Perfect Match (Vice Club Nights #2)

5. Gio

Chapter five

Gio

T ori is messing with my head. The way she opened her mouth on my command has me wondering if she’d be just as compliant if I were to ask her to do other things. I suspect the answer would be yes given the cheeky glint she had in her tempered-chocolate-colored eyes.

Shifting in my seat, I try to surreptitiously adjust my shorts under the table. If more blood flows south, it’s going to get very uncomfortable. She wipes a drop of the creamy sauce from the corner of her mouth.

Fuck, it looks like … No, stop ! Those kinds of thoughts and flashes of my dreams from last night that featured her are giving me a raging hard-on. Thank fuck there’s a linen cloth that partially covers it. I drag my chair closer under the table and drop the navy cloth napkin from beside my plate onto my lap.

Beads of perspiration dot my forehead, and I can guarantee they’re not only due to the sun.

“After lunch, we should swim. I know a quiet place where the water is so clear you can see the fish swimming by.” A cooling thought will hopefully resolve my embarrassing issue.

“I’d like that.”

“What time do you need to be meeting your friends in Sorrento?”

She shrugs. “No particular time. My friends and I don’t like planning too much, preferring to let our itinerary fall into place. If we are enjoying somewhere, we stay longer. If not, we move on.”

Refilling her water glass, I then hand it to her and ask something I’ve wondered since meeting her. “Have you always wanted to travel?”

She takes the glass, and our fingers brush briefly. “I guess, like most Australians, I always wanted to travel. It’s very common, almost like a rite of passage in your twenties.” She raises the glass to her lips and takes a sip. “Australia is an island stuck in the middle of two vast oceans, so far from anywhere else. At some point, most Aussies want to experience something different.”

“I probably take it all for granted, having grown up with all this.” I don’t spend enough time appreciating how lucky I am, especially in moments like this. “So you packed up and went traveling?”

She glances out to sea, so lost in thought that I’m not sure she even heard my question. But then, with a soft sigh, she turns back to face me. “There’s another reason.”

The admission is surprising but welcome because I want to know more about the woman behind the beautiful facade.

“I lost a very close friend of mine at the end of last year, and it made me realise that at any point, it could all be gone.” Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears. I reach for her hand as she attempts to blink them away before continuing. “I don’t want my last thoughts to be filled with regrets of a life half lived. I want it to be a flash of memories or moments like this. A vibrant kaleidoscope reel of my life filled with laughter, love, and friendship.”

Unable to hold my gaze, she glances down at our clasped hands resting on the pristine white cloth.

“Have I made it into the friend category yet?” I ask, trying to lighten the mood.

Her eyes drift up again, along with the beginnings of a smile. “Maybe you can play the dashing Italian who became my friend and made me laugh in Capri.”

She takes my breath away when she looks at me like I’m her whole focus.

I lean closer to cradle her jaw with my free hand as I dip my head to press my lips to hers. Ever since this morning, I’ve been thinking about our kiss in the lobby. It was a tempting, all too brief taste, and I want more. She deserves to be savored like sipping on a 2016 Chianti, fruity with a rich hidden depth.

Her head tilts, offering me her jaw and the long tan column of her neck. Her sun-warmed skin is as sweet as I imagined, a combination of honey and oranges. My tongue slips between her lips on a journey of discovery. Her fingers thread through the hair at the back of my neck, the scratch of her nails demanding that I delve deeper.

In that moment, I know that sex with Tori would be exciting, adventurous, and addictive.

The clearing of a throat beside me has us reluctantly separating and blinking up at the waiter. He’s a friend, but with his hands on his hips, the warning is clear and totally deserved. The patrons in this restaurant don’t expect to see couples making out while they eat their lunch. He’s probably got a point, but respectability was the last thing on my mind the moment our mouths sealed together.

In rapid-fire Italian, the waiter and I exchange words, but in the end, he walks away laughing. Tori grins at me from across the table, one brow arched high. “I guess that was us told.”

“Pretty much, so we have to be on our best behavior from now on.” I chuckle, noticing the cheeky glint in her eye. I get the impression Tori doesn’t always like to follow the rules set down by society, and I think it’s one of the things that I find so attractive about her. She has a free, independent spirit that I envy. It’s the polar opposite of my life, and if I can bask in her light and soak up her energy for only one day, then maybe these next couple of months in Italy under the ever-present watchful eye of my father will be bearable.

“Well then, we should finish our lunch so you can take me for a swim. You did say it was a quiet place.”

I gulp down the remainder of my wine, the glass tinging against my plate as I place it on the table. “I’m done. Are you?”

Her soft, melodic laughter is the perfect answer.

***

Back on the yacht, I tell the captain of our plans, and we are soon on our way to the island cove that I haven’t visited since I was a teenager. Not long after, I’m standing on the deck dressed only in boardshorts, while the anchor chain lowers with a splash into the sea.

