Chapter 24

* Please imagine this ^ dress in crimson red.

Knocking on the door to Luca's study, I hear a,

"Come in."

Luca looks up from his laptop at me. He sits back, spreading his legs, his elbow on the chair's armrest, twirling a pen around in his hands, watching me approach him.

He's wearing a black suit, the button of the suit jacket open, with a white button shirt underneath.

"I'm ready." I awkwardly say.

After yesterday's event, it's been a little awkward between us.

Well, me to be exact.

Luca can tell but he just ignores it.

There's silence between us, until Luca speaks up.

"Come here, my love." He says, calling me over with his fingers.

"I can perfectly hear you from here." I say.

"It wasn't a question." He says sternly.

"Can't you just tell me from there?" I ask.

"Luna. Come. Here. Now." He says putting pressure on each word. He seemed to be getting a little furious with me not obeying his word.

"No."

Slam

His hand slams the desk causing a loud sound.

I flinch hard.

He rises from his seat and starts walking towards me.

I take a step back and feel myself start to shake, "Luca, I-I'm sorry."

He gently cups my face in his hands and caresses my cheeks.

"Hey, I'm not angry at you." He says.

He gently picks me up and wraps my legs around his waist. My arms wrap around his neck for support, his thick arms carrying me.

He walks towards the leather couch in his study and takes a seat, with me on top of his lap.

I try to move but his strong hands keep my thighs still.

His eyes hold amusement while he stares at me try to fight his hands off.

Giving up, I can't stand looking at his face. The embarrassment is too much.

My privates is resting on his thick, muscular thighs and I shiver.

His cologne smells heavenly as it engulfs me.

"I gave you the whole of last night to get over yesterday's little incident, Luna, but I will not take it any longer." He says. "It pains me to stay away from you for so long."

He grabs a few strands of my hair with his fingers and places a kiss on them.

"Communicate with me, Luna. If you're uncomfortable with me going that far with you, I understand but do what you want with me." He says, looking like he's in pain.

His large, veiny hands grab my wrists and place it on his chest.

"Touch me, Luna." He pulls my wrists down, making me rub his abdomen.

"Stop." I try to pull my wrists from his grasp but fail.

He continues, stopping them right above his crotch. "Please, touch me." He begs.

I look down to see his erection visible from his suit pants.

"Luca. Stop it." I say. I lay my forehead on his shoulder and close my eyes frustrated.

Luca is the only man who's ever gotten me feeling this confused about myself.

One minute I want to stay away from him with my whole being and run away, and the other, I want to stay in his arms, protected from everyone.

He raises my wrist to his lips and places a kiss there.

"I'm sorry, my love." He lets go and raises my chin with his fingers to look him in the eyes. "Will you forgive me?" He genuinely asks.

"Yes." I say.

He gazes at my lips and lifts me up by my waist and places me on the floor, steadying me.

"No more awkward tension, okay?" He asks smiling.

"Okay." I agree.

"Let's go now."

My mind forgets about the awkwardness and I think about shopping.

I haven't been to the mall in ages.

We get into Luca's car and head off towards the mall.

Soon, we arrive and get off.

Luca comes to my side and holds my hand.

"I love you." He says.

We walk in and Luca leads the way, pulling me into a clothing store that seemed to sell gowns and dresses.

The saleswoman approaches us, greeting Luca and I.

"Welcome to Amore." She says. "My name is Gabrielle and I will be your sales attendant today. Come right this way, please."

"We would like to look around first." Luca tells her.

"That's fine. I'll be around." She says and leaves us.

Luca pulls me to the red section and I'm astonished at the amount of dresses and gowns they had, and this was just the red section.

"Red?" I ask. "Why red?"

"It brings out your beautiful features." He says. "I don't want my woman to look dull. Even though it angers me a bit, I want everyone to see how lucky I am."

"Are you going to be choosing my dress?" I ask him.

"If you want to choose it yourself, you're free to do so." He tells me. "We can both pick our favourites and you can try them all and see which one you like best, even though you'll choose mine in the end." He snickers.

"How are you so sure?"

"I always-"

"Blah blah blah. You've said that a hundred times now."

He pulls a dress out from the clothing rack and puts it in front of me. "Because it's true." He smirks, holding on to the the dress and squeezes my cheek. "Now go on, look for your dress."

