chapter FOUR
MIA buried her hands in her coat pockets as her warm breath fogged into the night air. She glanced at Luca, who had only his suit jacket to fend off cold winter fingers. But he looked warm and vital—like a walking hot-water bottle. She shook the tempting image of her wrapped around him in bed from her head. It was disconcerting to say the least when the streets were dark and practically deserted and they kept passing interesting alcoves and alleyways where two people could warm up really quickly.
Mia clamped down on the direction of her thoughts and the strange undulation of her pelvic floor muscles. ‘Aren’t you cold in that?’ she groused.
Luca shrugged. ‘Two beers help.’
Mia nodded. ‘I don’t drink much,’ she replied.
Why she felt the need to share that she had no idea, but she could feel his pull and knew she was on a slow march towards an inevitable ending. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be between them and she felt suddenly nervous.
‘You don’t like it?’ Luca enquired.
Mia shook her head. ‘I went through a stage where I liked it a little too much.’
‘Ah,’ Luca said, intrigued by the nugget of information. Was this what Pete had alluded to? ‘Care to elaborate?’
Not bloody likely! Mia couldn’t believe she’d told him that much. Damn this man! But there was something about him, a recognition that they were the same, that seemed to loosen her lips around him. Still, she had absolutely no intention of reliving two years of booze and bad men with him.
The past was the past.
‘No,’ she said. He quirked an eyebrow at her and she said, ‘It’s complicated.’
They walked in silence for a few moments. ‘I suppose a man from Marsala probably doesn’t understand that.’
Luca tensed. He’d been enjoying the build-up between them as each footstep took them closer to their apartments. To their beds. The footpath had narrowed and their arms brushed; her body warmth mixed and flirted with his. Their footsteps matched, their breathing synchronised.
But suddenly that was forgotten.
Mia turned her head to face him. ‘How long ago did you leave?’
Luca bit down on the urge to laugh at her choice of words. Leaving implied consent. He hadn’t been given a whole lot of choice. ‘I was sixteen.’
She whistled. ‘That’s a long time.’
Luca chuckled, trying to divert the conversation. ‘Are you implying I’m old?’
Mia laughed too and let it peter out. ‘You’re a long way from home, Luca,’ she mused.
Although she, more than anyone, knew that geographic proximity had nothing to do with that sense of ‘home’. She’d grown up a twenty-minute drive from here and it may as well have been Italy for all the connection Mia felt to the brick and mortar house where her mother still resided. Mainly on the couch.
Luca kept his gaze firmly fixed on the illuminated arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge he could just see through the treetops. ‘Yes.’
Mia smiled. ‘Care to elaborate?’
‘No.’
‘Word on the grapevine is you studied medicine in London. I thought Italian mamas liked to keep tabs on their sons. No decent universities in Italy?’
Luca saw his mother’s broken face again on that horrible day that had changed everything. The sorrow and disappointment etched in lines that had seemed somehow instantly deeper. He schooled his expression as he looked at Mia and repeated her response.
‘It’s complicated.’
Mia nodded. If anyone understood that, she did. And she understood the underlying message—butt out. She got that too.
They lapsed into silence again but she was aware of him large and silent beside her. Aware of his tension and his potent, brooding masculinity.
‘Here we are,’ she announced unnecessarily as the doors to the ten-storey apartment complex loomed ahead.
Luca dragged himself out of the sticky web of his past. ‘Yes,’ he murmured. He looked down at her. ‘Your place or mine?’
Mia swallowed. She should have been outraged at his assumption. But he was looking at her intently with that devil mouth and heat was flooding through her belly and tightening her breasts.
She didn’t do repeat performances, that was her golden rule, but, heavens above, she wanted him.
‘Yours,’ she murmured huskily. ‘I share with Evie.’
He held her gaze for a moment before opening the door for her and following her to the lift. They rode it to the ninth floor in silence, Luca propped against one wall, staring across at Mia propped against the opposite wall. The bold way she returned his gaze tugged at his groin and his whole body tightened in anticipation.
Mia felt utterly dominated as Luca lounged against the wall, arms crossed. His gaze raked her body lingering on her breasts, her thighs, her boots. Then travelled all the way back up again to rest on her mouth.
