her as the elevator moved higher—beyond the third floor. A slow trek upward. She decided to say something for Luca. Or perhaps she just couldn’t take the quietness anymore.
“You can’t go back to your apartment,” she said, wishing her voice had more strength to it and less ... quiver. Luca’s stare jumped from the spot where it had been lingering on the column of her neck to meet hers. “It’s not safe. Especially if someone connects you to me tonight and—”
“I get it.”
Penny nodded once. If he didn’t want to argue about it, then she was grateful. “Thanks. It’ll still be there when this is over.”
The hint of a smirk teased his features when he asked, “But what does that even mean—when this is over? What’s over, Penny?”
She really wished there was an answer. At least, one that would satisfy him.
But ... “I don’t know. But it will be over. Someday.”
It had to be.
She was kind of banking on that now.
The headiness of her sadness filled up Penny’s chest without warning. She didn’t want to be sad—couldn’t afford an emotion with consequences that had always left her hurt and bleeding in the past. In one way or another.
“Hey,” she heard him say.
He was still watching her. Probably wouldn’t let her out of his sight, she knew. Strangely, she was okay with that.
She thought he had something to tell her—like he was reading her mind—but instead, his hand reached for hers. It started with nothing more than the graze of his pinky against hers. Just the tip, and then the side of the digit brushing hers softly. It took nothing for her to slide her palm in alongside his. Their fingers wove tight, and she watched how well his hand fit with hers.
Still silent, he was the pillar.
There was only one thing she thought about in that moment—one she really wanted. It certainly wasn’t the time, and she had too many other things to focus on except getting Luca Puzza closer to her, but she didn’t care.
Not one bit.
Penny only needed to tug gently on Luca’s hand to make him close the space between them, but there was nothing gentle about his approach. She didn’t mind it at all when he crowded her and backed her hard into the elevator wall. His hand stayed tangled with hers while his other hand came up to flatten against her throat. That tempting mouth of his, never hesitating, meet hers in a kiss that had her heart thumping viciously for more.
His kiss was hungry.
Mouth, and teeth, and tongue.
His palm at her throat flexed when the elevator dared to jump before coming to a stop. Not that it separated the two of them. The weight of him was substantial, keeping Penny pinned in place to melt against a man she didn’t mind letting haunt her dreams.
He smelled like leather and man—like the city and smoke and them. Every strike of his tongue against hers took away another breath from her lungs until the organ ached for any kind of relief.
Between kisses and hard exhales, she managed to whisper, “We’re on our floor, and—”
Luca pulled away all at once, but he dragged her with him, yanking her between the closing elevator doors in the very last second. All she saw was him looking back at her while they headed down the hall.
That was perfect.
He was all she wanted to see, anyway.
PENNY DIDN’T REALLY remember how they made their way into the shower, but the hot water pelted at her chest while Luca’s hands did wonderful things to her thighs. His deft fingers worked into knots she didn’t even realize had been keeping her muscles tight until he got every single one of them out. Her little moans of relief drowned in the waterfall spray of water overhead.
“Good?”
Penny smiled, her eyes still closed when she felt his hands dance lower to her calves. “Better.”
“How many miles have you clocked?”
On her feet?
In the past week, too many. More than she ever would again. It was just faster to walk to get where she wanted to go—the subway did the major distance, but even still, she didn’t regret investing in boots for work that didn’t do a number on her feet.
“A lot,” she settled on saying.
Luca hummed a dark and delicious sound that had Penny opening her eyes. He was quite a sight kneeled down in front of her, naked, back wet with water droplets and skin pebbled from the cold air. He wasn’t under the spray like she