It Takes a Villa by Kilby Blades

Author:Kilby Blades
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Women's Fiction;Romantic Comedy;Small Town & Rural Fiction;Women's Fiction;Contemporary Romance;Billionaire Romance;African American Romance Fiction;Diverse Romance;Travel Romance;Romance Abroad;Genre Fiction;Small Town Romance;Enemies to Lovers Romance;International Romance;Italian Romance;Books like Under the Tuscan Sun;Entangled publishing;Amara;Mass Market paperback romance;new romance book;popular romance book;single title romance;stand alone romance book;2022 Romance book;2022 Mass Market Romance;books with a Happy ending;HEA;It takes a Villa by Kilby Blades;Contemporary Romance;heartwarming Romance;Romance with heart;Novel with a Independent woman;African American Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2022-03-06T01:27:58+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Pietro couldn’t remember the last time he had spent hours strolling through the groves, meandering through trellised pathways, visiting production buildings, and stopping in enclaves where benches had been constructed to sit. Showing it all to Natalie reminded him how many stories there were to this place—the bench his grandfather preferred, where he would smoke a pipe in the afternoon and tell stories; the tree that Pietro had fallen asleep under at the tender age of five, which had prompted a search party and worried his mother sick. He also couldn’t remember the last time he had held a woman’s hand.

But for the need to eat, he could have kept them in the groves all day, through the late afternoon and into night. When Natalie’s stomach had growled and he’d noticed she looked a bit thirsty, he’d guided them back. Next time, he might pack them a picnic to eat inside.

“This is luxurious.”

Natalie made the proclamation the moment she stepped into his cottage, arms full with her own satchel that she had grabbed off the porch. Pietro held a freshly picked basket of lemons. It was the warmest part of the afternoon and their long stroll, plus the late hour, had earned them a hearty meal.

“You are the first person to use this word to describe my house,” he quipped, smiling as he walked toward his kitchen and left her to take it all in. Something in her voice, in her expression, was sincere, though he couldn’t imagine why. The cottage was small, comfortable for one person, and quite a bit modern for Pietro’s tastes. Its best features were its verandas and the breeze from the sea.

A wide living room was the first room you entered when you walked through the front door. The room spanned the width of the house and was furnished simply, with modern pieces of Scandinavian design that Caterina had chosen when she had fixed the cottage up. An arched door in the center of the room led down a short hall. The door to the sole bedroom was on the left, and a small bathroom was on the right. The bathroom hadn’t been part of the original construction. Though, when it had been remodeled, Caterina had added walls.

At the end of the hall, the space opened up to a modern kitchen with a counter island in the middle for preparation, a dining table off to the right, and a stovetop range and ovens behind. Windows that faced the water stretched wide above more countertops and a sink, giving both the cook and any dish washer an idyllic view. But the biggest improvement to the kitchen after the remodel was the addition of doors that opened to the terra-cotta-tiled veranda, which wrapped all the way around the sea-facing side of the house.

Pietro set the basket of lemons next to the sink. Natalie fell in next to where he stood. He snaked an arm around her waist and hoped she would inch closer. He thought she would comment on the view.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.