Page 49 of One Second After Another

Still silent, he was the pillar.

There was only one thing she thought about in that moment—one she really wanted. It certainly wasn’t the time, and she had too many other things to focus on except getting Luca Puzza closer to her, but she didn’t care.

Not one bit.

Penny only needed to tug gently on Luca’s hand to make him close the space between them, but there was nothing gentle about his approach. She didn’t mind it at all when he crowded her and backed her hard into the elevator wall. His hand stayed tangled with hers while his other hand came up to flatten against her throat. That tempting mouth of his, never hesitating, meet hers in a kiss that had her heart thumping viciously for more.

His kiss was hungry.

Mouth, and teeth, and tongue.

His palm at her throat flexed when the elevator dared to jump before coming to a stop. Not that it separated the two of them. The weight of him was substantial, keeping Penny pinned in place to melt against a man she didn’t mind letting haunt her dreams.

He smelled like leather and man—like the city and smoke and them. Every strike of his tongue against hers took away another breath from her lungs until the organ ached for any kind of relief.

Between kisses and hard exhales, she managed to whisper, “We’re on our floor, and—”

Luca pulled away all at once, but he dragged her with him, yanking her between the closing elevator doors in the very last second. All she saw was him looking back at her while they headed down the hall.

That was perfect.

He was all she wanted to see, anyway.

• • •

PENNY DIDN’T REALLY remember how they made their way into the shower, but the hot water pelted at her chest while Luca’s hands did wonderful things to her thighs. His deft fingers worked into knots she didn’t even realize had been keeping her muscles tight until he got every single one of them out. Her little moans of relief drowned in the waterfall spray of water overhead.

“Good?”

Penny smiled, her eyes still closed when she felt his hands dance lower to her calves. “Better.”

“How many miles have you clocked?”

On her feet?

In the past week, too many. More than she ever would again. It was just faster to walk to get where she wanted to go—the subway did the major distance, but even still, she didn’t regret investing in boots for work that didn’t do a number on her feet.

“A lot,” she settled on saying.

Luca hummed a dark and delicious sound that had Penny opening her eyes. He was quite a sight kneeled down in front of her, naked, back wet with water droplets and skin pebbled from the cold air. He wasn’t under the spray like she was, not that he seemed to mind. The man was content doing not being.

She would rather do something for him.

“Come here,” Penny said, reaching for him through the water and foggy space. He didn’t hesitate to stand, never questioning her. Like everything else going on, too. He was just there—letting her be. As he stood, leaning in and unbothered by the spray of hot water, she mouthed the words, “Kiss me.”

And he did.

Again.

Like in the elevator.

Or how he devoured her the second they were hidden within the privacy of the hotel room. There wasn’t much to look at in there but each other, anyway. If for the moment, she couldn’t do anything to further what was happening outside these walls, then she wanted to do nothing at all with Luca.

If nothing meant doing him.

Of course.

But this time when he kissed her, she let him take his taste of her mouth while her hands dipped lower between them. One tightened around the base of his semi-hard shaft, stroking him from base to tip before swiping the tip of her thumb over the head of his cock. He shuddered, his teeth catching her bottom lip when she dared to cup and stroke his balls with her other hand at the same time.