We walked back to his hotel, taking the small alleyway to the main road and then the Piazza Duomo. Beautifully lit with the sound of the water from the fountain, it was a serene paradise.
I couldn’t imagine experiencing it without the man next to me. They said people came into your life for a moment or a season ... and sometimes forever. I knew he was just a moment, but it was a moment I would never forget. A lifeline while I was adrift at sea. Air that filled my collapsed lungs.
Halfway across the piazza, his hand snaked to mine and enclosed it.
Like a girl in middle school who had just touched a boy for the first time, my heart sprouted wings and flew to the sky. I moved closer into his side as we walked, my head rubbing against his shoulder. I could smell the scent of his clean shirt, the cologne underneath, the smell I’d noticed on his sheets.
He helped me down all the different sets of stairs in my heels before we crossed the road to the entrance to his hotel, a stone wall with a small open section in the center so no one could sneak in to the hotel without being checked by security.
I stopped feet away, and Constantine stopped with me, his hand leaving mine as he faced me. He was a behemoth compared to me,even in my five-inch heels. I was tall for a woman, so the dating pool of men was always smaller for me. I couldn’t date a guy less than six feet tall, but most men liked petite girls, not someone who was just a few inches shorter. So that made Constantine perfect because he actually made me feel small. Not just in his height but the pounds of muscle on his colossal frame.
He patiently waited for me to speak.
“I’m gonna go to my hotel ... I think I need to be alone tonight.”
There was no sign of disappointment. Just acceptance.
“I’m just not really in the mood, you know.” Something I didn’t think was possible, because Jesus Christ, look at the man. I only had so many nights of this trip left, and I shouldn’t squander them being alone in my cheap hotel room.
“I’d still like you to stay.”
My eyes took in his, seeing truth burn bright like the North Star. He could let me walk back to my hotel and then stop by a bar on his way back and pick up someone else for the night. If I didn’t give him exactly what he wanted, he could replace me with the snap of a finger. But he still wanted me. “You do?”
A handsome smile slowly spread over his face, the signature panty-dropper, the smile that made his eyes reflect a sea of candles that were nowhere nearby. It made me feel like the only woman who mattered to him—at least in that moment. He started to step away and gave a slight nod toward the hotel. “Come on, sweetheart.”
We walked around the lobby and through the bar where we’d met. At one of the tables were the four women I’d spotted the other night. I remembered them, and they definitely remembered me.
I wasn’t sure if Constantine spotted them or it was just a coincidence, but he grabbed my hand the way he had when we’d walked through the piazza.
The jolt in my heart was just as painful as it was pleasurable. Enzo didn’t choose me—but Constantine did.
When we made it back to his room, housekeeping had already performed the turndown service. The lights were dimmed low. The living room had a full seating area with a large TV and a dining area. His bedroom alone was bigger than my whole room at my hotel.
He went into his closet and started to undress.
I sat on the couch by his bed and got my heels off, and I watched him enter the bathroom. The sound of the faucet was clear a moment later.
I stepped into the bathroom behind him, seeing him brush his teeth with an electric toothbrush in the large mirror that took up the entire wall. He was in just his boxers, his muscular back rippled with muscle, his ass tight. Still in my little black dress, I leaned against the doorway. “Mind if I wear one of your shirts to bed?”
He didn’t nod or stop brushing his teeth to answer. Just wore that smile of his that I couldn’t describe, the kind that was in his eyes rather than on his mouth.
I smiled back, then opened his drawer to find a clean T-shirt. It was black, and when I checked the tag, I saw it was an extra-large. It would definitely fit me like a dress, the most comfortable dress I’d ever worn.
I changed into it before I went back into the bathroom. He continued to brush his teeth, his eyes shifting to me before they returned to his own reflection.
I felt self-conscious taking off my makeup before bed, but if I didn’t, I would look like hell in the morning, my mascara and foundation all over the pillow. There were two sinks, so I used his face wash to clean my face and one of the washcloths to get all the makeup off.
When he finished brushing his teeth, he looked at my reflection in the mirror.
I felt on display, my eyes no longer pretty without the dark mascara and eyeliner, my lips no longer red and glossy because it’d all been washed away. All my imperfections were on display, the discoloration of my complexion, the old acne scars.
But a slight smile moved over his lips, and he slipped his hand underneath my shirt and gripped one of my ass cheeks before he gave it a playful smack. Then he walked out of the bathroom and left my sight.
I wasn’t sure if he’d done it on purpose, but he made me feel more beautiful than I ever had.
I finished up in the bathroom, then joined him in bed, gentle lights underneath the bed frame to make it easy to find in the dark. He was on his phone, with one hand behind his head. Mine was left in my purse because there wasn’t a single person in the world I wanted to talk to.
I lay there and got comfortable, his bed a million times more comfortable than mine at my hotel.
