The Romano Brothers Series

by Leslie North

  Gianpierre wanted to shrug himself free of her grip. He wanted to turn his back on her and wave her off as he walked away, but he didn’t. “Then go home to your sister. Go home to your niece.”

  Luciana’s expression transformed into stunned shock. She looked as though he had physically struck her and her grip fell away, leaving him to instantly miss her touch.

  The murmur of his other workers and their awkward looks and shuffling had Gianpierre throwing his arms down as he exclaimed, “What?” His attention refocused on Luciana, and what he saw stopped him cold. Her once clear eyes had turned bloodshot though no tears were pooling. “What?” Gianpierre asked again, this time with a gentle voice and a fearful heart.

  “My sister died a month and a half ago,” Luciana answered, “on her way to pick me up from the airport. I’m raising her daughter.”

  Gianpierre looked back and forth between Luciana and his crew before exclaiming, “Why has no one told me?” Then to Luciana, he said without looking, “You stay.” He continued to silently fume as he shoved his hands back into his gloves. When he spoke again, he was calmer, although the anger was still there. “Here”—he pointed to the ground—“this is no place for you. This is no place for a woman.”

  Luciana’s gaze shifted over to the three women who were on his medieval reconstruction crew before looking back at Gianpierre. Despite the dust on their faces and the work-worn clothes that adorned their bodies, they were definitely women. In fact, they were beautiful women.

  “They don’t count,” Gianpierre said dismissively, flipping a hand into the air. “They go where I go. They don’t count. This job… it’s here today and gone tomorrow for you. It’s not your life. I don’t want you dying for it. It’s too dangerous. You don’t belong here.”

  To his surprise, Luciana took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and stepped closer until her body was only inches away from his.

  There was nowhere else for Gianpierre to look except at her painfully beautiful face. It physically hurt him to look at her and not touch her. The only reason he’d put his gloves back on was to keep from caressing her porcelain skin. Her cheeks were high and her lips were full, and every time he saw her all he could think about was having her under him. He wanted to hear his name on her lips in those few sweet moments of life when everything else ceased to matter.

  “I do deserve to be here,” Luciana declared. “I deserve to be here as much as any man.”

  “Man… woman. I don’t care about these things,” Gianpierre countered, but his declared stance lacked the support of his actions. In truth, he didn’t care about the gender of the person working for him. He cared about results. It was all about the results, and the results he needed right now was for the reconstruction work at the Romano del Mare to be completed as soon as possible so that he could move on to his next job. He’d been offered a position in Dubai, and the window of that opportunity was closing with every tick of the clock’s hands. When that job went, so did his opportunity to be on the cover of Architectural Digest. Luciana’s presence was a siren’s wail to his focus and it put all his plans in jeopardy. He couldn’t have her here. God was having a fine joke to tease him with a precious gift he couldn’t bear to accept.

  “It is my life, sir.” Luciana countered, her expression as hard as steel.

  “Forgive me.” He wanted to tell her that he didn’t care if he was right or wrong, but he didn’t. “It is not my place to decide the lives of others.” Then, Gianpierre stepped closer so that with every breath she took, the crest of Luciana’s breasts came within a hair’s width of touching his chest. He stared down into her green eyes and willed himself not to dip his head to take her lips with his own. “This is your job. You have done it well, and you have earned the right to stay. I… worry.” His gaze flicked lower to her full lips before returning to her eyes. “I would not do well if harm came to you. The fall… it scared me.”

  Luciana sucked in air in reaction to the naked truth of Gianpierre’s words. Looking to the side, she stepped away, putting distance between them and breaking the intimacy of their closeness. With anyone else, it was a line that Gianpierre would not have crossed, but he’d seen the way she looked at him. He’d seen how she wanted him.

  Take her, then discard her. Get her out of your blood.

