Read Online Her Roman Holiday by Jamie Anderson - Free Book Online

knight.”
    “Really?” Antonia raised a stencilled brow.   “Is that true, Gio?”   This time, Calia detected a slight slurring in the other woman’s speech.
    “I might not have put it in quite those terms, but in essence, yes.”
    Calia’s mouth quirked.   “Spoken like a true romantic.”
    Paolo laughed.   “I hate to tell you this my dear, but the Gio I know doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body.”
    “You shock me, Paolo,” Calia said wryly.
    “No need to worry, my old friend,” Gio interjected with a wink.   “Calia assures me that it was my pragmatism she fell in love with.”
    Antonia sniffed disdainfully.   “Did you really?”  
    “If Gio says so, then I must have.”   Calia cast him a mock-adoring smile.   “Though I have little recollection of it, to be honest.   I can hardly even remember falling in love…”   Calia saw Gio’s eyes narrow warningly.   She gave him an innocent look.   “…It happened so fast, after all.”
    “Love at first sight can be like that,” Gio asserted gravely, but Calia could see a quicksilver glint of appreciation in his eyes.
    “You?   In love at first sight?”   Antonia watched them with a suspicious frown.
    “Believe it.”   Gio nodded, his expression so solemn that Calia had to struggle to keep a straight face.  
    “What of you, Calia?”
    She gave Paolo a dazzling grin.   “Well, it’s not often you meet a man who wears his pragmatism on his sleeve.   Really, he quite bowled me over with it, the first time we met, and next thing I knew, I was head over heels.”
    Both Paolo and Antonia were watching her with expressions of bemusement.
    Gio leaned towards them.   “Don’t worry.   I don’t understand what she’s saying half the time either.   She is very fond of idioms.”
    Calia had to laugh.   “That must be what first attracted me to you then — my fondness for idioms.”   She countered his sidelong glare with a smirk. “Mister Italian Stallion.”
    He looked back at Paolo and Antonia.   “You see?   I am beginning to think she’s a little bit mad.   But what can I do?”   He shrugged.   “Love conquers all, as they say.”
    Calia give him a nudge.   “That’s right, and lo! How the mighty have fallen,” she added, with a pointed glance at him.
    He laughed then — a deep, rich sound that melted her from the inside out.   When he grinned down at her, his eyes warm with amusement, she felt herself solidify into jell-o: soft, wobbly and unable to form a single coherent thought.   “Well played, tesoro mio .   Shall we go find something to drink?”
    “Splendid notion.”   The steadiness of her voice surprised her.   “It was nice meeting you both.”
    “Charmed,” Antonia drawled.
    “It was a pleasure, Calia.”   Paolo gave her a happy smile and she felt a twinge of sadness for the man.   He seemed a good, kind person and it annoyed her that he should be so completely in the thrall of someone like Antonia.
    Gio shook his head as he led Calia away.   Even through the fabric of his shirt, she could feel the tension in the muscles of his arm.  
    “There will be trouble from that quarter this evening,” he muttered, once they were well away.   “Antonia is a nasty drunk.”
    “But the epitome of sweetness otherwise, right?”
    “If only it were so.”
    In their search for champagne, they ran into a number Gio’s friends — many of whom were important members of the Italian business community and beyond.  
    As she was introduced around, Calia took her cue from Gio, who seemed content with maintaining their pretense of intimacy.   For her, the real challenge came in trying to keep her body under control — and make her senses understand that the casual touches and tender smiles Gio seemed intent on throwing her way were not by way of foreplay.   They were simply part of the masquerade.  
    Or so she assumed, until Gio released her hand in order to grab the last two glasses of