by Katie Dowe
She was so tempted to say yes but she fought the urge valiantly. “We have the rest of the day for that,” she managed in a slightly strangled voice.
“Are you sure?” his breath was too potent, much too heated for her comfort.
“No,” she whispered. “But I am prepared to wait.”
“Okay,” he said briskly, his mood changing instantly as he moved from behind her and came to take his eat. He signaled the waiter and ordered for them before turning to look at her.
“Last night was–” he searched for the word and settled for amazing.
“It was,” she murmured. “When did you leave?”
“About eight. You were sleeping so soundly that I did not want to wake you.”
“Thanks,” she murmured. Suddenly she felt the shyness assailing her. She almost sighed with relief when their food came and the conversation was curtailed. They ate in silence for most of the meal. The room had emptied out before they were finished and the place was relatively quiet.
They talked for a little about politics and she realized that he had a biting humor that had her laughing at the things he said. He sat back and sipped his coffee, his eyes on her.
“What?” she finally asked him.
“Why are you still single?” he asked her quietly as if the question had been puzzling him.
“Why are you?” she asked him back.
“Who says I am?” he asked her lazily lifting a heavy brow.
“You are not?” Monique felt her heart plummeting to the ground.
“I am.” He leaned forward and took up one of her hands staring at the long fingers with the short buffed nails. He turned it over and looked at her palm using a finger to make circles in the soft skin. “You are quite an interesting woman,” he said obliquely.
“Thanks…I think,” he was still playing with her palm and making her shiver. He bent his dark head and placed an open mouthed kiss in her palm. Monique moaned softly, feeling her body weaken. “What are you doing?”
He lifted his head and looked at her, his penetrating dark eyes causing her to shiver even more. “You make me want to abandon everything.” He told her mystically. “Let’s go for that walk.”
They wandered out to the Piazza Castello where the fourteenth century castle, the Mole de Castiglia, stood. He held her hand in his as they wandered the magnificent rooms and viewed the displays before they went to the nearby San Giovanni convent. They had lunch at the Tavern San Martino before going back to the museum to kill the time. Monique pretended that it was real. She pretended that this was a relationship that would last a lifetime and ignored the fact that as much as they had talked, he had not revealed a single thing about himself. Maybe he was running away from something but he never said anything of the sort to her.
They went back to the hotel and ordered in. The food was left untouched as they took a shower together which lasted a very long time until they were making love in the tepid water. She dug her fingers into his hair as he fed off her nipples. No longer was she shy around him but gave in the incredible passion that wrung everything from them!
Chapter 3
He left on Monday. It was the middle of August after she had been planning how they would spend the rest of the time together. He had finished making love to her Sunday night and she had been curled up into his arms when he told her. “I am leaving early in the morning.” His arms had been curled around her waist as she rested her head onto his chest. Her heart thudded inside her chest as she heard the words. She had lifted her head and looked down into his intense dark eyes. She had wanted to ask him why, but as much as they shared something intense and powerful he had deliberately kept most of himself hidden from her. “I see,” she had said in a hollow tone.
“I have some things to take care of,” he had smoothed the hairs from her face. “If only things were different.” He had murmured.
“Will I see you again?” she had asked him in spite of herself.
He had shrugged slightly. “I don’t know.”
He had pulled her into his arms and made mad passionate love to her until the early hours of the morning and then left. He had been gone when she finally got up in the morning and she had turned to see a slip of paper with his name and a phone number on it. She had told him everything about herself and he had not revealed anything about himself to her. She sat there staring at the handwriting and then the tears came! She had gone ahead and fallen in love with a total stranger who had come into her life and left the way he came!
*****
“How about a glass of champagne Mr. Romano?” the very attractive Stewardess in the private company airplane asked him suggestively. He glanced at her briefly and nodded not giving her the slightest bit of encouragement. He had left Monique sleeping in bed and had stood there watching her for a little bit. He had not wanted to tell her goodbye, it would have been too hard. The champagne came and he took it, giving the woman a cool glance that had her hurrying away. He sipped the bubbly and leaned back against the rest wearily. He was tired having been up for most of the night and the early hours of the morning exploring her body. His flesh hardened slightly as he remembered how she tasted and how she felt.