  It wasn’t a new thought, yet there had been a sadness about her that had kept him away. Even before the accident they’d just faced, he had felt that it was as if the world had shifted under her feet and she was hanging on by only the tips of her fingers. She’d seemed too fragile for him to trifle with for the sake of scratching his own itch. Now he knew why.

  “Will you—”

  “I have to go,” Luciana said, cutting him off as she looked down at her watch. “The daycare texted. They’re not happy with Natalia. I need to go pick her up.”

  Gianpierre had been about to ask Luciana to have dinner with him, but her words saved him. “They are not happy with her?”

  Luciana nodded, continuing to inch further away from him. “It’s the nightmares. She has nightmares. It scares the other children.”

  “Luciana…”

  “It’s okay, though. I’ll go straight there. I’ll get her, leave her with the neighbor, and be back here in under an hour.”

  “Luciana…”

  “And I’ll work late to make up the time.”

  “Luciana!”

  She stopped, her expression fearful of what Gianpierre would utter next.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “What?”

  “Your leg. It’s scraped.”

  Luciana bent and twisted. It seemed to be the first time she’d noticed that her pants were torn up the side of one thigh. The long, red scrapes caused by the fall had begun to weep. It wasn’t anything that a wash and a little ointment couldn’t take care of, but it might be scary for others to see—especially little children.

  “Take the rest of the day off, Luciana. Take care of you and your family.”

  “Take the rest of the day off? But your schedule?”

  “No, no,” Gianpierre said. “Take tomorrow off as well.” He bit back the words telling her to take forever off, to never come back and to leave him alone so that he could get his work done without being constantly plagued with thoughts of her nearness.

  Luciana took a step forward, and Gianpierre saw the panic in her eyes. “Sir, my job…”

  3

  Gianpierre

  I am saying sorry,” Gianpierre said, putting a hand over his heart. “Take off today. Take off tomorrow. Take care of your famigghia. I will see you Friday when you come back to your job.” At least it would give him a small respite from her.

  Luciana took a breath as if she was getting ready to lob an objection, but then she simply gave a curt nod of acceptance. “That will help, sir… Gianpierre. Thank you.” She offered up the weakest smile he’d ever gotten from her before she turned to make her way from the Romano del Mare’s enormous inner courtyard. Her first steps included a limp, but it disappeared after only a moment through what Gianpierre assumed was force of will.

  Luciana’s strength reminded Gianpierre of his grandmother. She’d been a formidable woman, tough as nails but as kind and gentle as a lamb.

  Gianpierre turned his attention to his crew.

  “Bernardo, Carmine—tape off the new hole and do what you can to clean up this area so that reconstruction can continue tomorrow. Everyone else, make a line and tap every inch of this courtyard. Look for spots ready to cave and tape them off. Then, make a map of the courtyard and mark the spots. Overlay it with a map of the tunnels and mark the spots that still need to be checked. Paolo, you are with me in the tunnels. If you do not hear from us in an hour, someone come check on us.”

  “Se, capo,” chorused the people of Gianpierre’s loyal crew, telling him “yes, boss.” They’d been with him for years, and had followed him to the most remote locations on Earth. Being back home in Sicily was a treat for everyone, except G
ianpierre.

  That wasn’t exactly true. Gianpierre loved being back in Italy, and Sicily especially. It was his home. It was his heart. His heritage was in Sicily. It held his past, and it was his future. But, it was not where he wanted to be right now. He wasn’t ready to settle down and make the medieval architecture of Italy his consuming passion. There was still the whole world to see and travel. There were still ruins to explore and save, ruins with history different than the ruins of Italy. He wasn’t ready for Sicily to become his everything—not yet.

  Six hours later, a tired and dirty Gianpierre and Paolo emerged from the snaking tunnels beneath the Romano del Mare.

  “Ciau, everybody. Go to your families. See you tomorrow,” he said, releasing his crew for the night. They had done a good job, and he wouldn’t risk wearing out their good will by working them so hard that they missed out on spending time with family they had barely seen in months. “Send me all pictures of problem spots within the next couple of hours.” He’d go over them later. Just because their day of work had ended didn’t mean his had.