The seconds ticked by as his eyes locked on her lips. Her tongue darted out to moisten them, a nervous gesture.
His nostrils flared. She swallowed.
His arms dropped. Her heart skipped a beat.
He took a step towards her. She tensed.
The lift dinged. He stopped. She breathed again.
‘Ladies first,’ he murmured. ‘Number nineteen.’
Mia walked on legs made of Plasticine to the indicated apartment, aware of his eyes on her the whole time. She could barely breathe by the time she pulled up in front of his door.
Absently she reached for the doorhandle the same time he did. He sucked in a breath. ‘Your hands are freezing,’ he murmured.
‘Yes,’ she agreed. That was because all her blood had drained to her belly and breasts. In fact, apart from her torso she felt cold right through to her bones. She even shivered involuntarily.
Luca grinned at her as he pushed open the door. ‘I have the perfect solution.’
He tugged on her hand and she followed him into the toasty centrally heated apartment.
Luca strode into his bedroom, Mia in tow, flipping lights on as he went. He walked straight past his bed, turning right into a spacious en suite. He ushered her in, shut the door, flipped on a wall-mounted heater, opened the shower screen and turned the hot tap on full bore. Instant heat puffed into the air from the shower head.
He turned to look at Mia, shrugging out of his jacket. ‘Get naked.’
Mia quirked an eyebrow at his imperious command. ‘Boy, you sure know how to seduce a woman.’
Luca grabbed her by her coat lapels and hauled her up against him. He lowered his mouth and on a groan unleashed a truly devastating kiss.
Mia’s response was instantaneous. His mouth was hot, hot, hot and it fanned the flames burning in her belly to the rest of her body. Raising herself on tiptoe, she tunnelled her hands into his hair, pressed her breasts hard against the solid warmth of his chest.
His hands cupped her bottom, dragging their hips into alignment. Mia rubbed herself against him, causing a delicious friction that spread more warmth to every part of her body.
Luca groped for the tie of her coat and yanked it loose, his hands invading the cocoon of heat around her belly and stroking down her sides and back. He felt for her zip and undid it, pushing the skirt off her hips.
Mia broke away from the drugging intensity of his mouth, her rough breath almost as loud as the teeming shower that poured an endless supply of steam into the hothouse atmosphere.
She was hot now. Very, very hot.
She quickly stepped out of her skirt, removed her jacket and followed it with her skivvy.
Luca’s breath caught in his throat as she stood before him in matching champagne-coloured underwear and a pair of black knee-high boots.
He breathed out reverentially. ‘Mia bella,’ he murmured. Thoughts of the mess he’d left behind in Marsala were now a distant memory.
Mia blushed. She had no idea what that meant but it sounded pretty damn complimentary to her. Which spurred her on even more. Removing the clasp from her hair, she shook it free so it fell down her back and flowed over her shoulders in a golden stream.
Aware that Luca, hands on hips, was watching her every move between heavy eyelids, she lifted a booted foot and placed it on the edge of the bath. She leaned forward until her breasts were brushing her thigh and slowly—very, very slowly—undid the side zipper on her boots.
Luca heard every one of the zip teeth release as he watched Mia intently. She had her back to him and his gaze roved hungrily over the brief triangle of fabric encasing the enticing wiggle of her butt cheeks. He lifted it higher to the indentation that formed the small of her back. Higher still to the long delicate stretch of her spine partially obscured by her long blonde tresses.
Mia looked over her shoulder at him and smiled as she straightened and flicked the boot off. The steam was building in the bathroom and her face felt flushed, although the kick in her pulse told her it had more to do with Luca’s smouldering look than the atmospheric conditions.
When she turned back to bend over the other boot, Luca couldn’t hold back. He moved in close behind her, pushing her hair off one shoulder and leaning forward to drop a kiss. His hands gripped her hips and pulled her against him, snuggling her bottom into the heat of his groin.
Luca was consumed with the erotic image in front of him. He fully clothed, his erection straining for release, Mia scantily clad and bent provocatively in front of him. He wanted to tear her knickers off and take her right here and now.
He pulled her in tight.
