Our Little Secret Read online

  And quiet means temporarily out of trouble.

  I left her changing for the pool, where all the guests are gathering for an afternoon of fun and food, and escaped to my room to call Dante back. He should have been here by now but his call this morning was to let me know that Nonna had had a fall and it had delayed their trip to the airport. Cue missed flights and the rigmarole of having to source new ones, as well as making sure Nonna was still fit to fly. Turns out her own stubborn refusal to accept aid down the stairs resulted in her little accident and Dante getting a flustered apology from Nonna and an ear-bashing from his own mother, my Aunt Netta.

  As for Aunt Netta herself, no sooner had I cut the call than the phone had rung again, with Netta herself informing me that, regardless of what her sister Marianna had told her, she was bringing her plus-one, and if her sister didn’t like it she could shove her phone where the sun don’t shine. And, me being me, I said yes. Yes, to get her off the phone, and yes, to rile my mother more—which is damn stupid but, the way my head is throbbing, I’m passed caring about my mother’s petty issues.

  And, truth is, I have a PA who could deal with all this chaos, even the kind caused by my mother. Hell, even the wedding planner would have stepped in. But it’s my family, my mess, my responsibility. No one else deserves the aggro of it, or the embarrassment.

  So here I am, at two o’clock in the afternoon, sinking a grappa and contemplating hiding for the rest of the day, even though I can’t. The wedding itinerary says ‘dive and dine poolside’—yes, in those exact words—and that’s what I’ll do. I’ve yet to greet the latest arrivals—Tyler’s parents and his best man, Harry, who I’ve met many a time before, but not his wedding date.

  Plus... Faye will be there.

  My blood fires of its own accord and I head for the third cold shower of the day. One pre-Faye, one post-Faye and now pre-Faye-in-a-swimsuit.

  I blame it entirely on the impromptu end to our fun. To the memory of her coming hard against my mouth and having to let her leave without sinking myself deep inside her and achieving my release.

  She certainly got hers.

  Me...

  I’m left in this state of semi-arousal that makes donning a pair of swim trunks wholly unadvisable. And yet necessary.

  I take a deep breath and hit the cold jets, all with a sense of déjà vu and the acceptance that it won’t be the last time I try to freeze my head out of my pants this week.

  Faye is different. My reaction to her is different. And that makes her a problem.

  A problem I don’t know how to fix...other than to try to get my fill of her.

  * * *

  I squint into the full-length mirror in my room. It’s okay if I do that. The sheer mesh panels in the front of my swimsuit merge into a more opaque, solid colour and my skin’s not so on show. Damn Dani and her outrageous tastes.

  Or maybe I should curse the fizz we consumed during our trip to the exclusive swimwear boutique she took us to. We had the entire place to ourselves, three sales assistants and more attention than I knew what to do with.

  But the result...

  I peak through one eye. It’s not that bad. I turn in the mirror and eye my rear; that’s perfectly sedate. Yes, just focus on the rear, not the front, not the barely concealed curve to each breast, the nipple just about hidden. One wrong move and—

  My phone pings on the bedside table and I lunge for it, eyeing the swimsuit positioning after the boldness of the move and finding my nipples still have their dignity. That’s something at least...

  I look to the phone. It’s a text from Dani:

  Come on, slow coach, I’m waiting. Dante’s just arrived, and I can’t wait to see his eyes pop out of his sockets at your...

  I shut the screen down without reading the rest, my cheeks flushing crimson. This is wild. Too wild. And she’s incorrigible.

  But I love her. And she’s right to nag. I shouldn’t be wasting time standing in front of the mirror, fretting about the revealing swimsuit. This is all part of the new me and, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that being daring pays off big time. I recall Rafael between my legs, tonguing me deep, his eyes wild, my climax wilder still. Hell, yeah, I totally need to embrace the new me.

  And if I can get more of that then, yes—yes, please.

  Just keep it discreet, Faye.

  The warning is very real. I don’t want to upset Dani and I certainly don’t want to steal her thunder this week of all weeks, but when am I going to have another opportunity like this, with a man such as Rafael?

