“Thank you for waiting, bella,” he murmured against my ear.
“Last minute gondola customer?” I guessed, smiling at the waiter as he refilled my water glass and took Nico’s order-cheeseburger, fries and cherry Coke.
“My mother.” He sipped his own glass of water. “She asked me to come home to help her move a table.”
I blinked. “And you left work for that?”
“I didn’t have any customers.” He shrugged. “Carnavale is over and the tourists have all gone home.”
“But you had a lunch date with me,” I reminded him.
“And here I am.” He spread his hands, taa-daa, and smiled.
“Yes, here you are.” Late, I thought, but didn’t say it. “So tell me something…”
“Anything.” He reached over and snagged one of my fries, crunching happily and grinning at me. There was something about him that made me want to smack him and kiss him at the same time. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on who.
“How do you become a gondolier exactly?”
“Do you have career ambitions?” He raised an eyebrow and then laughed. “The training is actually quite extensive. You have to go through a year-long apprenticeship and take several tests.”
“Really?” I moved my plate out of his reach when he went for another fry. “I had no idea it was so involved.”
“The association actually caps the number of gondoliers they’ll allow to work in the city.” His gaze wandered to the people passing on the street and I noticed a pretty blonde-and noticed him noticing her.
“So it’s kind of an exclusive club.” I offered him a fry, a distraction. I didn’t blame him for looking-the woman was stunning-but I also didn’t feel like competing.
“I suppose it is.” He took my peace offering. “My father was a gondolier and my father before him.”
“Wow. So it’s a legacy. Sounds like you were destined to do it.”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” He smiled thinly as the waiter appeared with his cheeseburger. Nico dug in immediately, wolfish, talking with his mouth half full. “So what are you going to do with your degree?”
“Probably find a job in the states doing translation. Spending lots of time traveling back to Italy for business.” I watched him swallow a huge bite of cheeseburger, washed down with a swig of cherry Coke. “At least, I hope.”
He paused, chewing his last bite thoughtfully before swallowing. “Why don’t you stay here, work here… live here?”
“I’ve thought about it,” I admitted, seeing the hopeful look on his face and deciding to change the subject. “I have to tell you something.”
“Oh?”
The blonde was coming back this way and I saw his gaze shift again as she passed.
“I’m embarrassed to admit it.”
He smiled, looking back at me. “Confession is good for the soul, remember?”
“Okay… the truth is…” I cleared my throat, glancing first at the disappearing shape of the blonde and then over to the waiter, as if someone might overhear. “Before yesterday, I was under the impression that you were gay.”
He laughed. “Why would you think so?”
“When you dropped me off at the post office, you were talking to a man,” I explained. “Well, not just talking…”
“Ohhh!” His eyes brightened with understanding. “Well, then I guess I have a confession to make as well.”
“You really are gay and I was just a fling?”
“No.” He smiled. “I’m bisexual.”
Well that explained everything, didn’t it?
“Does that bother you?” he asked.
“Actually, no.” I sat back in my chair, making yet another confession. “So am I.”
He looked surprised. “You have been with both men and women?”
I nodded. “My last committed relationship was with both a man and a woman.”
“Interesting.” He went back to working on his cheeseburger, already halfway through, chewing thoughtfully. “I’ve been with men-and women-but never both together.”
“You should.” I grinned. “I highly recommend it.”
“So how did this happen?”
I considered not telling him-I’d kept my relationship with the Baumgartners a secret, not something I was ashamed of, but more like something precious that might be spoiled by sharing it-but he looked so curious and interested and open that I confessed that too.
“I met Carrie and Doc about a year before I left for Italy.”
“Tell me about them.”
And so I did. I told him about meeting Carrie and Doc, about their slow seduction and my ending up in love with them both. It had been an amazing year of my life, something I’d fallen into while my marriage to Mason fell apart. They weren’t the cause of the end of my relationship with my ex, but they were both there to pick up the messy pieces, and I would always be grateful to them for that.
“Both of them? You loved them both?” Nico cocked his head at me.
I nodded. “I did. I do.”
“But they are married?”
“Yes, and very much committed to each other,” I explained. “They loved me and included me, but it was always clear that theirs was the primary relationship. And I was okay with that.”
“Fascinating.”
Of course, I left out the part about being in the middle of a messy divorce from Mason at the time. That didn’t seem relevant. Or maybe I was just kidding myself.
“You are a mystery, bella.” He was done with his meal, leaving a few fries on his plate, an afterthought, and he leaned over to take my hand.
“Nico…” I looked down our hands twined together on the table, remembering the way our bodies melded, dissolved, becoming one. “I can’t help feeling like we’ve opened Pandora’s Box.”
“Yes, perhaps we have,” he agreed, rubbing his thumb against the crease in my palm. “But the thing is, you can’t close it once it’s been opened.”
“Do you want to?”
“Me?” He grinned. “Hell no.”
We both sat back as the waiter appeared, refilling water glasses and asking if we needed anything. We dismissed him as quickly as we could, wanting to keep our focus on each other. I could feel the energy between us, hotter than any sun, and I couldn’t help but turn my face toward it.
“Do you have to go back to class this afternoon?” Nico inquired, leaning in again.
“No.” I met his eyes, full of wanting. “Do you have to go back to work?”
“I should.” He shrugged. “But I don’t want to.”
I bit my lip, tracing the wet rim of my water glass. “What if I asked you to come back to my room?”
Nico half stood, waving at the waiter. “Check!”
“Shhh!” I begged him to be quiet. Cara Lucia was home and while she was, thankfully, hard of hearing, she wasn’t completely deaf. I’d had to sneak him in, up the back stairway, which happened to be right next to my room. Lucky me. The other students weren’t so fortunate-two of them had been caught already this year sneaking paramours into their rooms and one had actually been asked to leave. He couldn’t seem to stop inviting women to his room. I definitely didn’t want to be kicked out-real estate was at a premium and rooms were hard to find for students.
“Sorry,” he apologized, catching me in his arms as I shut the door. “I can’t keep my hands off you.”
“Do you want some coffee?” I headed for my little kitchenette, petting Jezebel on the way. She had come out to investigate the intruder, sniffing at Nico’s pant leg as he followed me. Cara Lucia’s rooms were designed for exchange students. We had our own bath and shower in each, but just a kitchenette-no stove but a small refrigerator, hot plate, a little table and two chairs.
“I have tea. Some juice?”
“I don’t want anything but you.” Nico sat on one of the chairs, scratching Jezebel behind the ears. “Come here.”
I did and he slid his hands around my waist and pulled me close, nuzzling my belly as Jezebel twined around our legs.
Nico sighed dreamily. “I think I’m addicted to you.”
I relented, following the slope of his shoulders, feeling the muscles there, as he looked up at me, smiling. “So your mother and sisters seemed surprised you brought a woman home.”