Mia’s hand faltered on the zip as Luca circled his hips against her. She shut her eyes as he created delicious havoc in just the right spot, her breath coming faster. The boot forgotten, one foot still propped on the bath edge, she straightened, arching her back against him, her arms snaking up behind her to clasp around his neck, gratified to feel both of his hands slide up from her hips, over her belly and higher.
‘Mia,’ he groaned into her ear as his hands found her satin-clad breasts.
Mia whimpered, biting her lip as he squeezed and flattened then peeled the cups aside and ran the pads of his thumbs against her tight, bare nipples.
‘I want to be inside you,’ he murmured, his lips finding her neck and licking all the sensitive areas.
Mia opened her mouth to answer but one of his hands moved lower and dipped beneath the band of her underwear, seeking the slick heat of her. He ploughed a finger through her aching sex and found just the right spot, causing her to lose all vocal ability.
‘Mia,’ he murmured as she bucked against him. ‘You are hot here. Very, very hot.’
Mia couldn’t speak as one hand teased a nipple and the other moved rhythmically between her thighs. Her knee buckled slightly and she was vaguely aware of Luca pulling her back against him.
Her hands, however, had a mind of their own and while she left one anchored around his neck the other one sought to touch him as intimately as he was touching her.
She reached behind her, grabbing for his belt as her brain liquefied. One-handed and on an inexorable march towards orgasm, she managed the buckle and the zip and finally she was freeing him, his hard length surging into her palm.
Luca threw his head back on a groan, squeezing his eyes shut as she gripped him firmly and ran her hand up and down the length of him. The urge to bury himself in her, ram into all that slick heat as far as he could go, roared through him as his fingers picked up their pace.
Mia could feel the edges of her world starting to fray and she gripped his neck hard as a wild heat started to boil out of control in the deepest part of her. Her hand clamped around his girth became dysfunctional and uncoordinated as the all-consuming urge to ride his finger, seek her own pleasure, became a blinding imperative.
She sagged against him as standing upright became impossible. ‘Luca,’ she moaned.
‘Yes,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘Yes.’
‘Luca-a-a-a!’
She bucked as the orgasm slammed into her. It picked her up, whirled her round and smashed her back down only to lift her again—higher. She gasped and jerked against him, rocking her pelvis in sync with his fingers, squeezing every last liquid drop of pleasure out of it.
‘Yes, Mia, yes,’ he urged, rubbing harder and faster, pushing a finger deep inside her, feeling her clamp hard around him.
Mia moaned loudly as her body automatically accepted his penetration. It was shockingly satisfying and she cried out as another finger filled her.
Luca held her tight against him as she whimpered and gyrated her pelvis, grinding herself against the hard intrusion of his fingers.
The orgasm began to fade and Mia felt as if she was walking through a rainbow. Cool mists of colour stroked her skin like sighs, caressing and cradling, bringing her down gently despite the frantic beat of her heart and the tortured sound of her breath.
Finally her feet touched the ground and she opened her eyes. Became aware that she was leaning heavily into Luca, his hands were cradling her hips and his erection still coursed hard and potent in her hand.
She moved against him. Dropped her leg to the floor, kicked off her boot and turned in his arms.
Luca brushed her hair off her shoulder. ‘Warm now?’ He grinned.
Mia laughed. A part of her was vaguely aware the floor tiles were warm underfoot and that he could obviously afford to fork out for one of the more luxuriously appointed apartments. And that he no doubt had Bridge and Opera house views too.
But none of that mattered as she plastered her lips to his. It only mattered that she could make him groan just like that. And … she rubbed herself along the length of him … hard just like this.
‘Shower,’ she murmured, pulling back and quickly divesting herself of her underwear before stepping into the spacious cubicle.
She turned through the cloud of steam. ‘Are you coming?’ she asked.
Luca, captivated by the water running over her naked body and her hair turning dark gold as the spray doused it, didn’t move for a moment.
‘Luca,’ Mia growled impatiently, taking in his partially undressed body and his very, very aroused state. ‘Come here and do me against the tiles.’
Her provocative words galvanised him into action and he tore at his shirt, toeing off his shoes, grabbing for his wallet before he divested himself of his trousers, pulling out a foil packet, ripping it open and hastily donning the protection he never went without.
