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I watched as he dived in and started to wolf down his dinner like a starved street dog. I chuckled and reached for my own. I took a bite and moaned.
“Oh wow. What is better than good pasta and wine to an Italian?” I mumbled in between mouthfuls.
“Good fucking sex,” Alessio answered without hesitation. I paused my chewing, staring into those hypnotising eyes. “Sex, pasta and wine. That is a winning combination.”
I looked down at my bowl as I felt my body temperature rise and my mind raced with fantasies of what it would be like to have sex with this man. On pasta. In pasta. While eating pasta. Yeah. I was losing my mind. Fuck, no Elle. That was his game. Get sex on the brain and fall for his charm. I stuffed my mouth with pasta in the hope that the moment would pass. We ate mostly in a comfortable silence, chatting in between mouthfuls now and again about how good it was. The pasta that is. When I had finally finished, a while after him, I placed the bowl back on the table and grabbed the wine, moving my gaze to the window. I could see in the distance the very obtrusive, dark outline of a monumental volcano looming over the city of Catania like a deadly giant. That had to be the famous Mount Etna; one of the most powerful and active volcanoes in the world.
I pointed my wine glass towards it and Alessio craned his neck to follow the direction. “Is that Etna?”
“Si. Beautiful, isn’t she?” he replied, staring at the domineering figure in the distance.
“Beautiful and deadly. Isn’t it always erupting? And if it does erupt properly like it did in the past, won't it obliterate all who live in a 100 mile radius?”
“So they say,” he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Aren’t you worried? I would be terrified to live so close to that thing. Wondering if every night I go to sleep it might erupt without warning!” I argued as a slow smile crept up his face.
“This is Etna’s city as well as mine. She was standing long before I was around and she will still be here long after I am gone. I am just a visitor in her home and will stay until she decides enough is enough.”
I frowned at him, shaking my head. “You are mad. ‘She’ is a deadly mountain of lava, gas and ash that has no awareness or concern for your life.”
He was smiling widely now, enjoying this conversation and my head was beginning to feel a little fuzzy from the exquisite wine.
“It is the beauty of nature. Mother Earth has a plan for us all and if Etna is meant to be the one who ends Alessio Barbieri when so many others have tried and failed, it would be an honour.”
I scoffed loudly. “See! Surprising and crazy! You are like that Captain that chose to go down with the Titanic when he could have saved himself.”
“Your list of adjectives is growing,” he smirked. “And I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen it.”
“What?! Have you never watched the film Titanic? With Rose and Jack?”
He shook his head and finished his glass of wine before pouring himself another and topping mine up.
“Well, we are changing that right now! You cannot go through life without having watched one of the most epic love tragedies of all time.”
“I have managed thus far,” he chuckled as I made my way over to his smart TV covering an entire wall of his bedroom, looking for the remote. “Romantic shit isn’t really my thing.”
“It is not just about romance!” I argued, smiling when I found the remote and turned it on. I looked around and realised the only place to really watch this comfortably was from his enormous king size bed. He raised his eyebrows as I made my way over to it and jumped on one side, hitting the mattress next to me. “Come on!”
He sighed dramatically, but pulled himself out of the chair and marched around to the other side of the bed as I arranged the scatter cushions in a vertical line down the middle.
“What are you doing, Princess?” he questioned, stopping to watch me before he sat down.
“Creating a pillow wall. For protection,” I said nonchalantly and he scoffed. “When Ryan arrives, he will take their place.”
“Protection from me or for me?” he asked, lifting his glass to his lips to hide his amusement. I ignored his question because honestly it was a bit of both. Being this close to him on his bed was dangerous and I didn’t entirely trust myself not to cross that invisible line. Hence, the pillow wall.
We settled back against the headboard, not touching, but close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his naked torso. I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead and tried to focus on the film. My heart was pounding and every part of my body was on high alert, begging me to give into my unwanted desires for this man. Instead, I focused on the young, gorgeous Leo on the huge screen. It wasn’t long before Alessio started up his irritating inquiry into every little detail.
“Why are they having their hair combed?”
“Lice.”
“So you could just get on the boat with no ID?”
“I guess. He won a ticket.”
“Who is that old lady?”
