One Second After Another (The After Another Series #3) - Bethany-Kris Page 0,41

their twentieth anniversary. Tucked away on ten acres of private, wooded land that the locals of the small Connecticut town had dubbed Tori Mountain, his parents had renovated the already existing cabin into a modern, spa-like experience to use for a weekend away.

Or longer.

There was even a pool.

Underground—in the basement, partially. A section of the basement was nothing more than a glass view of the mountain and the rough, winding dirt road leading out of it.

“It’s perfect,” Penny finally replied.

Her sigh echoed.

“Maybe we could pretend here, huh?”

Luca smiled. “Yeah, maybe.”

He stayed leaning against the car, sneaky enough to shoot a text through on his phone while Penny’s back was still turned. To Naz, his words simply read, Connecticut lodge. By the time she had turned around to face him again, Luca was already tucking away the phone before she knew what happened.

Penny would worry.

But other people were already doing that, and they had been worrying about her for a long damn time. Naz had asked to be kept updated. After all the shit Luca had already hidden from his friend—and still was in the case of the man’s father—he figured he could at least do this.

What would it hurt?

He also did want Penny to just enjoy the lodge.

“And was that a stone chimney I saw?” Penny asked as he approached.

Luca laughed deeply. “Sure is—I can even light it up for you.”

“Tell me there’s a rug in front of the fireplace.”

“Bearskin, babe. Canadian black bear.”

Penny sighed again.

That time, it sounded like sin.

With tightness in his throat, all humor gone, Luca passed her by and said, “Let me get started on that, then.”

She smirked. “You better.”

IF LUCA’S LIFE DEPENDED on his ability to describe temptation, it would be the sight of Penny lounging on her side, head propped into the palm of her hand, in the middle of a large bearskin rug. The black fur surrounded her creamy curves from all angles. He immediately regretted the decision to indulge her request for wine when he dared to mention the wine cellar earlier.

Had he not went in search of the years she asked for, then his hands would still be plastered to the alabaster canvas of her skin. He’d nearly mapped all of her to his memory with nothing more than his fingertips. He knew there were more parts of her skin that were scarred and rough to the touch than perfect and silky. It would take him nothing at all to find the spots where she would shake and break the fastest.

Except he found new things to enjoy about Penny every time he had the luxury of fucking her. Something else for him to learn—because he just couldn’t help himself.

“What’s wrong?” Penny asked, falling to her back as Luca neared the side of the rug.

Chuckling to himself, he set the two wine glasses down to the floor beside the rug and then went about pouring the wine to an acceptable level in both. He’d at least had the foresight to uncork that shit downstairs and give the wine some time to breathe.

“Nothing,” he murmured.

Penny hummed under her breath, pointing a single finger at him. “Liar. You even had a little knot right there between your eyebrows like you do when you get mad ... or confused. They do a whole thing.”

Luca glanced upward, freezing as he did so, muttering, “My eyebrows do a thing?”

A whole thing, apparently.

Penny pursed her lips into a pout, saying, “Well—”

“I wasn’t mad.”

“You definitely were. The eyebrows did the thing.”

Fine.

Luca gave her a devilish smirk when he said, “I was annoyed—I could have been buried balls deep in you up here instead of digging around in the wine cellar for thirty minutes. My eyebrows must do the thing when I’m annoyed, too.”

She had not been expecting that. Not if the way her cheeks heated, and the color rushed down the delicate column of her throat to the valley between her perfect tits, was any indication.

“I love that I can still make you do that,” he told her.

Penny’s gaze narrowed playfully below him. “At least you got my wine. Even if you did suffer blue balls and shrink—”

“Hey.”

Her pealing laughter had Luca darted down to capture Penny in his arms before she could even try to get away from him.

“I was kidding!” she shrieked.

It was already too late. He had Penny’s wiggling body pinned in his arms. His fingertips raced down her side as her laughter came out higher from his tickles. He was pretty sure at least one