His phone rang and for a moment he thought it was her but stifled a sigh as he saw that it was his father.
“I am on my way home,” he said without the usual greeting.
“The pilot called me before taking off,” Bernardo’s booming voice sounded in his ear.
“Of course he did.” Lorenzo said dryly. “Did he also report on what I am wearing?”
“He did not need to.” His father laughed loudly. “The heir to the Romano’s fortune had better be wearing one of our summer casuals that have been building up a storm for the past two months.”
“Denims and T-shirt,” Lorenzo corrected him. “It happens to be ours so I hope that counts for something.”
“Your mother wants you to start making the social rounds. I, on the other hand, have set up a meeting with the board members for you to sit in on. I am stepping down as CEO and appointing you. Think you are ready?”
Lorenzo stared into his bubbles which had suddenly gone flat. “And if I say no?”
“I would take it to mean yes.” Bernardo’s voice had gotten considerably cool. “This has been a long time coming boy and I have allowed you to go your merry way for most of your life. The company belongs to you and you need to start proving to me and others that you are more than capable.”
“Of course,” Lorenzo felt the weight almost choking him. “I will see you when I arrive.”
He tossed back his glass and emptied it in one gulp. He had a feeling that his freedom had just flown away from him!
*****
“Are you sure you are okay?” Marcus looked at his sister curiously as he hefted her suitcase up the flight of steps and into the living room where he took it into the small neat bedroom. He had picked her up from the airport and apart from a few casual sentences she had been silent all the way not brimming over with excitement about her trip.
Monique allowed her pocketbook to slide off and onto a chair before taking a seat and looking around. The joy of coming home had been dimmed by what she was feeling even now. “I am just tired.” She murmured and took off the sneakers she had worn allowing her feet to cool off. As soon as her bother left she was jumping right into the shower! “And it is pretty hot so I am drained.”
“Have you called Camille?” he asked her referring to her best friend and co-worker.
“Not yet.”
Marcus sat on the side of the bed and looked into her eyes. “What’s going on?” They were alike in many ways physically but he was taller than she was by almost a foot.
“Nothing,” she wriggled her toes and hefted a throw pillow catching him square in the face. “Jet lag plus coming home to reality hit me when I got to the airport. Jeez you are an old woman.”
“I have to be.” He said gruffly, still eyeing her suspiciously. “Meet any tall, dark Europe
an over there?”
For a minute Monique was almost bowled over by the question. She had done the crying into her pillows for the time she had been there and had looked everywhere and saw him! After the third day she had decided that she had better come home. His number was tucked into one of the compartments inside her purse where she had stored it.
“Many, but I told them I had a pretty nosy brother who would not give them any peace,” she said lightly as she got to her feet. “Let’s go look at what you have done to my plants.”
He left shortly after making her promise to get something to eat. As soon as she was sure he had gone, she went back into the bedroom to reach for her phone, touching the screen and going into gallery. She had taken their pictures at the museum and several more at the castle. She used her fingers to widen the photo and stared down at him. He had been smiling slightly and had his arm around her waist. Her smile had been wide and she cringed at the look of absolute love on her face. His dark hair had been blowing around his handsome face when the tourist had pointed the camera at them and he looked like a carelessly handsome man with no care in the world. With a tearful sigh, she touched the phone icon and called Camille.
“You are back?”
“Just about half an hour ago. Where are you?”
“At the mall. Where else? They are having end of season sale and I need some back-to-work clothes. How was it?”
“Good,” she said in a subdued voice.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You almost killed yourself going off to Italy, using up all your savings and now you sound as if you have lost your entire possessions. I am coming over.” Before Monique could dissuade her, she had hung up the phone.
