LUCA: A BBW Romance (Big Hot Alphas Book 3) Read online

  All right. So he’s sexy, funny, and sweet.

  A few minutes later, we’re walking into the restaurant. The hostess who greets us lets her gaze linger on Luca longer than necessary, but Luca either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. He rests a hand on the small of my back, tells her we have reservations, and the hostess nods and leads us into the dining room.

  “Nice table,” I say, once we get settled. We’re situated close to a big lit fireplace, and we have a great view of the entire restaurant from our seats.

  “Thought you might like it,” says Luca.

  Okay, make that sexy, funny, sweet, and romantic…

  Too bad I can’t actually have a relationship with the guy.

  We look over our menus together and debate about which dishes to get. When the waiter comes by, Luca orders for the both of us, then asks for a bottle of wine. It’s one I’ve had before, and I’ve gotta hand it to him. The man has good taste.

  “Excellent choice, sir,” the waiter says, nodding at Luca. “May I see an ID?”

  As Luca pulls out his wallet, the waiter glances over at me. “And, uh—you, too, ma’am.”

  I pull out my driver’s license, too, despite the glaring obviousness that I’m well over twenty-one. After checking both IDs, the waiter nods and hands them back.

  Is it terrible that I wish I could get a peek at Luca’s and find out how old he is?

  “So,” I say. “You said you’re in grad school?”

  He nods. “Yep. Getting my MBA.”

  “That’s fantastic. Do you know what you want to do after you graduate?”

  “Still figuring that out,” he says. “I know I want to start a company that’s focused on having a positive social impact. But there are a lot of ways to do that, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

  I nod. “I’m sure.”

  As Luca starts to tell me about some of his ideas, I can’t help but become even more captivated by him. Not only is he the most attractive man I’ve ever met, not only is he funny and sweet and romantic, but he’s also damn smart—and good-hearted.

  He really would make an incredible boyfriend, wouldn’t he?

  Stop daydreaming, another voice says in the back of my head. He’s not going to be your boyfriend. He’s too young for you. This is just a date. That’s all it is.

  As much as I don’t want to accept it, the voice is right.

  So, for the rest of our date, I forbid myself to daydream about what could be. Instead, I focus on enjoying the moment we’re in. I laugh at Luca’s jokes; I ask him more about grad school; we talk about family and he tells me about his older brother, Titus, and his young nephew.

  And when my mind starts to wander, I remind myself that, like his modeling stint, this date is a one-time thing.

  After dinner, though, when we’re walking out to his truck and Luca asks if he can see me again on Saturday…I just can’t say no. I can’t end it like this. He’s too good. We have too much of a connection.

  “I’d love to see you again,” I say, looking up into those gorgeous eyes of his. “Saturday’s perfect.”

  Chapter Three

  Luca

  “Pink or blue?”

  “Blue,” says Quinn without hesitation. “Definitely blue.”

  “Shoulda known,” I say, grinning as I hand cash over to the vendor, who hands back a cloud of blue cotton candy on a stick.

  “What?” says Quinn, smirking at me. “You think you know me that well already?”

  I shrug. “You just seem like a blue raspberry kind of girl.”

  Quinn lets out one of her pretty laughs and bites off a little puff of the spun sugar, keeping her eyes on me as she does.

  Nobody has ever made eating cotton candy look so damn sexy.

  We’ve been at the fair for a few hours now. I thought our first date was fantastic, but this second one has outdone it. Even with all the commotion going on around us—the crowds, the flashing lights, the relentless noise from the carnival games—it’s also somehow felt intimate.

  Like all of this was constructed for us.

  We walk away from the food stalls and find a place to sit on a small grassy hill nearby. After we get settled, Quinn offers me the cotton candy and I crane my neck to take a bite. At the last second, though, she yanks it away and grins at me.

  “Oh, you’re gonna get it,” I murmur, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her toward me. She laughs as I hold her in place and take the bite of cotton candy she deprived me of.

  Honestly, though, I’d rather find out how sweet she tastes on my tongue.

