Italian Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story (28 page)

"Ah, he knows you are here with me?" Dr. Aretino said, still chuckling, "Perhaps a little jealous?"

"Something like that," I said.

I sat back down, having been hovering over my seat the whole time, my thighs just about ready to cramp into tight little knots.

Everyone settled back to their own conversations around their own tables, waiting for the evening to begin.

Dr. Aretino's wife chose that moment to arrive. It was the same woman from the picture. Older, still pretty. Distinguished, I suppose, like a proud bird. She wore a tasteful black dress, a large pendant resting against her bosom that I imagine Dr. Aretino had given her.

She started looking through the room, searching for familiar faces.

I nodded to Isabella, who started towards us again. Then I turned back to Dr. Aretino. I leaned closer and laughed, like he'd shared some flirty little secret with me.

He was none the wiser.

"What is funny?" he asked, smiling uncertainly. His eyes kept straying down my body.

Then Isabella arrived. She spoke in Italian. "
Dr. Aretino? Is that you? Oh, I've wanted to meet you so much!"

She looked like seduction incarnate in that dress. It hugged her in all the right places, exposed just enough skin to suggest what the rest of the fabric hid. And there was something intoxicating about her perfume.

Just like the baron, just like all the boys who tried to flirt with her on campus, Dr. Aretino stood no chance.

I was almost offended by how quickly his attention shifted from me to Isabella. Almost. He took her hand and kissed her knuckles, his lips lingering on her flesh.

They flirted, Dr. Aretino wasting no time going for the kill. "
Perhaps there is somewhere private we can talk?
" he said.

Isabella nodded, adding some garnish by letting her tongue play over her lips. I swear I heard Dr. Aretino gulp. Then she took his hand and began leading him through the tables.

I stole a quick glance back towards the doors. Mrs. Dr. Aretino stood there shell-shocked, her mouth open. I felt sorry for her. She deserved better than a man like Giuseppe Aretino. But maybe it was better if she learned about her husband's philandering ways now.

I looked at Liam, too. He nodded at me.

The curtains on the stage ruffled as Isabella led him behind them. A hollow thump pounded from the speakers along the wall as she turned on one of the backup microphones back there.

"...
Kiss me, angel, kiss me.
" Dr. Aretino said, his voice carrying across the entire hall. All conversation stopped and everyone started glancing at the stage.

"
What will your colleagues think when they see you step out with lipstick all over you?
"

"
Never mind them. They're all buffoons. They'll think what I tell them to think.
"

I smiled.

Someone nearby asked if that was Dr. Aretino. Someone replied that it was. They added that they didn't think it was his wife back there, either.

"
Now come here. I need to touch you, angel. Don't tease me any longer
."

I could imagine Isabella back there, skillfully keeping away from him, leading him on, making sure he said all the things we wanted him to say. He was so enamored that he never even noticed how quiet it had become on the other side of those curtains.

And then Liam started making his way over to stage. I didn't know why. He glanced at me again with a look that said
Trust me
.

"
Are you certain?
" Isabella said, "
The dean is here. What if he notices what we've done?
"

"
He is the biggest fool of them all. He wouldn't know his back from his front if I wasn't there to tell him which was which. Enough of this. You make me ache, angel.
"

Liam tugged on a thick cord hanging beside the curtains. A motor began humming, and then the curtains began folding on themselves.

They opened on Dr. Aretino grabbing Isabella and yanking her against him. He kissed her. She pushed him away. He started saying something, but she slapped him. The sound clapped through the speakers, making everyone flinch.

"
How dare you!
" Isabella said. She stormed off the stage in a huff.

That was when Dr. Aretino noticed that the curtains had opened. I lifted my hand so that he saw me. I smiled and nodded so that he knew who'd done this.

Even from there, I could see the way his whole face reddened. Until, of course, he saw his wife. Then it went a white to match the table cloths. And whiter still when he saw the Dean of Arts stand up from his table.

