Modern Romance March 2021 Book 5-8 Carol Marinelli (ebook reader computer txt) 📖

cramp. A sudden rush of electricity shot down her spine and she clenched around him, dizzied by her own pulses, and she was rewarded with his breathless shout.

They were both silent and stunned as their breathing gradually calmed. Ariana was grateful for the empty space between her thoughts. It was the first time she had felt even a semblance of quiet since her phone had shot her awake that morning. Gian too was silent, somewhat reeling at his own lack of control, for he had come here to speak, to talk, to offer Ariana comfort...

Now, though, he lowered her down from the bench and tidied himself. Ariana twisted the waistband on her skirt so the damp patch was at the side, and she even smoothed her hand over her hair, as if order could somehow be resorted.

Except it was chaos, Ariana knew, for she had made love to him again.

She had convinced herself, once again, that Gian might one day change and want her the way she wanted him.

‘Ariana.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I didn’t come here—’

‘What did you come here for then?’ she interrupted. ‘A chat?’

‘Yes,’ Gian said, as the blood crept back to his head. ‘A proposal.’

She looked at him with wide, nervous eyes, for this was new territory to Ariana. How one moment they could be locked in an intimate embrace, and the next attempting to speak as if his seed wasn’t trickling down between her thighs. ‘A proposal?’

He nodded. ‘I thought a lot about what you said yesterday, and you’re right, Ariana, I do avoid emotion...’ He smiled a pale smile. ‘Which is impossible around you.’

She swallowed, unsure where this was leading, but hoping...

Hoping!

‘What you said about moving...’ Gian ventured.

‘I meant,’ Ariana said, ‘I’m not going to live in an apartment my mother feels entitled to use as a second lounge.’ Her decision was crystal clear now. ‘I want to take the Romano name off for a while. I want to work on myself.’ She gave a hollow laugh. ‘I want to actually work...’

‘I get that,’ Gian agreed. ‘And, as I said, I have a proposal for you. Fiordelise Florence hotel opens at the end of May. What if you do your training here, and then work as Guest Services Manager there?’

‘Sorry?’ Ariana frowned, though clearly not for the reason he was thinking.

‘I know I said you would start as an assistant, but I agree, you have an exceptional skill set and would be an asset.’

‘Your proposal is a job.’

‘More than a job,’ Gian said.

‘A career then?’

‘No!’ She was missing the point, Gian thought. Though he could understand why, given his usually direct style of communication. He was not good at this relationship game. ‘We could see each other...more of each other,’ he said. ‘Away from your family.’

‘Without them knowing?’ Ariana frowned.

‘Of course,’ he agreed. ‘We both know that would cause more problems than it would solve so we would have to be discreet. I’ll have an executive manager there, so I would not be so hands-on in running the place. There would be no impropriety at the hotel and far less chance of being seen out. I would, of course, get to Florence as often as I was able.’

Oh, she understood then. ‘I’d be your mistress, you mean?’

‘I never said that.’

‘Perhaps not in so many words, but...’ Her lips were white but still turned up into the kind of practised smile she flashed for the cameras all the time, all the brighter to disguise how she was breaking down on the inside. ‘Tucked away, my family in the dark, no one finding out...that sounds an awful lot like a mistress to me. Well, I won’t be your Fiordelise.’

‘You’re complicating matters.’

‘Then I’ll make it simple. Where would this lead, Gian?’

‘Lead?’ Gian frowned. ‘Why does it have to lead anywhere?’

‘Because that’s what my heart does.’ Ariana could say it no more honestly than that. ‘My heart wants to know where this might go one day.’

‘I’m offering you the best parts of me, Ariana.’

‘No, you’re offering to keep me tucked away, to flit in and out of my life whenever it’s convenient. Gian, I want my lover by my side. I want to share my life with him, not live a secret. God knows, my parents did enough of that and look how it turned out.’

‘That is so you,’ Gian said. ‘You have to get your own way. Everything has to be now—’

‘I’m not asking for now, Gian,’ Ariana interrupted. ‘I’m asking if there’s a possibility that this might lead to more. You want directness,’ she said. ‘You tell your lovers up front that it will go no further. Well, I’m being direct too and I’m telling you that I want at the very least the possibility of more.’

‘I have no more to give.’

She had known that getting involved with Gian would ultimately hurt her, so why did she feel so unprepared to deal with the pain he so impassively inflicted?

‘No, thank you.’ Her voice was strangely high.

‘Think about it...’

‘I already have.’ She was staring down at the barrel of a future spent mainly alone. Christmases, weddings, the birth of Dante and Mia’s baby, christenings and even funerals...all the things she would have to deal with alone.

Her love unacknowledged and unnamed.

‘I won’t be your mistress, Gian.’ Her response was clearer now, her decision absolutely made. She started to show him the door, but then changed her mind. ‘Actually, before you leave, I have something I need to put to you.’

Gian frowned. He was not used to being told no in this way, particularly when he had offered Ariana more than he’d ever offered anyone. ‘What?’

‘I can’t pretend,’ Ariana said. ‘And I don’t want to keep making the same mistake again.’

‘You think that was a mistake?’ He pointed to the bench where they had both found a slice of heaven just moments ago.

‘Not at that time I didn’t,’ Ariana said. ‘Even now, no, I don’t think it was, but if we make love again then, yes, that would be