Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Lorenzo had a huge smile lighting up his face. “You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever laid eyes on.”
He called me beautiful. Not even my exes ever took the time to compliment me. I wasted so much time in the past dating men with jobs and resumes that I thought would impress Mom. I’ve been missing the bigger picture—I should’ve focused on me and not on gaining Mom’s approval.
The more time she spent with Lorenzo, the more layers of her shell were beginning to peel away. She felt raw and exposed, and at the same time, as if she was undergoing a dramatic transformation by rebuilding herself from the inside out.
“Thank you,” she sputtered.
Her heart beat wildly against her ribs in exhilaration. “Would you mind zipping me up, please?”
Lorenzo licked his lips. She held her hair up, and his hands moved to her back. She closed her eyes and breathed in a musky cologne. The warm and rough skin of his hands touched the small of her back as he zipped up the wet suit.
“Right. Let me just get our ride.” Excusing himself, Lorenzo scrambled over to the kayak.
There is no denying the electricity pulsating between us. It’s all happening so quickly. You’re unlike any man I’ve been around before. I’m falling for you, Lorenzo, hard and fast. What if you turn out to be a scoundrel like Mr. Wickham? Charming to everyone, but a man with an ulterior motive. But then again, what if you’re more of a Mr. Darcy? Quick to judge, but despite all the flaws, a man with a heart of gold.
Booties on her feet, Sabrina joined Lorenzo at the edge of the water. She placed a hand upon his shoulder.
“Promise me you won’t let us topple over today.”
He cleared his throat and stared into her eyes with intensity. “I promise.”
* * *
Sabrina mentally reviewed everything she’d learned yesterday. Sitting in front of Lorenzo, she gripped the handle of the paddle firmly and stabbed it into the sea. Water splashed her in the face, drenching her.
Bleh. It’s briny. If I wasn’t awake before, I definitely am now.
“Mio amico, relax. You are so stiff. You’re making it much harder than necessary on yourself.” Lorenzo patiently gave her instructions on how to adjust her grip and technique.
She breathed out and tried a second time. “Like this?”
She imagined the paddle to be a knife slicing through butter. Maintaining a looser grip, she scooped it toward her instead of forcefully yanking the paddle.
“Much better.”
“I should’ve enlisted you as a teacher yesterday. You’ve been more helpful in five minutes than my instructor was in a few hours.”
Lorenzo chuckled. “You had the right idea all along. You only needed a few key pointers to fine-tune your technique.”
Her confidence began to build. It wasn’t long before they became a single unit with an established rhythm, matching one another stroke for stroke. Being in the expansive ocean, to Sabrina it was as if they were miles away from the Cinque Terre. All that was around them was the turquoise water, and the dotted green silhouette of the Italian coastline.
“I see why you enjoy this so much. It is just us surrounded by the beauty of nature.”
A gentle breeze came off the water.
“As you know, I grew up on an island. For as long as I can remember, the water has always been my personal amusement park. I’d spend hours exploring the uninhabited islands around Isola Nostrum and searching for undiscovered realms and treasures under the sea.
They rested their paddles horizontally against their laps, drifting aimlessly, allowing Sabrina a bit of time to rest her achy arms.
She pivoted her body so she faced him. “Did you ever uncover a hidden city or any pirate’s booty?”
“I can’t claim to have found Atlantis, but one of my most memorable finds was a shipwreck site from a galleon estimated to be three centuries old. Archaeologists from the University of Naples have been working to excavate it. The sailors could have very well been pirates.”
The corners of her mouth curved upward. “That makes you a modern-day Indiana Jones.”
They both laughed.
“Isola Nostrum sounds like a fun place to have grown up.”
