One Step to You (The Rome Novels #1)(76)

“I don’t think so! The minute he got here, he already had the kid crying.”

“All right, then. Let’s say that I did it so I could be alone with you.” He put his arms around her. “You have to admit, I’m quite the truth teller. You seem to bring out the best in me. Come to think of it, why don’t we take our clothes off right now?”

He dragged her, laughing, into the first bedroom he found. Babi tried to resist, but in the end, she allowed herself to be convinced by his kisses. They both wound up on a small bed.

“Ouch.” Step reached around behind his back. A sharp-edged toy tank had poked him right between the shoulder blades. Babi started laughing. He threw it on the carpet as he cleared the bed of some other electronic warriors and several transformable figures.

Then, finally comfortable, Step pushed the door shut with his foot and devoted himself to his favorite pastime. He stroked her hair, kissed her lips, and raced to the buttons of her blouse, systematically undoing them. He lifted her bra and kissed her where the skin was paler, sweetly softer, and rosy pink.

Then, all at once, something stabbed his neck. “Ouch.” Step slapped at the spot where he’d been stabbed. In the darkness, he saw her laugh, still holding a strange action figure with pointed ears. And that fresh young smile of hers, that naive way that she had about her, hit him where he lived.

“You hurt me!”

“We can’t stay in here. This is Giulio’s room. Just think if he comes in.”

“But Pollo’s with him. I gave him very specific orders. That terrible child is basically done for, bound and gagged. He can’t even get up from the sofa.”

Step dove back in and focused on her breasts. She caressed his hair and let him go on kissing her. “Giulio is a good boy. You’re the one who’s a terrible child.”

*



Pollo was eating a sandwich that he’d found in the kitchen and drinking a nice, ice-cold beer when Giulio got off the sofa.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“To my room.”

“No, you need to stay here.”

“No, I want to go to my room.”

Giulio started to leave but Pollo pulled him back by his little red woolen sweater, practically dragging him over to sit by him on the sofa. Giulio tried to struggle but Pollo pinned him down with an elbow to the belly.

Giulio started to whine. “Let go of me, let go of me!”

“Come on, the cartoons are coming on any minute.”

“That’s not true.” Giulio looked at the television set again and burst into tears.

Pollo released him. “Here, you want to try this? It’s delicious. Only grown-ups are allowed to drink it.”

Giulio seemed slightly interested. He grabbed the can of beer with both hands and took a sip. “I don’t like it. It’s bitter.”

“Okay, then look what Uncle Pollo has for you…”

A short while later, Giulio was playing happily on the floor. He was bouncing the little pink inflatable balloons that Uncle Pollo had given him. Pollo watched him with a smile on his face. After all, it really doesn’t take much to make a kid happy. Just two or three condoms. After all, he wasn’t going to be needing them that night.

He turned around. Not a sound from the bedroom. And for that matter, Step’s probably not going to need them either, Pollo thought, laughing inwardly.

Then, since he was starting to get bored, he started making phone calls.

*



In the dim light of that bedroom full of toys, Step caressed Babi’s back and her shoulders. He ran his hand down her arm, and then he took that arm and brought it up to his face. He brushed his mouth over it, the length of that arm, every inch of flesh. Step delicately opened her hand, kissed her palm, and then laid it on his own naked chest, abandoning her to her own thoughts.

Babi lay immobile, suddenly frightened. Omigod, now I understand. But I’ll never be able to do it. I’m not ready.

Step continued kissing her neck tenderly, behind her ears, on her lips. All the while, his hands, more confident and relaxed, more experienced, were taking possession of her like soft waves, leaving stranded on that unknown shore a shipwrecked pleasure.

Then, all at once, dragged along by that current, she, too, finally moved. Babi gathered her courage. She slowly moved away from where she’d been lying and started caressing him too. Step hugged her close, instilling trust, reassuring her, and Babi let herself go. Her fingers lightly explored his skin. She felt his powerful abs.

Every step along this path was a plunge into the depths, a tumble into the abyss, a difficult—almost impossible—leap forward. And yet, Babi was determined to do it, and holding her breath in that darkened room, she took the leap. And so she found herself with her fingers gingerly stroking the edge of that little patch of soft curly hair, and then farther and deeper into his jeans, and then that button, the first such button for her, in every sense of the word.

And at that very moment, without knowing why, she thought of Pallina. Her friend, already more confident and more experienced. She thought of when she told her the story. You know, after that I couldn’t do it, I just didn’t have the nerve. Perhaps that is what gave her the courage, the final impetus. Suddenly she did it. She unfastened that button. His first golden button popped out of the buttonhole with a faint, jeansy sound. In the silence of the room, she heard it clearly; it came sharp and bright to her ears. She’d done it. She almost sighed. Now everything would be so much easier. It was as if they’d said something to each other, acknowledged it. They both knew what was happening, what she was doing. Her hand, more confident now, moved on to the second button and then the third and so on, farther down, as the jeans opened wider, growing free. Step rolled gently away from her, letting his head fall back. Babi reached out for him again, taking shy shelter in that kiss, unhappy at that tiny separation.