  As for the erection he’d been sporting, that very impressive erection he never got to satisfy, well, I owe him...and I can’t wait to pay up.

  My thighs clench, my clit pulses and my nipples perk up, their pebble-shaped mounds obvious through the thin fabric of the bathing suit. Oh, God. I can hardly go to the Dive and Dine with a full-on booby boner! I go to rub them and stop; that isn’t going to help. I pull my top away and blow down at the blushing pink tips, as though that will somehow douse their heat. Nope. They are pert and alert. All ready for their next Rafael encounter...

  I scan the room and spy my vibrant red kimono tossed over the back of a chair. I slip it on; it’s light and sheer but it’ll help detract from the twin peaks situation below. I grab my straw bag from the bed which contains my latest romance read, my phone and my oversized shades. I pull out the latter and slip them on; next comes my wide-brimmed hat and I’m ready for anything.

  Even the hot and sizzling Rafael Perez.

  My smile nudges my cheeks into the rim of my shades. I wonder how he’s feeling right now? I mean, I’m needy and my nipples are more than willing to demonstrate just how much. But Rafael... That erection...

  My body gives an excited little shiver.

  It’s Dante who Dani wants you to be all hot on, my conscience reminds me.

  But it’s hardly my fault I saw Rafael first...

  * * *

  She’s not here yet. It’s the first thought to enter my head as I arrive at the pool and the pang of disappointment is as surprising as it is strong. I rake a hand through my hair and shake my head at my crazy behaviour.

  ‘Hey, don’t you be shaking your head at me, polpetto.’ Nonna wags a finger up at me from her temporary wheelchair as Dante pushes her towards me. They’ve just arrived too.

  ‘I wouldn’t dare.’ I grin down at her enough to make her blush. It’s good to know my smile hasn’t lost its charm after all these years. ‘It’s good to see you, Nonna.’

  I lean down and press a kiss to her cheeks.

  ‘And you.’ She slaps the arms of her chair and gives it a good shake. ‘Maybe you can tell Dante I don’t need this blasted thing.’

  ‘If you’d listened to Dante in the first place, you wouldn’t be in it now.’

  ‘Don’t start that argument again, cousin.’ Dante gives me a neck-slicing gesture above her head. I’m guessing he’s had this the entire journey and is more than ready to call it quits.

  ‘I take it back.’ I give his back a welcome pounding. ‘It’s good to see you too. But, Nonna, you should be making the most of it. Your entire family at your beck and call for a week? What more could you want?’

  ‘More of a family, raggazzo mio.’ I walked right into that one. ‘It’s wrong that there are so few of us. Call us Italians.’ She shakes her head vigorously, tsking away. ‘Not a single great-grandchild between you...or a wife, for that matter. What’s wrong with the pair of you?’

  I meet Dante’s eye and know he’s suppressing an eye-roll. It’s the same at every family gathering and it’s getting old. Dante is still enjoying his freedom too much and I never intend to go down that road. Ever.

  ‘In that case, this wedding must make you very happy indeed.’ I take the focus off us and put it squarely on Dani, who is currently making out with Tyler on the same cabana Faye used
last night. Try as I might not to think of it, my brain projects the teasing image anyway and makes me glad of Nonna’s presence. There’s nothing like your grandmother to keep your hormones in check.

  Dante grins wide, his eyes finding them too. ‘I have a feeling your dreams for more great-grandchildren will soon be satisfied.’

  I send him a look.

  But Nonna laughs, all wistful and happy. ‘Yes, they look happy. Very happy, just like me and Nonno once were...’ And then she frowns, her eyes sweeping the area. Tyler’s parents are sitting at the bar under the shade of a vine-covered pergola. Harry, the best man, is swimming laps, while a blonde who I assume is his date is stretched out on a sun lounger with a glass in one hand and a magazine in the other. Nonna’s eyes narrow as she looks back to my cousin. ‘Where’s your sister and her family?’

  ‘They’re arriving tomorrow. Less time for the kids to cause chaos, if I’m to interpret my sister’s reasoning correctly.’

