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“Kiss?” His voice rose a couple of octaves.
Color filled Stasia’s cheeks. “Yes, that.”
Somehow her discomfort with this whole scenario eased his own uneasiness. “Do you really need your phone?”
She gave him an are you serious? look. “Yes.”
His gaze moved to the woman holding the phone. She arched an expectant brow at him. “It looks like we really don’t have any other choice. If we don’t kiss, we’ll have to get you a new phone.”
“What?” Stasia blinked a couple of times as though processing his answer. It obviously wasn’t what she’d been expecting. “But, no, we can’t. I have all my photos on there. And my contacts. My life is on that phone.”
“What you’re saying is that it’s important? So important you’d do almost anything to get it back?”
She frowned. “I can’t leave here without it.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Just do it.”
“Kiss you?”
“Yes.”
It certainly wasn’t the response he’d been hoping for. Not taking time to consider all the reasons this was a bad decision, he dipped his head and claimed her soft, pliable lips. The chanting stopped and a silence fell over the crowd. He’d only meant it to be a brief kiss, but once he felt her mouth pressing to his, thoughts of pulling away escaped him.
As Stasia’s lips opened to him, he was utterly and totally caught up in the moment. The fact they had an audience also slipped from his thoughts. He could only think about the woman who was now in his arms. She was definitely not as immune to his kisses as she had let on.
He drew her closer. His mouth moved over hers, slowly at first, as he didn’t want to scare her away. Because there were so many ways this kiss was wrong. And yet nothing had ever felt so right. It was as though Stasia had been made to be right there in his arms.
Her hands slid from his shoulders and wrapped around his neck. A deep moan of longing and excitement swelled in his throat. Could she hear him? Did she know how much he wanted her?
And then the sound of applause broke through his hazy thoughts. Bit by bit, reality came back to him, from being in the market to the woman taking their photo to the growing audience. Audience? He pulled back.
Stasia’s eyes blinked open. She looked at him with confusion reflected in her eyes. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one to be caught up in the moment. He refused to contemplate what that should mean to him.
The older woman stepped up to them with a big smile on her face. She went to hand Stasia the phone, but Stasia didn’t reach out to take it.
“You didn’t take the photo yet,” Stasia said.
“Oh, but I did. In fact, I took more than one.” The woman placed the phone in Stasia’s hand. “You two are going to have an amazing future together.”
“But we’re not together,” Stasia said too late.
The woman had disappeared into the crowd. In unison Roberto and Stasia stared at her phone. There was a photo of them kissing. Not just kissing but getting utterly lost in the moment. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear they looked like they were lovers—like they were head over heels in love. But of course that wasn’t the case.
The crowd dispersed and Stasia slipped her phone in her purse. Neither said a word about the photo. And Roberto fought the urge to ask her to send him a copy of the photo. It shouldn’t mean anything to him, but for some reason it did. It was best he didn’t have a copy. Otherwise, the only thing he’d get done would be staring at the photo.
“How about some gelato?” Roberto gestured to a gelato shop. He needed something to cool him down after that rousing kiss.
“I don’t know. We just had that delicious lunch.”
“But it’s your birthday. You’re allowed to indulge.”
Buzz. Buzz.
“Do you need to get that?” Stasia asked.
“It can wait.”
Surprise reflected in her eyes. “But you didn’t even check to see who the message is from.”
“It can wait. But celebrating your birthday can’t wait.”
She smiled brightly as she continued to stare at him.
Starting to feel self-conscious, he ran a hand over his mouth. Perhaps her lip gloss had rubbed off on him. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
