All I Believe (Firsts and Forever, #10)(53)
Luca continued, “To get back to your original question, if you ever feel like topping me, I have no problem with that.”
“Good to know.”
“Was that just a general fact-finding question, or do you think you might actually want to f*ck me?”
I grinned and said, “Now that you’ve given me the green light, I’d like to try it. But, you know, in a few hours. I just came so hard I can barely keep my eyes open.”
Luca held me a little closer. “No hurry, mio tesoro. I’ll be right here when you’re ready.”
*****
When I awoke sometime later, I blinked up at Luca, who was all blurry until he slid my glasses into place. “Hi, beautiful. You hungry?” he asked me. He’d been reading from a leather-bound book, and slipped a bookmark between the pages before putting it on the bedside table.
I nodded but closed my eyes again. My head was on Luca’s stomach as he sat propped up in bed. “Time is it?” I mumbled.
“I’m not sure. Six, maybe?”
I sat up and exclaimed, “Six! Damn, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sleep the whole day away.”
“You didn’t, and I’m glad you got some rest. Now I can keep you up all night.”
“That’s true.”
He kissed me and said with a mischievous glint in his eye, “I brought up your suitcase, it’s in the walk-in closet. I took the liberty of laying out an outfit for you. Why don’t you get dressed and meet me in the kitchen?”
“Alright.” I rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom, and when I reached the door I looked back at him over my shoulder. His head was cocked to the side and he was completely staring at my ass.
When he saw me looking, he flashed a wide grin and said, “You’re beautiful from every angle.”
I used the restroom and cleaned myself up a bit, then went in search of my luggage. When I saw the outfit Luca had put together for me, I started chuckling. He’d gone straight for the Nana collection, and selected a tiny pair of purple assless briefs with white trim, a pair of sheer, white shorts, and a stretchy little tank top. Too funny. I grinned embarrassedly, then put on just the briefs and went in search of him.
Luca was in the kitchen, barefoot and dressed in old jeans and a white t-shirt, surrounded by ingredients and cookware. He was studying a cookbook intently, as if there would be a test later. “Really? You’re cooking?” I asked as I came up to him.
“Kind of. Attempting to cook is more like it. There’s a frozen pizza as an emergency backup, in case I fail utterly.” He picked up a pan from the counter, then fumbled it and almost dropped it when he finally looked up at me. “Holy shit,” he muttered, which made me color a bit.
“Thanks for picking out an outfit for me. It seemed a bit too formal though, so I pared it down slightly.”
“You look amazing,” he murmured, setting the pot aside and running his palms down my upper arms as his gaze ran down my body.
“I’m glad you think so.” I tried to change the subject by peering over his shoulder at the open cookbook. “What are you making, and how can I help?”
“Here’s how you can help.” He poured two glasses of red wine from an open bottle on the counter and handed me one. “Take this, have a seat, and enjoy your vacation.” He clinked his glass with mine.
“You’re on vacation, too. I’d feel guilty if I just sat idly by.”
“Okay, so tomorrow we’ll cook together. Now will you please sit your adorable ass down and let me fail to impress you?”
I grinned at that as I perched on a nearby barstool. “You’re actually succeeding at impressing me. No matter what we end up with, you’re clearly going through a lot of effort, and that’s impressive in and of itself.”
Luca kissed my forehead and went back to work, his brow creased with concentration, darting looks at the cookbook every few seconds. “I can’t believe anyone does this recreationally,” he muttered at one point. He was trying to chop some vegetables, and his technique was endearingly awkward. When he caught me grinning, he asked, “What?”
“You’re just so cute, and I actually love that you suck at this. You’re so damn perfect the rest of the time that it would probably give me an inferiority complex. But then there’s this.”
“I’m not even sort of perfect. And for God’s sake, will you drink your wine? I need you to be drunk when I present this meal, so you don’t notice how awful it is.” I smiled at him before draining my glass.
I really did have a nice buzz going by the time he served dinner maybe an hour later. He’d been pretty ambitious. His first course was a large Vietnamese summer roll, served with two little round ramekins filled with different dipping sauces. I fought back a chuckle and decided not to be immature enough to point out the fact that it looked exactly like a cock and balls. It actually tasted good, even if it did explode when I tried to take a bite out of it. Luca frowned a little and handed me a fork.
The main course was a long, thin fillet of some sort of local white fish, served with two round, red potatoes. He’d garnished it with a few sprigs of chives, which jutted out of the fillet at the end opposite the potatoes. I slammed down another glass of wine and worked on maintaining my composure. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that it looked like an erupting penis. Comedic value aside, it tasted pretty good.