“And blessedly private.”
“With a thousand servants to indulge your every whim.”
“Not a thousand,” I tease. There are quite a few though. “Knowing they’re there makes me feel safe. My mother won’t try anything with a bunch of servants in residence.”
I’ve thought about this. There is nowhere nearby I can escape to but that house. People will be watching me constantly. She doesn’t go there anymore. Not really. Not since we’ve all become adults and moved on.
“Whatever. You want to go there, you should go there.”
“I want you to go with me. We could spend the weekend there. It’ll be fun. The weather is better. The food is delicious. We could sit by the pool and bake ourselves in the sun.” Another idea comes to me, better than the first. “Maybe we should go on vacation. I know Europe is extra hot right now, but the Italian coast has been calling to me lately. God, it’s so beautiful there.”
“I’ve never been,” he says, his eyes slowly closing.
“What? You’ve never been to Italy?” My mouth pops open in shock. “You’reItalian, Spence.”
“I never said I haven’t been to Italy. I have been, plenty of times.” His eyes crack back open, his lips curling in a sexy smirk. “We just never made it over to the coast.”
“Oh. Well, that’s just…shameful. You must go. We need to plan a trip now. We can go by the end of the summer. Maybe even September, when it’s still warm but not overly so. I can put everything together—I have a travel agent who’s amazing. Has inside connections with all of the luxury hotels on the Amalfi coast. We could take a couple of weeks away. Just the two of us.” I practically throw myself at him, landing on his chest and making him grunt. His arms spring away from his head and automatically go around me, and I snuggle in close, almost purring in contentment.
I got what I wanted. My man holding me.
“I can’t leave until later in the fall. Too much going on with work right now.” When he speaks, his mouth brushes my temple, making me shiver.
“You always have to work.” I’m pouting.
“You’re right. I do.”
I contemplate what I want to say to him and wonder if he’d consider it rude.
Forget it—I’m saying it. He knows how I can be and I haven’t scared him away yet.
“I have a lot of money.” I lift my head to find him already watching me. “I could take care of us for the rest of our lives and still have a ton of money left over.”
“I don’t want your money, Syl.” His expression is serious, as is his tone.
“Is this some sort of macho thing, where you won’t take my money and you want to stand on your own two feet?” I roll my eyes when his head barely moves in a nod. “That’s incredibly archaic. My trust fund is so huge it would take generations to spend it all.”
“Leave it for your children then,” he says.
My heart stalls in my chest. “My children? Orourchildren?”
“Our children.” He pauses. “Though now I’m remembering you said you didn’t want kids.”
“Yet,” I emphasize.
The more time I spend with Spencer, the more I want to have his children. I can envision it now. They’d all be dark-haired and dark-eyed, and we’d break the fair-haired and blue-eyed curse of the Lancasters.
My children wouldn’t even be Lancasters. They would be Donatos, and I like that idea.
A lot.
“All right then, yes.Ourchildren. Eventually,” he tacks on to make me happy.
My blood pumps hot and fast at his words. The soft glow in his eyes as he watches me. He reaches out, his fingers sifting through my hair and my body goes liquid.
“Are you implying that you’re going to ask me to marry you?” My heart trips over itself at the thought, and for one terrifying moment, I’m afraid I overspoke.
It gets worse when Spencer gently dumps me onto the mattress before he’s climbing out of bed. I watch him go, sitting up once more, clutching the sheet to my chest. I am naked and vulnerable and scared he’s going to say we’re moving too fast. That I need to slow down.