Page 59 of Royally Roma
He looked down at the two coins in his palm. “Marriage.”
His gaze shifted to the elderly woman. She smiled, nodded, and waved at the fountain again.
“She thinks we’re a couple.” Julia rolled her eyes so hard that Niccolo thought they might fall out of her head and onto the cobblestone ground of the piazza. “I can’t imagine why.”
No kissing.
Io non sono sua.
Niccolo had absolutely no right to feel angry. None whatsoever. He’d pushed her away, both literally and figuratively. But these continued protests were beginning to rub him the wrong way.
Don’t do anything rash. Remember who you are.
He fixed his gaze with Julia’s and tossed the two coins over his shoulder. They sailed through the air in a glittering silver arc. The old woman pressed her hands to her heart and voiced her unequivocal approval in boisterous Italian while Julia stood staring at him, slack-jawed.
Time seemed to grind to a screeching halt, and an unnerving hum buzzed in Niccolo’s ears. The playful smile on his lips faded. His breath grew shallow. Every muscle in his body tensed, like a hand curling into a fist. A door slamming shut.
As the coins splish-splashed into the glistening water, Niccolo barely heard Julia’s sputtering protest. He’d become aware of only one thing—the figure he spotted over the woman’s shoulder. A man in a dark suit.
Staring. Pushing through the crowd and walking at a fast clip.
Straight toward him.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Julia stared at the two borrowed coins sitting on the bottom of the Trevi Fountain, and had the ridiculous urge to jump in the water and scoop them up.
She knew it was an absurd notion. Those coins didn’t actually mean anything. They didn’t seriously control the future.
Still.
Nico was charming. Undeniably attractive. And despite the fact that he was a confirmed liar, she almost liked him...so long as she overlooked the fact that he was a crazy person who wanted to pay her a ludicrous sum of money to sleep on her sofa when he had a perfectly good room at the swankiest hotel in Rome.
While she was overlooking things, she should probably also forget about his utterly frustrating kissing habit. Or that he’d gotten her fired.
Why had that irksome detail begun to slip her mind?
She blew out a sigh. The silver coins sparkled in the cool blue water, mocking her.
Clearly the Nico situation was far too dangerous to leave things up to fate.
She waved at that fountain and practically screamed at him, “What wasthat?”
But Nico had gone deadly still. Quiet. His gaze was focused sharply on something off in the distance.
“Nico.”
He blinked and snapped back to attention.
“Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and started dragging her through the crowd.
He had a death grip on her hand. It was the farmer’s market all over again. Any minute, he’d probably pull her behind a dark corner somewhere and start counting to ten.
“Nico, wait.” She yanked her fingertips out of his grasp and stopped in her tracks.
He whipped around. The sternness in his expression caught her a little off guard. She fully expected him to issue another one of his ludicrous commands, which she had no intention of obeying. She couldn’t keep ignoring his erratic behavior,fascino fatalenotwithstanding.
