Page 76 of Tempted By the English Marquis
Serafina nodded, clearly reading his mind. “Roman tailors are both skilled and fast. Don’t be surprised if they haven’t already completed at least all of your shirts and perhaps one of your suits.”
They paid the café owner, with Serafina offering them many thanks for the excellent coffee. Gideon caught the wordIngleseas she pointed toward him and smiled. The owner bowed to Gideon, who stepped forward and offered his hand. “Grazie mille,” Gideon said.
I really am going to have to learn to speak more than just a few words of Italian. Serafina needs someone she can converse with in her native tongue.
Stepping out into the street, Serafina turned to her left and pointed farther down the cramped and now crowded thoroughfare. Gideon came and stood beside her, his gaze following the direction in which she motioned.
“Do you see that tall, rounded column at the end of the street? That’s the corner of the Pantheon. I told you it was quite close. Come, let’s see if it’s open.” She held out her hand, and Gideon hesitated for a moment. In London, it wasn’t common for couples to hold hands in public. And they weren’t officially a couple. He wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do.
Serafina wriggled her fingers at him. “Come. If the prospect of me touching you in front of other people makes you feel uncomfortable, I am afraid you are going to have to get used to it,amore mio. I’m Italian and we never hide our passion.”
Amore mio.My love.
Gideon’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t take her hand but moved closer. Close enough so that only she could hear. “You called me your love. Do you realize that’s the second time today you have said the word love to me?”
He could get easily used to it. Her cheeks blushed a perfect rose red, and it was all he could do not to wrap her up in his arms and capture her lips with his. But even in his state of loved up bliss, Gideon Kembal knew that if holding hands was stretching the rules of social niceties, kissing in the street would be smashing them to pieces.
You are supposed to be keeping a low profile today. Don’t risk everything over a moment of impetuous desire.
“I didn’t know how you would react if I said it to you before. When I was in England, there were moments when I was sure you were about to change the story between us. That we would go from simply being friends to something more. But . . .” She offered him a hopeful smile.
“But I didn’t, and I was a fool. A blind, stubborn, self-opinionated ass who should have thrown caution to the wind and told you how I felt. That you had stolen my heart and I never wanted it back.”
Serafina swiftly stepped out of the way of a large group of nuns who were heading along the street. Gideon blinked as they passed by. “Sorelle,” said Serafina, giving the nuns a respectful nod.
As soon as the nuns were out of earshot, she turned back to him. “You were saying?”
“I am sorry for having wasted the chance when you were in England. For the time we could have already had together. My solemn promise to you now is that I won’t waste another minute living without you. Serafina de Luca, you are my life. And if I have to spend forever here in Rome, wearing your father down and getting him to agree to us marrying, I will gladly do it.”
She blinked quickly, and Gideon was certain he caught the glint of tears in her eyes again. He hated knowing that he had been the cause of them.
“That’s quite the romantic declaration, Lord Holwell. If we weren’t standing in the middle of the street of seminaries, I might just throw myself into your embrace.”
She laughed and a bemused Gideon turned just in time to catch sight of yet another group of nuns bearing down on them.
“Come on, time is wasting. Let’s go and visit the Pantheon. If we get stuck behind any more sisters of the faith, we will have to join the queue to get inside. I, for one, detest waiting in line,” Serafina said.
Gideon wasn’t one for standing in line either—not that it was something he was particularly accustomed to doing. “Alright, the Pantheon it is.” He reached out and took a hold of her hand. “Can we talk again tonight? I want us to share things that cannot be said here in the streets of Rome, and I think we need to discuss how best to proceed to make sure the dreaded betrothal ceremony never takes place. I’m really looking forward to the day when we don’t have to hide our love from the world.”
He then let go of her hand. Slowly. Reluctantly. Fingertip by fingertip.
ChapterForty-One
Serafina had been inside the Pantheon on numerous occasions, usually tagging along with an older sibling. Then, as she grew, she became the offspring which other de Luca children trailed behind on field trips organized by various tutors and governesses.
Guiding Gideon to the center of the square in what had once been an ancient Roman temple, and since the seventh century, a Catholic church, was a different kind of experience. For one, he was actually paying attention when she started telling him the story of the building and its construction.
“Commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus,” she began. A smile past between them. “Augustus, not Augusta. Though the first time I brought your sister here. she wondered if she could try and claim it.”
Gideon laughed softly. “Yes, well she did try to take the entire month of August as hers when she was younger, so I’m not the least bit surprised.”
They moved slowly toward the front of the building and the many-columned portico. Gideon pointed to the inscription on the top. “I love how Marcus Agrippa felt the need to say that he had built the place in such huge letters.”
She gave him a haughty glare. How dare he mock one of Rome’s most prized ancient buildings? Gideon raised an eyebrow, and something clenched low in Serafina’s body. The things that a mere look from him did to her.
I want a life with this man.
“The building is cylindrical, and the portico is comprised of sixteen granite Corinthian columns,” she continued, clearing her throat.