  “This has been a really fun,” Quinn says, nudging me gently. “I haven’t been to a fair since I was a kid.”

  “Me either,” I say.

  “The drive out here was really beautiful, too.” She sighs dreamily. “I’d love to live out in the country someday.”

  “Yeah. Me too.”

  In fact, it’s easy for me to imagine the two of us living out here together. Hell, I can even imagine us with a couple kids, a dog frolicking around…

  I look over at Quinn and all her beautiful curves and feel a tug in my chest. When she catches me looking at her, she smiles sweetly, and the feeling in my chest grows even deeper.

  “So what else do you have going on this weekend?” she asks.

  “Well, aside from hanging out with my brother while he’s in town…just studying,” I say. “And then more studying. Got about half a textbook to get through.”

  “Poor you.”

  “Want to come over and help me study?”

  She quirks an eyebrow at me. “I have a feeling I’d just be a distraction.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  She laughs. “Sorry. But I’m not going to be responsible for you failing your mid-term.”

  “Fair enough,” I say.

  A wisp of wind dislodges a strand of hair from behind Quinn’s ear. I reach up and tuck it back into place, my fingertips brushing the shell of her ear.

  And the look she gives me after that…it’s one I can’t resist.

  I slide my hand around the back of her neck and pull her toward me. When our lips meet, Quinn lets out the faintest moan into our kiss.

  Fuck, I love that sound.

  I draw her plump bottom lip between my own lips and suck on it, thinking of how I’d like to do the same thing to other parts of her body. Quinn lets out another little moan and my cock strains against my fly. When I slide my lips up, our parted mouths seal together, the wetness and heat unmistakably transporting us both to a place of paradise.

  The kiss solidifies the feeling I’ve had since the day I met her: I need this woman in my life forever.

  If I kiss her for much longer, though, my hard-on is going to bust through my pants. Gently, I pull back and drop my hand from the back of her neck, planting it on the grass.

  “Huh,” says Quinn, looking dazed. “Great kisser, too.”

  “You make it sound like you have a checklist.”

  She smirks. “Just making an observation.”

  “Yeah? What else have you observed?”

  “Well…that you’re awfully sweet. And smart. And…you know. Just a bunch of good things.”

  “Is ‘good husband material’ one of those things?” I ask.

  As soon as the words are out of my mouth, Quinn’s expression changes, the corners of her mouth dropping and her brows furrowing.

  Shit. Too much too soon, I guess.

  “Hey,” I say, smiling. “I was just joking around.”

  She nods. “No, I know. It’s just…are you sure you want to date me, Luca?”

  Now it’s my turn to be serious. “Yes. Absolutely.”

  She worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m sorry. But I have to ask. How old are you?”

  “Twenty five.”

  Something shifts in her face. Fuck.

  “Hey,” I say. “Talk to me, Quinn.”

  She shuts her eyes for a second. Breathes out. Finally loo
ks at me again.

  “I’m ten years older than you, Luca.”

  “So?” I say.

  “You’re really unfazed by that?”

  I shrug. “Yeah. Is that so hard to believe?”

  She studies me for a few seconds. “Have you ever dated someone older than you?”

  “No,” I say. “Why does it matter, though? Who cares if you’re older than me? I like you because I like you, Quinn.”

  “That’s sweet, but…” The strand of hair slips from behind her ear again and she tucks it back in place. “I’ve been your age. I know what it’s like to believe you know what you want. But looking back, there’s so much I was wrong about when I was in my twenties. There are so many things I’ve changed my opinion about.”

  “I’m not going to change my mind about you,” I say. “Baby, you’re right about a lot of things, but that’s one thing you’re wrong about.”

  She looks touched by what I’ve just said. But it’s obvious she still has doubt. Apparently no amount of telling her how I feel is going to convince her.

  But maybe actions will speak louder than words.

  “Are you free tomorrow evening?” I ask.

  She frowns. “Luca, I…”

  “I want you to meet my family. My parents, my brother, his wife, their kid. The whole troop.”

