No Strings Attached

Chapter Fifteen

The piazza was magnificent.

Shannon had no words to describe the bustling, cosmopolitan galleria, with its blending of traditional innovative architecture and cutting-edge design.

Every direction she cast her eyes gave her something overwhelming and beautiful to look at – the contrast of wrought iron and glass in the dome above her, the delicate glittering colours in the mosaic tiles beneath her feet as the sunlight roamed over it lazily.

She found herself looking into the window dressings at Prada and Louis Vuitton just to distract herself! And that really wasn’t something she said lightly!

After three hours in her six inch heels, her feet ached, and Nate – bless his heart – looked weighed down with the large bags that he wouldn’t allow her to carry as he followed after her, drinking in the bubbling excitement that was spilling from her as she practically danced through the busy hoards of fellow shoppers.

“Lunch?” she asked, tipping her face up to his – wide eyed, with a blinding smile to her full, luscious lips as the sunlight danced over her delicate features.

His breath caught in his throat as he watched the delicate beauty in front of him – so free of the haunting shadows in her eyes that he’d been seeing so often recently, and he hooked an arm around her waist crushing her and her mountain of shopping to his chest with an animalistic growl.

“Can I not have you for lunch?” he asked against her lips, and she flattened both of her manicured hands against his hard chest, pushing him away playfully.

“You’re a fiend, come on!” She skipped away from his outstretched arms when they would have caught her again, and laughingly blew him a kiss over her shoulder as he scurried after her.

They aimed towards the imposing cathedral, choosing a gallery bar that offered light lunches and salads, and a seat at the window, so that Shannon could indulge the insatiable desire that she suddenly had to sit – tranquil and sated – in the centre of such activity as was going on around her with the bustling shoppers and tourists around the Duomo.

Just as she was about to be seated by the handsome and very hospitable young waiter, Nate edged behind her chair, pulling it out for her rather than have their smooth and attractive host do it for her. His hand cupping the nape of her neck gently, so that her throat arched and her face was offered up to his, he pulled her in for a deep and luscious kiss so momentarily intense that the waiter laid their menus on the table and turned away to see to other diners instead.

Shannon flushed as a soft applause sounded from the next table, and Nate gave the group of young women in the booth next to them a wink before turning his full attention back on his mortified woman.

“What was that for?” she whispered, looking around at the other diners inconspicuously, to see who’d seen. She doubted that any of them hadn’t seen it!

“Cheeky brat couldn’t keep his eyes off you,” he muttered, his head dipping below table level so that he could survey her bare legs as they emerged from the hem of a champagne silk sundress that skimmed her slender thighs a few inches above her knees, “Not that I can entirely blame him when you look as downright delicious as you do today ...”