  Collecting the rolls of plans and notes made by his crew, he headed for home—or rather home base. It was an apartment that he’d been renting for years in the nearby town. It was the top level, floor-through of a 4-story building that gave him exclusive use of the roof, which he’d converted for use as a gym.

  When he’d rented the place years ago, he’d only meant to keep it for six months, but six months had somehow turned into over ten years. It was the closest thing to a home that he had, even if he was only there at most two months out of the year.

  Running up the building’s stairs instead of taking the elevator, Gianpierre let himself in through the door that he never bothered to lock whenever he was in town. The day’s sweat had mingled with centuries-old dust, leaving him feeling grimy.

  Pulling the strap of his scarred and beaten leather courier bag over his head and leaving it on the floor, Gianpierre kicked off his boots next to the door so as not to track the work-site’s ancient dirt through his apartment. Next, he stripped off his clothes and left them in a pile before walking through the apartment naked to the shower.

  The hot water from the shower streamed over his head and temporarily turned the swirling water at his feet gray as his body let go of the last of the day’s grime. Turning around, he let the water pound the tired muscles of his back. He had traced every passage archway of the resort’s catacombs and had even discovered a long-ago caved in section that required extensive excavation and structural repair. The discovery would push his schedule back by weeks if not months, and it was time he couldn’t spare.

  Turning off the water, Gianpierre dried himself before tossing the towel over his hair. Rubbing it as he walked, he headed to his bedroom, passing the apartment’s entryway as he went.

  A woman’s gasp made him freeze and then turn as he dropped the towel from his head to drape across his broad shoulders. There, in front of a still-open door, stood a tall, slender woman with large, round eyes and a mouth that was open in shock.

  “Luciana?”

  LUCIANA

  Luciana had come to see the apartment but was getting an eye full of so much more. Gianpierre whipped the towel from around his broad, muscular shoulders and made hasty work of wrapping it around his tight waist. Behind her, Luciana heard the real estate agent enter and knew that little Natalia would be with her.

  “Sir…” Luciana whispered. It was an apology and question all in one. Behind her, Signora Rizzo gasped, and Luciana turned around just in time to see the older woman slip her hand over Natalia’s eyes.

  “What is this?” Gianpierre demanded. His still-damp body glistened, his layers of muscles begging to be traced by Luciana’s hands.

  “I…” Luciana said, shaking her head. She didn’t know what to say, and she gave Signora Rizzo an imploring look.

  “Signora Romano, this apartment is for sale!”

  “What?” Gianpierre said, taking a threatening step forward with his shoulders bunched as if ready to fight Poseidon himself.

  “We contacted you. Letters have been sent for six months with no response. We had no choice but to move forward. The building has new owners, and instead of offering rentals, they’re offering the apartments for sale. I am sorry, Signore. I did not know that you were in town.” Through it all, she kept her hands over Natalia’s eyes even though the little girl squirmed and pulled at the woman’s hands.

  “You are selling my home?”

  Signora Rizzo shrugged. “Would you like to buy it?”

  Luciana watched, amazed, as Gianpierre took a step back with the same sudden intensity that he had taken a step forward. His eyes darted from place to place within the space that he called home, and Luciana was sure that she saw panic in his eyes.

  “Signore Romano?” the real estate agent prompted again.

  “No, no… I’m only renting. This is a temporary home. I’m not settling down. I travel too much to own. It makes no sense.”

  It makes no sense to rent for ten years. As part of the sales pitch, Signora Rizzo had told Luciana how long the current tenant had lived in the apartment. It was a sign of satisfaction with the location. Luciana had had no idea at all that the tenant was Gianpierre Romano—her boss—whom she had now seen naked, and oh what a sight it had been!

  “I’m sorry,” Luciana said. “I’m so sorry. We’ll go.”

