CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘DIDYOUENJOY yourself last night?’
Olivia flipped her face on the pillows, eyeing Luca with a sardonic expression. ‘Are you taking a victory lap, Signor Giovanardi?’
He frowned.
‘I should have thought my enjoyment—on multiple occasions—was self-evident.’
He roared with laughter, lifting a hand and pressing it to his forehead. ‘That is, naturally, very gratifying, but actually, I was asking about the party.’
‘Oh.’
He will get bored of you soon enough.
She covered the glut of displeasure and the strange taste that filled her mouth with a steady smile. She hadn’t been able to push the other woman from her mind, not for long, anyway.
‘It was...fascinating.’
He grinned, lifting onto one elbow and regarding her thoughtfully. ‘Fascinating? What exactly does this mean?’
‘Oh, just unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.’
‘Surely you’ve been to parties?’
She studied the ceiling, lost in thought. ‘Not a lot, actually. As a teenager, a few casual things, but after that, not really.’
‘You really have lived the life of a recluse.’
‘Yes.’
‘And after this?’
She turned to look at him, then wished she hadn’t. Her heart clutched, echoing the worst indigestion she’d ever known. She’d been trying so hard not to think about ‘after’. Why did he have to bring it up? ‘What do you mean?’
‘What will your life be like?’
She really didn’t want to think about it. ‘I don’t know.’ She inched closer, her body craving him despite the hours they’d spent exploring one another the night before. In the back of her brain, she imagined nights without Luca, and wondered how she’d cope, how her body would cope, without him.
‘Is this normal?’ She blurted the question out before she could second-guess the wisdom of asking him something so telling.
‘Our life here?’
Our life. Pain sheared her chest. She blinked away, focusing beyond him. ‘No, I mean...’ She swallowed past a lump of embarrassment.
‘Sì?’
‘Erm...sex. The way it is with us...is it always like this?’
He reached out, pressing a finger to her chin, drawing her gaze back to his face. ‘No.’
Something shifted inside her. She bit down on her lower lip.
‘At least, not in my experience.’
‘How is it different?’
‘Now who’s taking a victory lap?’