I brace my arms against the metal railing as I wait for Tori to change below deck, while forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. The deep blue calm water laps against the nearby rocky shelf, unchanged by the years and exactly as I remember. My brothers and I would spend hours swimming in the crystal-clear, cool waters or daring each other to jump from the higher rocky ledges. Those were the happy, carefree days of my youth and the times I’ll remember in my last hours. My mind goes back to the lunchtime conversation.

It’s a morbid thought, but what Tori said earlier has me thinking about memorable moments in my life, and I’m struggling to think of anything as an adult that would be worth remembering in my final hours. Sure, I’m a successful, wealthy businessman, and that means my life is very comfortable. But is that enough? Is all the stress and pressure of being CEO of one arm of the family business worth it? The answer isn’t as clear as it once was.

In my twenties, it was all I wanted. I studied hard at university, and when I graduated with a first-class corporate-law degree, I went straight into a junior manager role in the company. My career progression was all mapped out for me, and I was okay with that. Living and breathing every aspect of the business was a way of life. Soaking up all the knowledge and wisdom of my father’s experience as he mentored me to take over his role one day.

And now I’ve done it. I’ve reached the goal of CEO, and I can’t help thinking, Is this it?

Tori appears at my side. “I’m ready.”

All thoughts of business fly out of my head when I glance down at her. Tori in a skimpy bright-orange bikini that makes her skin glow golden takes my breath away. She’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous, with the sexiest body I’ve seen in a long time—maybe even ever—and my palms itch to reach for her and hold her close, skin to skin.

“How deep is it here?” she asks, looking into the indigo depths.

“About twelve feet. It’s a steep drop-off from the rocks. Are you nervous?” But the words are only just out of my mouth before she’s over the side and flying through the air in a perfect arc, arms stretched above her head and toes pointed, before disappearing into the blue with a small splash. It’s an Olympic dive champion performance, especially when, seconds later, I follow with a wave-inducing bomb.

I surface a few feet from her to the sound of her uninhibited, joyous laughter.

“Did you like my dive?” I ask, feeling like I’m that teenager again.

“Very impressive, but I think they just sent out a tidal wave alert for the island.”

Scooping water into my hand, I splash it into her grinning face.

“Oh, we’re going there, are we?” she warns before she lunges toward me, her hands on my shoulders, pushing me below the surface. I grab a hold of her narrow waist and take her down with me. Her strong, lean legs twining around me, determined to not let go. I kick us both back to the surface, and water trickles from our features; we’re both breathing heavily. For my part, it’s not from lack of air but the way Tori’s body clings to mine that squeezes my lungs and steals my breath.

Her hands wrap tighter around my shoulders, bringing our faces even closer.

Our lips are only inches apart. And with no one to interrupt us this time, I seal my mouth around her bottom lip, sucking and nipping at the lushness. Eventually working my way into the recess with my tongue. Pressing more firmly when she joins in the duel for control of the kiss. It’s fucking hot, and I don’t want it to end. But it must if we don’t want to end up drowning each other.

Treading water while passionately kissing a gorgeous woman is not easy. We need to continue this on firmer ground, so I reluctantly pull back.

“That was fun,” she murmurs in a husky tone before placing a few kisses to my jawline.

I nuzzle at her neck. “I can think of some other fun things we could do.”

Laughing, she throws her head back, with her arms going wide so she’s floating on her back before me with her barely covered breasts skimming the surface. Her legs remain locked, tethered to my waist and dangerously close to the full-on erection I’m sporting in my shorts. She’s driving me wild and she knows it, the little tease.

“Let’s swim to the rocks first.” She releases from me, then lunges backward into a flip underwater, coming up facing me again. “I’ll race you,” she announces, and like my own little mermaid, she’s diving below the surface again, coming up stroking in an impressive front crawl.

I might not be an expert diver, but I’m a pretty good swimmer, and I kick into action, determined to catch her. The stress from business negotiations earlier in the week seems to float away with each stroke that stretches and pulls on muscles not used to being tested in this way. It feels fantastic. Every moment spent with Tori feels fantastic.

It ends up being a close race, with me only winning by about two arm-lengths. Fitness-wise, there was no competition; she won hands down. My gasping attempts to fill my lungs after the race are embarrassing compared to her barely noticeable shallow breaths.

I flip onto my back to float. “I obviously need to do more cardio workouts at the gym.”

“Don’t feel bad, old man. You did well to win. I underestimated the competition.”

I pop back upright. “Hey, I’m not that much older. Am I?” I figured Tori was in her midtwenties, but maybe I was wrong.

“I’m twenty-six. What about you?”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thirty-four.”

“Really? I thought you were older.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“No, no. I didn’t mean you look old. It’s that you’re the CEO of a company, and I just assumed you were in your late thirties.” She swims into my arms, reaching up to capture my mouth in a firm, passionate-though-brief kiss. And this time it’s not exertion that’s leaving me breathless.

“Should we find some more solid ground, like the deck?” I suggest.

She doesn’t hesitate to reply, “I like the sound of that.”

And with that, we turn to swim back toward the yacht.