Page 73 of Effortless

It had only really been sex—that’s it. A couple of conversations thrown in, and nothing more. She wasn’t even sure how a hookup had turned into something else entirely.

Camilla didn’t know what to do with any of it, so she ignored it all instead.

“We’ll see how long I’m here before somebody calls me back,” Tommaso said, offering nothing else.

She had a mind to push him for more information, but convinced herself not to. They had lots of time to talk about all of that later, anyway. It didn’t have to be right now.

“Do you have a hotel booked or something?”

Tommaso shrugged. “This was all kind of last minute. I just booked a ticket, and came. Here I am, babe.”

Camilla wet her bottom lip, and asked, “Do you want to stay with me? I mean, I’m on March break for a week, so I don’t have anything else to do but stay in with you.”

And shit, that sounded like gold to her.

Silky, hot, and priceless.

She would probably still be left wanting more.

“If you want me to,” Tommaso replied.

Yeah, she did.

She really did.

“Stay with me, Tom.”

His warm palms slid along her throat and jaw again, and he pulled her in for one more kiss that felt anything but innocent. He held her tighter, and all she could do was surrender to the taste of him, and the way his tongue teased hers.

Like a promise, she thought.

She couldn’t wait to get that tongue of his working somewhere else. She had missed that little talent of his.

All over again, Camilla’s heartbeat was racing out of control, and her chest grew damn tight. Still, she didn’t stop kissing Tommaso until he was the one to pull away first. Like the first time, he placed softer, sweeter kisses to the seam of her lips as she watched him through lowered lashes.

An errant thought reminded her of something important. A promise she had made, and couldn’t be late for.

“We have to go to dinner,” she whispered against his lips. “But then you are all mine. Understood?”

Tommaso’s thumb stroked her jaw line. “Where?”

She didn’t miss how he didn’t give her a response on the second part of her statement.

“My parents’ place. I can’t get out of it, or I would. Especially because I would really like to go anywhere with you where I could just get on my back or climb on top.”

Tommaso bared his teeth at her brazenness. “That so?”

“Yep. You’ll have to come with me to the dinner, but I don’t think my parents will mind very much.”

“Sure, babe. I’ll do dinner with them.”

Her gaze drifted over his features, taking in his grin and gray-blue eyes. The shadow of stubble on his cheeks and jaw tickled against her fingertips.

“They’ll probably make a big deal out of you being there. Or maybe they won’t, but who knows. Cross is supposed to be coming, too, so maybe you’ll have somebody else on your side if they do try to be cute with you. Just ignore them if they say anything.”

“Why would it be a big deal at all?” he asked.

Camilla refused to look at him, then. She didn’t really know how much of her dating profile he knew, but it wasn’t anything good to look at. She had made it clear to him once that this wasn’t supposed to be very serious between the two of them.