gelato stand. After they’d been served, they went to sit on a fountain in the middle of the little piazza. They were surrounded by children running in circles on the cobblestones, young lovers kissing against the buildings around them, and families sitting to watch the stars come out.
“This is my favorite place in the city so far,” Elise said. “I’ve been coming here every night. This is what I’ll think of when I go back home and people ask me what Rome was like.”
“It’s hard to believe that this is home for so many people,” Lucas agreed. “It feels like something out of a dream sometimes.”
She looked over at him. “It really does.”
He didn’t plan to do it. He didn’t even think about what he was doing. But something in her deep brown eyes seemed to draw him in, and the next thing he knew, his lips were on hers.
The sounds of the city seemed to fade. He lost himself in the sweet, flowery scent of Elise’s hair and the feel of her body pressed against his. He forgot who he was. He forgot the things that had brought him here. The only thing that mattered, in that moment, was her.
Then she pulled away.
His heart clenched. If she was going to put a stop to this before it had a chance to begin…well, he didn’t know if he could stand it. His pulse was racing, and he felt as if every inch of his skin had had an electrical current pass through it.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide, and Lucas thought she must be feeling the same way he was.
“Do you want to see my apartment?” she asked him breathlessly.
Thank God.
“I would love to see your apartment,” Lucas said.
She got to her feet, pulling him along with her, and they made their way out of the piazza and up the street.
Chapter 3
Elise
As it had every day in Rome, the sun coming through the window woke Elise.
She had gotten used to waking up this way, and it took her several minutes to remember what was different and why she felt so warm and satisfied.
Then it came to her.
Lucas.
She kept her eyes closed as she pieced together the events of the night before. They had stumbled along Via dei Capocci together, unable to stop touching one another. He had wrapped his body around hers like a glove as she’d struggled to unlock the apartment door. Elise remembered feeling as if her mind was shutting down, as if she was at serious risk of forgetting how to breathe.
And then, when they’d made it inside…
Well, everything was a blur after that.
Snapshots from the night arose in her mind. The way it had felt when he had swept her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom, tossing her onto the bed and jumping in after her. Later, in the shower, the hot water beating down on their shoulders, their bodies pressed together as she breathed in the scent of him.
She rolled over in bed, her arms automatically reaching out to pull him close.
But her hands were met with empty air.
No one was there.
For a moment, Elise was afraid that the fantasy of the night before really had been just a fantasy. Could something so strange and wonderful really happen?
But she was naked in bed, and that wasn’t normal. And as she closed her eyes and inhaled, she realized she could feel the aftereffects of last night in her body. Her muscles were sore, as if she had been through an intense workout.
Yes, it had definitely happened.
But Lucas was definitely gone. And she knew immediately, by the still silence of the apartment, that he hadn’t just gone into the other room to make breakfast or something. He had left. She was here on her own.
He left without even waking me up to say goodbye.
For a moment, as Elise processed that fact, she felt as if her stomach had been hollowed out. It felt as if her dream had turned to dust in her arms. She had never expected that it would all be gone when she awoke. She had fallen asleep in his arms last night feeling perfectly happy, but would she have been able to do that if she had known she would start the morning this way?
It doesn’t matter, she told herself firmly. You knew this was just one night.
Yes, she’d known that. But she had hoped to have the chance to say goodbye to him. It was disappointing