That Day At The Lake - an erotic romance

Adriana is just a child of eight when she first meets Luca in Naples, Italy. His father rescues Adriana from her brutal step-father, and she goes to live with his family.

***

I can hear him coming up the stairs, his boots making a loud noise on the bare wooden surface, and I tremble with fear. I wish I could wake Mamma up. She has been sleeping for such a long time. I must find a place to hide. He must not catch me, especially if he has been drinking. Mamma always intervenes when he tries to hit me or, worse, when he tries to fondle me. But Mamma won’t wake up and I don’t know who is going to protect me now. I crouch down behind the sofa and pray that he is so drunk that he cannot see me. Perhaps he will go straight to bed and lie down with Mamma?

The door opens and I hold my breath. I hear his footsteps and the creak of the door as he pushes it shut behind him. I want to peer from behind the sofa to see him but I am too frightened. I can smell the drink. He sees Mamma on the bed.

“Get the fuck up you idle bitch. You spend all day in that damned bed.”

I hear him walk across to the bed and hear him slap my mother. There is no response from her and he gasps as he sees the needle sticking from her arm.

“What the fuck have you done now, you stupid cow?”

He calls for me.

“Adriana, come here girl. Come out from wherever you are hiding.”

I do not reply and his voice become very angry.

“Come here right now or you will be very sorry girl. Come and see what your stupid bitch of a mother has done to herself. She’s only gone and killed herself.”

He begins to move around the room, looking for me. He comes around one end of the sofa and spots me as I move towards the other end. Cursing, he climbs over the back of the sofa and reaches down to grab me. He pulls me up with one hand while slapping me around the head with the other. But he is clumsy because of the drink, and he stumbles and falls. I know that I must get away and I run for the door. He tries to come after me but I am too quick for him and I manage to get the door open and get out on to the landing. I race for the top of the stairs and get down them as fast as my legs will carry me. I fall near the bottom, but I quickly get up and soon I am in the street.

I can hear his heavy footsteps coming down the stairs and I run, barefooted and dressed only in my nightdress, along the street. He is getting closer to me and his curses ring out so everyone nearby can hear him, but no one comes to my aid. He is a big man and most people fear him.

Just as I think I can run no further, a big black car pulls alongside me and the door opens. I see a well-dressed man wearing a dark overcoat and a trilby hat, get out of the car. He puts one hand on my shoulder and turns to the man chasing me.

“Mario.”

That one word is sufficient to make him stop running. He is out of breath, but he manages to reply.

“Angelo.”

The man in the trilby, whom he called Angelo, looks very fierce.

“So you’re chasing children now are you, Mario?”

Mario looks angry and reaches to grab my arm.

“She’s mine, Angelo. Mind your own fucking business.”

He does not notice that the driver of the car, who is even bigger than he is, has come around the back of the car and is standing right behind him. With just a slight nod of the head, Angelo gives his silent instruction and the driver produces a cosh from his coat and hits Paolo over the head. Paulo slumps unconscious to the ground.

“I made it my fucking business, Mario.”

The man called Angelo takes my arm and points me to the open car door.

“Get in, child. Come with us.”

I climb into the car and see a young boy, not much older than me, sitting on the back seat. He looks warily at me as Angelo and the driver climb back into the car and the car moves away from the man lying in the road.

Angelo takes hold of my hand and feels me shaking.

“Don’t be frightened child. I won’t harm you. What is your name?”

My voice is little more than a whisper.

“Adriana.”

“That’s a pretty name. How old are you Adriana?”

“I’m eight.”

He points to the young boy sitting next to him.

“This is my son, Luca. He’s ten.”

The car drove away from the streets of Naples where I was born and had lived all my life and towards a brand new life. Nothing would ever be the same again.

***

Six years later, when they are both teenagers, they begin to see each other in a different way

I see Luca standing by the small lake behind the house. He is skimming stones across the surface. I watch him for a moment, hidden by the large oak tree that has been there since long before the house was built, and I lean against the warm, solid trunk and peer around it to watch him without being seen.

