Page 55 of Saved by the CEO

And yet she couldn’t stop herself.

“I hate seeing you sad,” he whispered. “All I want is to make sure you are happy. I’m sorry if I overstepped.”

“Your heart was in the right place.”

“It was.” He wanted to help her by encouraging her coworkers to get to know her. A far cry from trying to isolate her, the way Steven had done.

“Then I suppose I can forgive you. This time.”

Smiling, Nico leaned in to kiss her. “Grazie, bella mia.”

Oh, but she was so weak, Louisa thought to herself. One brush of Nico’s lips, and she was ready to forgive everything. Forgot everything. He could betray her a thousand times and with one touch, she’d be his again. Heart and soul. The thought would terrify her, if Nico hadn’t started kissing the patch of skin right below her jaw, obliterating all coherent thought.

From the way the clipboard just slipped from Nico’s grasp, she wasn’t the only one about to lose control. “What have you done to me, bella mia?” he whispered.

Precisely the question Louisa was asking herself. But then Nico kissed her deep, and she was swept away.

* * *

“Absolutely not,” Louisa said, shaking her index finger. “I’m not letting you talk me out of it again.”

Oh, but the spark in her eyes said he was welcome to try. They were discussing Louisa’s moving back to the palazzo. The past two nights, Nico had managed to convince her she should postpone her departure. Not that she needed too much convincing.

Tonight, however, Louisa insisted she was sleeping in her own bed.

“Fine,” he told her.

“Really?” Nico chuckled at how high her brows rose. She’d been expecting an argument. After all, as they’d both discovered, the persuasion was half the fun.

“Sure. You may sleep wherever you like. Of course,” he said, trailing a finger down the back of her neck, “you won’t be sleeping alone.”

She made a soft strangled sound in her throat that made him want to kiss her all over. He loved how easily she responded to his suggestion and how she stubbornly fought to keep him from knowing. Her eyes would flutter shut and she would bite her lower lip. Inevitably her reaction would leak out anyway, and then he would be the one fighting to hide how she affected him. Surely, she knew how crazy she made him. He would give her the world on a silver platter if she asked.

So if she wanted to go back to the palazzo, to the palazzo they would go. The only reason he kept persuading her to stay was because he didn’t want to spend a night without her.

Frightening how much he needed her. Frightening and exhilarating. Was this how his brother and sister felt when they fell in love? Or his parents? If so, perhaps he finally understood them a little bit better.

Although he would never throw a plate at Louisa. Of that he was certain.

“You never told me what you thought of dinner,” he said, slipping an arm around her shoulder. The two of them had played guinea pig for Rafe’s fall menu.

“It was delicious,” she replied. “I’ve never had rabbit before. And don’t try to change the subject.”

“Bistecca alla fiorentina is a Tuscan specialty. And I’m not changing the subject. I already agreed to let you win.”

“Let me, huh?” She reached up and entwined her fingers with the ones on her shoulder, a move that brought her face into perfect kissing proximity. Nico had no choice but to brush his lips across hers.

“Always,’ he murmured.

“Except when you don’t. Like the past two nights.”

Recalling how they’d spent those two nights, Nico felt a satisfied groan rise in his throat. “I like to think we both won those arguments,” he replied.

It was early still; the stars had yet to appear in the sky. Nevertheless, the fountain spotlights were already on. The brightness bounced off the coins scattered in the basin.

Reaching into the water, he picked up the first coin he saw and held it up. “A halfpenny for your thoughts,” he said.

She laughed. “I was thinking about how much things have changed since I arrived in Monte Calanetti.”

“Good changes, I hope.”

“Some very good ones,” she replied.

She looked so lovely, with the light framing her face. An angel to rival the nymph of the fountain. All those people tossing money and making wishes. He already had his wish standing before him. A fierce ache spread from the center of Nico’s chest, giving birth to emotions that begged to be released. “I love you,” he told her, the words bursting out of him in a rush.

* * *

Louisa’s heart jumped to her throat. Of all the things he could have said, why did he have to say those three words?

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