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  Luca carried her into the shower where the hot water poured over them, running over their flesh and making their skin more sensitive than ever.

  He was kissing her, running his hands all over her, his palms sliding easily over her wet breasts, down her slippery waist and thighs. Why was her heart already racing so fast, when they’d only just begun? She felt dizzy from the heat.

  She was so impatient, she wanted more of him immediately. She dropped down to her knees in front of him.

  It was very unlike her to behave in any kind of subservient way, but she felt a wild desire to taste him, and to please him.

  She took his cock in her mouth. It seemed to fit perfectly, just large enough to represent a challenge, but so smooth and slippery from the water that she could slide her lips and tongue all over it.

  She licked up and down the shaft, bringing it to a state of full arousal, so it jutted straight out from his body. She began to suck his cock, simultaneously cupping and massaging his balls with her warm hands.

  She teased her tongue beneath the thick head of his cock, then slid her mouth all the way down the shaft, taking as much of it as she could. The warmth of the shower helped to relax her throat and provided extra lubrication. She could fit nearly the whole thing in her mouth.

  She could feel that her lips were swollen from the humidity. Her mouth and tongue felt a hundred times more sensitive than usual. She felt like she was receiving more pleasure herself from the blowjob than she was giving to him.

  She kept going, faster and harder, wanting more and more of it. When she could tell that he was about to cum, instead of pulling away to let it spill down the drain with the water, she kept sucking, wanting to drink him in entirely. She allowed him to erupt in her mouth, something she had never let anyone do before. She swallowed it down, so wildly in lust with him that she wanted to take that inside of her as much as she wanted the rest of him inside of her.

  When he finished, she thought he’d go limp and exhausted, but his cock barely softened at all. He was so aroused by watching her suck him off from her knees that he immediately wanted more.

  He picked her up again and slowly lowered her down onto the cock that was still stiff and aching. He fucked her like that, standing up, her legs locked around him, their bodies pressed tight together. He kissed her, sucking on her swollen lips and tasting himself in her mouth.

  It was so incredibly intimate. It was wild, and ferocious, and carnal. But it was also tender and honest. Lex had never experienced anything like it.

  She started to cum, and he wouldn’t stop kissing her, he wouldn’t stop looking into her eyes. He seemed to know exactly how hard to fuck her to draw out the orgasm, to make it go on and on until she began to feel dizzier than ever in the heat of the shower.

  She thought she would pass out. But she wasn’t afraid, because she knew he wouldn’t drop her on the tiles.

  Sure enough, when she went limp in his arms, he carefully carried her out of the shower and wrapped her in a towel, then laid her gently on her bed.

  Lex felt utterly peaceful. She knew she should stay awake. Leaving Luca alone in her private sanctuary was madness. Yet somehow, in that moment, she had no fear.

  She curled up on the bed and went to sleep.

  18

  Luca Diotallevi

  Lyon

  Isn’t that how falling in love so often works? Some stranger appears out of nowhere and becomes a fixed star in your universe.

  Kate Bolick

  Lex was asleep, and Luca’s head was spinning.

  What on god’s green earth was going on?

  He had never felt anything like that.

  The sex in the shower was a transcendent experience.

  For the first time since he’d met this girl, she had let the mask down, and he’d looked into her eyes and actually saw the real person inside. The one who was vulnerable, who was willing to go down on her knees to please him. The one who wanted to be picked up and fucked, and then tucked into bed like a child. The one who would let him protect her and take care of her.

  And holy shit, the pure physical pleasure of their hook up—it was beyond anything he’d ever imagined.

  She was gorgeous, that much he’d known immediately. But the chemistry between them went far beyond that. The feel of her skin, the way her body fit against his. Her strength and athleticism, and how it matched his own. How they could move together in perfect tandem.

  He had to get outside, he could hardly breathe from how his heart was pounding and his mind was racing.

  He’d been fixated with her from the moment he laid eyes on her, he could admit that now. And somehow, every minute he spent in her company, that infatuation only grew.

  Which made him very concerned to go through with this job together. Their work required them to be emotionless. They couldn’t afford fear, anxiety, hesitation, distraction. He knew if he allowed this attachment to Lex to continue, he would be plagued by every one of those emotions the moment she was in danger.

  Luca strode down the street, his long legs taking him blocks away within minutes.

  He didn’t know the neighborhood at all, but he knew what he was looking for. He had to get some food before he lost his damn mind completely.

  He found a boulangerie at last, small and charming in the way that only French bakeries could be, with a pretty little awning and planter boxes crowded around the window.

  He picked up one of their rustic-looking baguettes, plus a few croissants. Then, at the grocer on the other end of the block, he found some cheese and cream and tomatoes, and a little basket of fresh strawberries. He got coffee as well, though he hadn’t checked what sort of coffee-maker Lex kept at her place.

  His mind was in such a muddle that he hardly knew if the beans were ground or whole, or if any of the items he picked up formed an actual meal.