He is sixteen now and almost a man. His body has filled out so that he is less skinny than before, and his dark hair curls down his neck, almost touching his collar. It looks a little wild, as though he has neglected to comb it, and I think how handsome he is. I want to go to him and run my fingers through his hair and stroke his cheek where facial hair now appears. He now shaves; but not every day, and I like it when his face has twenty-four hours of stubble on it. It makes him look more like a man, and less like a schoolboy.

The day has been very hot and now, in the late afternoon, I long for the cool of evening. Sometimes, in the summer, Luca and I swim in the lake to cool down, but today I don’t have my swimsuit and I am much too shy to swim in my underwear, especially now that, at fourteen, my body is changing and becoming more womanly. Giulia says that I need to start wearing a bra, now that I have little breasts appearing on the formerly flat surface of my chest. I am becoming more self-conscious about my body and won’t even let Giulia see me without my clothes, and she is practically my mother.

I see Luca stand up and he glances from side to side, as though he is checking that he is alone. He clearly does not see me hiding behind the tree and begins to take off his shirt. I feel a little uncomfortable; as though I am about to see something I should not see. He drops his shirt on the ground and I look at his broad shoulders and developing arm muscles. I have seen him in the gym at school at lunchtime, lifting weights, and I now see the results of his endeavours for the first time. I feel little shivers running up my spine, but I don’t know why.

I suck in air sharply as I realise that he is not stopping at taking off his shirt alone, but is now unfastening his jeans and pushing them down his legs. I feel trapped and embarrassed, but at the same time I have ripples of excitement running through my body, and I want to stand and stare but I know that Luca will be annoyed with me if he thinks I am spying on him. Should I call out before he becomes completely naked and pretend that I have just arrived? Or should I creep away and hope that he does not see me?

I am paralysed with indecision and now it is too late. He drops his underpants to the floor, steps out of them and splashes into the lake, swimming out about twenty yards in a slow, lazy crawl, before turning and swimming back. He stops a few yards from the edge of the lake, where the water is waist-high and looks towards the tree, behind which I am standing. I move my head quickly out of sight, but it is too late. I have been caught.

“Come out Adriana, I know you are there.”

He doesn’t sound angry, or even irritated. His voice sounds disconcertingly normal. I hesitate for a few seconds and then step out from behind the tree. My chin sinks to my chest in embarrassment at being caught. I can’t look up and see whatever expression is now on his face.

“Are you spying on me, Adriana?”

I shuffle my feet and still cannot find any words.

“Come into the water. It is nice and cool.”

I walk slowly down to the water’s edge, praying that Luca will not walk towards me and reveal himself. When we were young we saw each other naked once or twice, but now it is different. Now I have these disturbing thoughts and feelings.

Luca laughs to see my discomfort. He splashes some water in my direction.

“Come on. Take off your clothes and come for a swim. There is no one around. Mamma and Papà are out.”

I am torn with indecision. I desperately want to tear off my dress and plunge into the water, but I am afraid. I am not afraid of Luca. I am afraid of myself, and my feelings. I am afraid that I will confess that I love him and I will see the mockery in his face as I make a fool of myself.

He holds out his hand and I stop worrying about everything, as I pull the dress off over my head and make a dash for the water in just my panties, my arms crossing my chest to cover my growing breasts. I stop about a yard away from him and sink down into the water so that it covers me to my shoulders.

“Don’t be shy, Adriana. I’ve seen you without your clothes on before.”

But that was when I was younger and had a chest that looked like a boy’s.

“Come, let’s swim across to the other side and back and see how fast you can swim now.”

Luca does not waste a moment and begins swimming to the other side. I am a good swimmer, but I know that I cannot match his broad shoulders and extra height. But I am a class champion at school for swimming and am determined to give of my best. Perhaps he isn’t swimming at full speed because he is only a matter of feet ahead of me, instead of the twenty feet I am expecting. It is disconcerting because I can see his bare, white bottom bobbing through the water, in sharp contrast to his suntanned top half.