Two steps and he was in a cloud of steam, enveloped by hot water and her. He plastered her against the requested wall and plundered her lips and her neck and her breasts with his mouth. Then he boosted her up the tiles, positioned her slippery body at just the right height and plunged straight into her, his mouth swallowing her guttural cry.
Luca pounded into her relentlessly, satisfied to hear her gasps, to see the loll of her head as each thrust rocked her entire body. He tongued her breasts, her heat and her sweat and her essence in each drop of water sluicing over her nipples.
Pressure built strongly and relentlessly as each drive took him closer. In his veins, in his head, in his loins. Pleasure, so intense it hurt, coiled low in his gut. She cried out and bucked in his arms and the coil whipped out, cracking like a lightning strike, zapping every erogenous zone, every cell.
She tightened around him and he came and he came and he came.
Luca was in the kitchen, percolating coffee in nothing but a low-slung towel, when Mia came out of the bathroom dressed in the clothes she’d arrived in half an hour earlier.
Minus her underwear.
And the earring she’d lost somewhere in the midst of the head-banging sex. Down the drainhole, she suspected. Her hair was hanging in wet strips down her back and her body ached all over.
In a good way.
‘Coffee?’ he asked.
Mia shook her head, distracted by the perfection of him. Broad shoulders, trim hips, flat belly. His damp hair curled around his nape and ears. She felt the slight ache inside her begin to throb in carnal recognition of him and the things he could do.
It’d be so easy to take four or five paces forward and whip that towel away. Drop to her knees. Show him she was a pretty dab hand at doling out pleasure too. Go again right there on the kitchen floor as her traitorous body was demanding.
But then what? Once more after that? Stay the night?
She wasn’t a stay-the-night kind of girl. It was why she always went to the guy’s place—easier to leave and never look back than to tell someone to go.
‘No, thanks,’ she murmured. ‘I’m going to head home.’
Luca lounged against the bench and crossed his arms over his very impressive chest. ‘You’re not clingy. I like that.’
Mia nodded. ‘Good. Looks like we’ll get along just fine, then.’
‘I think you’re the first woman I’ve met who didn’t want to be held afterwards.’
Mia shook her head. ‘Not the cuddling type, I’m afraid.’
Luca regarded her silently for a few moments. He could almost buy into her act. Except he’d seen another side to her that first night. Sure, Mia McKenzie seemed feisty and tough but there was definitely a vulnerable side.
She was an intriguing woman.
‘And why is that?’ Luca mused.
Mia knew exactly why. She wasn’t blind to the scars that growing up in an emotionally barren house had left. Sex was a quick, easy connection—she’d found that out at uni. But cuddling—staying?—was hard. Sex was physically intimate. Cuddles emotionally intimate. Certainly not something she’d had an awful lot of experience with from the main male role model in her life as she’d been growing up.
Cuddles called for a certain level of trust. And she’d been too scarred to trust anyone at any level—particularly men.
He was standing patiently, all big and solid, looking at her with expectation. She could have easily opened her mouth and told him the reasons.
But it was none of his damn business.
‘It sends the wrong message,’ she said.
Mia shifted slightly as Luca studied her with his big brown eyes. It was kind of unnerving.
She straightened her shoulders. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
Like she cared if he did.
Luca stayed very still. ‘No. It just seems like something a—’
‘What?’ she interrupted, scorn lacing her voice as her blood pressure rose a couple of notches. ‘A man? Like something a man would say?’
Why was it okay for men to use women for sex but not for women to use men?
‘It’s a new century, Luca. Gotta move with the times.’
Luca chuckled at the sudden glint of fire in her stained-glass eyes. Her whole body had become animated. His gaze drifted to the bounce of her unfettered breasts before it flicked back to her face. ‘Sicilian men aren’t known for their tendency to move with the times.’
Mia shoved her hands on her hips as her nipples responded to his blatant stare. ‘You going to go all Neanderthal on me, Luca?’
Luca pushed off the bench and moved towards her. ‘Not at all. I am a highly evolved Sicilian. I like a woman who knows what she wants.’
