Page 18 of In Italy for Love

‘I’ll find another solution in the morning.’ Her voice trailed off as she spoke.

‘A solution to what?’

‘My life!’ she said with a groan.

He eyed her, picking up on that world-weariness again, along with a hint of desperation that disturbed him. ‘There’s plenty of space upstairs,’ he reassured her. ‘The only thing is—’ Ah, he hadn’t thought this through properly. ‘The plumbing up there isn’t working.’

To his surprise, she laughed – full and throaty, bringing back memories of the night before. ‘What is it with the plumbing in this place? No water will be an improvement on too much water at Due Pini. I can come down here for a tap.’

‘The bathroom too. You’ll have to use mine.’

‘I promise to use water sparingly and not leave my shaver lying around.’

‘That’s not what I—’ He cut himself off, catching her twitch of a smile. ‘Let’s go find you a room.’

‘Thank you,’ she said through pursed lips. ‘Just for tonight – I promise.’

He glanced over his shoulder as he grabbed a set of keys and headed for the stairs. ‘This is the second night in a row you’ve promised to leave tomorrow.’

Her response was a sigh. ‘I didn’t imagine leaving could be this hard.’

9

After the shades of vexation she’d seen on Alex’s face that afternoon, Jules was deeply uncertain about whether she should have taken him up on the offer of accommodation. Her bank balance would thank her, but his reluctance to play host couldn’t have been clearer. Her decision to come to the middle of nowhere appeared to have backfired spectacularly, and it took constant effort to stuff back down the panic when she was reminded that her free accommodation had fallen through.

She’d never guessed that the whole building was Alex’s home – although he hadn’t mentioned if he owned or rented it. Three more floors existed above the small apartment she’d glimpsed last night between kisses – kisses she needed to stop thinking about, so they could get back to being ‘not’ anything before more of his acquaintances came to the wrong conclusion and refused to be talked out of it.

Alex was obviously embarrassed that there had been witnesses. It was a shame, since she had some rather nice memories of his bare chest from last night. In fact, it was rather distracting, watching him climb the stairs in front of her. He was wearing a pullover that was fine enough to show the lines of hisshoulders and from there, her brain skipped right back to the memory of him shirtless.

At the top of the stairs, they arrived in a dim corridor with a creaky wooden floor, lined with furniture from several past lives, including a globe that looked old enough to show Australia as New Holland and a rocking chair that would probably disintegrate into wicker shards if anyone actually sat on it.

Alex breathed a sigh of relief when the hallway sconces flicked on, although the light was weak and dim. It was cool up here – cold, even, now the temperature outside had fallen after the mild autumn day. Peering into the room he unlocked, Jules only saw a bed, and she could have wept for joy after the ways she’d imagined seeing out this night.

But Alex closed the door again quickly. ‘Not that one,’ he said, locking it again.

‘Is that where your housemate the vampire lives? The one that protects you from the zombie neighbours?’

‘You’re going to give yourself nightmares,’ he commented, giving her a dubious glance that had no business looking so good on him. ‘I haven’t aired any of these rooms in…’

She waited for him to finish, but he just got a dismayed look on his face and stopped talking.

‘Don’t worry. I can air it. And I can pay for?—’

‘Don’t even suggest it,’ he said, his tone so sharp it made her stand up straight. She wasn’t sure what he’d done with her smiling co-conspirator from last night, but this serious, rather bossy version of Alex was… actually just as attractive, unfortunately.

‘This house used to be a B&B, but a long time ago,’ he explained.

‘Now it’s musty, but allows you to take in stray women whose dogs are your biggest fan.’

Moving to the next door, he said, ‘You make it sound like it’s happened before, butnobodyhas been in here for years.’

She waited as long as she could, but he didn’t elaborate. ‘So the vampire thing could be true. You don’t know for certain.’

He wisely ignored her, opening the next door after trying out several different keys. When he switched the light on, dust motes swam in the air from the frilly fabric lampshade. An equally frilly bedspread covered the bed and a dark hardwood wardrobe filled one corner. Arco immediately went to work learning the smells of the room.

‘I suppose I can go to Narnia if all else fails,’ she mumbled to herself, running her fingers along the rustic joinery.

‘Better than Transylvania?’ Alex replied with a frown, as though his own joke were an unwelcome surprise. There was a heaviness to him that definitely hadn’t been there the night before. Had he had a bad day? ‘I’ll get you some fresh bedding and air out the room while you shower if you like?’

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