I dragged the sheet over us, and pulled her into my arms.
“Do you want to go find something to eat?” I asked, nuzzling her neck.
“Go? As in, leave the room?” she mumbled. “No, no. Bad, bad idea. Call takeout.”
“I don’t think they deliver to naked people in hotel rooms, Caro.”
She groaned.
“Come on, baby, time to get up,” I said encouragingly.
“I can’t,” she whined.
I plastered a kiss onto her pouting lips, then left her in bed while I showered.
She was nearly asleep by the time I returned. I dressed quickly and took a moment to rummage through Caro’s overnight bag. Then I went and sat on the bed next to her.
She cracked one eye, frowning at the pink t-shirt I held in my hands.
“Not your color, Sebastian,” she mumbled.
“No, baby. I want you to wear it.”
“Why?”
“You look cute in pink.” She looked at me uncertainly. “And I got you something while I was out.”
She sat up slowly, combing hair away from her face with her fingers.
“You got me something?”
I handed her the bag from Camilla’s.
“You bought me clothes?”
“Just look in the goddam bag, Caro!” I said impatiently.
She pulled out the skirt, studying it closely before turning her shocked eyes to mine.
“Don’t you like it?” I questioned uncertainly.
“Sebastian, I … it’s very pretty, but…”
“But what?”
“It’s not really me,” she said, biting her lip. “I’m more a jeans and t-shirt sort of person these days. Besides, I don’t have any shoes—I’ve only got my walking boots.”
Oh. If that was the problem ... I pulled the shoe bag out from under the bed and passed it to her. She still didn’t look happy and I was beginning to get worried.
“Do you like them?” I asked quietly
She swallowed several times, then slipped them onto her bare feet, holding them out for me to look at. She didn’t seem mad—just sort of dazed.
“So, you’ll wear them—and the skirt?” I asked hopefully.
She nodded and smiled a little reluctantly.
“Yes, tesoro, I’ll wear the skirt.”
She disappeared into the bathroom with the clothes, and I took the time to check my phone. There was another message from Cardozo, changing the pickup time to half-an-hour earlier, but that was all.
I couldn’t help staring when Caro walked out of the bathroom. I was right about the skirt: it made her legs look ultra long and so fucking hot. The term ‘sex on legs’ could have been made for her. She’d left her long hair loose, and was even wearing a little makeup.
“Wow! I mean … wow! You look awesome, Caro. Really fucking sexy!”
I ran my hand up her bare thigh and cupped her ass appreciatively.
“Mmm, this skirt is great: it’s making me horny.”
“Thank you for my presents,” she said, her voice cool and amused. “But right now, I need food more than I need your body, Sebastian.”
I smiled, kissed her quickly, then walked over to hold open the door for her.
“After you, baby.”
The evening air was still warm and I tugged at the neck of my t-shirt. The label was rubbing across a set of scratches where Caro had marked me. I kinda liked it. But we hadn’t gone more than a few yards before some bastards had their eyeballs all over Caro.
“Vieni qui e baciami!”
Caro ignored the rude fucking comment, but I felt a murderous rage bubbling up as the other one called out, “Il tuo corpo è bellissimo,” his eyes glued to her legs.
Yeah, I might not have thought through the whole buying-my-woman-sexy-clothes scenario. But when the first guy muttered as he passed Caro, “Voglio scopare,” I turned around to punch that fucking leer off his face.
Caro caught hold of my arm.
“Oh no, eyes front, Hunter. You bought this skirt, and now you’re suffering the consequences: suck it up.”
I opened my mouth to argue but the look she gave me wasn’t impressed, so I threw the guy a hard stare and let Caro lead me away. When we arrived at a restaurant that Caro liked the look of, I made sure she was seated in a corner so that her legs were hidden by the tablecloth. My skin itched having my back to the room, but at least Caro was protected.
She pretended not to notice my caveman behavior.
“What do you want to do tomorrow, Sebastian? Apart from spring your surprise?”
I took a deep breath and focused on the woman in front of me.
“I thought we could walk up to Capezzano Inferiore, take a look around. Even if there aren’t any Venzis there, it would be kinda cool to see where your dad grew up, wouldn’t it?”
She gave me a sweet smile, and I relaxed for the first time since leaving Signora Carello’s villa.
Our food arrived and I dug in. Hot sex with Caro was currently replacing my daily work-out. Gotta say it rocked.
It suddenly occurred to me that I really didn’t know what a normal day was like for her—in fact I didn’t know that much about her life. We’d spent so much energy just reconnecting, I hadn’t had a chance to ask her before.
“Tell me about your place in Long Beach, Caro,” I suggested.
“Oh! Sure, okay. Well, it’s small; a bungalow in an area called the West End. It was built about 90 years ago, and it was pretty beaten up when I bought it. I restored the porch at the front so I can sit out and watch the ocean, and in the winter the windows get covered in salt from the wind coming off the Atlantic. I have some really great neighbors, and they look after the place while I’m away. My friends like to come out from Manhattan on the weekends. You spoke to Nicole, she works in merchant banking; and then there’s Jenna, who’s a bitch-on-wheels attorney, but actually she’s really lovely; and Alice, she’s a Professor of literature at NYU. I met her when I was going to school there…”
Fuck me! Bankers, lawyers and professors? I was so out of my fucking league.
I should have known—I should have realized.
What the fuck was she doing with me?
She must have seen something on my face, because she stopped suddenly.
“What’s the matter, Sebastian?”
The food felt like sand in my mouth, and I struggled to swallow.
“How am I going to fit in with your life there, Caro? All your friends have these amazing careers … and I’ll just be a jobless grunt with a high school diploma.”
“Sebastian, no!”
“You know what they’ll think. Marine: Muscles Are Required Intelligence Not Essential.”
“Hey! No one will think that, and you know what? I don’t give a shit anyway. Sebastian, haven’t we had to listen to enough crap in the past to care less what anyone else thinks now? Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me?”
Yeah, well, not sounding so convincing now.
“Sebastian, do you love me?”
My eyes fixed on hers.
“You know I do, Caro. Sempre.”
She reached across the table and took my hand.
“Then whatever happens, we’ll deal. I vaguely remember someone saying that to me. Oh, wait, that was you a couple of days ago. Sebastian, the only thing my friends will care about is that I’m happy.”
It was hard to believe.
“What about your plans to be a personal fitness trainer?” she went on. “And, jeez, Sebastian, we’ll be in New York: you could do something amazing with your language skills. Don’t go and get all shy on me now, Hunter!”
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to relax. If she believed it, why the fuck couldn’t I?
“Yeah, okay. Sorry. I just kinda freaked for a moment there.”
“I know and I understand. It’s weird for me, too, and we haven’t been doing this for very long. I guess you could say we’re out of practice with the whole dating thing. I feel very un-me sitting here in this shockingly short miniskirt, but I tried it, for you.”
“Shockingly short?” I said, smiling despite myself.
She pulled my hand under the table and let me run my fingers up her bare thigh.