Mia watched him prowl closer and felt that ache intensify. How was it possible to look sexy and menacing all at the same time?
He stopped in front of her, close, nearly touching. But not. ‘Especially one who appreciates the type of liaisons I also happen to favour.’ He dropped his gaze to her mouth for long moments before returning it to her face. ‘Where have you been all my life?’ He grinned.
It took Mia a moment to reel her body in enough to respond. Kissing him seemed the best course of action but she needed to go home.
She. Must. Go. Home.
And never come back.
Mia took a step back. ‘Goodnight, Luca. See you in the morning.’
Luca watched the sway of her hips as she made her way to the door and felt himself twitch beneath the towel. ‘I’m having a party in a couple of weeks. Everyone from work is coming. You should too.’
Mia’s hand paused on the doorknob. ‘No,’ she said, without looking back.
One thing she knew for sure was that Luca wasn’t like any other man she’d known. In a brief time he’d got firmly under her skin and she wasn’t about to lose the upper hand to him.
There wouldn’t be a next time. Certainly not a party.
Luca’s wicked chuckle mocked her as she turned the handle and slipped out of the apartment.
Evie bustled through the deserted outpatients department at seven o’clock the next evening. She’d begged a chart from Enid Kenny, the NUM of the department earlier, who’d relinquished it only after Evie had promised faithfully to personally return it before she left for the day.
Someone else might have sent a courier but not Evie. Sister Enid Kenny was an institution around The Harbour and not to be messed with! Hence the sweet note and box of chocolates she was also clutching in her hand.
She turned right, passing a row of examination rooms on her way to Enid’s office. She noticed a light on in the far office. Voices floated out. Male voices. She frowned. Who on earth was working this late?
Then, to her utter surprise, Finn stepped out, followed by Rupert Davidson. Evie faltered and dived into the nearest exam room. Recovering quickly, she cautiously peeked around the door. In the empty department their voices carried easily and she eavesdropped unashamedly.
She watched as they shook hands and Rupert said, ‘You’re entitled to a second opinion, Finn. But you know as well as I do that the conservative approach is only a sticky plaster and you can’t keep going on like this. Surgery will have to happen at some stage.’
Then Finn nodded but even from a few metres away she could see that familiar set to his unshaven jaw. ‘Thanks, Rupert. I’ll think about it.’
And then he turned and walked away in the opposite direction.
Evie fell back against the wall of the examination room, her heart pounding. What the hell had that been about? She grappled with what she’d heard and seen, trying to make sense of it.
Finn was seeing Rupert? A neurologist? You can’t keep going on like this. Was there something wrong?
She recalled the uneasy feelings she’d had for a while now that something was up with Finn, and the rumours that he’d been wounded on a tour in Afghanistan when he’d been in the army. Had he sustained injuries during his time there? Injuries that could affect his job?
Eric Frobisher, SHH’s officious medical director, would be furious if that was the case. He and Finn already butted heads on a regular basis.
Evie drummed her fingers against the chart as curiosity and concern for Finn warred within her. She told herself it was pure collegial interest. One doctor looking out for another. Even if said doctor was the most surly and unappreciative man she’d ever met.
Making a decision, Evie waited for a couple of minutes before pushing herself off the wall and heading towards her original destination. She stopped in mid-stride as she passed the last office and blinked at Rupert with what she hoped was her very best round-eyed surprise.
‘Rupert?’ she asked. ‘What are you still doing here? Burning the candle at both ends?’
Rupert, who was writing in a chart, laughed as he put down his pen. ‘No such luck. Just a late appointment.’
Evie nodded, glancing at the chart trying to see a name. ‘Gosh, that’s dedication.’ She smiled.
Rupert shrugged. ‘It was a favour.’ He nodded at the package in her hand. ‘What about you? Those chocolates for me?’
She laughed. ‘Oh, no, these are major sucking-up chocolates for Enid.’
Rupert laughed back. ‘You’re coming to Luca’s party in a couple of weeks?’ she asked.
Rupert nodded. ‘Wouldn’t miss it for the world.’
‘Great,’ she said as she backed out the door, her head still swimming with what she’d just witnessed.
What in the hell was wrong with Finn Kennedy?