  In fact, he wasn’t entirely sure if he’d be able to find his way back to Lex’s workshop again. He wandered around for a few minutes, doubling back once or twice and probably looking completely idiotic. Then he remembered that her place had a chipped green door, which allowed him to find it once more amongst all the similar-looking buildings on the street.

  Lex was still fast asleep on the bed when he came up the stairs. He washed the strawberries and located the coffee pot, so he could have something ready for her when she woke up.

  The smell of the coffee seemed to rouse her. She came out to the kitchen, wearing her loose sweater once more but no pants. Her bare legs looked slim and strong beneath the loose hem. He saw that her toenails were painted pink. The sweetness of that made him smile.

  Lex sat down at the rough-hewn tabletop, watching him putter around her kitchen. She seemed to like seeing him there, or at least she was amused at his domesticity.

  Luca put a mug of hot coffee with cream in front of her, as well as the strawberries, and a slice of baguette spread with smoked Gouda and fresh tomatoes.

  “You’re a regular Martha Stewart,” Lex said. There was no bite to her teasing. He could tell she was pleased, as well as starving. She attacked the food. He followed suit, sitting down across from her and biting into the fresh, crusty bread.

  “I like this city,” Luca said, with his mouth full.

  “I always did, too,” Lex said. “My mother was French. She emigrated to America, when she married my father. But she never liked it there. She preferred when we travelled for his work. Anywhere we went was better than Wisconsin.”

  She shook her head ruefully. “As you can imagine, I never fit in there very well.”

  “I thought you were American,” Luca said, nodding.

  “You did?” She didn’t seem entirely pleased by that.

  “It’s not an insult,” Luca said. “Actually, it’s a compliment. I thought it from how comfortable you seemed in Italy. Your accent was good, you seemed confident, not at all out of place. An Italian might move somewhere else, but he’s always an Italian. The same for a German, or a Swede. Americans are more
flexible. They adapt.”

  “What about Canadians?” Lex said.

  Luca laughed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I need more data to make a statement on that.”

  Lex ate her strawberries out of the bowl with her fingers, not bothering with a fork.

  Luca liked watching her eat. She did it so ferociously, the same way she did everything else. He thought she must have felt so smothered in a small town.

  “I have to ask you something,” he said.

  “What?” Lex asked, looking wary.

  “How did you get the key? For the case at the Doge’s Palace? I have to know, it’s been driving me crazy.”

  “Oh, that.” She laughed, relieved that he was only asking about work. “It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that. It took the most planning of anything.”

  “How did you get it from the director? He’s such an old crab. You didn’t…” Luca made a horrified face, afraid that Lex had used her seductive powers on him.

  “No!” Lex cried. “It wasn’t anything like that.”

  “What then? Did you steal it from his house?”

  “Nope. I had to get a job.”

  “A real job?”

  “That’s right.”

  “That must have been very difficult for you.”

  “It was. I had to work there for two whole months.”

  “I’m surprised you survived.”

  “I barely did. For weeks, it didn’t seem like it was going to work. The museum director gets a ninety-minute massage twice a week at the Viridian Spa. But he always uses the same masseuses, and they’re always male.”

  “Is that so his wife doesn’t get mad?” Luca asked.

  “Maybe,” Lex shrugged, “or it’s just his preference. I took a position at the spa, as a massage therapist. And I kept messing up his appointments on purpose, thinking he’d take a spot with someone else if he had to. But he kept cancelling instead.”

  “You couldn’t take the key while he was getting a massage from one of the guys?”

  “No. He kept it around his neck the whole time, even during the massage. Probably even in the shower. It was quite unsanitary, actually.”

  “So, what then?” Luca asked.

  “Well, he finally threw his back out weeding the garden. Then he had to take my appointment. I copied the key right off his neck, in the middle of the massage.”

  Luca couldn’t help teasing her.

  “Did you at least give him a good rub down?” he asked.

  “That was the worst part of all,” Lex shuddered. “You wouldn’t believe how hairy he is under his clothes.”

  Luca was shaking with laughter.

  “My god,” he said, “you really did deserve that cross.”

  “I know,” Lex said, primly, popping another strawberry into her mouth.

  “What was the first thing you ever stole?” Luca asked.

  “It wasn’t small,” Lex said.

  “It wasn’t gum from the candy store? That was mine.”

  “No,” she said. “I was on a class trip to this shitty museum they had in my town. It was hardly a museum at all, just this little building attached to the library. But they had some old Greek artifacts that had been donated by some local. Coins, mostly. There was also this little statue made of bronze. It was a goat. And there was something different about it.”

  “Like a glow,” Luca said.

  “Yes!” Lex cried, staring at him in surprise. “Everything else in the case was interesting, but the little statue, it was like the sun was shining straight through the window, directly onto it. I wanted to have it. I wanted to touch it and hold it and keep it, not just look at it in the case.”

  “So did you take it?”