She used the time to get into the shower and was watering her plants when Camille came laden down with packages. “I bought several skirts and top for you so you owe me,” her friend said briskly as she came into the living room and put the packages on the floor. “Now before you spill everything, I need sustenance in the form of a refreshing can of root beer.”
“It is a good thing that Marcus stocked up for me over the weekend.” Monique hurried off to get the beers and came back to sit in the sofa opposite her friend. Camille Johnson was a rebel with a heart of gold. She never cared who you are and her rapier sharp tongue had gotten her into the trouble more than once at the private school they both taught, but she had no intention of curbing her tongue. She was tall and slim with spiky natural hair and a narrow face. She had been married for three years before her husband had run off with a mutual friend. She had told Monique that she was on a sabbatical for now.
“Hooray for Marcus,” she lifted the chilled can in salute. “Now tell me what’s going on?”
“I met someone,” Monique drew circles around the condensation on her can for a moment.
“And?”
“I think I am in love with him.”
“That’s wonderful! Or is it?”
“I don’t know his last name and I don’t think he is going to call me.”
“Did you have sex?’
Monique looked at her friend and then nodded.
“Okay fine. I can deal! You met this gorgeous man and you were both swept up into a holiday romance, it is not the end of the world if surnames were not exchanged. I went to Spain once a long time ago and had hot and totally mind-blowing sex with a native and we never knew each other’s names.”
“This is not the same.” Monique reached for her phone and brought up the photos. Camille put her can away and studied the pictures. She almost did a double take as she stared at the man holding her friend by the waist. “Oh my gosh!” she whispered reverently.
“What?” Monique looked at her startled.
Camille’s eyes swung over to her friend in shock. “You don’t know who this is?”
“Should I? His name is Lorenzo, that’s all I know.”
“You idiot!” Camille muttered and getting up she grabbed Monique’s laptop from the desk and booted it up. She typed in a name and several pages came up. “Come and look.”
Monique sat beside her and looked at the website. At first, she had no idea what her friend was showing her and then she saw him! Her Lorenzo dressed in a black tuxedo with the international singer: Diana Rowe hanging onto his arm. There were other pictures that showed him with famous women and then family photos. Lorenzo Romano! No wonder he had seemed so familiar! “I never knew,” she said faintly feeling all the air coming out of her lungs. He had seen an easy lay and had gone with it and why not? She had not put up any resistance.
“Oh honey,” Camille said sympathetically. “We were in that store just a few months ago and we were looking at that angora sweater with their logo on it and we could not afford it remember?”
Monique nodded. Of all the persons for her to have fallen in love with! She closed her eyes briefly. They had had sex without using anything! How could she have been so stupid?
“He gave you a number?”
She nodded, her eyes fixed on the computer screen. The latest item said that he was slated to take over from his father. Their net worth was several billion dollars and there was no way that a man like that would ever want to be with her. It had been just sex and he had probably been blowing off steam before going back to the life he was used to.
“How was the sex?”
Monique looked at her friend and suddenly laughed. It always boiled down to that with her. “Soul wrenching,” she said a little wistfully. “I never thought it possible to feel that way about another person.”
“Call him,” Camille said briskly. “Who knows? Maybe he feels the same way.”
“I doubt that.”
*****
Lorenzo shook his head as the maid came around to serve him the peach cobbler. He had been home for two weeks and he was having a hard time adjusting to the usual formalities of the Romano household. The house had been built by his grandfather and his father had added several more suites to it, making it a lavish spread that took up several acres of land. It sat atop a crest and allowed a spectacular view of the terrain. He remembered growing up here and never allowed to venture far into the woods surrounding it unless there was a guard and his nanny accompanying him. He was wondering if now was any different.
