AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Cara,” he said, continuing to pull her. “I have had, I think, the most peaceful weekend of my life. Nothing to do but read, watch movies, and sleep. You have given me a slice of heaven.”
She laughed and sat at the counter where he directed her. “Sure. I do my best hosting while asleep.”
He opened the refrigerator, and Megan could only adjust the collars of her pajama top and watch as he poured her a glass of wine and put pasta on to boil. “Wine in my jammies?” she said. “This is quite the party.”
“I will also change, if it makes you more comfortable,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“No. You look okay as you are.” She raised an eyebrow back, drawing a grin from him.
“Pasta alla Gricia,” he announced ten minutes later, putting a plate of perfectly swirled spaghetti with a light, creamy sauce and dots of guanciale in front of her. Megan realized she hadn’t eaten in hours and dove in. The juxtaposition of salt and cream made her moan.
“Fine. You can stay,” she said, her mouth stuffed full. And they ate another meal side by side. A lot had changed since the last time they did this.
“You can tell me the rest,” she said after they’d eaten and she’d cleaned up after pouring him another glass of wine. “What are the press saying now? And Yasmin?”
“The press will not have anything to say until you or I reappear. I turned off your phone when they found your number. And Yasmin is mad at both of us for not sticking to the plan.”
“You mentioned your producers before. What’s their part in this?”
“I can take care of them,” he said at once.
They’d had such a lovely meal. Now she’d made him back off. “If we’re going to keep doing this,” she said gently, leaning on the counter opposite him, “we have to know who’s vested in stopping us.” He became very interested in swirling the wine around his glass. “So you should tell me.”
He sat back on his stool and looked her full in the face. “You are right. I am sorry. The producers of my next movie were upset at the… incident with Nikki. The next movie has a strong romance in it, and they want me to be likable.”
“You are likable.”
“Thank you,cara. They want me to be likable outside this apartment.” He waved around him. “That is why the photograph of us made things more difficult for Yasmin.”
She took a sip from her own wine. “Sometimes you talk about Yasmin as though she’s the one living your life instead of you.”
He looked away, thinking. “Perhaps. Perhaps it is easier to do what Yasmin tells me. When I make my own decisions, I get in trouble.”
“All you did was stop me from getting churro sugar on my coat.”
“Best decision I ever made. It got me here. Right here.” He tapped the counter with a finger. “Right here.”
She wanted to melt. “Good. But we still have to do something about your producers. Me asking you to stay last night—”
“The other night—”
“Oh, right.” God, twenty-four hours was a long time in celebrity gossip. “Well, you’ve been staying here since, so it wasn’t a one-night stand. And we did officially start dating more than a week ago, so I think waiting all that time was remarkably restrained of us.” That made him grin. “So if we stopped seeing each other now, your producers will think you’re jumping from one woman to the next.”
“Ouch.”
“I’m playing devil’s advocate. What I’m saying is, if we keep seeing each other and you don’t punch out any more paparazzi—”
“I did not punch him!”
“Right, sorry. You know what I’m saying.”
“Cara, you are giving me a reason to do what I so want to do. It seems too easy.” He stood. “I think you are right, though.”
“Yeah? Cool.”
“You are very clever, Megan.” He came to her side of the counter and slipped his hands around her waist. “Megan,tesoro. Will you go on a date with me?”
“Alessandro, sweetheart. It would be my pleasure.”
