12
ISABELLA
Italy was beautiful. I was trying not to be too excited about everything since I wanted to focus on work instead of my surroundings, but it was hard when we were staying in an honest-to-God castle.
The closest I’d come to a real castle before had been when I used to work as a waitress at a restaurant with a medieval theme. And that castle had been nothing like this one. This was an actual castle, acastellooverlooking the mountains to the north of the city and the hills in the center.
The walls were made of brick and stone, giving it a patchwork old-world charm. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and grand furniture dotted the halls and filled every majestic room we passed through. It was incredible, like something straight from the pages of a fairy tale.
For a girl like me, it was as close as I’d ever been to feeling like a princess. I’d never had one of those pretty shimmery dresses other little girls wore when they played dress-up. I had never been called a princess by my adoring parents.
I wasn’t wearing a pretty shimmery dress now, either. But I was staying in this castle. In this bedroom, with its glorious sweeping views from the picture window and its giant four-post bed. Waking up in that bed, perfectly positioned to offer its occupants an eyeful of that view, was going to be nothing short of marvelous.
The only downside—and it was a big one—was the fact that I wouldn’t be alone when I woke up to that view. Parker would be next to me, and that was going to be… less fun.
Under any other circumstances, sharing that beautiful bed with a gorgeous, witty, ambitious man might’ve been wonderful. Things being as they were, though, it was a nightmare.
Of course, I’d known we’d be sharing a room when we got here. I hadn’t quite made my peace with it before we’d arrived, hoping that I’d be able to check myself into a different room once we got settled. I would’ve been happy with a broom closet, if only they’d had one available.
They didn’t have anything available, not even a damn broom closet.
Parker shrugged where he stood beside me and moved forward to fall down on the bed. Stretching out on his back, he propped himself up on his elbows and grinned at me. “There are limited options because Josh rented out the whole castle for the wedding. With all their family and friends staying here, there weren’t two separate rooms available for us. If it makes you feel any better, I called ahead to check because I knew you’d prefer it that way.”
“You did that for me?” I asked.
He frowned. “Of course. I even tried to tell them that I’d be happy crashing on a couch, but apparently, that’s not done when the hotel is an old castle.”
Despite our predicament, a small smile broke free on my lips. “I can see how that would be a problem. It’s not nearly aristocratic enough.”
“Don’t tell me that you really believe the aristocracy never fall asleep on their couches. Pass out on them, even. Just because they’re royal doesn’t mean they’re above the age-old comfort of couch-sleeping. Besides, staying in a castle doesn’t make me part of the aristocracy. I’d have taken the couch with a smile.”
“Because I would’ve preferred it that way?” I asked, and he nodded. “Thank you for the thought. Since it’s not an option, I suppose we’re going to have to make do.”
“I don’t snore,” he joked, waggling his brows at me. “At least, I don’t think I do. You’re welcome to elbow me if I do, though.”
“It’s not the snoring I’m worried about,” I said. My gaze swept from one side of the bed to the other, then up to the enormous stack of pillows against the headboard. “If we’re going to be sharing, we’ll need rules. The first one is that we’ll build a wall out of those and both of us promise that none of our body parts will cross the border.”
He rolled his eyes and smirked slightly when he looked at me again. “You don’t have to worry about me. We don’t need pillows for me to be able to keep my hands to myself, but if it’s your hands you’re worried about, have at it.”
“Have at what? Groping you, or building the pillow wall?”
He chuckled, shrugging at me again. “Either. I’m always open to some good groping, but if you need a physical barrier to stop yourself from doing it, build the wall.”
“You wish,” I muttered, but he wasn’t entirely wrong.
The few times that I had shared a bed with someone in my adult life, I’d discovered that I was a cuddler. As soon as my mind shut down, it seemed my body couldn’t stop itself from seeking out that comfort.A pillow wall, it is.
“Bathroom rules.” I held up my fingers and let them fold back into my palm one by one. “No barging in if the door is closed. No leaving any hair anywhere. No coming in if the other is in the shower, no matter how badly you might need to relieve yourself—”
“Relieve yourself?” His head dropped back as he laughed. “You can say the wordpiss, Iz. You won’t offend me. Orpee. Take aleak.Relieve yourselfjust seems unnecessarily formal.”
“It’s Isabella,” I corrected, fully aware of how anal I sounded. “Whatever you want to call it, the bathroom is off limits when the shower is running.”
Snapping his fingers to his forehead in a quick salute, his warm brown eyes sparkled with amusement. “Any other rules we’re going to break eventually anyway?”
“We’re not breaking these.” Enough of them had fallen by the wayside with him, but now, more than ever, we needed these boundaries. “You and I are two professional people who are working together. Nothing more, nothing less. Sharing a room is already way over the line.”
He held up his hands. “Are we done yet? Let’s go do some sightseeing. I don’t have any wedding-related responsibilities today since they wanted to give everyone time to settle in. We shouldn’t waste the free time.”