The Romano Brothers Series

by Leslie North

  He glanced over at her and smiled even though she wasn’t looking at him. She had yet another scarf with her, this one as unique as all the others with its pattern of splashed watercolors. With it tied around her head as a make-shift bonnet, she had her face lifted to the sun and the wind as they drove in his convertible along the zigzagging country roads to a spot two towns away. Beyond telling him where they were going, she’d refused to tell him what they were going to do, so for all he knew she’d found another used bookstore to explore.

  Her eyes opened the tiniest bit and he could see her look at him out of the corner of her eye. “Aren’t you supposed to be watching the road?” she asked in a teasing, sing-song voice that managed to lift itself above the wind.

  “Not when I have someone as pretty as you with me.” He was smiling, but he was serious.

  “If you can’t watch the road every time you get a pretty girl in the car with you, it’s a wonder you’re still alive!” she said, laughing.

  “Or… maybe I don’t make a habit of driving around with pretty girls.”

  She turned to give him the full of her attention, her eyes narrowing as she assessed him. “Thirty-three, more handsome than—well, you know how handsome you are—and rich enough to take every person in Sicily out to dinner for the finest dining the island has to offer and not be bothered by the bill, but doesn’t drive around with a pretty girl in his car every day of the week?”

  Leonardo shook his head while giving her as much attention as he could spare from the road. “Last time I had a pretty girl in this car was two weeks ago.”

  Stella fell silent but a pleased looking smile pulled at the corners of her sweet mouth. It was another thirty minutes before they reached their destination, and they’d held hands during those stretches of uninterrupted driving when Leonardo hadn’t needed his hand for shifting gears.

  “Oh, oh! That was it!” Stella exclaimed as she twisted around in her seat to look behind them.

  Leonardo found a spot to make a tight U-turn and returned them to the store that had Stella fidgeting with excitement to reach.

  “Antiques?” While he was glad for the distraction and happy to escape the tensions of the design staff, he had no idea what Stella thought she would achieve by bringing him here. People did not spend hundreds and thousands of dollars to go on vacation just so that they could stare at other people’s discarded and unwanted items. “I know you mean well—”

  “Just give it a chance,” Stella said, interrupting him. “I know that you’ve spent well over a million euro on your restoration costs, but it doesn’t have to be like that with your decoration costs. Places like this, there are so many amazing things to find.”

  “Enough amazing things to find that can provide a uniformly good experience to every customer who walks through our doors?” he said as he unbuckled himself, got out and headed around to her side of the car. Opening the door, he offered her his hand to assist her in getting out. As always, he was startled by the cold of her fingers, and this time when she got out of the car, instead of offering her his elbow, he kept hold of her hand, wanting to give her his warmth.

  “It doesn’t have to be a uniform experience,” she argued, and he could hear the passion in her voice. She believed the words she was saying.

  “Building a brand is about providing a consistent experience,” Leonardo countered as they walked to the store’s door. He opened it and held it open as Stella passed through, releasing her hand as she did so, but as soon as he stepped through the threshold to return to his spot by her side, he captured her hand in his once more. She was different from anyone he’d ever spent time with or had had romantic feelings for. She seemed fragile and delicate to him, yet just like watching a butterfly, he delighted in seeing her spread her wings and dance on the air without any regard for the challenges life might throw her way. She was spectacular, and if he had his way, she would have already been sharing his bed. But that fact did nothing to change how he felt about her ideas for the Romano del Mare. He was a business man, and the results of the restoration needed to support a business model and a branded advertising campaign that had people traveling the world over to stay at their resort.

  “But, consistent doesn’t necessarily mean same,” she insisted. She tightened her grip on his hand and marched forward ahead of him, pulling him through the sorted collections of knickknacks and antiques. In truth, the items the store had for sale were of good quality. Leonardo knew about more than just the modern styles that he advocated at the myriad of Romano resorts found ‘round the world. He had a practiced eye which allowed him to pick out an antique reproduction from the genuine article, and whoever was the curator for the store appeared to have the same ability. He hadn’t spotted a fake antique yet.

  Stella slowed down, and when she released his hand so that she could pick up a white platter with a delicate light blue pattern depicting a countryside surrounded by intricately detailed filigree, he missed the feel of her touch immediately.

  “Ceramic Staffordshire,” Leonardo offered, recognizing the piece.

  “It’s beautiful.” Stella’s voice was full of awe, and she handled the platter with the same reverence as if she were holding a priceless Stradivarius violin.

  “I agree, but would the Preservation Society approve of a dish from the 1830’s meshed with a structure that predates it by over 500 years?”

  “No, but it’s nice to look at all the same,” she said wistfully, putting the platter back on the wire cradle that allowed it to sit upright.

  “I’ll buy it for you.” Leonardo swiveled his head in search of a salesperson.

  “No, no,” Stella said emphatically but with good humor.

  “I thought you liked it.” Leonardo studied her face, determined to learn her every expression.

