Page 29 of Secrets of the Brother
“Easy, beautiful.” He steadied me with an arm around my waist.
A woman standing nearby offered us a glass of water. “Thank you.” He accepted it and held it up to my lips. “Here. Sip this.”
Like a child, I dutifully sipped from the glass he held.
I looked up at him. In addition to being tall, he was extremely handsome in that classic Italian way. He also seemed oddly familiar.
I took the glass from his grasp and stepped back, breaking his hold.
He turned to a smaller man, clearly a tourist, who had been jockeying among the crowd to get a photo of the vendor.
He grabbed him by the collar. “You idiot! You could have hurt the lady!” He thrust the man toward me. “Apologize. Now.”
The man stared at me wide-eyed with fright. His mouth opened and closed several times but nothing except a high-pitched squeak came out.
The taller man wrenched him off the ground by the back of his shirt. “I said, apologize!”
“I’m very sorry, miss! I didn’t mean it! I’m so sorry!”
Bothered by the display and the attention we were drawing, I hastily said, “It’s fine. Really.”
The tall man dropped the tourist to the ground. The man scrambled to his feet and scurried away.
My rescuer then turned to me. “Are you sure you are okay? Do you need to sit down?”
Casting a nervous glance around at the crowd, I shook my head. “I’m fine. Thank you for saving me.”
He smiled. “It is always a pleasure to save a gorgeous woman.” He reached up and stroked my cheek. “It would have been a crime against nature to mar beauty such as this.”
Uncomfortable with his intense regard but not wanting to seem ungracious, I lowered my head to break his contact. “Thank you again.”
“I’m sorry I mistook you for a tourist. Clearly a beauty such as yourself could only be a daughter of Italy.”
I smiled, used to such flagrant flattery from Italian men. “That’s very kind of you. I shouldn’t keep you any longer.”
His gaze narrowed. “You look familiar. Your name wouldn’t be Bianca, would it?”
I stilled. There was no reason why I should be on edge. I grew up in this village. Many people knew me. The man was obviously near my age. There was a very good chance we had crossed paths at some point.
And yet… there was something about him….
His smile widened but it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “Bianca Moretti. It is you.”
Casting a glance over at the grill where my sunglasses were now a melted mess adhered to the metal grates, then at my crushed basket on the ground, I turned my head up sharply at hearing my name. “Yes. Do we know one another?”
His gaze wandered over my face and body appreciatively. “Let’s just say I know you, but I don’t think you know me.”
I bristled.
My grip tightened on the glass of water I was holding.
Shielding my eyes from the glare of the sun to get a better look at him, I asked, “And what is that supposed to mean?”
He laughed as he placed a palm over his heart. “Forgive me. I meant no offense. We went to school together. You were a very pretty girl, and I was just a poor boy in the shadows.”
I relaxed. My sister’s murder and my parents' threats had me seeing demons and evil plots around every corner. “Sorry.”
“I had quite the crush on you back in school.”