Liam came over to my table and sat beside me. "That worked out nicely, considering."

I grabbed his tie and pulled his lips to mine in a celebratory kiss.

I
agreed with Liam. All things had worked out, considering.

Dr. Aretino's wife frog marched him from the hall. The next day it was all anyone could talk about on the campus. The scandal. Dr. Aretino resigned faster than you can say divorce settlement.

Per university policy, all the students in his class finished with whatever grade they'd had at the time of Dr. Aretino's leaving. It wasn't a great grade for me. However, all the other professors became immediately more friendly to me. Professor Di Cenzo re-graded my paper, for instance.

I got an A+. I'd been figuring on an A, but I didn't complain.

Without Dr. Aretino, my overall grades made a remarkable turnaround. The advisory board took me off academic probation.

Abigail had showed up because, as Liam had put it, someone back at the home office had forgotten to revoke her system privileges. She’d known right where he’d be and when he’d be there. And had (rightly) assumed I’d be there, too.

However, I almost didn't care about any of that any more.

I took the option to stay in Rome for the rest of the school year. Liam stayed as well. Actually, I've spent pretty much every night for the last three months with him.

Winter had settled over Rome. There wasn't any snow, but it had gotten colder and wetter and I didn't want to be anywhere else, so long as Liam was with me.

I woke up that morning in his king-sized bed. Except he wasn't there when I reached over to touch him. My fingers met the smooth bed sheet instead. I opened my eyes, jerked to alertness by his absence.

"Liam?" I said, gathering the sheet around me.

"In the kitchen!" he called back.

I stepped down onto the floor, which felt pleasantly cool against the soles of my feet. As soon as I left the bedroom, I smelled breakfast. Eggs of some kind, I thought. I padded towards the kitchen.

Liam heard me coming. "No! Go sit at the table, would you?"

"What are you up to?" I said. I wanted him to come back to bed.

"You'll see. Table, now."

I went and sat at the table, wondering whether I should let the sheet slip down and reveal that I'd gotten up the same way I went to bed: in my birthday suit. That would convince him to come back to the inviting mattress with me.

He came out wearing flannel pajama bottoms and an apron tied around his bare torso. He came bearing a tray with a glass of orange juice in one corner, a small vase with a rose sticking up out of it, and a plate in the middle.

"Is this...?" I said as he sat the tray down in front of me.

"Frittata. I told you I'd make it for you."

"Took you long enough," I said. I'd almost forgotten about that particular breakfast rain check. Almost. I grabbed the fork and knife on either side of the plate, the sheet slipping partway down my shoulders.

Liam leaned down and kissed my bared skin. I closed my eyes and enjoyed it. I don't think I could ever tire of how nice his lips felt on me.

"Go on, take a bite," he said.

I did. It was delicious. I told him so.

He kissed me again, this time turning my face so that he could get to my mouth. "Good. Then I hope you'll let me make those for you for the rest of our lives."

The End

Did you love
Italian Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story
? Then you should read
The Pretend Girlfriend: A Billionaire Love Story
by Lucy Lambert!

If you'd have told me a week ago that I'd be a billionaire's property...

Confident. Brilliant. Rich. Devastatingly handsome. Aiden Manning seemed to have it all. As naive as I was, when he seemed interested in me, I fell head over heels immediately.

But Aiden Manning's life held a dark side, one that he needed to hide at any cost. That's where I would come in. My trusting nature had caused me to owe money to the wrong people, and Aiden was right there and ready to help, if only I'd help him out as well. Just one signature on a piece of paper, and suddenly I was bound to him. The ground rules I had laid out at the beginning quickly melted away, and I found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into Aiden's life.

However, someone couldn't handle that. An even more powerful figure in Aiden's life would stop at nothing to break the two of us apart. It soon became clear that I might have to sacrfice everything I had to keep the two of us together.

The real question was: How long could I pretend?

Read more at
Lucy Lambert’s site
.