Page 84 of Royally Roma
She swallowed against the lump that had lodged in her throat.Keep it together.You still have your pride. It was pretty much all she had left at this point.
“Julia, this is not a game.” His gray eyes glittered. She wished it didn’t excite her to see him like this. Powerful and passionate, even though at the moment that passion was very much a by-product of anger. “Take the money.”
“I can’t. Don’t you see?” She couldn’t believe she needed to spell it out for him. Did he really not understand, or did he get some perverse sense of satisfaction out of making her say it out loud? “Taking your money, especially such anobsceneamount of it, after I’d had sex with you would make me a whore.”
“You are no whore, Julia Costa. And don’t ever speak that way of our time together.” Something indiscernible flashed in his gaze. Julia stared at him for a prolonged moment, wishing he would say something, anything that would make her feel less like a common criminal and more like the woman she’d been when he’d made love to her.
“It wasn’t just sex.” His gaze softened to a misty gray that reminded her of an ethereal fog rolling in after a long rain. “It was...”
Everything froze while she waited for him to finish. Even the air seemed to stop moving.
“...more than that. Much more.” He cupped her face in his hands and drew the pad of his thumb across her bottom lip.
And it felt so good, so right to have him touch her again that she could have wept for a century.
“Oh, Julia, my darling.” His hands slid into her hair, and he pulled her close, kissing her closed eyelids with tender, reverent touches of his lips. “It wasn’t sex. It was poetry.”
She gathered his lapels in her fists.Hold on. Just hold on.If she could just keep her composure for one more minute, they could say good-bye and then she could go home and fall apart in private.
She would never see him again, would she?
Deep down, she’d known as much all along. But she didn’t think she’d really accepted it until now. Maybe it was the lush surroundings—all the ornate molding, velvet cushions, and gilded elegance that shimmered with the truth that she didn’t belong here. Not now. Not ever.
Or maybe it was the way that Piero had looked at her back in her apartment. As if she were some sort of pariah. Something to be managed, lest she do something embarrassing.
Like her father.
She was a mistake, a mess that needed to be cleaned up so the prince and his entourage could move on to the next country, the next luxurious hotel room. Probably even the next woman. Everything from here forward was damage control.
She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.Damage control.It was too late. There was no controlling the damage that had been done.
“Nico, I can’t do this. Any of it.”I’m leaving.
“Julia...” Something about the way he was suddenly looking at her caused her skin to dance with goose bumps. His expression had become so earnest and intense that it was frightening.
Her throat grew dry. She was terrified suddenly. Not because he was angry, but quite the contrary. Shouting she could handle. Tenderness, on the other hand, just might break her.
He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her, slowly, gently. And something seemed to come apart inside her chest. Because she didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say. She just needed to leave this place, leave him, while she still could.
It was almost a relief when the door swung open and Piero walked in. “Excuse me, Your Highness.”
Nico exhaled a tense sigh. “Not now, Piero.”
Piero cleared his throat. Quite loudly. “I’m sorry, sir. But there’s someone here to see you.”
“I should go,” Julia murmured. There was no reason to stick around. She’d done what she needed to do. She’d returned the money. It was time for good-bye.
“Stay,” Nico said. “Please stay. Whoever it is can wait.”
Stay.
It was the one word she’d longed to hear.
After everything—after the lies and accusations, after the maddening embarrassment she’d felt when she’d opened that envelope and seen so much money—she still wanted him. God help her.
It took superhuman effort not to reach for him, to seek comfort in his lips, his hands, in the pleasure of his embrace. To stay.
“I’m afraid it can’t wait.” Piero’s voice snapped her back to reality. “The king is here.”
