AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Silence rings through the room. Lucia stiffens next to me instantly as Isabella turns to face us. There’s something peculiar in her eyes as she sizes me up, but she plasters on a wide, fake-looking smile and comes over to hug her cousin.
“Ah, Lucia, I’m so happy to hear that you’ve found a man,” she croons, looking me up and down over Lucia’s shoulder. For her part, my girl seems to be reluctant to hug Isabella back, but she manages to give her a half smile when they part. She introduces me to her cousin quietly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Matt,” Isabella says as she holds out her hand for a handshake. She does that thing where she gives you her hand as if expecting a kiss on the knuckles instead. The frown she makes when I rotate it to shake properly is immensely satisfying.
“I’m sure it is,” I grin, refusing to let her get any ground with me.
“Our little Lucy is just such a wallflower, you know, and it’s been a chore trying to get her to dress to impress,” the woman says, examining her nails casually, as if she’s not insulting the woman I’ve promised myself to protect. “I’m so glad she seems to have landed a catch! Tell me, what is it that you do?”
I glance down at Lucia to see that she’s visibly upset, now. Fuck. How do I make this woman pay for how she’s making her feel?
“I’m a technician with a mine a few hours away, actually,” I say. “It’s dirty and a little dangerous, but what can I say? I like a challenge, don’t I, Lucia?”
Lucia looks up at me with wide eyes, confusion making them glint gold.
“She’d never say it, but it took me a long time to get her to give me a chance,” I explain to Isabella as I pull Lucia into my arms and give her a kiss on the cheek. “She kept turning me down because she wanted to focus on her studies. Did you know she’s got one of the best scholarships you can get at that school of hers?”
Isabella narrows her eyes and shakes her head.
“I just love how driven she is,” I continue. “I’ve never met a woman who worked so hard but made it look so easy. Still can’t believe she gave me a chance.”
“I-I love that for you,” Isabella says, mocking in her tone. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go find my husband.”
We watch as Isabella disappears into another room, leaving us alone in the middle of a room filled with other ongoing conversations. For a second, I think Lucia’s about to sink onto the couch next to her grandma, but instead, she takes my hand and leads me out of the room and up the stairs. It’s not until we’re closed inside her bedroom that I realize she’s smiling. She sighs and leans back against the door.
“What’s the matter?” I finally ask, confused about why she brought me up here.
“Nothing,” she grins up at me. “I just wasn’t expecting that to go well at all and instead, you were perfect.”
I sit on the edge of her bed with a sigh. “It was the truth. I didn’t really have to make anything up to tell her like it is.”
That’s not entirely true. I didn’t have to wear anyone down to get a chance to spend time with a girl like Lucia, least of allher herself. I was just in the right place at the right time, and I’m still shocked she asked me. I’m still shocked I said yes, and that this has gone so well. Whenever the end of this trip is done, I know I’m going to have a hard time letting go of her. Temporary and fabricated this relationship might be, but more and more I find myself wishing it were real. It sure as hell feels real.
Suddenly, I look up to see that Lucia is standing in front of me. She bites her lip as she looks at me. “Do you really think that?”
“Think what?”
“That I’m driven? That me working hard is a good thing?”
Those damn hazel eyes of hers are making my blood heat. I can feel myself getting hard as she stares me down, waiting for an answer. I didn’t expect that praising her for her work would have this effect, but I’ll be damned if I mind. I’ll tell her that she’s beautiful and smart and hardworking until I’m blue in the face if it keeps her looking lit up from within like she is right now.
“Yeah, baby girl,” I say to her, my voice low. I can’t keep the want I’m feeling out of my words. “I do.”
Before I can say anything else, Lucia is in my lap, straddling me with those long legs of hers. She presses herself into me, her eyes hooded as she captures my mouth with hers. On instinct, my hands go to her hips, gripping her tight against me as our tongues begin to tangle with each other, searching and probing and fighting for dominance. She whimpers as I palm her ass, each cheek filling my hands perfectly, like she was made for me.
And suddenly, there’s a knock at the door and it opens without waiting for us to answer. We scramble apart, breathing heavily and trying to act casually. One of Lucia’s aunts pokes her head in the door, but as soon as she sees us, she knows exactly what we were doing.
“Dinner’s about to start, you two,” she smiles knowingly at us, before disappearing down the hallway. She leaves the door open, which is probably for the better. God only knows what I’d do to this woman if given a few more minutes behind a closed door.
Lucia’s cheeks are pink as we head down to dinner, but there’s no hiding the smile she’s got on her face.
Good. She deserves to know exactly how perfect she already is, no matter what anyone else thinks. If I have the chance, I want to spend the rest of my life making sure I tell her that.
Chapter 7
Lucia
It’s Christmas day and I haven’t been able to take my eyes off my boyfriend for hours.
