She ignored the way his quick reminder of her temporary status in Italy landed against her.
“I like hearing you speak it,” she said, heat flushing her cheeks at the admission. It was new to her. All of this. Good, but new.
“And I like hearing what you like,” he said, holding his champagne flute towards her. “To exploration,” he said with a soft intensity that made her blood simmer.
She nodded as they clinked glasses, eyes holding his, before she settled back against the spa wall and glanced toward the velvety black night sky. “It’s very beautiful out here.”
“You can see only sky,” he teased.
“And stars,” she said, glancing upward. “It reminds me a little of home.”
“Do you miss it?”
She shook her head swiftly. When he didn’t say anything, she looked in his direction. “Do you find that strange?”
“A little. You’ve lived there all your life.”
“The last several years were stressful. My dad was sick, I was working so much.” She lifted her shoulders. “I could never have left him, but sometimes, I used to dream of what it would be liketo be able to get away. To see the world, to experience something other than that one-street town. Don’t get me wrong, the people there are great, and it’s very beautiful. But…”
“You’re young,” he said, voice gruff. “Traveling is what you’re meant to be doing. Seeing the world, meeting new people.”
Her lips pulled to the side.
“Instead, you were caring for your father.”
They’d barely touched on the subject of his illness. She’d explained that he’d had cancer, had gone into remission once, then relapsed, but that had been it. Sticking to the facts had helped keep their relationship businesslike.
“There was no one else,” she said, with a lift of her shoulders.
He also knew that her mother had died in childbirth.
“No aunts or uncles? Cousins?”
“Both of my parents were only children.”
His brows lifted. “Which makes you completely alone.”
Her throat shifted as she swallowed.
“What will you do when you go home?”
“After this year?” She took a sip of the champagne, the bubbles bursting through her. She had no concept of what time it was—perhaps too late to be drinking champagne—but this was a night out of time, a night without the usual rules.
“You will have money,” he said, with no concept that most of the money he’d agreed to pay her for this ruse was long gone, paid to the loan sharks. “You can move out of the town, travel anywhere you would like.”
If only that were true.
She nodded though, not wanting to tell him the truth of her situation. She didn’t want him to know how stupid she’d been. How desperate. She was embarrassed about the mess she’d made of it all, even when her intentions had been good. And of all the people she wanted not to think badly of her, Luca apparently was high on the list.
“So?” he asked, taking a drink of his champagne, eyes scanning her face. “Where would you go?”
“I haven’t thought about it.”
“Even when you were dreaming of escape?”
“Escape without a destination,” she agreed. “I knew I wanted to be somewhere else.”
“But not anywhere in particular?”