“Cara are you okay?” Adele Romano was a sleek beautifully graceful woman with raven hair and dark brown eyes. She was very influential in the society they were a part of and had some powerful friends. Her hair was brushed back from her face and pinned into an elegant chignon at the nape of her neck. She was wearing a blue silk dress that was one of the Romano’s labels and suited her very well. She used her dessert fork to take up a small piece of the peach cobbler and tasted it, savoring the taste with a nod of her head.
“I am just a little tired Mother.” He said with a small smile.
She reached over and patted his hand. “I know your father has thrown you into the deep end and you have that ad campaign dealing with, but I have the utmost faith in you.”
“Thank you,” he leaned back and sipped his wine contemplatively. It was just the two of them at the vast dinner table because his father had gone on a trip to the UK for a couple of days.
“I am planning on throwing a party here for the beginning of September. I am inviting some of your friends from the club as well.”
He shrugged a little carelessly. “I will make myself available.” He said with a tinge of sarcasm.
“I have also invited Angelica Baldini. He stiffened at the sound of the name and put his glass onto the table.
“Why?”
“Because your father and I think she is a perfect match for you. Her parents are very influential and their manufacturing businesses are doing well. Angelica is a beautiful girl and would make a very good mother and wife.”
“Based on what?” Lorenzo asked her grimly.
“Darling you need to settle down. Come December you will be twenty-eight. When your father and I were that age we were already married and doing so many thi
ngs.”
“I am not marrying because you and dad think it is the right thing to do. I have met Angelica and she is a docile woman who does everything she is told. I don’t want a lap dog for a wife.”
“That’s a horrible thing to say!” his mother protested even though she privately agreed with him.
“You know it’s true.” He got to his feet abruptly. “I need to finish up something.” He came around and brushed her soft cheek with his lips and stepped back. “Don’t stay up too late.”
Adele watched her tall son gracefully stride away with a look of pride in her eyes. He was handsome, more so than his father had ever been and she was aware that women find him vastly attractive. She had been in love with Bernardo ever since she was a child growing up in Barcelona and had seen him coming to her house to have dinner with her parents. Both their parents had been friends forever, so naturally the two children had been brought together. She smiled as she remembered how nervous and jumpy she had been whenever she knew they were coming over. He had taken her virginity when she had reached nineteen and they had never looked back. She always knew he would be something incredibly big but had no idea how vast the empire would have become! She nodded to the maid as she cleared away the plates and sat there thinking. Her son needed someone and it was time!
*****
Ever since she was a little girl Monique had always been able to compartmentalize her emotions. Growing up without parents had left her vulnerable in many ways and strong in some. She had reached out to her aunt at the beginning trying to find comfort in her arms and had been rudely rejected and she had never tried that again. She had unknowingly reached for the peak of the mountain and now that she had discovered that the mountain was far out of her reach, she had decided to step back and regroup. She had fallen in love with a man who had deceived her by not telling her who he really was and she had finally accepted it. Now it was time to get back and push him into the far recesses of her mind. It would not be easy as she had discovered but as the one week slid into two and she found herself buried in lesson plans and reading up the literature for the coming school year, she had discovered that she was not pining over him so much. His number was still tucked into her purse and sometimes she would take it out and look at it and then she would put it back. He had her number as well and if he was the tiniest bit interested he would have called her. But why would he be? He was Lorenzo Romano, of the largest selling brand Romano, he was up there with the likes of Calvin Klein, Dolce and Gabbana and the others. What on earth would he be doing with a school teacher? She had read up on the family as soon as her friend had left and had felt the despair covering her entirely. He was an only child and heir to the fortune that spanned several generations. She had gazed at the large spread that they called a house which she thought was more like a palace! He had been paired with so many celebrities that she had to force herself to stop looking as she felt the shards of jealousy piercing her. She could not even afford one of their t-shirts or maybe she could but it would take a big chunk out of her salary and she had no intention of being so silly! So she had made love with him over and over again and she cringed as she remembered the hints she had thrown at him that they could be a couple. How he must have laughed at that! Straightening her shoulders, she went back to her lesson plan.