  She turned to leave but Signora Rizzo leaned a shoulder into her path. “You do not even want to see the place? It is beautiful.”

  “I—” Luciana looked behind her but found Gianpierre gone. “I should go.” She shrugged. “I can’t even afford this place. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “But you could! If you sell,” she paused and her eyes saddened. When she continued, she spoke as if she were choosing her words carefully. “If you sell your sister’s place and your place in America, then use the money as a down payment, your monthly mortgage will be only a little bit more than your budget allows.” She shrugged. “It is a big place. Three bedrooms. Maybe if you take a tenant, the cost will become easy for you.”

  Luciana looked around her. The floors were a rich, dark hardwood with a red tint and the walls were painted a creamy white. The arched doors were wide and the layout was spacious. Everything about it had an old-world charm, but also the clean lines of a modern space with all of the modern comforts. And, of course, the fact that it was Gianpierre’s became clear as she took in its decor. On the walls were displayed a variety of antique, medieval stone masonry tools. Rare world maps from varying eras canvased another wall, and circular tubes—the kind that held blueprints and building plans—were leaning in groups in every available corner. This was Gianpierre’s home.

  “It even has exclusive access to the roof,” Signora Rizzo whispered as if sharing a secret. “You could have a garden up there.”

  A garden… Luciana’s eyes shifted to the ceiling as if she could look through it to what was above and found herself nodding before she even spoke. “Yes, yes. I’d like to see it.”

  Gianpierre reappeared from a side hallway. His tousled hair was no longer dripping water. He was barefoot and dressed in old jeans that were threadbare at the knees, and his shirt could have been worn by a pirate. It was white cotton with an open V neck. It made it impossible for Luciana to look anywhere but at the rising slope and carved valley of Gianpierre’s pecs. His sun kissed skin made her lips tingle with the need to kiss him.

  Forcing her brain to think, Luciana amended her previous statement. “I’d like to see it, if it’s okay with… Signore Romano.” She chose not to use his first name. The real estate agent was still blissfully unaware of the situation that she had thrown Luciana into, and Luciana was happy to keep it that way. There was no need to add to the discomfort that the awkward situation had already created.

  The color was high in Gianpierre’s face, a vein popping at his temple. He slapped his thigh and ran a hand through his hair, clearly agitated. Lucia
na was sure he was going to throw them out, but to her complete surprise, he said, “Sure. I will show you myself.”

  She hesitated. The man almost fired me today, and now I’ve barged my way into his home. I should leave.

  “Please, come,” he said, waving them forward. “Over here is the dining room.” He motioned to the side of the entryway where a table sat. It was covered with work paraphernalia, but beneath that, it looked to be crafted out of huge wood beams sometimes found along the ceilings of old structures.

  Reaching for Natalia’s hand, Luciana moved deeper into the apartment as Signora Rizzo trailed behind.

  “And through here is the kitchen.”

  To call it a kitchen felt like an understatement. It had a cathedral ceiling and the appliances looked as though they belonged in a chef’s kitchen. They all gleamed of shiny stainless steel, but the refrigerator had a cabinet front on it that made it disappear into the wall.

  Luciana swallowed nervously. Replacing the kitchen appliances would be expensive, but there was no way Gianpierre would leave such high-end items behind.

  Gianpierre tapped his finger against a pot hanging down from the corner of the stove’s hood. “I cook while I’m here, but I’m not here often, so the stove and the rest have not seen much use. They will remain good for years.”

  What? “You plan to leave the appliances?”

  Gianpierre shrugged. “I have nowhere else to put them. They were bought for this space.”

  Luciana shot Signora Rizzo a worried glance as she wondered how much the high-end appliances would increase the cost of the apartment. But if Gianpierre bought them, maybe it won’t increase the cost any. Signora Rizzo’s quick note scribbling didn’t leave her with much hope of that, though.

  “I have a gym on the roof, and I had a pool installed.”

  Luciana’s mouth fell open.