Her soft moan snapped him out of the public display they were granting the guests at the lobby. He raised his head and looked around. There were few people at this time of the day. Those who were appeared to be preoccupied with their business. Either that, or they were just very good actors.
Sabrina dropped her hands away from his shoulder. Her cheeks were pink and she had glued her attention on one of the potted plants dotting the café.
“We’d best be on our way.” For the first time, he noted the wheeled carryall standing by her side and stopped short. He felt disconcerted that he had only just noticed it now. He had a keen eye for detail. In the fashion business, it helped that he was very visual. It disturbed him more than he cared to admit that with Sabrina, it was like he was looking through a kaleidoscope. His world narrowed to the exclusion of anything else except that view of the shifting, fascinating images made of beautiful, broken little pieces that were ephemeral. He realized Sabrina was like that. Lovely and alluring, but ever changing with her affections. If indeed she ever felt affection for all those men she had been with.
But what did he care? They were just going to finish what they had started and after that, it was arriverderci, strega.
“The hard case will protect my finds,” she said, misinterpreting the cause of his displeasure. Her hand tightened on the handle of the small luggage protectively.
“Your finds?”
“Of sea glass…” Her voice trailed off uncertainly.
He nodded brusquely, feeling like a damned idiot. Of course. That was part of the bait. Those damned sea glass. He took her arm and propelled her to the lobby entrance where a Mercedes was idling, wondering why a gold digger needed a hobby to sustain herself. Probably as back up. Luca assisted her inside the car while the bellhop stowed away her luggage inside the trunk.
Up close inside the close quarters of the vehicle, Luca noted that her hair was still damp. And when he had kissed her in the lobby, she smelled familiar. He realized that she smelled like the hotel shampoo–a clean, bracing ocean-inspired scent that their company had customized for the hotel.
“What is it?” She sounded on edge.
“I like the way you smell.”
“I’m not wearing any perfume.”
“Doesn’t mean you don’t have a scent.”
She didn’t know what to make of his statement. Her expression was deliberately neutral. “I have a scent?”
“We all do.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“Almost being the operative word.”
Her lip tilted on that corner he had kissed. “So, tell me. What do I smell like?”
It got to him every damn time. The way she was so gauche at flirtation, so uncertain, like she had just gotten her fairy wings and was testing them out. And like the fool that he was, he let it work its magic on him anyway. Luca bent forward and touched his nose to the area behind her ear.
“Are you sniffing me?” A cross between a surprised snort and giggle escaped her. He had found her ticklish spot.
“Here you smell clean, fresh and sweet, like spring blooming in the last days of winter.”
“What do you mean h-here?” she gasped when his tongue flicked against her skin, tasting her. “And are all Italian men so poetic?”
Her reference to other men goaded him to do what he did next, uncaring of the chauffeur who could hear and see him. “You have a different scent elsewhere,” he murmured, his hand inching higher on her thigh.
“Elsewhere?” she squeaked when his hands cupped the area between her legs.
“Don’t you remember?” he whispered, stroking her. “You threw it at me, quite shamelessly I might add. I kept it.”
Kept what? Sabrina could barely string together a coherent thought. She didn’t dare move, caught between shame and desire. How can she let him affect her so? A man she barely knew. Allowing him intimacies she had never allowed anyone since Chase.
It’s long overdue, Bree. When had Chase’s voice become her conscience? Or rather the tempting devil? Don’t overthink it.
When his fingers crept inside the edge of her shorts and pushed the edge of her underwear to the side, Sabrina lost all power of thought. He swallowed her gasp in his mouth as he delved into her wet slit, her thighs parting wider to grant him access. Dimly she noted that he had angled his body so that her lower half was shielded from view. Not that the driver wouldn’t know what they were up to. And at this point,
Sabrina really couldn’t care.
All she cared about was that Luca not stop. Her toes curled inside her flip-flops as he grazed a particularly sensitive spot. He did it again, and Sabrina jerked slightly at the contact. He pulled away, trapped her gaze and repeated it, as if it was an experiment and he was trying to replicate the result. A wicked smile played on his full lips and the jerk pressed deeper, harder. Sabrina’s hips bucked off the leather seat, but his other hand dug into her thigh and kept her pinned down.