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Anna stepped back. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t try and—and make fun of what I say.”
“Whoa.” Draco held up his hands. “All I did was—”
“This may surprise you, but I can think for myself.”
His smile fled. “Such a mistake,” he said stiffly. “A man tries to do a good thing for his woman—”
“I am not your woman. I am not anyone’s woman. I am my own …” Anna caught her lip between her teeth. His woman. She had to admit there was something special in the words. “Hell,” she said softly. “I’m behaving like a fool.”
Draco hesitated. Then he sighed and reached for her.
“Yes,” he said, “you are.”
She gave a little laugh. “Thanks for agreeing with me. I think.”
Smiling, he put a finger under her chin and tilted her face to his.
“Let me spoil you a little, bellissima, okay?”
“I’m just not used to …” She sighed. “It was very sweet of you to do what you did.”
His answering grin was all sexy male arrogance.
“Yes,” he said, and brushed his lips over hers. “It was.”
Anna laughed as he drew her close. Learning to let a man spoil you, especially a man like Draco Valenti, was going to be a challenge.
He said there were five places you had to visit if you wanted to say you had seen Rome.
The Coliseum. The Forum. The Piazza Navona. The Trevi Fountain. And the Spanish Steps.
Today, he said, they would see the Spanish Steps.
Another of his self-assured pronouncements. This time Anna fought her instinctive—and foolish—reaction. Why should he consult her on something so simple? This was Rome, he was Roman, she wasn’t. End of argument.
Besides, the Spanish Steps sounded perfect, and they were.
The stone steps, worn smooth in places by the tread of feet over hundreds of years, climbed from the beautiful Piazza di Spagna to the Piazza Trinità dei Monti. Tourists as well as Romans climbed the steps, stood on them and sat on them, enjoying the sights, the sounds, the balmy weather ….
And cups and cones of cold, creamy gelato.
Draco took Anna to his favorite gelateria.
“So many flavors,” she said, looking at the endless list, but it turned out she didn’t have to make a choice. He ordered for them both, no questions asked. One chocolate, one marrone. The two best flavors, he said with his arm around her, keeping her close to his side.
What about lemon? she almost said, but didn’t. The day was perfect. So was the man. The truth was, there was something sexy to this me-Tarzan, you-Jane approach that she had so recently laughed at.
As long as it didn’t go too far.
They found places to sit on the steps, one right above the other. Draco took the upper step; Anna took the one beneath it and leaned back against his legs.
She took a long lick of chocolate gelato. Draco’s eyes followed the motion of her tongue.
“Now try the marrone,” he said softly.
