Not Juliet by Ella Medler

he set her down, but his arms were still wound tightly
around her middle; he obviously wasn’t going to allow an inch of
space to come between them. Through the thin fabric of her dress,
she could feel his hardness. Oh, yes, Luca was turned on, as much
as she was.
    The frantic
beat of her heart matched his, and she could feel her core
quivering with anxiety mixed with anticipation. Not that she
regretted it, but she’d jumped into this marriage before she’d had
the chance to fully come to terms with what it may entail. All her
dreams featured looking for and finding her Romeo. She’d never
thought past that point before.
    “Something
wrong?” Luca asked, searching her expression.
    Riella shook
her head, but still didn’t seem to be able to catch her breath.
    “You want a
tour, then?”
    She nodded,
grateful for the delay.
    Luca took her
hand and proceeded to tow her from room to room at high speed,
prattling all the way.
    “This is the
study, but I rarely use it. Too many books. Claustrophobic. This, I
like.”
    The living room
was enormous. The wall to the west was made entirely of glass and
the view was superb. In the distance, surrounded by surf, Riella
could distinguish more land – must be Elba and the other little
islands around it.
    “Through here
is the dining room, which again I don’t use.” Luca pulled her
through at a fast marching pace. “And here is the kitchen. I guess
I make some use of it… mostly the microwave.”
    Riella giggled
and opened a cupboard door at random. It was clean, but empty.
“It’s okay, I’ll teach you how to use the rest of it one day.”
    Luca grinned at
her and took the stairs two at a time. Riella had to run to keep
up.
    “Here are the
guest rooms, this way, all with en-suite bathrooms, and to date
completely unused.” He did a u-turn in the middle of the corridor.
“But we’re going to use this room, here.”
    He pulled open
a double door to reveal the master bedroom. The room was larger
than any bedroom she’d been in, and decorated in a masculine style,
with plain blocks of color and dark accents, but Riella liked it.
It suited Luca’s temperament to a T. Then her eye alighted on the
massive four-poster mahogany bed. Her legs locked and she could not
bring herself to take another step closer. Her hands shot up to
cover her mouth.
    Luca took one
look at her expression and pulled her in a tight embrace. “Hey. Are
you all right? It’s only a bed, not a torture device.”
    She didn’t
answer. Her vocal chords must have frozen, too, along with her
legs. Slowly, Luca guided her to sit down on the bed, then knelt in
front of her.
    “See? It
doesn’t bite.”
    His words
brushed past her ears, but she still didn’t feel like smiling. Luca
pulled her hands to his lips, as he had so many times before, and
kissed each knuckle and each fingertip.
    “Riella, please
look at me.” She did. Her eyes were still functioning, then. “I
don’t want you to be scared, my love. You trusted me enough to
marry me, and you trusted me with your safety. Remember?”
    Suddenly, her
voice came back to her. “But, Luca, you don’t understand.”
    “Shhh, I bet I
do.”
    “I… I’ve
never…” Riella turned to look at the bed with a worried look on her
face. “I mean,” she turned back to him, “you’ll be my first ever
man.”
    “I know.”
    “What if I’m no
good? What if you hate being with me?”
    Luca’s lips
crinkled in a smile. “We have time. I can teach you.”
    “Wait a
minute.” Riella could feel her thoughts screech to a stop. He knew
she was a virgin? “What do you mean, you know? How do you
know?”
    “Two things.
Well, three, really.” Riella stared, waiting for him to elaborate.
“First, you are so refreshingly pure and innocent. A beautiful
woman, dedicated daughter…”
    “Not buying it.
Next?”
    “Your heritage.
You must still be following Romanipen…”
    “But I’ve
chosen not to live among my kind, so that’s not