Read Online Royally Romanced by Marie Donovan - Free Book Online Page A

doctor’s warning. But the doctor hadn’t told him to avoid sex—just bread, pasta and sweets. He’d rather have sex than spaghetti, anyway. And the doctor told him to take a vacation. Giorgio remembered how Renata had talked about her ancestral homeland—Cinque Terre—the Five Lands, a beautiful curve of beach on the Italian Riviera. Relatively quiet this time of year and perfect for a holiday. A holiday for two? She had wanted him as much as he wanted her.
    Before he could second-guess the wisdom of inviting a woman he barely knew to visit Europe with him, he found her number on his phone and pressed Send. For once, he would put his own needs before his country’s. He would put aside his princely duties this once, and instead just be a man pleasing a woman.
     
     
    R ENATA FUMBLED FOR HER ringing phone and managed to answer it. She’d just fallen asleep after mentally reliving her tumultuous day.
    “Renata? It’s Giorgio.”
    “Giorgio?” She yawned. “Are you okay?”
    “No.”
    She sat up in bed, alarmed at the roughness of his voice. “What’s wrong? Do you need help?”
    “I need you.”
    “Oh.” She looked at the clock. A 4:00 a.m. booty call was not something she’d ever answered. “It’s very late and I have to go to work soon.” How disappointing he would pull a stunt like this.
    “No, not now, I realize that.” He exhaled harshly. “I am making an ass of myself. Let me try again. Renata, I can’t stop thinking about you. Ever since I dropped you off, all I see is the smile on your face, your hair falling around your shoulders, the scent of you, the taste of your skin…”
    She gulped. If this was a booty call, it was a very poetic and arousing one. Maybe she should reconsider her policy…
    But he was continuing. “I do need you. I want to know you better, know what you think about things, what you like to read, see at the movies, do for fun. And I want to show you your family’s ancestral village on the coast. Come with me to Italy.”
    Renata patted herself on the cheek to make sure she was really awake having this conversation and not just a really weird dream. If it was a dream about Giorgio, wouldn’t she come up with something a little more erotic like actually having sex with the man instead of receiving odd phone calls inviting her to Europe?
    “Renata? Will you come?”
    Oh, yes, she was awake after all and therefore had to decide what to do. “But, my business—”
    “Your assistant you mentioned or your artist friend Flick can manage, can’t they? I will pay for a temp if you need one. You have a passport?”
    “Yes, I suppose they could manage for a few days.”
    “A week?”
    Her eyebrows shot up. “A week? And I have a passport.” She’d gone to Montreal for a short vacation last year. Enough of this beating around the bush. “But, Giorgio, why me? We just met this—well, yesterday morning. Why should I upend my life and take off to Italy with you like some royalty groupie?”
    “You know why.” His voice deepened to a seductive growl. “Because you want me. Me, the man, not the prince. You want what I can give you, but not at the boutique or the jewelry store. You want what I can give you in the bedroom.”
    Oh, he had her there. The man wasn’t even in the same borough with her and was making her crazy for him.
    “Remember how I sucked on your nipples last night? Remember how I touched your silky thighs and hot, sweet center?”
    She let out a moan in remembrance.
    “That was just a taste of how it could be.” Triumph tinged his voice. “I may be a prince in public, but I would be your slave in the bedroom.”
    A whimper escaped her lips. With talk like that, he could take her to bed anywhere and she’d be more than happy. “Yes.”
    “Wonderful. I will make arrangements and send them to you tomorrow.”
    “This morning,” she corrected.
    He gave a startled laugh. “I’m sorry I hadn’t waited until a reasonable time to call