  “We’ve gone on two dates and you want to introduce me to your family?”

  “It’s fast. I know. But I want to show you how serious I am about you, Quinn. Besides, my brother’s only in town for a couple more days.”

  She takes several seconds to think it over.

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’m sure. I’m so goddamn sure it’s not even funny.”

  She smiles. “Okay. Then yes. Let’s do it.”

  I didn’t expect to introduce Quinn to my family so soon. But, fast or not, it feels so fucking right. When I introduce her to my family—my mom and dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephew—the group of us feels whole in a new kind of way.

  “I’m so glad we could meet you while we’re in town, Quinn,” says my sister-in-law, Madison. “The first day we came up, when Luca mentioned that he’d met someone, I was instantly dying of curiosity.”

  “How did you two meet, by the way?” my mom asks as she comes into the living room and sets drinks down on the coffee table. “I don’t think you told us, did you, Luca?”

  “Right,” I say, glancing over at Quinn, who’s sitting beside me on the couch. “So, uh…I did this modeling job last week…”

  “Hold up. What? Modeling?” my brother, Titus, says. “Since when are you a model?”

  “It was a one-time thing,” I say.

  “What did you model, Uncle Luca?” asks Mason, tugging on my leg.

  “Pajama pants.”

  Mason looks at me like I’m crazy. “Pajama pants?”

  “Among other things,” I say.

  “That’s weird, Uncle Luca,” Mason says.

  Everyone laughs—myself included.

  “I know, bud,” I say. I look up at everyone again. “Anyway. Quinn’s the art director for the company. So that’s how we met.”

  “Uh, yeah, I still feel like I’m missing something,” says Titus. “How the heck did you end up in front of the camera, bro?”

  This time, Quinn pipes up. “We wanted to go in a different direction than usual with this latest campaign,” she explains. “And none of our usual models had the right look. We had a recruiter go over to the college campus to scout out potential guys, and she found Luca. He asked me out after the shoot.”

  “Aw,” says Madison, grinning. “I love that.” She looks over at my mom. “Isn’t that sweet, Sylvia?”

  “Very,” my mom says, smiling across the living room at Quinn and me. She glances over at my dad. “It’s certainly a much better story than how the two of us met.”

  My dad chuckles. “Any story is better than that.”

  “Okay, now you’ve got to tell it,” says Quinn, grinning as she leans forward on the couch.

  “Michael?” my mom says, raising her eyebrows at my dad.

  My dad clears his throat. “I was working at a recycling center. Sylvia was there trying to get rid of an old mattress. We argued about it for a while, then I asked her out on a date.”

  Quinn laughs. “And you two have been married for how long?”

  “Thirty-five years,” says my dad.

  “Thirty-five wonderful years,” my mom corrects him.

  “Right,” says my dad, laughing as he reaches out and squeezes her hand. “Sorry, sweetheart. That’s what I meant.”

  Chapter Four

  Quinn

  “Your family is amazing, Luca,” I say. We’ve just left his parents’ place and are walking out to his truck.

  “Yeah, they aren’t half bad, huh?” he says, grinning as he opens up the passenger door for me.

  Luca may have felt confident that today would go well, but I was admittedly nervous about the whole thing. I mean, I was meeting his parents, for God’s sake. I had braced myself for having to explain why I was interested in a guy so much younger than me, or why I hadn’t found somebody already at my age.

  Instead, I was met with nothing but open arms.

  Maybe this really can work after all.

  As Luca drives me back to my place, he tells me stories from his childhood—like the time he and Titus built “the jankiest treehouse in existence,” the time they were home alone and accidentally knocked a hole in the wall, and the time his parents showed up at a school dance to pick him up and ended up slow-dancing themselves.

  “That’s adorable,” I say, laughing. “I mean, mortifying, but also adorable.”

  When we reach my apartment a few minutes later, I don’t want to say goodbye to him yet. Or anytime soon. I ask him if he wants to come up, and he gives me a look that sends a fierce shiver of desire up my spine, then says, ever-so-casually, “Yeah. Sure.”

