Page 58 of The Fall Affair

“Thank you again for dinner.”

He lifted one hand and placed it on the door above my head. It made me feel caged in, yet I could still move if I wanted to. But I didn’t.

“I had a really good time,” Matteo said.

I smiled. “Me too.”

“I always have a good time when I’m with you.”

It was a cool night, and I felt the heat emanating from his body in the space between us. The smell of freesias was overtaken by the woodsy, masculine scent of Matteo. I took a deep breath and savored it. There were a dozen reasons why getting involved was a bad idea, yet suddenly none of them seemed important enough to walk away.

Matteo leaned down. I held my breath as he moved in slowly, bracing for a kiss. When I felt his breaths tickling my lips, I closed my eyes. But the kiss never came. Not on my mouth anyway. Instead, he gently kissed my cheek, and his mouth went to my ear.

“You’re going to have to kiss me if you want things to go any further, Allegra.” He pulled back and smiled, rubbing my bottom lip with his thumb. “When you’re ready.”

All I had to do was say the words, or even close the small gap between us and press my lips to his. I wanted to. Lord, did I want to. Yet…I stood frozen with fear.

Eventually, Matteo stepped away. “Put the light on when you get upstairs. So I know you’re safe, yes?”

I nodded, already kicking myself in the ass as I opened the door. Before shutting it, I thought better and paused. Matteo’s back was to me as he walked to his truck.

“Matteo?”

He turned to look at me.

“I wanted it to be a date, too. I’m just…afraid.”

He smiled. “I know.”

Chapter 18

Matteo

“OH MY GOD.” Allegra leaned toward me from the passenger seat. “I could’ve never driven this.”

I’d just stopped the car on a hairpin turn, five hundred feet above the sea below, to let a motorcoach maneuver around us. He took up half our lane, and if I hadn’t done this dozens of times before, I probably would’ve thought he was going to wind up in our laps, too. Traffic on the Amalfi Coast was an adventure, to say the least.

The bus cleared the turn, its tires spitting rocks over the mountain’s cliff, and we continued our journey. My cousin had told me his apartment would be empty the weekend after Allegra and I had gone to dinner, so I didn’t have to wait long to get her alone again. Though I would’ve paid Antonio to stay in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton if it meant I could have a couple of nights alone with Allegra in his small two-bedroom apartment.

Now that the panic of the last turn was behind us, Allegra was glued to the window. I couldn’t blame her. The view was spectacular, though I was usually too annoyed with the tourist traffic to see it this way. Pastel villages had been built into the mountainside, and the Tyrrhenian Sea sparkled in turquoise and sapphire beneath.

“Wow,” she said. “Could we pull over up ahead at that stand? I’d love to take a picture.”

“Of course.”

Once we stopped, Allegra leaned against the stone wall, looking out at Amalfi. The wind tugged at her hair, and I could feel her big smile inside my chest. I’d grown up with views like this, but watching her take it in made it feel new. I wanted her to remember the way my country could make her feel.

“Let me take your picture,” I said.

“Okay.”

She handed me her phone and struck a playful pose, kicking up one leg and smiling as she squinted into the sun. It made me wish I’d taken the picture with my phone instead of leaving it in the car, so I’d have it to keep.

Two ladies were shopping at the fruit stand about a meter away, and I asked one of them to take a photo of us together. That might’ve been a first, me volunteering to have my picture taken. I’d always shied away from cameras. We both smiled, but I wasn’t looking at the woman taking the photo. I was too busy looking at Allegra, memorizing the small dimple on her left cheek that came out only when her smile was big enough.

“Are you hungry?” I asked. “There’s a restaurant not too far that makes da best frutti di mare. The owner’s brother owns a fishing boat, and the pasta is made with whatever is caught fresh.”

Allegra nodded. “That sounds amazing.”