Page 15 of Royal Valentine

“Perhaps we should introduce them.”

Tingles of delight passed through me at the idea that he seemed to think that someday our mothers might meet. “Perhaps.”

We continued dancing. He had started running his fingers lazily up and down my spine, and it had the effect of disconnecting my brain from the rest of my body.

The still-functioning part of my mind wondered if I’d heard Lucia correctly and what Callum might be keeping from me, but I didn’t want to ask him. Honestly, how bad could it be? He didn’t strike me as someone who would thinkThe Rise of Skywalkerhad a great ending. I wasn’t willing to bring up anything that might ruin the magic being created between us.

He murmured to me in Italian, “You’re like a dream come true.”

I wasn’t supposed to be able to understand him, and again I had to fight my natural inclination to react.

But there had to be another way to get him to say it to me. “At Trevi Fountain, what did you wish for?”

“You already ken what I wished for.” His lips brushed against the outer rim of my ear and my knees nearly buckled.

“I don’t,” I said breathlessly. “That’s why I asked.”

He stopped dancing and reached under my chin to tilt my face up to his. “You do. I told you—I dinnae want this day to end. I feel like I made you up. Like you can’t be real.”

“I know the feeling,” I said. I’d never met someone that I’d been so instantly attracted to, and everything I found out about him made me like him even more. I kept thinking he’d say or do something that would be a turnoff, but so far it hadn’t happened.

He seemed ridiculously perfect.

There had to be a catch, but I didn’t know what it was.

Callum stopped moving and framed my face with his hands. I held on to him tightly, knowing what he was about to do but not sure if I was ready for it. I was probably going to combust.

“Anne.” He breathed the name over my lips.

“Ilaria,” I corrected him. If he was going to kiss me, I wanted him to use my real name. “It’s ... what everyone calls me.”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise and I wanted to kick myself. Obviously it was very weak as far as explanations went, but he didn’t seem too concerned. I was truly terrible at thinking on my feet. I promised myself that I would explain it all to him later.

Not right now.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. “Ilaria.” His accent deliciously rolled the consonants of my name in a way that made my brain buzz.

It was either that or the fact that he was finally calling me by my name.

“I should stay away from you,” he murmured as he nuzzled his nose against mine.

“Why?” That made no sense to me.

“Because I can see myself falling for you, and that’s dangerous.”

I didn’t understand what he meant but didn’t ask. He said he could see himself falling for me.

He meant it. If I’d been Princess Ilaria, I never would have believed him. Men had said those sorts of things to me before, wanting fame from my notoriety or my title or hoping to get their hands on my money.

But Callum didn’t know about any of those things. He saw Ilaria, the woman.

And he liked what he saw.

His lips ghosted over mine, tantalizingly out of reach. “Would it be all right with you if I kissed you?”

CHAPTER SIX

It would be pathetic if I begged him to do it, wouldn’t it?

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