I turn away and head off looking for my dress.

"Oh, and it has to be red." He calls out. "No exceptions."

Red, hm?

I look around, trying to figure out exactly what I want.

I'm unsure of what to look for and sigh.

Suddenly, a dress catches my eye.

It was a beautiful long crimson red dress that touched the ground, paired with puffy sleeves that were see through, and a long slit that reached the top of the thigh.

This is the one!

I grab it from the clothing rack and run back to Luca.

He wasn't where I left him.

I search every isle until I spot him, looking through some more dresses.

Chuckling, I run up to him.

Hiding my chosen dress behind me, I call out to him.

"Luca! I've found my dress."

Turning around, I laugh at the amount of dresses laid on his arms.

Smiling, he asks, "You found it?"

"Yep." I say popping the p.

"Let's see it." He tries to go behind me to have a look.

"Uh uh. It's a surprise." I say.

Grinning, he says, "Oh really? Then I guess it's time to try them on."

Finding Gabrielle, the saleswoman, she shows us to the dressing room.

The area looks luxurious. Creamy, leather, couches placed in front of each dressing room that was surprisingly huge. Long red drapes act as a cover to prevent any eyes from seeing the person change.

The sales woman takes the dresses from Luca and asks him to take a seat on the couch.

"Follow me." She said.

I follow her, entering the dressing room to which she places the dresses on the railing.

"You may change now." She said and leaves, closing the drapes.

I turn around, looking at myself in the mirror and sigh.

Here we go.

I decide to try Luca's choices first and leave mine for last.

I try each one, going out to model for Luca to which he either disagrees or agrees on.

I try on Luca's last dress on and go out.

"This is the one." He said standing up.

"Wait." I say putting my hands up. He stops in his place and raises an eyebrow.

"I still have to try on my dress."

He takes a seat again.

I head back inside the dressing room.

I put the dress on, and take a deep breath.

Maybe my tastes are too cheap for a man like Luca who's got expensive taste.

I go out, feeling self conscious.

Luca says nothing and just stares at me. He looks me up and down, and gets up.

I feel shy.

He walks towards me.

Suddenly, he lifts me up and twirls me around. The dress twirling too.

"You look perfect." He said.

I giggle feeling butterflies in my stomach.

Putting me down, I ask excitedly, "So you like it?"

"I love it." He said. I'm a lucky man." He kisses my forehead.

I realise something.

"Luca?"

"Yes, my love?"

"I won this time." I snicker.

"Indeed, you did." He says and we both laugh.

We visit some designer stores after that, searching for heels.

"Luca, I think these will look good." I say no longer feeling unconfident about my decisions.

I point to a light nude, peep toe, ankle strap heels with a high thin heel.

"I agree, my love. You should try them on." He says.

He tells the sales person to get him a size six.

The salesperson leaves to get them.

"How'd you know I'm a size six?" I ask shocked.

Is he good at measuring something just by observing?

"I didn't just do a background check on you, I also know the little details."

"Oh, I forgot." I said forgetting how much of a crazy man Luca actually is.

The salesperson approaches us with the heels and Luca takes it from her.

He takes the heels out of the box and kneels down on one knee.

"What are you doing? People are staring." I say feeling embarrassed.

"So what? Who cares about them." He says. "Take off your flats."

"But-"

"Luna. Take off your flats." He says leaving no room for negotiation.

Surrendering, I take my flats off.

He looks up at me, making severe eye contact while grabbing my foot gently, and places the heel on my foot, tying the straps together.

He does the same to the other.

"Beautiful." He says, staring at them. He lifts my foot to his lips and places a kiss.

I want to die.

He gets up and asks, "What do you think of them?"

"Huh? Oh! I love them." I say.

He grabs my hand. "Try walking with them."

I take a few steps at the same time, holding on to Luca's hand.

"Is it comfortable?" He asks.

"Yeah, it is." I respond.

"We'll take them." He tells the salesperson who was staring at us this whole time, grinning.

"Yes, sir." She looks to me before she leaves and smiles.

"Thank you, Luca, for the dress and the heels."

"Don't thank me, Luna. My money is your money." He reminds me.

My stomach growls interrupting me.

He chuckles. "Let's go fill you up, shall we?"