  “Not then. It would have been too obvious who had taken it, on a class tour. And there were too many witnesses. I came back later in the week, and I stole it.”

  “What did you do with it?” Luca asked.

  “I still have it,” Lex said. “Here, actually.”

  She paused a moment, and then she glanced up at him, with her large blue eyes.

  “Do you want to see it?” she said.

  “Of course,” Luca said at once.

  She stood up from the table. He supposed she had made the offer impulsively. But she didn’t rescind it now. She took his large hand in her much smaller one and led him out of the kitchen, down the hallway. She jumped up to catch hold of the recessed ring in the low ceiling. Then she pulled down the ladder to the attic.

  She climbed upwards, and Luca followed her.

  His heart was banging against his ribs. He knew, without her telling him, that she had never shown this room to anyone before.

  He stepped up into the attic and looked around, his mouth open in wonder.

  It was everything Lex had ever stolen.

  Through the four large skylights in the ceiling, light poured in, illuminating a treasure trove of art. The sunlight sparkled across stained glass, statues, clocks, necklaces, goblets, vases, and gilded eggs. There was a saber, a sarcophagus, and a marble statue taller than Luca. Countless oil paintings hung on the walls all around, some of which Luca recognized. And he saw that Lex had a particular love for rare old books, painstakingly illuminated by hand.

  It might have been chaotic, from the sheer volume of objects, but he could see that they had been arranged with purpose and care, in a pattern that he couldn’t exactly identify, but which provided a clear structure and flow.

  It was like looking inside Lex’s mind. He could see perfectly well what she found inspiring, and worthy. All her aesthetics and interests were laid out before his eyes.

  His heart swelled with the absolute beauty of it. He understood completely what she had done here and why. He understood what drove her to it and what it meant to her.

  He took her hand. They gazed around the room, taking it in together.

  “Where would you have put the cross?” he asked her.

  He knew she would already have had a place for it in mind.

  “Right there,” Lex said, pointing unhesitatingly.

  He saw a small collection of jewelry—a pair of sapphire earrings, an engraved gold ring. Also a silver hand mirror and an enameled box.

  “That mirror belonged to Marie Antoinette,” Lex said.

  As he had supposed, the pieces were linked by history as well as by type of object. Marie Antoinette had been killed in a popular uprising, just like the Romanovs.

  He wanted to ask her about the other items on that table. And about everything else in the room. He was so curious to know what she loved about each one, where she had gotten them from.

  He wondered if she had certain jobs she remembered more than others, because of the thrill of how the theft went off, or if it was only the objects she cared about.

  He had so many things he wanted to ask her. But he didn’t get a chance, because at that moment, while they were completely distracted and not listening at all, someone else came up the ladder into the attic.

  19

  Byron Black

  Lyon

  I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.

  Edna St Vincent Millay

  Black stared around the room, as shocked and dazzled by the profusion of stolen art as Luca had been.

  He knew that Lex was a thief. But seeing it all laid out here before him, the sheer mass of items, still hit him hard.

  He didn’t understand why she did it. But he could see her brilliance in taking all these things without ever getting caught. He was a police officer, trained to spot suspicious behavior and deception, and he had never suspected a thing. He probably never would have, if not for that car accident.

  Once his eyes adjusted to the cacophony of color and light, he saw Lex and Luca standing a dozen feet away with their backs to him. Their hands were clasped between them.

  That hit him much harder than the stolen goods. The sight of those entwined fingers hit him like an iron spike driving into his
chest.

  Perhaps he made a sound, because Lex let go of Luca’s hand and turned around.

  “Byron,” she said.

  Would he ever stop longing to hear her say his name? No other sound compared to it.

  “How did you—” she began, and then she stopped. Her eyes widened. Her hand drifted up towards her hair.

  “I’ve been looking for your house a long time,” Black said. “Your real house.”

  “Here it is,” Lex said softly. “What do you think?”

  She was daring him to look around, to be stupefied once more by what she had done. But of course, he had no intention of taking his eyes off her.

  “No gun this time, I see,” she said.

  She was right. He didn’t have a gun pointed at her, or anywhere on his person. He didn’t want to keep her by force this time around.

  Her eyes searched his face. He had never been able to read her, but she always seemed to know what he was thinking. Her expression softened.

  “Why did you come?” she asked.

  “I’m not here to arrest you,” he said. He laughed bitterly. “What would be the point? I’m sure you’d just break out again.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  He swallowed hard. He glanced over at the other thief, her partner. The other man watched their interaction, his face as nervous as Black’s.

  He loves her, too, Black thought.

  It didn’t surprise him. Lex always intended to charm every person she met. But she didn’t realize how often she caused something far worse to happen. She captured the heart, in a painful and lasting way.

  It was dangerous to spend too much time with her. This guy was already lost, whether he knew it or not.

  The rage that Black had felt, seeing another man holding onto Lex’s hand, faded away. He only felt pity instead. They were the same. Equally ensnared.