An Innocent Abroad by Rae Summers

Author:Rae Summers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, vintage, historical
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2012-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Isobel hovered in the doorway of the drawing room, daunted by the multitude of people. Her aunt must have invited every expatriate within fifty miles to meet the Conte. How she’d managed to put together such a party in so short a time, Isobel couldn’t imagine.

She prayed her late arrival would mean they were all too engaged with one another to pay her any attention. Sucking in a deep breath, she stepped into the room.

“Isobel, I’ve been searching everywhere for you!”

She forced a smile and turned to face her aunt and... Her heart faltered. It couldn’t be.

Aunt Alice looked like the proverbial cat. “This is the Conte di Cilento.”

“Stefano,” he corrected, reaching forward to take her limp hand and raise it to his mouth. Except at the last minute he flipped her hand over and brushed his lips across her palm. That made three times he’d kissed her hand. The gesture still made her legs weak.

But the man who stood before her, urbane and sophisticated, wasn’t the Stefano she knew. He moved with the easy grace she so admired, as comfortable in formal attire as he’d been in fisherman’s garb. Yet this was not the man who had introduced her to limoncello or walked with her through the woods.

This man, impeccably dressed in a tailored black dinner jacket and a crisp white shirt with a white bow tie, was a stranger.

He was a man who belonged very much in a world of drawing rooms and small talk. Had the man who’d kissed her even existed? Perhaps she had only seen what she wanted to see.

“Pleased to meet you.” She choked out the ritual words.

He did not release her hand, even as the floor began to tilt beneath her feet.

She finally remembered to breathe.

Her erratic heartbeat pulsed between them, through the connection of their fingers. She yanked her hand back, severing the contact.

So this is what you wanted to tell me! Except in this room full of people she couldn’t say any of the things that suddenly sprang into her mind. Things like Please forgive me and What does this mean? Or even What do I mean to you?

“Dinner is served,” Edwards’ voice boomed behind her.

With so many guests, dinner this evening was a formal occasion with strict protocol and orders of precedence. Stefano stepped away to take the arm of his hostess to escort her in to dinner.

“You are seated beside me tonight,” Christopher said in her ear. The satisfaction in his voice wasn’t quite enough to drive away her self-doubt, but it warmed her to know with some certainty that she had at least one man’s admiration.

She allowed him to steer her toward the dining room. A quick glance down the table and her heart sank. She was at least half a table away from Stefano. Close enough to see him and hear him. Though even the entire length of the room would not have been enough space to prevent her from being aware of his every move.

In

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