Penny beamed at the woman behind the desk. “Me, too. Especially since they lost our stuff. How do you do that in a hotel, anyway?”
Sabrina, according to her nametag, only shrugged when she replied, “Sometimes, things just happen. I was happy to figure something out for you here instead. It all worked out in the end.”
Right, Luca thought.
By worked out the woman meant she had allowed Luca and Penny to rent a room in the hotel for the night—but likely more—all based on a lie. Because they didn’t have identification, at least he didn’t have a fake ID, and Penny hadn’t carried anything on her for the night except what she absolutely needed to. He had twenty-five hundred dollars in hundreds inside his wallet, and money spoke louder than any words they could say, anyway.
Penny made up the lie.
They got the room.
“And here is your keycard—have a good night!”
Penny took the sleek, silver card from the short, redhead with another smile. “Thank you.”
Luca scanned the front entrance of the hotel, slightly uncomfortable with the amount of glass that allowed him a decent view of the street outside. They were far enough inside the business that even if someone did recognize them, they would probably need a second look. He would have preferred a hotel with a less open reception, but maybe that was Penny’s point.
She didn’t actually hide. Everyone was looking for her where she couldn’t be found.
“Mr. Titchens?”
Luca’s distraction cost him the sight of Penny heading for the elevator. The receptionist gave him a smile—probably thinking he was tired and over the entire day after the tale Penny spun for the woman—and then nodded after the piece of art currently looking back over her shoulder at him. The wavy, textured length of her white-blonde hair fell down to her mid-back, swaying just over the spot where he knew she had two dimples above the curve of her backside. But her ass was still quite a sight covered in tight, black cargo pants.
It wasn’t even the time.
He had better—far more important—things to focus on other than how hard he could get just watching Penny walk away from him. Except he couldn’t think about anything else but that because Luca was fucked.
Penny winked and tilted her chin in a silent demand for him to follow. He shook his head with a chuckle, not even bothered by the fact she watched him check her out without shame. Why should he be? Look at her.
She was still there.
Still real.
Things were already looking up.
13.
Penny
LUCA wasn’t a loud man—never had been—and it was one of the things Penny liked about him the most. He was such a presence without actually making himself present. He didn’t fill the silence when someone else was quiet. She couldn’t even remember a time when he had tried to take center stage ahead of anyone in his life.
He reminded her of a pillar. Fortitude in the storm. Strength under pressure. Everything that she was sure he didn’t even realize about himself. Because why would he—the man was too busy trying to make the rest of the world happy instead of taking care of himself.
She was part of that, too.
Penny knew it.
She also knew Luca would never tell her that, so when he was quiet in the elevator ride up to the room she had managed to snag for the night, his presence felt heavier to her. Not for any particular reason that she could pinpoint; his face gave nothing away when those shadowy green-blue eyes of his darted her way.
He just ... was.
Maybe he did want to fill the silence. She could feel the way his gaze crawled over 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.