night.
I get up, deciding to take a shower, thoughts of Grace rolling through me until I have to get off again. It’s been a long time since I last slept with someone, and now my body is firing on all cylinders, a slumbering beast that’s been awakened.
When I step out of the shower, I get changed, and glance at the time. It’s seven thirty, perhaps a little too early to wake Grace. After we fucked in the studio, we ended up going our separate ways to sleep. I could tell that she had a lot on her mind, and I wasn’t going to push it, especially as Vanni could easily catch us with the other in bed. The boy doesn’t knock when it comes to me.
But when I head down the hall to her room, her door is already open a crack.
“Grace?” I call out quietly before pushing it open.
Her bed is made, the room empty.
Hmmm.
I head downstairs, checking the study, then go to the kitchen.
No sign of her.
I step out the back, thinking she might be in the pool for some reason, when I see her sitting at the veranda, her back to me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her up this early and it makes me uneasy somehow. As if last night disrupted something.
“Buongiorno,” I say to her as I walk across the grass, hands in my pockets.
She turns to look at me, giving me a quick smile, before focusing back on her laptop.
“Uh oh,” I say, coming over to her. “I’ve interrupted something.”
I put my hand on her neck and lean in for a kiss, but she instantly jerks her head back.
Feels like I’ve been kicked in the stomach, to be honest.
“Sorry, sorry,” she says softly, eyes darting everywhere. “I just … Vanni could see us.”
I look back at the house. Vanni is most likely still asleep.
But from the frightened look in her eyes, I’m not going to press her.
I drop my hand and step back, swallowing my discomfort.
“Forgive me,” I say, displaying my palms.
Her face softens. “I’m sorry. I just … I need to figure things out first.”
I angle my head, staring at her, wondering where she’s coming from.
“What do you need to figure out? We had sex last night, yes? There is no mystery there. Certainly no mystery of whether you enjoyed it or not.”
I can still hear her low, breathy cries as they echoed around the studio.
She rubs her lips together, pink staining her cheeks. “I know.”
“Don’t tell me you thought it was a mistake,” I say teasingly. I keep an easy smile on my face, though I know I’ll lose it in a moment if she agrees.
Her eyes widen and she shakes her head, taking her hands off her keyboard and putting them in her lap. “Not a mistake. I just need to … move past it.”
My brows go up. Move past it?
“Don’t tell me you want to pretend it didn’t happen.” I decide to push her, make that blush deepen. “I know my cock is all you can think about.”
Yes. There it is, the pink spreading across her face and now her chest.
“Claudio,” she whispers. “I…”
I walk around and sit down across the table from her, folding my hands on it, fingers steepled. “I am going to pretend that last night I fucked a few brain cells loose so that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Grace, why on earth would you move past that? Why not think about it? Revel in it? I know that’s what I’ll keep doing until it happens again.” I pause, reading her tense body language. “I get the feeling that I might be waiting for a while … if you feel shame.”
She exhales loudly through her nose and gives me a pointed look before shutting her laptop. “I’m not ashamed. I’m sorry. I just … I don’t want to ruin what we have and I really don’t want to make things complicated between you and me and Vanni. Not to mention Jana.”
“Jana isn’t a part of this conversation. Neither is Vanni.”
“But he’s your son.”
“He is. And I love him. I would do anything for him. And I have. But right now, what you and I share, our bodies, it does not involve him. So you can stop worrying about him. Okay?” I place my hand palm up on the table, gesturing for her to give me hers. “This is about you and me, Grace. That is it. That is all. That is enough.”
She hesitates