He turns and begins to swim back the other way.

“Come on Adriana, keep up. I’m going to beat you by miles.”

I cheat and turn well before I reach the far bank, but Luca still beats me by a long way, as I tire. He stands in the water waiting for me and applauds as I come near; standing in water that barely comes up to his waist and I can see his boy bits through the clear water. I can feel my face colour up and I don’t know where to look, but Luca laughs.

“Don’t hide yourself, Adriana. You are becoming a woman and you are beautiful. Stand up and let me see you.”

I slowly rise up until I am standing straight and I drop my arms to my sides. I look at Luca’s face, but he is looking down at my breasts and he has a strange, intense look in his eyes. Then he looks into my eyes and smiles one of his warm, cheeky smiles that I have grown to love so much.

“One day, Adriana, you are going to be such a beautiful woman and men will fight over you. I hope that I will still know you then.”

It seems such a strange thing to say and I do not know how to respond. We stand and look at each other for what seems an eternity, but is probably just a few seconds, until the sound of a car coming up the driveway disturbs the mood. It must be Luca’s parents returning home. I run from the water and grab my dress, pulling it over my head and wet body and make a dash for the house before I am seen, leaving Luca staring after me.

***

Shortly afterwards the two teenagers are separated, and they don't meet again for ten years. When they meet in New York, Luca has changed. He has developed Dominant sexual tastes, and he doesn't want to involve Adriana in his new life.

***

Adriana seemed as though she did not want to discuss what had just happened. But I knew that we had to talk about it, and soon. It was only at the moment that my lips touched hers that I realised that I wanted Adriana in my bed. I wanted to fuck her, and I knew that it could never happen. She was pure and innocent in comparison with what went on in my life. I could not bear to see disgust or repulsion on her face when I told her what I would like to do to her. I couldn’t expect her to understand my sexual needs, and I knew that also I could not live indefinitely without that part of my life. I could not take Adriana there; she did not belong in that world.

I heard her whispered voice over the noise of the car engine.

“Luca, can we go to your place please?”

I knew that if we did I would be lost and would succumb to the urge to fuck her, and I could not risk hurting the one sweet and honest thing in my life by leading her on and then causing her pain and grief down the line when we both realized that it wouldn’t work between us.

“Adriana, I’m sorry. I need to take you home.”

“But…”

She said no more, but I could feel her distress, and I suspected that there would be tears before the night was over. I needed to be strong, but I wanted to let her down as gently as I could, and I knew she would be hurt whatever I chose to do.

We arrived back at Adriana’s apartment block, and I parked the car and switched off the engine. Thankfully it was dark, away from the streetlight, as I could not bear to see the hurt on her face.

“Adriana, we need to talk about it. I did not intend to kiss you, but it just happened.”

Her voice was so soft I could barely hear her.

“But I wanted it Luca. I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long.”

“I think that subconsciously I wanted to kiss you too. But there can’t be anything between us. I could not bear to hurt you, but I need to hurt you to protect you – if that makes any sense. Adriana, I am not the man for you. I would only cause you heartache. You are so sweet and good and I…Adriana I cannot live in the world you inhabit. I am a dominant man in my sexual life. I need things that I could not expect you to share or understand. You must accept that. We can only ever be friends.”

“But I could learn to like what you like, Luca.”

“No, you don’t belong in that life Adriana. I have known you since you were eight years old. I know you better than anyone alive, and I know that it is not the life for you and I also know that I don’t want to live without that in my life. I need it as much as I need oxygen.”

I could see the hurt in her eyes.

“We can stay friends Adriana. You are my family. I enjoy having you in my life. But we should perhaps have a little break from seeing each other. Just a few weeks, and then we will be able to laugh about this little episode.”

“But you don’t understand Luca, I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

What will it take for Adriana to convince Luca that she is the woman for him?

These are extracts from my book, That Day At The Lake, an erotic romance. It is available at

Amazon US here

Amazon UK here

Picture: Shutterstock