  Upstairs, I offer Luca something to drink. He shakes his head and says he’s good. When our eyes meet, though, there’s no denying that he is thirsty for something—me.

  He wraps a hand around my waist and pulls me closer to him. I let out a little sigh as he plants those strong lips of his on mine.

  His first kiss is sweet.

  The next one is a little hotter.

  All the kisses after that become a blur.

  As our tongues slide against each other, as moans keep escaping from my throat, we fumble together toward my bedroom. Suddenly clothes feel so in the way. So unnecessary. We free ourselves from them, dropping each piece of clothing onto the floor.

  Luca’s hands cup my exposed breasts, my nipples instantly hardening against his palms. Then he drops his hands to push down my panties, and when they fall around my ankles, I kick them aside. When Luca pulls back for a moment to drink in the sight of me, I feel weak in the knees. The possession in his eyes is so damn strong.

  “So fucking sexy,” he murmurs, his eyes tracing over my hips and my stomach and my thighs. There’s a lot of me to take in, but it’s obvious he’s hungry for every inch. “Get on the bed, beautiful.”

  I do as he tells me, lying back and breathing in deeply as I take in the sight of Luca’s incredible body. Every bit of him is muscle. Every bit of him that I can see, that is. The only thing he has left on are his boxers—but then he tugs those down.

  For a second, when I see him in all his naked glory, I forget to breathe.

  Is it weird to say that he has a beautiful cock? Because he does. He has a beautiful, perfect cock. It’s straight and smooth and hard as hell.

  And it’s fucking huge.

  Something ripples inside of me—a type of sexiness I’ve never felt before. I bite my lip as I smile at Luca, then I turn around on the bed, getting on my hands and knees as I face away from him.

  “Fuck, Quinn,” he grunts behind me.

  He smooths a broad hand over my ass, a touch that makes me bite down harder on my bottom lip.
I can hardly breathe, I’m aching for him so goddamn much.

  I feel him move behind me. Feel him lower himself behind me. And then the warmth of his breath spreads over my cunt. I gasp as his tongue slides over my clit and then traces my soaked folds.

  “Oh, God,” I groan into the sheets.

  Luca places his free hand on my other ass cheek and tightens his grip, holding me firmly in place as he laps up my cream. Every lick and moan and murmur about how good I taste sends hot bolts of pleasure shooting through my body. Before long, my breath is ragged, and I’m clutching at the bedsheets, hanging on for dear life as a huge orgasm swells and then explodes inside me.

  And yet, when it’s over, I still want more.

  “Fuck me, Luca,” I moan. When I look over my shoulder, though, I see that he’s already upright and rolling a condom on that magnificent cock of his. Giving me a heated look, he moves back between my legs and drags the head of his cock over my slickness.

  “Luca,” I moan.

  He grips my ass, aligns himself, and thrusts his thickness into me. My mouth falls to the bed and I cry out blissfully into the sheets. Each additional inch he gives me makes me moan higher and higher.

  He draws out of me partway, then pushes into me again—faster this time. Then again. And again. And again.

  The pleasure radiates up through my whole body. It fills the entire damn room. On and on he goes, delivering deep thrust after deep thrust. Jesus. The man is a sex machine.

  “Come for me, sweetness,” he grunts. “Come for me again.”

  “I’m…I’m gonna…” I start to say, but then lose my words. I gasp for air as Luca lowers his huge frame over me, still fucking me deeply as he presses his hot lips to my shoulder blades. I scream out and my pussy pulses around Luca’s cock, triggering his own orgasm, the two of us tipping over the edge together.

  I’ve never felt anything so fucking good in my entire life.

  “Somebody got laid last night,” sings Dani, doing absolutely nothing to hide her huge grin as she leans over my desk.

  I raise my coffee mug in front of my face, as if that’s really going to hide the blush that’s rising into my cheeks. I swallow a gulp of cold coffee and set the mug back on my desk.