I rolled my eyes. “So they are, Sebastian. Way to go.”
“I could maybe get into colors,” he commented, holding up my favorite, lacy bra, which was a deep magenta.
“I don’t think it would suit you.”
He added it to the pile of clothes I was taking with me.
“No, but I’m really looking forward to taking it off you.”
“That’s assuming you get lucky, Hunter: you promised me separate rooms, remember?”
He looked like I’d just told him Christmas was cancelled.
“You’re not going to hold me to that, are you, Caro?”
I smiled at him.
“I don’t know: depends how irritating you are.”
“What if I promise to be on my best behavior, ma’am?”
“Mmm, maybe. I was impressed how well you took orders earlier today.”
His eyes darkened dangerously, and he licked his lips.
“Yes, and there’ll be payback for that, Ms. Venzi.”
I tried to step away but he caught me in his arms, running his nose down my neck and kissing my throat.
“And I’m looking forward to collecting. Maybe we should christen this bed.”
“Christen it? I would have thought it had seen plenty of action.”
He stilled and looked up at me.
“No, you’re the first woman I’ve brought here. It’s… private.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his head down, kissing him softly on the lips.
“We’ll christen it when we get back,” I whispered.
I felt his smile on my skin.
“Something to look forward to.”
I pulled away and continued with my packing.
“Okay, I’m done. By the way, where exactly are we going? It’s a pretty long way to Salerno, so I presume we’re going to stop somewhere en route.”
“Yeah, it’s just over 1100 kilometers, so…”
“Give me that in good, old-fashioned US miles, Chief.”
He chuckled. “Seven hundred miles. I thought we’d stop at Genoa tonight – that’s just under 200 miles – take us about four hours.”
Or less, the way he drove.
“How come you know all these distances off the top of your head?”
He hesitated, and I saw that he was stuffing a map of Italy into his jacket pocket.
“I’ve been planning to do this road trip for a while.”
Oh. So not something special to do with me after all.
“You and I talked about it once, you remember? All the things we were going to do, all the places we were going to see? I just figured that as I was here, I’d go anyway. And… I remembered that you said your dad came from that village near Salerno. I thought I might find… I don’t know what I thought. I just wanted to see it.”
I shook my head. Every time, every time, he surprised the hell out of me.
“Then let’s get going,” I said, smiling up at him.
As I made my way down the gloomy stairs, I heard the lock click as he closed the door. I still felt sad that this was the only place he had to call home. But when I tried to imagine him in my tiny bungalow at Long Beach, somehow the picture didn’t fit. I shook the thought away, concentrating instead on the here and now.
“We could go straight to Genoa, using the Mont Blanc tunnel,” he said, pulling me from my maudlin thoughts again, “but I really like the idea of going up through the high pass. There’ll still be quite a bit of snow around – you up for that?”
Hmm, snowy roads, two wheels: I didn’t like the math. On the other hand, long tunnel and large trucks.
“I vote for the route over the Alps,” I said, sounding a lot braver than I felt.
Sebastian dropped our bag to the ground and picked me up, swinging me around. I laughed delightedly, happy that he was happy. When he finally put me down, he kissed me sweetly.
“God, you’re amazing, woman!”
“Wait, I should write that down,” I replied, making a grab for my notebook.
“No way! You might use that against me in court. Do I have the right to an attorney?”