One Step to You (The Rome Novels #1)(44)

He clutched the sweatshirt tight in his hands and lifted it to his face. He smelled her perfume, and he started to cry. Then, foolishly, he wondered whether, that day, he ought to have told her that she’d put on too much of it.





Chapter 16



The front wheel sank slightly into the deep sand, and the motorcycle swerved rebelliously to one side. With a precisely calculated shove of his feet, Step straightened the bike. The back wheel spun free, kicking up the darker sand behind it, in a rooster tail. Babi held tight to him, scared. The motorcycle swayed a little more, fishtailing.

Then, having reached the harder sand, everything went back to normal. Step downshifted. Gently, he gave it gas, and the motorcycle broke into a stable, regular cruise along the water’s edge.

Off to the right, below them, little waves slapped and slowly subsided. They came and they went, the regular breathing of the sea as, deep and dark, it watched them from afar. Babi looked around. The moon, riding high in the sky, lit up the Feniglia shore. The beach stretched out into the distance, between darker patches of the mountains. To their left and above them, the sand dunes, pounded and torn by the day’s strong winds, now slept quietly in the night, covered by a wild blanket of greenery.

Step turned off the headlights. Shrouded in darkness, they continued to race along like that, on the soft, wet carpet of sand. All around them, the sound of distant trees, the suck of the outgoing waves, the silence of nature at night. When they reached the middle of the Feniglia shore, they stopped. Step picked up a chunk of wood, still wet and ravaged by the waves, and placed it under the motorcycle’s kickstand, sideways, to keep it upright in the sand. Without a word, they found themselves walking along, alone and side by side, enveloped in all that peace.

Babi walked down to the water’s edge. Tiny waves fringed in silver slapped down, just short of her dark blue All Stars. She walked a little closer. A wave with a little more power than the others just caught the white rubber of her shoes. Babi darted back, escaping the salt water.

She bumped up against Step. His strong arms wrapped comfortably around her, and she settled into them. Slowly, she turned around. In that nocturnal light, a smile appeared on her face. Her blue eyes, full of love, looked up at him, amused.

He leaned down and, slowly embracing her, kissed her soft, warm lips, fresh and salty, caressed by the wind off the sea. Step ran a hand through her hair. He pulled it back, uncovering her face. Her cheek, painted with silver like a tiny mirror of that moon high above, and her profile, with the straight line of her nose and her eyes half-shut, listened to his kisses on her neck.

Now they were sprawled full length on the cold beach, arms wrapped around each other, and their hands, covered with tiny grains of sand, sought each other out. Then another kiss, and yet another, and in the meantime, a smile and a slow descent and a sweet parting, just gently brushing lips.

Babi sat up, hoisting herself on both her arms. She looked at him where he lay below her. Those eyes, calm now, were staring at her. He seemed to belong to that sand, stretched out there, his arms spread wide, master not only of the beach but of everything.

Smiling, Step pulled her closer, master of her as well, gathering her into a kiss, this one longer and more powerful. He hugged her tight, breathing in her soft scent. And she let herself go, swept away by that power and, at that moment, realized that she had never really kissed anyone before.

Now he was sitting behind her, holding her in his arms, letting her rest comfortably between his legs. And he, solid backrest, amiable armchair that he had become, broke into her thoughts every so often with a kiss on the neck. “What are you thinking about?”

Babi turned to look at him, glancing back out of the corner of her eye. “I just knew you were going to ask me that.”

She went back to resting her head against his chest. “Do you see that house down there on the rocks?”

Step looked in the direction her hand was pointing. Before losing himself in the distance, he stopped to consider that tiny forefinger, and it, too, struck him as something stupendous. He smiled. “Yes, I see it.”

“It’s my dream house! Oh, how I’d love to live in that house. Just think what a view they must have from there. A picture window looking out over the sea. A living room where you could linger in an embrace and watch the sunset.”

Step hugged her close to him. Babi remained there for a short while longer, gazing dreamily into the distance. He drew closer, resting his cheek against hers. She rubbed against him like a cat. Then, amused and playful, she tried to push him away, smiling up at the moon. She pretended she was trying to slip out of his grasp. But then she returned to him of her own volition and slipped into his kiss, repentant and lovable.

Slowly, Babi turned toward him. Step took her face in his hands, and she, pale pearl that she was, smiled, the prisoner of that human seashell.

Step watched her. “Do you want to take a swim?”

“Are you serious, as cold as it is? Plus, I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not really cold. And anyway, what does a little fish like you need a swimsuit for?”

Babi’s face twisted angrily, and she shoved him hard with both arms, doing her best to knock him back into the sand. But Step resisted. He clenched hard with his abs, strong and compact, and supported his own weight.

Defeated, Babi got up. She started brushing the sand off her. “By the way, you told Pollo all about the other evening, didn’t you?”