A Place in the Sun(40)

“You and Katerina are absolutely mad. People will think I’m this desperate Englishwoman.”

“Well aren’t you?”

I nearly smacked him after that, but he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and swore he was only kidding.

“I don’t think I like you much anymore,” I declared as we approached the outside of my hotel.

“Ah, c’mon. You don’t mean that.”

I was fumbling with the hotel door, trying to push when it clearly said pull just above the handle. He laughed and reached round me, pulling it open with a cheeky little smile.

“Now I positively hate you.”

He moved around me and started to lead the way up the stairs.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“I’m walking you home.”

“I’m home.”

“Not quite. I’m very thorough.”

I laughed and brushed past him, and we started a sort of silly race to see who could get to the top of the stairs first. He reached out and grabbed my arm, yanking me back to try to stop me from getting there first.

It was all a bit ridiculous, fueled by the wine and sun. I wasn’t quite drunk, but I was in a carefree little haze.

We continued stumbling up the stairs, making so much noise I knew I’d get a complaint about it in the morning.

“Shhhh, Gianluca!”

He pressed his face against my shoulder, trying to muffle the sound of his laughter. I tried to keep a straight face for the two of us, but it was like trying to stop falling dominoes. Nothing was really funny, but we were laughing anyway, gripping on to one another to keep from tipping over.

“Oh god, we’ll have annoyed everyone by now. Hurry, my room is on the next landing.”

“I can’t believe you left me with Chiara all day,” he moaned after me, ignoring my insistence that he lower his voice. Fortunately, Chiara didn’t live at the hotel, so there was no danger of her overhearing him. “You could have saved me at some point.”

“You two were glued together! Why do you think I left with Katerina? I thought you two were going to shag right there on the beach—y’know, stuff your crevices with sand and all that.”

He started laughing again—apparently the idea of shagging Chiara was quite funny—and then I was nearly dragging him up the stairs to my hotel room door.

“Look, I’ve gotten us home safely,” he said with a wide, proud smile once I’d unlocked the door.

Even like this, silly and disheveled, his beauty disarmed me.

“I’m sorry, what exactly was your contribution to the journey? You nearly knocked me down the stairs a dozen times.”

He pushed open my door and tugged me in behind him. “No. No. I was saving you, keeping you from rolling down.”

We were inside my room then. I closed the door and dropped my beach bag. He was still going on about how he’d saved me, laughing once I’d done a proper impression of him and Chiara at the beach, but then he turned the tables on me, teasing me about the gelato I’d spilled down my front. I tried to hit him with my towel to get him to stop, but he reached out and grabbed it from me. We fought for it, but he was stronger. One moment I was tugging it away from him and then he yanked it hard and I went flying to him. Still, I clung on to it. He pried my fingers from the towel one by one as I squealed and tried to keep hold of it.

It was all innocent until the precise moment it wasn’t.

Until I realized I was pressed right up against him in nothing but my gelato-stained bikini.

Until I felt his hard chest rising and falling against mine.

Until I stopped trying to fight for the towel and tried to step back, but he was there, wrapping his hand around my waist and keeping me pressed against him. I could smell the sea and sand on him. His skin was warm, another shade darker from our day outside.

I focused on his sharp jaw as I spoke. “You win.”

God, I could feel the tension in the air. It nearly sizzled from the way he held me like that, right up against him.

“Georgie,” he breathed, right up against my ear.

A delicious shiver shot down my spine, and it was like he’d put a spell on me. One word and I was under his control.

“Yes?”

“I really want some gelato.”

I laughed and tried to shove away from him, but he held me still and bent low, pressing his face into the crook of my neck. “I haven’t had any in a very long time.”

He was so tall and muscled that I felt puny by comparison. I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to slow my heart. It was pounding so hard I knew he could feel it. How bloody embarrassing that I was on the brink of death from just being near him.

“Get some tomorrow, then,” I offered, trying to lighten the mood.

“I want it now.”

The real pain of the moment was that I couldn’t tell if Gianluca was still playing around, teasing me as a friend would tease another friend, or if maybe, possibly…he wanted more. He was holding me so tight, I couldn’t get a full breath.

“Gianluca?”

“Yes?”

“I can’t breathe.”

“Me neither,” he whispered.

I smiled and tilted my head back, trying to get a good look at him, but it brought my face right up to his. I realized my mistake a second too late. Our lips were only a few inches apart. Gianluca reached up and cradled my head so I couldn’t turn away. His fingers wound up into my hair and he tugged my head back even more so he had perfect access to bend down and…holy.