Read Online Italian Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story by Lucy Lambert - Free Book Online Page A

the normal city noises, of course. The rush of traffic outside. Shrieking car horns. The buzz of engines. Children laughed somewhere.
    I thought of Liam's smooth voice. It was the type of voice that resonated in your chest when you heard it. I remembered the first time I'd heard him say my name in that voice. I wished I could hear that voice right at that moment.
    Finally, I opened my eyes and let them play across my small flat. Back home, folks would probably call it a studio apartment (or a bachelor pad, if I'd been a man).
    A Euro-style kitchen with the washing machine to the right of the sink, a tiny stove and an equally small fridge.
    My desk sat beside my bed, which was a creaky affair. With no air conditioning to speak of, I always kept the single window open.
    I'd always thought of it as cramped and spare. But now it seemed homely and warm and the thought of leaving it all behind gave me pause.
    Mr. Drayton's exercise worked, it seemed. When I looked back at my laptop, I started tapping away feeling focused and confident.
    I'd gotten two-thirds of a page done when the knock came from the door. The sudden, sharp noise jolted me.
    "Coming!" I said in Italian, expecting to see Mrs. Rosselini on the other side.
    Instead, when I pulled the door open I found Liam waiting on the other side. The door to my little flat was at the top of a set of steep and narrow stairs that always left me uneasy. Yet Liam had his hands in the pockets of his khakis while he leaned easily against the wall like there wasn't a neck-breaking fall just a few inches beyond the heels of his shoes.
    My throat tightened and my heart lurched, leaving me standing dumbfounded there in front of him for I didn't know how long. Too long, anyway.
    "Hey," he said.
    "...Hi," I replied, my shocked brain finally remembering that I'd given him my address. However, I also remembered scrawling my cell number there.
    "Not expecting to see me?"
    The shock of his appearance on my doorstep wearing off, I rallied, "Well, I was sort of expecting a call first. A text, even."
    He smiled, glancing around me into my small, one-room flat. He could have fit it into the kitchen of his suite back at the hotel with room to spare, and I felt myself get defensive about it, getting ready to rebuke anything he cared to say.
    Except I didn't see disdain in his eyes, or amusement.
    "Aren't you going to invite me in?"
    "You need an invitation? Are you a vampire?"
    Amusement did sparkle in his eyes, then. "I hope not. I enjoy sunshine and garlic far too much."
    He wore a polo shirt a few shades lighter than his eyes, the buttons undone to give a tantalizing tease of the body the rest of the shirt hid. I leaned against the doorframe coyly, my hands pressed against the small of my back. Right then, those hands started clenching with the desire to touch him again.
    "So why did you come?"
    "Maybe I just wanted to see you."
    "Just to see?" I said, all thoughts of Italian Renaissance artists and school papers forgotten.
    "Should I leave and give you a call? Set this straight?"
    He turned and grabbed the handrail a though about to start back down the stairs.
    "No!" I said, reaching out and grabbing his hand, sudden panic setting in. I knew somewhere that he was just teasing, but part of me couldn't bear the thought of such a fleeting visit with him. Not after I'd just spent all morning thinking of nothing but him.
    Liam turned back to me, pulling me close, our hips touching. "Good, because I don't think I could stand the wait."
    Then he kissed me. Lightly, so that I could feel the soft smoothness of his lips and the warmth of his mouth. He tasted sweet.
    A tingle ran down my chest and stomach, bursting into incredible heat when it reached its final destination.
    Just when it began getting really good, just as my knees began turning to jelly, he pulled back from me.
    " Hnh ?" I said, unable to put a real word to my confusion. Part of me hated the effect he had on me. That complete disarming of all