with your back to the fountain and throw a coin from your right hand over your left shoulder.’ She mimed doing so, her arm reaching over her head in a graceful arc, and Malik enjoyed watching her.
‘And then what happens?’
She turned around, smiling at him impishly. ‘Then you’re meant to return to Rome. But there’s another tradition...’ She stopped, biting her lip.
Intrigued, Malik arched an eyebrow. ‘Another?’
‘That you throw three coins in the fountain,’ she explained, her voice low. Her face had turned fiery and she couldn’t meet his eye.
‘Three? What for?’
‘One to return to Rome, two for a new romance and three for marriage.’ She laughed, the sound a little forced. ‘Silly, isn’t it?’
Deliberately Malik reached into his pocket. Gracie watched him with wide eyes as he turned so his back was to the fountain and then threw a coin over his head. It landed with a distant splash. Malik threw in another coin. Gracie sucked in a breath.
His heart began to thud as he turned back to face her; she was staring at him, waiting. And so Malik did what he’d been wanting to do all evening. What he’d been needing to do.
He drew her into his arms and kissed her.
THE TOUCH OF his lips on hers was like a jolt of electricity to her soul. Her whole body flooded with both awareness and need. Her lips parted and his strong hands gripped her shoulders as his tongue touched hers before sweeping into her mouth. Gracie sagged against him, overwhelmed.
Malik broke the kiss, his breathing harsh and ragged as he gazed down at her. From somewhere, Gracie found a wobbly smile. ‘That was my first kiss.’
Malik’s eyes widened, and then he gave a wry smile. ‘Mine, too.’
‘What?’ Shocked, she pushed herself upright, one hand clutching the edge of the fountain for support. ‘How is that possible?’
‘How is it not?’
‘But you’re so... I mean...’ She gestured vaguely to his impressive, muscled body. ‘You must have had...’ She trailed off, too surprised and embarrassed to put it into words.
‘I have lived a sheltered life,’ Malik stated quietly. ‘Out of necessity.’ He released a long, low breath. ‘Tonight is the first time I’ve had so much as a taste of freedom.’
‘But why...?’
Malik shrugged. ‘There are reasons.’
Clearly nothing he wanted to talk about tonight. Gracie was desperately curious, but Malik’s shuttered expression kept her from asking any more questions. ‘If this is your first night of freedom,’ she said recklessly, ‘then let’s make the most of it. It’s mine, too, in a way.’
‘How so?’
Now she was the one to shrug. ‘My life has been pretty sheltered, too, living in a small town in Midwestern America. I’m the second youngest of six children, and it was always crazy and wonderful at home, but it meant we didn’t have the money for holidays or travel or even eating out. And in any case my parents have always been happy to live and die in Addison Heights. The state fair is the height of sophistication for them. I don’t mind, not really, but I’ve been waiting for adventure my whole life.’
And meeting Malik felt like the greatest adventure of all. She wanted him to kiss her again, right here by the fountain, with all of Rome before them.
Malik must have seen the wish in her eyes for his gaze dropped to her mouth, and as her lips parted, he lowered his head.
‘Gracie...’ he began, the single word a growling plea. And then he was kissing her and she clutched at the front of his shirt as she drowned in his kiss, everything inside her spinning and straining for more.
Someone nearby let out a wolf whistle and a raucous laugh. Malik tore his mouth from hers. ‘Not here...’ he muttered, and Gracie’s heart bumped again.
‘Then where?’
Malik stared at her, his expression fixed as he lifted his hand to stroke her cheek with one finger. ‘Would you come back to my hotel room? I have a suite at the Hassler, very near here.’
Her heart was now bumping its way up her throat. She knew what he was asking. It thrilled and terrified her in equal measure. This had all happened so fast.
And yet it felt so right.
It seemed like a cliché, the star-struck traveller falling for a handsome man in a foreign and romantic city. If she’d told her family or friends at home, they’d be either amazed or appalled. Sceptical, too, as they always had been of her crazy dreams.
Travelling, Gracie? But why? Everything you could ever want is right here.
Her parents hadn’t left Illinois in over a decade. As for Jenna, her best friend from high school, she wanted only to go to Illinois State and marry her high-school sweetheart. No one had really got Gracie’s desire to see more of the world, to live large and to the full.
‘Gracie?’ Malik stroked her cheek again, making her shiver. ‘You don’t have to. We can stay here.’
‘No, I want to.’ She gave him a bemused smile. ‘But you remember you were my first kiss, right? I’m not exactly experienced in this type of thing. I don’t know...’
‘Nor am I,’ Malik reminded her. ‘I just want to spend time with you. We don’t have to do anything.’
But when Malik kissed her, she wanted to do all sorts of things. Over and over again.
‘Okay,’ Gracie whispered, and he led her from the fountain.
* * *
Malik’s hand nearly shook as he swiped the key card to his hotel suite. He couldn’t wait to have Gracie in his arms again. Thank God his grandfather liked his privacy and insisted on them having separate suites. Thank God Malik hadn’t encountered anyone but a few sleepy security guards in the hotel foyer. The last thing he wanted right now was his grandfather’s icy rage or disapproval.
Gracie stepped into the suite, her eyes wide with admiration. ‘This is a lot better than the youth hostel where I’m staying.’
‘But now you are here, and this suite is for us to enjoy. So let’s enjoy it.’ He flipped on some music from the sound system discreetly hidden in a panelled cabinet. The low, sonorous notes of a solo saxophone drifted through the room. Gracie smiled, but he saw the hesitation in her eyes.
With a trembling laugh Gracie swayed a bit to the music. Malik smiled but did not join in the dance. Yet another part of his education that had been neglected. Gracie shrugged as she stopped swaying.
‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’ she admitted, and Malik laughed softly.
‘I
