Page 57 of One Second After Another

“Hey.”

Her pealing laughter had Luca darted down to capture Penny in his arms before she could even try to get away from him.

“I was kidding!” she shrieked.

It was already too late. He had Penny’s wiggling body pinned in his arms. His fingertips raced down her side as her laughter came out higher from his tickles. He was pretty sure at least one of the wine glasses got knocked over in the process, but he didn’t feel all that bad about it.

Her panting, uncontrollable giggles filled the space until he heard, “Oh, my God—stop, please.”

And he did.

Instantly.

Luca wasn’t anywhere near being done with touching her, though. His hand dipped lower, his fingertip grazing her navel on the way by, before he found the hot, damp heaven between her thighs. Still wet—still sensitive to his touch—she opened for him the second he made his intention clear. The second his hand was flush against her sex, she pressed into him harder.

He had to tease her, though.

It was only fair.

He stroked the seam of her sex, circled her clit until she was nearly ready to blow, and even used only the tips of his fingers to fill her while he kept one arm locked around her. Then, she couldn’t get more than what he gave.

“Please,” she gasped, her lips quivering against the underside of his jaw when she tried to turn in his arms. “I need to come ...”

“You will.”

On his tongue. Around his dick. Whatever way he wanted to have her. She would come ... eventually.

Penny’s next words were a whine. “You’re such a—”

“Tease, yeah. Like you.”

“I’ll make sure to annoy you more often if it ends like this.”

Her words were a breath. She’d already lost her air, and he was only playing.

Luca hadn’t expected the weight of her words to be as heavy as they felt, though. Even if it wasn’t her intention. Feeling her tremble around him when he finally stretched her full with three of his fingers, he swallowed hard and muttered, “Be here long enough to do it, then.”

15.

Penny

PENNY could feel Luca’s gaze on her the moment she broke the surface of the pool. Though it was only fifteen feet long, it did have a shallow and deeper end. Standing up and walking through the water to the marble stairs that led out of the pool, she couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the man leaning against the sliding glass doors. Instead of coming closer as Penny climbed the stairs out of the pool, Luca stayed right where he was between the threshold of the pool room and the rest of the basement and wine cellar downstairs.

“Quite a view, huh?” she asked him.

She was talking about the glass wall of windows at the far end of the pool that overlooked the rear of the property and how the tops of the trees lower than their position seemed to go on for miles. Fog still clung to the tops of the trees, not yet ready to let go and drift off while the sun rose higher in the sky.

It was beautiful.

Every morning—three so far—that they spent at the lodge, Penny made sure to include a dip in the pool just so she could watch the fog roll off the trees.

“It certainly is,” Luca returned, grinning deeply.

Except he didn’t look at the windows. Hell, he didn’t even look away from her. Penny had long since become comfortable in her own skin, and with sex. Or rather, the fact that in the right circumstances, she could enjoy sex.

Luca made it different.

He didn’t just see parts of her—certainly not the parts she disliked the most about her body. Discoloration, scarring ... everything that made up her. He saw all of her. Each piece that made up an entire puzzle of a human being.