I throw all my clothes and shoes off the bed, scooting farther back on the mattress, watching Tomas as he crawls toward me, taking me in like a lion stalking its prey.

I open my legs widely and within seconds, Tomas slides his hard cock into me, both of us gasping when my inner muscles sheath him so snugly. It’s so familiar, and yet every time with him is like the first time—so exhilarating because deep down, despite the mixed signals from him, I know I can be myself with this man, the man I’ve been waiting for, the one who will make me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. And when I look in his eyes, I see an abundance of emotion mirrored back at me—lust, need, want, and, just possibly, love. It feels so perfect.

He grabs my hips and starts pumping me hard. I’ll be sore tomorrow, but right now I don’t care. “Yes! Yes! Don’t stop!” I beg him.

“Ano! Ano!” he grunts in Czech at the top of his lungs, echoing what I just said. He looks so primal, like a sex god determined to turn me liquid and boneless until the only feeling I’m left with is pure, unadulterated exhaustion.

The rough texture of the uncovered mattress digs into my back, burning my skin as Tomas bucks into me. I try to grab something to hold onto, ending up with my fingernails digging into my palms as I form fists with my hands.

My legs lock around Tomas’s back of their own volition. His body presses into me, almost robbing me of oxygen, but I feel nothing except complete ecstasy. The more his body pushes me into the bed, the more demanding I become.

“Faster, baby! Faster!” I pant.

His grunts grow louder. I’m on the edge of the cliff, and with one last thrust, Tomas sends me soaring on the wave of an orgasm that sends stars shooting behind my closed eyes.

Tomas unleashes one last roar as I milk his cock to his own release, his hard, sweat-covered body falling onto me right after he comes.

I manage one word between my short breaths. “Bravo.”

His body begins to shudder from laughter right before he takes my lips and kisses me long and wet and deep.

He pulls back from me first and stares at me, not saying a word.

I frown. “Oh, crap, what? You stuck or something?”

He slowly runs his fingertips over my face, never taking his eyes from mine. “I love you…Luciana.”

I press my lips together to keep myself from crying, and as much as I want to cry because he said those three words to me, I don’t want to because he paused before he said my name, like he was trying his best to remember to say the right one and he could barely get it past his lips.

I slap a big smile on my face and let out a small laugh to mask what I’m really feeling. “Well, thank God for that. I thought you needed a doctor or something.”

I hear a grunt rumble deep in Tomas’s throat. “Luciana…don’t be scared. This is me. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

I know what he wants to hear. I take a deep breath and say it back to him, even though I’m scared, uncertain, and reply half-heartedly. “I love you too, Tomas. Don’t fuck me over.”

He cradles my face gently in his hands. “Never.”

We’ll see.

CHAPTER FIVE

Northern Italy

Present day

I smile at my husband. “That was a good night.”

“Yes, it was,” Tomas concurs.

“That pause though…it killed me, babe.”

“And I feel so badly that I couldn’t tell that it had. You hid it very well.”

I reach across to take his hand. “What can I say? I’m trained in the performing arts. The education was worth the tuition.”

Tomas raises our joined hands to his lips, kissing mine twice softly but just enough to tell me that we’re past all that now. I smile as he places our entwined hands on his muscled thigh.

I glance back at the girls to look at our present. Both Marika and Mimi are fast asleep, their heads leaning into each other, practically touching.

“Why don’t we talk about the part that led to us ending up here with our two daughters out cold in the backseat?” I suggest.

“You mean the sex?”

I sigh in exasperation. Men.

“No, when I found out I was pregnant and you let me down and took off on me like a gazelle being stalked by a pack of hyenas.”

“Will you ever let that go? I didn’t know you were pregnant and—”

I hold up my hand to him, palm facing out. “Okay, stop. Even though we’re both here together now, I think we need a refresher of that time without any judgment calls.”

Tomas sighs, then nods. “I agree.”

I take a deep breath. “This is going to be fun…” I mumble, completely not meaning a single word of it.

*  *  * Lucy

Davison and Allegra’s wedding reception

Le Bistro

Broadway and Sixty-fourth Street

Five years ago

“Can you believe it’s finally over?” Ian asks me, approaching with two flutes of champagne in his hands.

I can’t help but smile. As cynical as I am about love, I actually shed a few tears during the ceremony, watching my best friend marry the love of her life.

I take a glass from Davison’s handsome best man. I admit the guy is good looking. With his brown hair, a chunk of it falling across his forehead, him always trying to push it aside with his hand, it borders on cute. Hugh Grant kind of cute. But I’m not into cute. I’m into men with broad chests and European accents that make my toes curl. Well, I would be if the Euro I was into would only share with me what the fuck has been stuck up his ass for these past few weeks, acting moody and distant. So if a cute guy wants to pay me attention, I’m not going to say no.

“Thanks. I know, right? My duties are officially over. But you still have to give your best man speech.”

He sighs audibly. “Yeah, don’t remind me.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great.”

“Here’s to that,” he replies, aiming his glass to mine.

We clink glasses. I take a sip, glancing toward the back of the room when I see Tomas shooting daggers at me with his eyes, right before he walks out the door.

Fuck. What now?

I put my champagne down on the bar. “Ian, will you excuse me?”

“Everything okay?” he asks worriedly.

“I have no idea.”

I follow Tomas out of the restaurant, catching him by the elbow. “Hey! Where are you going?”

“I’m going home. I can’t watch you with him anymore.”

I pull him aside closer to the building to get out of the way of the endless pedestrian traffic. “For fuck sakes, there’s nothing going on between Ian and me. And has it occurred to you since we’re in the wedding party that we’d be thrown together and would become friends by happenstance?”

He looks down at the pavement. “Maybe.”

Well, thank God for that. At least he admitted it. Finally.

I take his face in my hands, enveloping it gently. “Hey, I hope you know by now you can talk to me about anything. I know you’re holding something back from me, and I’m trying my best to be patient with you, but patience eventually runs out.”

He’s doing that thing again. Looking anywhere but at my face. My hands lose their grip on him when he starts shaking his head, as if he’s fighting something internally.

When he finally does bring his eyes back to mine, they’re misty, as if he wants to cry but doesn’t.

I step as close as I can to him, taking his hands in mine. “Please, Tomas, I’m begging you. If we have any chance of at future together, tell me what it is that you’re keeping from me. I won’t run away. I’ll listen to anything you have to tell me and I promise I won’t judge you.”

When he speaks, his voice is hoarse and raw with emotion.

“You’re an amazing woman, Luciana, and it’s not just that I’m afraid of losing you.”