Page 38 of Rome for the Holidays
He smiled, “Have you seen how tiny you are?”
She laughed, “I guess.”
He leaned in, kissing her laughing mouth, and she wrapped her hands around his neck, kissing him back.
She gasped, “I have to tell Jackie I’m good. Oh, I forgot.”
He gestured to her phone, “Be my guest.”
She smiled, and called Jackie on the app that got service no matter where she was.
Jackie answered on the second ring, “You made it. Is it everything you ever dreamed?”
Harper bit her lip, “You could say that.”
Vincenzo said, “Ciao Jackie. So nice to speak with you. I thank you for taking care of my Harper, but that is my job now.”
Jackie gasped, “Vincenzo? You are with Vincenzo? What? Harper! Oh my gosh. How?”
Harper explained how the entire thing was set up by him, and how a driver picked her up at the airport and brought her to the house, and how she saw him.
Vincenzo spoke up again, “I promise, no harm will come to her. She is in safe hands.”
“You don’t have a wife?”
Vincenzo smiled, “Not yet. I will as soon as Harper says yes though.”
Both the women gasped again and Harper said, “I have to go. I promise I’m safe and will call again in a little while.”
She hung up after saying goodbye to Jackie, “You can’t be serious about marrying me. W-we just m-met.”
Vincenzo said, “I have never been more serious. You are mine Harper. Mine. I will not let you go.”
Harper bit her lip and he pulled it between his own teeth, giving her a small nip. “I’m the only one who gets to nibble this lip.”
They started kissing again and Vincenzo pulled away long enough to soothe the sting of the bite.
She wiggled in his lap, and Vincenzo held her hips tightly.
“Not yetpiccola.”
She melted against him, “I can’t b-believe this is real.”
He pulled away slightly, “This is the second time I have heard you speak this way. Are you okay?”
She looked down at her lap, “I sometimes speak with a stutter. I grew up that way. It took a long time to s-speak without one. But when I-i’m nervous it still comes out.”
“I make you nervous?”
She shook her head, “Not really, but sometimes it just comes out.”
Vincenzo wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to his chest, “If you are nervous, I’m not doing my job.”
She smiled, “You have always wanted to protect me.”
“I failed, but no longer.”
She looked down, then locked eyes with him, “Are you sure?”
