Chapter 19

FREYA

Luca placed his hand on the small of my back and pushed me toward the bathroom.

“Luca, no! That is not what I meant! We are not taking a shower together!”

Luca said nothing as he walked to the shower and turned it on. He came back to me and placed his hands on either side of my face.

“We can keep our underwear on if that would make you more comfortable.”

He reached down to play with the hem of my shirt, never taking his eyes from mine.

I shoved his hand away.

“No! I am not taking a shower with you!”

He wrapped his arms around me and gently brought me close to his body. He leaned down and placed a kiss on my ear.

“Just let me take care of you. Please.”

My heart melted a bit. I sucked in a breath.

“I—well, I—” I sighed, feeling defeated. “I can’t think of any excuses. But I’m keeping my underwear on and you are too!”

He smiled widely and placed a quick kiss on my lips. Then, without looking away from me, he lifted my shirt over my head and pushed my leggings down to the floor.

I stepped out of them, now wearing only my bra and panties, then looked at Luca. I felt vulnerable as his eyes roamed my body.

I tried to stay confident and to stand tall, but the longer I stood there with him just staring at my body, the more insecure I felt. What if he didn’t like the way I looked?

I wrapped my arms around my stomach and slumped my shoulders. It was so not fair that I was standing in front of him basically naked while he was still fully clothed.

“Hey, hey, hey. None of that.” He grabbed my hands and placed them back at my sides, holding them there. “Never with me, Freya. You hear me? Never with me.”

His thumbs brushed over my hands. I nodded, still feeling incredibly small standing in front of him. He kissed my forehead and then rested his chin on top of my head.

“Do you even know how beautiful you are, Freya?” he whispered.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t know how to.

“How the hell did I get so damn lucky?”

An intense blush crept up my neck. I was sure that I looked like a tomato.

Luca chuckled lowly. “I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that innocent blush of yours.”

This only made me blush more.

I took a step away from him and nervously tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Can we please just shower now?” I asked.

Luca laughed. “Those words coming out of your mouth are like music to my ears.”

I rolled my eyes and shoved his shoulder. “Just get undressed already!”

“Oh, those words are even better.” Luca wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I groaned. “Okay, that’s it! You can leave. I’m taking a shower on my own.” I shoved past him, trying to make my way to the shower.

He grabbed my wrist and tugged me back into his chest.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “No more jokes, I promise.”

I narrowed my eyes. “One more and you’re out.”

He raised his hands in surrender. He then slowly brought his hands down to the tie of his sweatpants and pulled at the strings. My eyes widened and I immediately turned around.

“Freya,” Luca said through a laugh. “You can look if you want. My body is yours just as much as your body is mine. Look all you want.”

I waved a hand dismissively without turning around.

“That’s okay,” I said nervously.

The truth was, I really did want to look, but the fact that all I wanted to do was turn around and run my eyes over his delicious abs scared the crap out of me. The intense attraction I was feeling toward him was beginning to overwhelm me. Things needed to slow down between us ~a lot~.

I was thinking this right before I was about to hop into the shower with him… Oops?

I felt his hands gently run down the sides of my rib cage in one soft, gentle motion.

A shiver went down my spine. Then I felt his hot breath on the back of my neck.

“Your loss,” he whispered into my ear.

I gasped when I felt him bend down and kiss the brand on my neck. I closed my eyes and instinctively leaned back into him, not even fully aware of my own movements.

He wrapped his arms around my middle and gave me a squeeze.

“Freya?” he asked, his face still buried in my neck.

“Mmm?” I said breathlessly.

“Are you going to get into the shower?”

“Oh,” I laughed nervously. I took a step forward, putting some distance between us. “Yeah.”

I walked to the shower and leaned in to turn it on, holding my hand in the water to test the temperature before stepping in. The hot water felt wonderful, and I groaned as my tight muscles loosened.

I heard Luca move toward me.

“Wait,” I said before he entered the shower.

I turned to look at him. I kept my gaze above his neck, refusing to let my eyes run down his delicious body like they wanted to. He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“This feels weird,” I said.

“What does?”

I let out an annoyed huff.

“Stay there,” I said.

I closed the sliding door of the shower, which, thankfully, you couldn’t see through.

Then I took a deep breath...

I lifted my hands to my back and undid the clasp of my bra, then slowly slid my panties down my legs. I knew Luca was watching me through the glass and that he could see an outline of my body because there was intense breathing coming from outside the shower.

I took my bra and underwear and threw them over the door so they hung there, dripping wet.

I looked at Luca through the glass. The outline of his body was heaving, and I could hear his deep, raking breaths.

“Well?” I asked. My voice was shaking a bit, but I tried to make it sound confident. “Are you coming?”

A groan came from the other side of the glass.

“Dear Holy Mother, give me strength,” he whispered under his breath.

There was the sound of movement and then I watched the glass slowly slide open as Luca entered the shower. I didn’t look down, but I knew that he was naked too. I gulped.

