“Thank you,” I call as I lift my hand and wave.
His eyes widen and he dips his chin, but his lips twitch out of the corner of my eye. Massimo turns the corner, so I face forward and hurry behind him, attempting to keep up so that I’m not dragged.
We hurry into the elevator car and I watch as Massimo slips what looks like a credit card into a slot. Then he touches the very top number on the keypad. I don’t ask him what he’s doing. I don’t want to look like the naïve girl that I clearly am.
Silently, we stand next to one another as the elevator climbs to the top. Massimo doesn’t step out immediately, instead, he bends down and scoops me up in his arms. His feet carry us as I slip my arms around his neck.
He reaches a door and without using the plastic card, he just turns a handle and opens it. He carries me over the threshold and something inside of me warms at the thought of this man, this virtual stranger, caring enough that he wants to give me a sweet wedding night tradition.
“Thank you, Massimo,” I whisper.
He doesn’t respond to me right away, he doesn’t even put me down immediately. Instead, he turns to the left and starts to climb stairs. Stairs. I didn’t even know hotel rooms had stairs. When we’re up the two-floor staircase, only then does he slowly let me down to my feet.
Turning me around, I gasp as I see the city ahead of me. There are millions of little twinkling lights coming from the buildings, and then there’s water, and lights across the East River as I look toward New York.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper.
Massimo hums behind me. His lips touch the side of my neck as his fingers grip my waist on each side. I can feel his hard body against me, his length pressing into my lower back. He doesn’t make a move, doesn’t even shift his hands as he stands behind me.
“I don’t have another woman, Pippa. Only you. I cannot promise you that we will have a perfect life. I cannot promise you anything, except two things. One, your sister will always have a home wherever we are. Two, I will try to do my best by you.”
Turning around in his arms, I tilt my head back and lift my hands, cupping each side of his neck.
“Why?” I ask. “Why will you try your best?”
His lips twitch, his eyes, they’re dark, but they twinkle with the city lights behind us. “Because, dolcezza. I have never had a gift quite like you before. I have never had something that I’ve dreamt about, but thought was completely out of my reach. I have that now. I have you, and I want your smiles. I want them aimed right at me.”
“My smiles?” I ask.
He grins, though it doesn’t reach his eyes, and I vow to myself that one day it will. I’ll make his smile reach those dark eyes. I’ll make him belly laugh the way that Carlo did. I’ll give him beautiful laugh crinkles next to his eyes and gorgeous lines around his mouth.
I will do that for him, not because he’s some perfectly good man, but because I think that he needs it and maybe if I do that for him, he’ll be the man that I need him to be for me. It’s selfish, though aren’t we all, by human nature, selfish?
If I make him happy, if I give him everything he needs, everything he desires, then maybe, just maybe, he’ll give me everything I need in return.
Chapter Ten
PIPPA
My entire body trembles with nervousness. I know what he expects, what will happen soon. He wants to be inside of me, make me his wife in body as he has done in name. My jittery arm lifts, my shaky fingers touch his black tie.
Massimo lifts his hand, wrapping his strong fingers around my wrist. My eyes are focused on his unwavering ones. He’s not nervous, not in the slightest. He’s completely cool, calm, and collected. No doubt because he’s done this more than once, more than a dozen times, I’m sure.
“Are you scared?” he asks, his voice low and even.
Pressing my lips together, I think about his question. Scared? No. Terrified? Yes. Nervous? Absolutely.
Letting my breath out in a whoosh, I shake my head. “I’m more worried than anything,” I admit.
He tilts his head to the side. “Worried?”
Nodding my head slowly, I don’t break eye contact with him. Lifting my other arm, I curl my fingers around the side of his neck. Inhaling a deep breath, I shift closer to him, my chest pressing against his own.
“Yeah, if I’m not what you want? What you need? Then what happens to me?”
He jerks his body back, his eyes wide as if he hadn’t thought about that. He made me his wife and he has no clue if I’ll be what he wants me to be in bed. Sex is important. I may be innocent in some ways, but I do know that money and sex are the two main reasons people divorce.
“You’ll be what I need, dolcezza,” he rasps.
“How do you know?”
His lips twitch into a grin. “Because I’ll make sure you are exactly what I expect. You’ll learn to crave the way I touch you. My hands, my body, my lips, they will be all you’ll ever know, and, in the end, you’ll do what I want the way I want it, therefore pleasing me completely.”
“Massimo,” I breathe, my entire body breaking out into a shiver.
He lifts my hand, his fingers still curled around my wrist, to his mouth. My lips part as he touches the pads of my fingers with just a light brush. Then he guides my hand to the middle of his chest before he slowly slides it down the center of his torso until it’s inches from his crotch.
“Massimo,” I say on an exhale.
His eyes turn to liquid, they darken to black before my eyes. He moves my hand so that my palm is resting against his slacks, right where his hard length rests beneath his pants. My fingers flex, curling around him. I have nothing to compare it to, aside from what I’d heard my friends talk about, but he seems big to me.
Massimo lowers his head, my hand still wrapped around his neck. My body is frozen, I can’t move as his lips gently touch mine. He doesn’t lift his mouth from my own before he speaks.
“We have to learn one another’s bodies, Pippa. Discover what we need, what we like. The good thing is that we have a lifetime to learn, yeah?”
I can’t speak, instead, I just exhale a whimper. He chuckles softly, his tongue tasting my bottom lip.
“There is so much to learn too, la mia sposa and I aim to be your patient teacher.”
His mouth moves from mine, his lips brushing my cheek before they move to just below my ear. My eyes flutter closed as he tastes my neck. His lips, his tongue, and even his teeth slide across my skin.
“Please, Massimo,” I sigh.
He hums against my flesh, nipping me as he moves down to my collarbone where my dress neckline hits. “Please, what?” he asks.
My entire body shudders, my hand moves and my fingers curl around the back of his neck. My fingers twist in his hair. It’s the same length it was three years ago, it looks as though it still needs a trim, but I like it.
“Please teach me, marito,” I moan.
Without another word, he takes a step back. I feel the loss of his warm, strong body against mine like a living, breathing thing and I wonder how I already feel so close to him? How I already miss and want his touch.
My breath hitches when he lifts his hands, his fingers curling around my shoulder and he slowly spins me so that my back is against his chest. He gathers my hair and slips it over one shoulder, exposing my back to him.