  “I love it! But I don’t want it. It’s enough to know that such pieces exist. I’d rather it be somewhere it can be appreciated. I don’t want it stuck away in my cupboard or on some out-of-the-way spot on my wall. I don’t need it. Who would ever see it?”

  “Who would ever see it?” Leonardo suddenly wanted to know. They were both adults. They both had their pasts, but to his surprise, Stella blushed and her gaze fell this way and that, and he knew that she didn’t have anyone special in her life, no casual lover to fill a need now and again. His next thought wasn’t one that had occurred to him before, but now, looking at her, he was sure—she was alone, more alone than she wanted to be or would admit to being. He had not considered that to be true about himself prior to meeting her, but he was starting to reevaluate. Looking at her was like looking at what his life could be. It was like staring into a mirror that revealed all the possibilities, only to remind you of the emptiness caught in the reflection of what stood behind you. “Come on,” he said, reclaiming her hand with what was quickly becoming a lover’s touch.

  This time it was he who guided them as they moved from table to table, from one roughly sorted collection to the next. It wasn’t long before something caught Stella’s eye though, and she once more tightened her grip on his hand and pulled him along with her. He knew that she could have just as easily released him to run ahead, but it warmed his heart that she had wanted to share the journey with him by keeping him near instead.

  “Look!” They were standing in a back corner of the shop that was out of sight from most of the rest of the store.

  Leonardo’s brows lifted when he saw what it was that she had found. “Knockers.” He picked up one of the heavy, carved pieces of brass to study it. Unlike the platter, the knocker was from a time period similar to the monastery. It was meant to be affixed to a heavy wooden door, and the knocker’s sturdy ring was meant to pound out the announcement of a person’s arrival by banging against the ornate metal plate beneath. His brows went up again when he took in the price. Reasonable didn’t begin to describe it. Either the shop owner didn’t know what they had or not very many people were in the market for such a collectible. He suspected the latter.
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  “There’s more down here.” Stella squatted and tried to pull a cardboard box from beneath the open-face counter. The box moved an inch and then tore at the spot where Stella pulled on it because its contents were so heavy. Leonardo squatted down next to her to take a closer look at what she had found. It was more knockers, each one different from the last, but each one within 100 years in age to the monastery. “What if these were installed on the outer door of each suite of rooms at the resort?”

  Leonardo studied the box. There weren’t enough knockers to give every suite’s door one of them, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t find more. “The design team would not be happy about this. It doesn’t fit in with their plans.” He looked at Stella. She seemed to be holding her breath. “But”—he felt himself caving in to her desires as words came out of his mouth—“that doesn’t mean that they can’t adjust their plans. I mean, I am the boss.”

  Stella squealed and threw her arms around his neck, but when she leaned in to kiss him, Leonardo pulled back. With their first kiss, she had kissed him. Sure, he’d had to complete the link by leaning into the kiss, but it had been her doing. This time he wanted it to be his doing. He wanted her to know that he wasn’t simply going along with the flow. He wanted her, needed her.

  Cradling the back of her head, he captured the gaze of her wide eyes with his own. He didn’t say anything, yet as he stared into her eyes he was aware of how her cheeks turned pink and her lips parted to let her breath come a little faster, a little deeper. She blinked once, she blinked twice, and then her lids softened, closing halfway. She was surrendering to his want, he could see it in her and feel it in the easing of the tension she held in her body.

  Finally, he leaned into her, guiding her lips in a dance that soon had his heart hammering as his own breath quickened. He pulled her against him and slid his hand up the nape of her neck to cradle her head, and when she moaned into his mouth without seeming to hold anything back, it was nearly his undoing. His body jerked with the overwhelming desire to lay her down on the floor and take her right then and there.

  “Ahem…” It was the pointed clearing of a woman’s throat, and the sound came from a place only a few feet away from where Leonardo encapsulated Stella in his arms. He glanced worriedly at Stella. She was so new to him. He didn’t know the boundaries of her sensibilities yet, and he didn’t want their interruption to be the end of their kiss. He could live with it being a pause with a continuation to come, but if he had to wait another two weeks before having her in his arms again, he’d have half his staff fired out of the sheer frustration.

  Stella gasped and looked over her shoulder at the stern shopkeeper, but then buried her face in Leonardo’s shoulder in a fit of giggles that soon erupted into full blown laughter. Going off balance, she pulled them to the floor in a tangle of limbs and Leonardo was helpless to do anything but watch the very annoyed shopkeeper stomp away. Gazing down at Stella beneath him, though, he knew that any slight was worth it. And when he leaned down over Stella, giving her his weight and taking her in another kiss, all of her giggles were gone.

  6

  Stella

  A long weekend had passed with Stella furiously adapting her renovation plans for the Romano del Mare to a less stringent version, and she couldn’t wait to show them to Leonardo. Her new design allowed for more of the features that he tended to include throughout his various hotels. He liked to pamper his customers, but her original design had allowed for only very basic adaptations. She’d changed that, though, and with those changes she hoped that he would be more willing to implement her vision, which was still in compliance with the preservation laws.