  ‘Wise.’ She nods. ‘And Antonietta... Marianna...where are they? Surely they can be trusted to be here by now?’

  I grimace. I’m not sure I trust them any more than the kids.

  ‘Mamma will be joining us for dinner this evening,’ Dante supplies, eyeing me warily. I know he’s thinking the same.

  ‘And Marianna is just getting changed. She’ll be down soon enough.’

  I don’t need to look to know Nonna’s scowling. It’s not just Dante and me sensing the war about to rage. The last time they were both under the same roof, all hell broke loose.

  But this will be different, I mentally reason. This week they have Dani’s happiness to put first. And, as if she senses my thoughts, my sister turns in our direction.

  ‘Ah, Nonnina!’ Her smile lights up her face as she rises up from the bed and tugs at Tyler’s hand to bring him with her. ‘At last! What did you do with her, Dante? You were supposed to be here hours ago...and what’s this?’

  She places her hand on the arm of the wheelchair and leans in to kiss Nonna, squeezing her tight.

  ‘Never you mind what this is, I’m perfectly fine without it!’ She tries to stand and winces. ‘Okay, maybe I get up later.’

  She plonks herself back down and Dani turns to Dante, embracing him with a beaming smile. ‘So glad you’re here, cousin!’

  But her eyes gesture back to Nonna and the chair. Dante gives her a warning look and she gets the message quicker than me.

  ‘Nonnina, you remember Tyler?’

  ‘Of course I do.’

  Tyler leans down and plants a kiss on my grandmother’s cheek. ‘It’s lovely to see you again, Greta.’

  ‘Ah, nonsense...’ Her cheeks flush. ‘It’s Nonna to you now.’

  I’m already tuning out, my eyes back on the path behind us. Where is she? She doesn’t strike me as the fashionably late type, looking to make an entrance. Unlike my mother.

  ‘You okay, Raf?’

  It’s Dani who asks, her frown curious as I look back to her. How long had I zoned out for?

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘We’re just taking Nonna over to the shade.’

  I nod and watch them go, save for Dante, who lets out a huge sigh.

  ‘That bad, eh?’ I say.

  He shakes his head. ‘Would you object if I go and swim in a vat of grappa?’

  I laugh. ‘Only if you don’t leave me to deal with this alone.’

  ‘Families, eh? Who’d have one?’

  ‘Not me, that’s for certain.’

  He eyes me and I feel the question burning, the one that comes out at every family function from young relations and old alike. I head for the bar before he has a chance to ask it. I am, after all, forty-two, and showing no sign of settling down any time soon.

  ‘Now, about that grappa...’

  He chuckles after me and we join Tyler’s parents at the bar. I do the introductions and, as they talk, my eyes go back to the path, searching, anticipating... And then I see it: a flash of red on the sloped path that runs from the house to the pool. I catch glimpses between the trees: a red kimono blowing in the breeze, long, tanned legs, a straw bag under one arm, fashionably large shades and a wide-brimmed sun hat. My pulse picks up; my eyes are transfixed.

  I follow her progress until finally she’s at the other end of the pool, surveying her surroundings. Her eyes behind her shades meet mine. I know they do, as her head dips just a little and her lips curve up. Is she wearing red lipstick too, or is it a trick of the light, the sun reflecting her bright kimono?

  I get a nudge from behind and a murmured, ‘Who’s Red?’

  I flick Dante a look and see his eyes fixed on her, as well as the intent behind them. Just as I predicted. And my blood fires with it.

  It? What’s it?

  It’s not jealousy. I don’t get jealous.

  ‘She’s the maid of honour.’

  ‘Really?’ He gives a low whistle close to my shoulder, discreet enough for only me to hear. ‘This wedding just got a whole lot more interesting.’

  I have the overwhelming urge to call dibs.

  To call dibs. Gesù!

  I reach past Dante to take up the freshly poured grappa he’s just been served and throw it back.

  ‘Hey...’ He’s not watching her now; he’s frowning at me. ‘Get your own.’

  ‘Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from.’ I’m already crossing the poolside...

