can. I got you a room.” Fishing the second card out of my pocket, I gave it to Luis. “Didn’t know if you’d want it, but it’s yours.”
“I’m going to set up on watch, but thanks, I appreciate it. You should probably go see to her, she’s getting impatient.” He handed me her overnight bag.
I glanced back just in time to see the curtain twitch. “I will.” My lips curved. “But first, I need to know… how is she? Really?”
“It’s been less than a week. Ask me again in a month.” Luis’ expression hardened. He cared for Arianne, that much was obvious. But part of me sensed he disagreed with how we were handling things.
“Go, be with her. We can talk tomorrow.”
“Call me if there’s any problems,” I said, slowly backing up toward the door.
“Same goes for you.”
I watched him double back to the SUV, before entering the room. There was nothing special about it: it had four walls, a small bathroom, a queen-sized bed, and a few other pieces of furniture. But it could have been a hovel for all I cared. Because sitting there, on the edge of the bed, was the girl who held my heart in the palm of her hands.
“Bambolina.” It fell from my lips on a whispered sigh, as I dropped the bag.
Arianne got up and came to me, pressing her hand against my cheek. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
Inhaling a ragged breath, I drew her into my chest, holding her. “I had to see you.”
“I know.” She laid her palms on my chest, staring up at me with so much emotion, I felt winded.
I brushed a stray hair from her face, tracing the lines of her face. Arianne’s breath hitched as I let my fingers glide down the slope of her neck. “Kiss me.”
She complied, pushing up on her tiptoes and giving me her lips. I cupped her face with two hands, sweeping my tongue into her mouth, tangling it with her own. She tasted like love and promise.
She tasted like home.
“Nicco,” she moaned softly, fitting herself closer. I kept kissing her. Peppering her face with tiny desperate kisses, licking and nibbling the skin beneath her ear. I wanted to paint every inch of her with my lips, brand her with my touch. The need to have her burned through me, a wildfire no amount of water could douse.
“God, Bambolina. I want you, I want you so fucking much.”
Her hands slipped to the hem of my sweater, dipping underneath and finding my warm skin. Arianne explored my stomach, my abs and chest. Taking her time to trace every hard ridge and taut dip. “I’ve missed you so much,” she breathed the words against the corner of my mouth. Her voice was thick with lust and want.
“I want to lie you down on the bed, strip the clothes from your body and make you mine in every way possible.”
“Yes,” she moaned, her hands dropping to the waistband of my jeans. “Make love to me, Nicco.”
I snagged her wrist, holding it between us as I lowered my face to hers, staring into her honey-brown eyes. “We have time.”
I didn’t ask her here for this, no matter how badly I wanted her. We needed to talk. Arianne needed to understand the situation. But she was staring at me with such intensity, I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to resist.
“Nicco, what it is?” Her eyes clouded with uncertainty.
I cupped her face, brushing my thumb over her cheek. “It shouldn’t be like this. You deserve so much, Arianne, you don’t deserve this.” Guilt snaked through me, coiling around my heart as my eyes shuttered on a harsh breath.
“Nicco,” Arianne smoothed her fingers over my jaw. “Look at me.”
I opened my eyes and she smiled. God, her smile. It was enough to bring me to my knees.
“My life has never been my own, I realize that now. I have been groomed for a life I never asked for, a life I don’t want. I thought going to MU was the start of my freedom, the start of me choosing my own path.”
A tear slipped down her face and I swiped it away with my thumb.
“But it was all a lie. Until you. I choose you, Nicco. I choose a life... with you.”
I leaned down, touching my head to hers. “There was never a choice where you were concerned.”
I knew that now.
Something had changed in me that night Arianne stumbled across me and Bailey in the alley. I’d wanted