After Rosa clocked out and left for the day, there was a heavy silence over the bakery as the sun went to the other side of the large buildings and the shadows outside became long.
However, the quiet didn't last long.
Luca knew the evening routine for the bakery. Since he was there with Sophia each day, he did his share of closing tasks while she did hers. Knowing Sophia's routine came in handy so he wouldn't interrupt her work even though the curiosity was eating away at him about what she had said earlier.
When Sophia walked out of the back kitchen with her light brown hair out of its usual bun or ponytail while she worked, Luca practically pounced on her.
The man had been waiting for her by the counter, gripping the hardwood as he tried to hold back. However, the moment her sweet scent became more overbearing and she appeared before him, he couldn't help himself.
One of his arms went around her and the other stroked her cheek. He backed her into the wall next to the entryway she had just come from. He pierced her soul with his arctic blue gaze.
All Sophia could do was stare up at him. Never before had she experienced another person so closely without engaging in some physical activity. It was unnerving but she didn't push him away.
"What do you mean 'if you ask for a little bit more'?" he asked desperately.
To think that such a man was coming unnerved because of something she said made her feel powerful. Never before had someone held onto her every word the way he did.
She tried to turn her head away from him, a blush spreading across her cheeks that she didn't want him to see, but he held her chin and didn't allow her to hide herself from him. She felt that she looked ridiculous but reflected in his eyes was only desperate admiration.
A dark thought caused her to wonder if he was only behaving this way because she hadn't allowed him to sleep with her. If he did, he would realize just how below him she truly was.
"Don't look away from me," he said.
Sophia's throat felt like it was closing as her nerves became worse. Despite that, she knew the only way he would give her some space to collect herself was to reveal what she had been thinking when she desperately uttered that she wanted to ask for more.
She pulled at his wrist, urging him to let go of her face after promising that she wouldn't look away. When he finally relented, she put her hands on his arms. She got the courage to look up at him.
"What if I give myself to you just a little bit more?" she asked under her breath. "After all this kissing we've been doing, I'm bound t–"
I'm bound to get the wrong idea was what she wanted to say. She wanted to say it was the wrong idea because she didn't want to believe a man like him would ever bother so much with someone like her. It was wrong because her body would never let her follow through. She could never take responsibility for her actions.
Yet as his lips descended and pressed against hers, she knew that it was too late to be cautious about getting the wrong idea.
His actions made her believe he could really want her in her entirety. As her mind clouded over, the way it often did when they were in such proximity, she realized that all she wanted was to know what it was like to be his entirely. The thought that he would leave her behind faded to black.
Only a small fraction of herself hadn't completely submerged into the overwhelming ocean of desire he was unlocking inside of her. She realized that they were still in the bakery.
"We have to go home," she uttered against his lips.
However, the desperate kiss lingered and he pressed his body against hers for a moment. He didn't want to pull away and be cruelly cut off again but there was no other choice. He wasn't willing to be someone who filled a place so important to her with memories like this.
He didn't know that the bakery already had become a place full of memories of him that she would have forever.
Sophia turned on the alarm and locked the bakery. She felt large fingers close around her hand and herself be pulled forward.
The trip back to her townhouse was a blur and when they were finally inside of her front door, she stared up at him with wide green eyes. Now that they were alone, it made the situation feel all that much more desperate.
To Luca's surprise, it was Sophia who took a step towards him and she stood on her toes, allowing him to lower his head to her and close the space between them if he wanted to.
However, he only gazed at her and brought a hand to her cheek, stroking her precious face as he decided what he should do next.
"Where is Ethan?" he asked quietly.
Sophia had gotten a text from her roommate earlier in the day that he wouldn't be home that night. It wasn't relevant information until that moment.
"Not home," she said.
She expected an elated response from him, but she didn't think he would lift her up and wrap her legs around his waist as he held onto her. She clung to his shoulders so she wouldn't fall.
Her bag fell from her shoulder and landed somewhere on the stoop next to the front door.
"I need to take off my shoes," she insisted. "So do you."
Soon there was a trail of shoes from the front door that stopped at the base of the stairs as Luca continued to carry the woman in his arms. He had pulled off their shoes for them, not feeling like dealing with an interruption until he figured out what the woman in his arms meant at the bakery before.
Halfway up the stairs, he buried his nose in her neck before kissing a trail down to her collarbones. She could only wrap her arms around his neck as he overwhelmed her completely. He gently bit her soft skin at the halfway point of the stairs before they turned and went all the way to the second floor. He pulled away and kissed her lips until they were in front of her door.
Before they made it all the way through the threshold, he leaned her against the doorframe and looked up at her. The desperate look in his eyes hadn't left since she mentioned a little bit more.
"What do you mean a little bit more?" he asked.
"I-I don't entirely know," she admitted. "I don't know what I can handle."
If he wasn't mistaken, she seemed terrified at what she had gotten herself into.
"Don't worry," he said. "I can make you feel good."
Even without his memories, he was confident in at least that much.