“Are you going to threaten me with that for the rest of my life?”
I just shook my head and concentrated on the road. I had more important things on my mind at the moment. Like figuring out what the hell had happened that afternoon.
By the time we pulled inside the gates and up the drive, the silence between us hung like thick, impenetrable fog. Rain still poured down. Since the garage structure was separate from the main house, I parked as close to the front door as possible and climbed out. Lucia had already opened her door and sat measuring the distance between the car and the house.
“Your feet are bare. I’ll carry you.” I leaned in to lift her, getting soaked for the third time that night.
“I’m fine. Don’t touch me.”
“Stop fighting me. The stones will cut your feet.” With one arm beneath her knees and the other at her back, I lifted her out.
“I said don’t touch me!”
Just as I leaned to close the car door, she hoisted herself out of my arms and fell to her hands and knees with a grunt.
“Lucia!”
“Stay away from me!” She scrambled to her feet and made for the front lawn.
“Godamnit!” I chased her, although there wasn’t anywhere for her to go. If it wasn’t pouring down rain, I’d have left her to it. Although knowing her, she’d tear herself up, trying to climb over the gates.
She ran fast, but the slippery ground beneath her bare feet hindered her progress. She fell twice more before I finally caught up to her. When I wrapped an arm around her waist to haul her up, she kicked out, knocking my legs out from under me so that I fell on top of her.
“Leave me alone! Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
She fought like a feral cat, scratching and kicking until I lay my full weight on her, caught both of her wrists, and trapped her beneath me.
“Stop! Stop fighting me!”
“I hate you. I hate you, and I will never stop.”
I looked down at her, tears and rain soaking her face.
“You will stop.”
“Why did you come for me? What do you want from me?”
“What do I want?” I looked at her face flushed with exertion, her mouth open to suck in gulps of air, her dark hair fanned out around her head, stuck to her face, soaked and dirty. “What do I want?” She jerked her body. I touched my forehead to hers, her eyes burning amber now. “This,” I said, and kissed her.
She tried to say something, but whatever it was, I swallowed it up. Her soft wet lips yielded beneath mine. Even as she attempted to fight, her body gave itself over, her mouth surrendering. She made a small sound as I deepened the kiss, tasting her, pressing her harder into the earth, my cock like steel against her soft belly.
“I want this,” I said, claiming her mouth again while I reached with one hand to take my cock out of my pants. Her nightie had already ridden up to midbelly. “This.” I kissed her again, this time softer, on her lips, then her chin, her cheek. I wanted to see her face, her eyes. Slipping my fingers beneath her panties, I drew them aside. She bit her lips, watching me. “I want you.” I thrust into her, and she arched her back, closing her eyes momentarily. “You.” I drove in again, her tight pussy wet like a glove around my cock. “I want you, Lucia,” I said finally, taking her wrists in my hands and pinning them out to her sides, watching her face as I fucked her, just a few more short, hard thrusts before she clenched around me, coming, making that sound she made, crushing my cock until I stilled, squeezing her wrists harder, coming, heart racing, not breathing until I’d emptied.
The rain slowed, finally, as if it matched our moods. I kissed her and slowly slid out, kneeling to zip my jeans before lifting her up. She let me this time. Let me carry her into the house and up to the second floor and through my bedroom to the master bath, where I ran the shower and placed her inside. I followed, still fully clothed, stripping first her and then myself beneath the warm flow of water.
“I want you, Lucia,” I said yet again, pressing her back against the wall, kissing her. “As wrong as it is, I want you.”
Lucia lay in my bed, the cuts on her knees and palms bandaged, warm beneath the covers. Safe in my arms.
“Natalie is my sister-in-law. Sergio’s wife.” She had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. “She has a son who was at daycare while she worked her usual hours. When she got there to pick him up, he was gone. The daycare provider had fucked up, releasing Jacob to someone who claimed to be his uncle.”
She turned her head to look at me, then shifted to lie on her back. I kept my arm over her belly, my hand closed possessively around her hip.