  “Where are you?” Stella muttered to herself as she stuck her head into Leonardo’s office. His assistant wasn’t at her desk and Leonardo was nowhere to be found.

  Turning down the hall, Stella walked in whatever direction that her nose happened to be pointing. Sometimes she took a new hallway, sometimes she went straight, but the resort’s hallways were eerily quiet and empty today.

  Scrunching her nose, Stella scratched at her head where her new hair extensions pulled at her scalp while she turned in a circle trying to figure out what direction to go next. That’s when she saw it—the box of antique door knockers that they’d found together. She hurried down the hallway toward it and knelt beside it to pick through the collection. There were even more knockers there than what they’d seen that day.

  Stella’s heart soared. Not only had Leonardo bought the knockers, but he’d also furthered their effort by finding what looked like enough knockers to install one on the door of each suite’s main entrance.

  Not giving it any thought, Stella scratched her head and pulled at her hair some more.

  “I can help you with that.” It was a woman’s voice that seemed to come out of nowhere.

  Stella pivoted around in her squatted position until she found the voice’s owner. It was a tall woman with a pixie haircut that had been jelled up and was spiky all over her head.

  “I’m sorry?” Stella had no clue what the woman was offering.

  “Your hair,” the woman said, giving her own hair a little tug as if to mime what she was talking about. “I can help you with those, uh… hair extensions.” The woman said “hair extensions” in such a way that Stella got the impression that the woman felt she was being generous in her description.

  “They are pretty awful, aren’t they?” Stella said as she stood up before pulling and scratching at her head some more.

  “I’m Angela, the resort’s new salon manager and stylist. Come,” she said, extending her arm and waving Stella in with the flip of her wrist. Stella did as she was bid and the woman enveloped her shoulders with her arm as they walked into one of the largest rooms she’d seen in the resort. It was still in a state of slight disarray with the salon’s modeling still in the works, but it was clear that the floor plan was coming together well. “Luciana, Gianpierre’s girlfriend, is coming in for a blowout, so I’ll take care of you, too.”

  “I’m Stella.”

  Angela laughed. “We all know who you are. Sit.” Stella sat down in the large, pedestal style salon chair that Angela had guided her to.

  “You know who I am?”

  “Se! You are the woman who wants to take all of our jobs away.”

  Stella’s mouth fell open and her cheeks heated. She took a quick breath to lob a defense, but Angela cut her off.

  “Hush now,” she said with a laugh. “We all know Leonardo. There is no way that you will be able to stop him from making the Romano del Mare the sparkling gem for this entire region once more. That boy is like his grandfather, at least that’s what my matri says. She said that there was no stopping that man, and she says that Leonardo is just like him. So, we hold nothing against you. You are doing your job just like the rest of us. We like that.”

  “We?”

  Angela moved to stand behind Stella and lifted sections of her hair, tsking as she did so. “Who did this to you? Ah… it’s no matter. I’ll fix.”

  “We?” Stella prompted again as Angela did something to her hair. There was instant relief as one of the weaved-in hair extensions fell to the ground.

  “We… The people who work here. We all work. We provide for our families. We do what our bosses tell us. You’re doing what your boss tells you. So, we hate your boss, not you.”

  Stella leaned back against the chair and breathed a heavy sigh. She’d had no idea that the people who worked at the resort had any feelings about her at all. After all, the place wasn’t even open for business yet. But maybe that didn’t matter. Being open for business meant tourists walking through the door, but the people who would have to take care of those tourists would need to be already in place with training as to what to do in any given situation.

  “It’s okay,” Angela soothed as she freed Stella’s scalp from yet another section of the hair extensions. “Everything’s good. Things move forward. My new flooring will be here next week!” />
  Stella started to sit forward in the chair but Angela’s hold on her hair kept her in place. “New flooring?”

  “Se,” Angela said excitedly. “Cork!”

  “Cork?”

  “Se… Leonardo let me pick between seven different design styles. He’s so nice. He didn’t have to let me pick anything.”

  Cork? Stella’s head was reeling. There was no way that cork flooring would pass the preservation society’s inspection. It was unlikely that the preservation society would block the Romano del Mare from opening its doors as a resort, but they would most likely be able to delay the opening. They would try to bury the resort in red tape and fines. They were very aggressive with those who did not comply with the preservation laws. Stella knew that she had to talk to Leonardo as soon as possible. Those floors could not be allowed to be installed!

  “Angela?” A tap of knuckles against the open door followed the unfamiliar sound of a woman’s voice. Glancing toward it, Stella sucked in a surprised breath at how beautiful the woman before her was. She had to be a model arriving for an ad campaign shoot. There was no other explanation for it.

  “Luciana! Please, sit. Stella’s hair was a crime scene. I had to do something about it. Whoever did this to you should lose their license.”

  “Stella?” Luciana had a smile that lit her entire face, and her eager happiness at meeting Stella as she sat in the stylist chair next to her was undeniable. “I’m so happy to meet you!”