  Getting there first isn’t quite as obvious as calling dibs.

  It’s merely polite behaviour befitting the host—even if no one knows I own this place. No one except the woman in red inspiring all manner of illicit thoughts.

  * * *

  I’m staring intently at Dani as I arrive, but every fibre of my being is aware of Rafael. He’s moving in the same direction, his eyes pinned on me, burning into me, and even if the sun were behind a cloud I’d feel just as on fire.

  He’s changed out of his clothes from earlier and into a light shirt, unbuttoned, and a pair of—I swallow—swimming briefs. Holy fuck. He’s like a swimwear model and he’s coming straight for me. I struggle to draw breath, struggle even more when a breeze threatens to take my hat with it, and I pin it back in place, which frees my kimono to open up around me, instantly calling attention to every exposed inch. Mesh panel, or not.

  I pretend not to notice the slight falter in his stride, the flare in his eyes, or the fact that I feel more eyes drawn to me from the bar, and from the blonde that I know to be Harry’s date for the week.

  Why, oh why, did I buy this thing?

  ‘Faye!’ Dani straightens up from where she’s been bent over a lady in a wheelchair who is dressed top-to-toe in black. Dani. She’s the reason I bought it. And her white swimsuit—which, to be fair, is even more revealing than mine—screams ‘the lady of the moment’ and I can hardly kill her now. On her wedding week.

  ‘It’s about time you got down here,’ she admonishes, walking towards me, her grin wide as she gives me a quick once-over. Her eyebrows do the same little waggle she pulled off in the swimwear boutique as she declared an impending end to my sex drought.

  If only she knew the truth. I hadn’t required swimwear to sort it... I swallow. It hadn’t been the man she’d had in mind either.

  ‘Sorry!’ It’s a bit high-pitched and I smile more brightly and force my shoulders to relax as I embrace her and give her a peck to both cheeks. My eyes are drawn to Rafael, who is still heading in the same direction, before I snap them back to her. ‘Just plucking up the courage to come out in this thing.’

  She gives a flighty laugh. ‘You’re kidding, right? You look hot as...’

  She hooks her arm through mine. ‘You must come and meet my grandmother. She’s heard so much about you.’

  Yes, the grandmother—not the suave, sophisticated, too-hot-for-words older brother who’s ab
out to join us.

  ‘Ah, and my brother too. Did you find him earlier?’

  ‘Yes.’ My voice hitches and I pray she doesn’t notice. ‘We...we talked about your mother. Everything’s sorted on that front.’

  At least I hope it is...

  ‘Ah, thank you.’ She leans in conspiratorially. ‘Well, now I can introduce him properly. Just remember, he’s not the ogre he first appears to be.’

  ‘Ogre, right.’ My giggle is loaded with nerves, guilt and a sudden desire to defend him. ‘He seemed perfectly pleasant to me.’

  ‘Really? Maybe he’s on his best behaviour. Miracles do happen!’

  If that’s his best behaviour, my body is already wishing it could see his worst. I suck the inside of my cheek to kick back the heat and curse my body that’s too keen to travel down that road. I also wrap my kimono around me as I feel the swift return of twin peaks.

  ‘Maybe you just need to see him through fresh eyes.’

  She murmurs something I don’t quite catch, and I don’t have time to probe without being overheard by an audience.

  ‘Great to see you, Faye.’ Tyler gives me a warm embrace. ‘Sorry I missed you at breakfast.’

  His eyes sparkle as he releases me and I get the distinct impression he’s also thanking me for sending his wife-to-be back to bed. Not that he need thank me. My little errand saw me rewarded in a very similar manner. I smile over the heat that’s made it into my cheeks, grateful that my sunglasses conceal so much.

  ‘No problem. It was nice to get a quiet one in before all the guests arrived.’

  Though, Raf never quite made it in, did he? Jesus!

  ‘Nonna...’ Dani places a hand on her grandmother’s shoulder and gestures to me ‘...meet my fabulous friend, Faye. Faye, meet my fabulous grandmother, Nonna... Greta to her friends.’