Lovers by Judith Krantz

Author:Judith Krantz [Krantz, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780307801296
Google: 7mv5voDNiyMC
Amazon: 0553561359
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1994-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

11

The sunset of the day on which Gigi and Ben had visited Mestre was of such outrageous beauty, even for Venice, that Ben directed Guido to take the gondola out to a vantage point in the middle of the lagoon and attempt to stay in one place as long as possible.

“He’s on his mettle now,” Ben explained with a grin. “While the boat’s moving, it’s relatively easy to avoid the worst of the waves from bigger craft, but you can’t anchor a gondola, and there’s a lot of water traffic around at this time of day. We should probably be wearing seatbelts. It would add a new scandal to Venice history.”

“Is he thinking ‘crazy Americans’?”

“Something ruder and more specific. Hold on!”

Gigi and Ben rocked as the wake of a vaporetto churning out to the Lido hit the gondola. Gigi glanced up at Guido, standing on his perch way above their heads, swiveling to look in every direction of the compass, his attention firmly fixed on identifying potential threats, particularly those coming from the police motoscafos; they were the only sailors in Venice who constantly broke the speed limit.

“Oh,” Gigi sighed, “I know you don’t believe in making comparisons to the past, but, Ben, wouldn’t it be glorious if there weren’t a single motor in Venice, if every boat on the water were a gondola? Just for a day?” The sound of her voice was so full of wistful need, so touched by her yearning for something impossible, that Ben Winthrop instantly seized on the moment he’d been waiting for, the moment when Gigi was ready, even if she wasn’t aware of it, to respond to him.

“I’d rather turn back time to another day,” he answered. “Not even a day, but one particular night and one particular minute.”

“When?” she inquired idly, looking up at the lavender clouds mixed with pink and gold and trying to decide, before they changed, what color this sunset would be called if such an evanescent color had a name.

He took her chin in both of his hands and turned her face up toward his. “The first night I kissed you,” he said, and leaned forward and gave Gigi the gentlest kiss she had ever received. “The night I kissed you too soon,” Ben said, and kissed her again, even more gently. “The night I upset you,” he added, and kissed her a third time, so gently that his lips barely brushed hers. “You taste like the color of the clouds,” he told her, surprised to find himself so moved, surprised to find himself saying these words. “I’ve tried to remember what you tasted like ever since that night, and now I know … the most beautiful April sunset.”

“In Venice?” Gigi faltered, unable to find any words that wouldn’t sound flirtatious.

“Anywhere in the whole wide world.”

“Oh.”

“Do you think you might give me a kiss?” he asked humbly.

Gigi leaned forward to kiss him very softly, as he had kissed her, when a wave slapped the gondola suddenly, jolting her forward, Ben caught her in his arms and she found herself with her nose mashed on his earlobe.

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