Before his eyes could glide over my body, I grabbed his chin and forced him to meet my gaze.

“Keep your eyes up here, got it? One peek and you’re out.”

He nodded his head, his eyes darkening more and more with each passing second.

I watched his eyes warily. “Are you going to turn into Bruzzatore?”

He chuckled darkly. “There’s no way I’d let him take control while you’re standing wet and naked in front of me.” He rested his hands on my waist, never breaking eye contact.

I swallowed.

“Turn around, ~il mio amore~,” he whispered. “Let me take care of you.”

He turned me by my waist and then gently pressed my back into his body.

I gasped when I made contact with his, you know, um, ~thing~, and he let out a deep hiss of desire.

I tried to take a step forward, but he tightened his hold on me and let out a ~tut tut~. I froze when he reached for the shampoo.

“I can wash myself.”

“No. It is customary in Italian-American culture for ~destinos~ to bathe each other. Plus, I desperately want to clean you and care for you. Just let it happen.”

I breathed out and nodded. “Okay.”

I noticed that he grabbed the men’s shampoo instead of the hotel’s.

“You should use the hotel shampoo instead. I don’t want to smell like a guy,” I said.

“No,” Luca said sharply. “I want you smelling like me as much as possible. This is the shampoo I use.”

I nodded again, not really having the energy to argue with him.

He squirted some shampoo into his hand and brought his fingers up to my hair. He worked the shampoo all throughout my hair, kneading his fingers into my skull.

I moaned loudly as all the tension left my body.

I leaned into his touch and closed my eyes in absolute bliss. He moved me to rinse out the shampoo and then repeated the process with conditioner. Then he grabbed a bar of soap and lathered up my body.

He massaged the soap into every inch of my body. I slapped his hands away whenever he tried to touch any area that would be considered a little too personal.

He’d just chuckle playfully and then move on to another part of my body. When he was done, he eased me under the water and washed away all the soap.

I turned and looked into his eyes. He touched my cheek gently.

“You have no clue how badly I want to kiss you right now.”

I shifted my weight. “After I clean you,” I said, reaching for the shampoo.

“You don’t have to do that. I will probably need a cold shower after this, anyway.” His voice was deep, much huskier than normal.

I shook my head, trying not to let his words affect me too much.

I grabbed the shampoo and squeezed some into my palm, rubbing it into a lather.

I wanted to do for Luca what he’d done for me.

I reached up and massaged the shampoo in his hair. Luca hissed out his approval and gripped my waist tightly. His height was making it hard to do a good job.

“You’re too tall,” I grumbled. “Bend down.”

He smirked. “My pleasure.”

He lowered to his knees so that his face was right in front of my stomach.

~Well, that is not what I wanted him to do.~ I’d thought he was just going to bend down so I had better access to his hair.

“You’re not keeping your eyes where I told you to keep them,” I said. The steam in here must’ve been messing with my brain because I definitely wasn’t thinking straight.

“I’m aware,” he said, not moving an inch. I huffed.

As weird as it may have seemed, I wasn’t angry or embarrassed about being in a shower with Luca. Being so close to him just felt natural—like second nature.

He placed his hands on my hips as I continued to massage the shampoo into his hair. Groaning softly, he rested his forehead on my stomach.

He gripped my hips harder when I used my nails to scratch around his scalp.

I grabbed the detachable showerhead and held it over his hair to rinse out all the shampoo. As I was about to put the conditioner in his hair, he started kissing around my belly button.

I shoved his face away a bit.

“Stop,” I laughed out as he playfully rubbed his nose around my stomach. “You’re being very distracting.”

“I’m aware,” he said again and continued kissing me.

I huffed in annoyance but went back to conditioning his hair.

When I was finally done, I took a step away from him. He gave me a dark look, as if I was taking away his favorite toy.

“Stand up so I can wash the rest of your body,” I said.

He did as I said but grabbed my hand gently before I could start putting soap on his body.

“As much as I would love to have your soapy little fingers running up and down my body, I don’t think Bruzzatore or I can take any more of this sweet torture. Not without doing something that we might regret.”

“Oh,” I said. I looked away from him, unable to meet his heated gaze. “Okay.”

He gave me a gentle peck on the lips and then turned off the shower.

He stepped out before me and came back with a towel wrapped tightly around his waist and another in his hand. I stood there covering all of my important bits as he approached me with a gentle expression. He wrapped the towel around my shoulders.

His hand came up and brushed my wet hair out of my face.

“Well, that was the best shower I’ve ever had,” he said.

I laughed. “Of course you would say that. I’m sure you say that to all the girls you bring into the shower with you.”

I felt my shoulders hunch at my words. I didn’t like the idea of him being with other girls.

“No. Only with you.”

I met his eyes. He smiled.

“How about we get dressed, get some food, rest, and then go tour around Naples? Have you ever been here before?”

I shook my head. “Not since I was little and only for about a day. I didn’t see anything.”

He smiled widely. “Well, I’m going to give you the true Italian experience.”