no going back.
Three days later
‘Miss DePiero? Senhor Fonseca said to let you know that he’s been unavoidably detained and you should eat without him.’
‘Okay, thank you.’ Serena put down the kitchen phone extension and looked at the chicken stew she’d made, bubbling on the state-of-the-art cooker. Unavoidably detained. What was that code for?
Crazy to feel so disappointed, but she did. She’d spent her lunch hour buying ingredients, and as soon as she’d finished work at the charity office she’d rushed back to start cooking.
And now she felt ridiculous—because wasn’t this such a cliché? The little woman at home, cooking dinner for her man and getting all bent out of shape because it was spoiled?
Mortified at the thought of what Luca’s reaction would have been to see this attempt at creating some kind of domestic idyll, and losing any appetite herself, Serena took the chicken stew off the cooker. When it had cooled sufficiently she resisted the urge to throw it away and put it into a bowl to store in the fridge.
Feeling antsy, she headed outside to the terrace. The stunning view soothed her in a way that Athens had never done, even though she now called it home.
‘Maledire,’ she cursed softly in Italian. And then she cursed Luca, for making her fall for him.
The weekend had been...amazing. She remembered Luca kissing the tattoo on her shoulder. He’d murmured to her, ‘You know the swallow represents resurrection?’
Serena had nodded her head, feeling absurdly emotional that he got it.
When they’d woken late on Sunday Luca had told her that he had to visit a local favela and she’d asked to go with him. She had seen first-hand his commitment to his own city. The amazing Fonseca Community Centre that provided literacy classes, language classes, business classes and a crèche so that everyone in the community could learn.
When she’d gone wandering, left alone briefly, she’d found Luca in the middle of a ring of men, doing capoeira, a Brazilian form of martial arts. He’d been stripped to the waist, his torso gleaming with exertion, making graceful and unbelievably agile movements to the beat of a drum played by a young boy.
She hadn’t been the only woman ogling his spectacular form. By the time he’d finished, a gaggle of women and girls had been giggling and blushing. But a trickle of foreboding had skated over her skin... That had been the moment when he’d caught her eye and she’d seen something indecipherable cross his face. By the time he’d caught up with her again there had been something different about him. He’d shut down.
He’d brought her back here, to this apartment, and even though he’d stayed the night and made love to her, something had been off. When she’d woken he’d been gone, and she hadn’t seen him again until late that evening, when he’d arrived and, with an almost feral look on his face, had kissed her so passionately that all tendrils of concern had fled, to be replaced with heat, distracting her from the fact that he clearly hadn’t been interested in anything else.
The truth was that every moment she spent with Luca was ripping her apart internally. Especially when he looked at her as if she were some kind of unexploded device, yet kissed her as if his life depended on it. Clearly he was conflicted about her. He’d admitted that it was hard for him to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t what he’d believed her to be. And Serena had the gut-wrenching feeling that Luca would have almost preferred it if she had been the debauched, spoilt princess he’d expected.
She had to face the fact that her confession, while liberating for her, had not proved to be so cataclysmic for Luca.
And of course it wouldn’t have been, Serena chided herself. For Luca this was just...an affair. A slaking of desire. The fact that it had brought about her own personal epiphany was all Serena would have to comfort her when it was over, and that would have to be enough.
* * *
When Luca walked into the apartment it was after midnight. He felt guilty. He knew Serena had been making dinner because she’d told him earlier, when he’d seen her on a visit to the charity offices. It was a visit that had had his employees looking at him in surprise, because he usually conducted meetings in his own office and had little cause to visit them.
The apartment was silent, but he could smell the faint scent of something delicious in the air. When he went into the kitchen it was pristine, but he opened
