Page 36

And when he mentioned that the word he’d said in Italian meant ‘fuck’, the first thing that sprang to mind was how it would feel to do that with him.

Jesus.

My poor match was laid up in bed suffering and I was fantasising about screwing another man. I was officially going to hell.

Thankfully, Romeo wisely changed the subject and now we were wandering around atrullohouse that had been converted into a little museum.

It had cute rounded rooms including a kitchen and even a little bakery.

I held up my phone and took another round of photos.

‘Should I take one of you?’ Romeo offered.

‘Yes, please!’ I handed him my phone and he snapped away.

‘Later we should take some of you outside with the houses in the background.’

‘Great thinking. Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.’ I turned to face him and reminded myself for the hundredth time not to look into his awesome eyes for more than two seconds. ‘I picked up the photos earlier and there were only two. Do you know what happened to the others? Pretty sure I saw you taking more.’

‘The photos?’ Romeo’s gaze dropped to the ground then shifted to the opposite side of the room. ‘Sì, I… I did take more but… I… they did not come out very well, so those were the best ones.Scusa. I will do better next time.’

‘Could I see them anyway?’

‘No,’ he answered quickly. ‘They… I have already deleted them. Would you like to buy some souvenirs?’ Romeo asked.

‘Yeah,’ I said, wondering why he’d changed the subject so abruptly. Maybe I looked shit in them and he was trying not to hurt my feelings by letting me see how bad they were. ‘I should get something for my bestie, Stella. She came to the Love Hotel too.’

‘Really?’ His eyes widened as he led me to the souvenirs. ‘Which resort?’

‘The Spanish one. They matched her with her ex.’

‘Cazzo!’

‘Fuck, right?’ I smiled.

‘You are a fast learner.’ He smirked. ‘I am thinking it was a mistake to teach you that word. And an even bigger one to repeat it just now.’

‘Don’t worry. I won’t use it often. And only in the right context…’ I grinned.

‘Vabene.’ He smiled and right on cue, the butterflies erupted in my stomach.

When I got that fluttery feeling at breakfast, I put it down to being hungry, but now I’d realised that it seemed to happen whenever Romeo smiled, laughed or said something funny, which was surprisingly often.

Happy Romeowas definitely much more fun to be around thanGrumpy RomeoI’d met on the first day. The problem was that Happy Romeo was making my body react in a way that it absolutely shouldn’t.

‘So, they matched your friend with her ex? What happened?’ Romeo said as I sifted through some keyrings to avoid looking at him.

‘Yeah, but it all worked out well in the end. They’re madly in love now.’

‘Fantastico!’

‘And I also know someone who works at the Love Hotel, Jasmine Palmer.’

‘Jasmine is the Love Empress in Spain, correct?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘I have not met her, but I have heard great things.’