Page 50 of One Second After Another

“Fuck,” he hissed.

His pupils blew wide when their kiss slowed because her hands picked up the pace. Tugging faster, tightening with a twist of her wrist, and then stroking his balls while her tongue teased the seam of his lips, too.

She had to ask, “Does anyone ever take care of you?”

Luca blinked.

He didn’t answer.

She really didn’t need him to.

Her name came out of his mouth like someone had slammed a fist against his chest when he came. Spilling sticky cum on her fingers that the water washed away.

Mostly.

She kneeled down to lick the rest off while he watched.

• • •

“I HAVE TO LEAVE IN the morning,” Penny said, although it was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to interrupt the quiet stillness she and Luca had found tangled naked in bed. They could have closed the blinds but instead, they watched the dark sky stretch on for hours.

What was sleep?

Luca’s arms tightened around Penny’s middle. She even felt the twitch of his jaw when his stubble scraped tantalizingly against her scarred stomach. He never shied away from the history she had cut into her skin. In fact, the canvas of her skin, from the soft spots behind her knees to the one that made her shiver at the back of her neck became his personal map to do with what he wanted. She’d never enjoyed being studied more.

“I’ll go with—”

“Better not,” she said, meeting his gaze when he lifted his head from her stomach. “I have to grab some things from a shitty motel. Less foot travel from both of us is best right now. I’ll be back. Maybe before you wake up.”

Luca arched a brow.

He didn’t believe her.

“Are you going to run again?” he asked.

She should have expected that. Hell, he was owed it.

“I’ll be back,” she said.

As good as a promise.

And she wouldn’t argue.

If people hadn’t figured it out yet, Penny was going to do whatever she wanted and needed to do whether someone else wanted her to do it or not. It would happen. They could get in line, or move out of the way.

She adored Luca.

But he wasn’t an exception.

“Come back,” he murmured.

“I said I would.”

“And still—”

“I will.”

The sharpness of her words sent him rising up to hover above her. He was quite a sight—every hard line of his muscles from the ropes that made up his arms to the bands of his shoulders, and even the hard expanse of his chest. If living artwork was a thing, then Luca was surely it.