Wildest Dreams (The Contemporary Collection) by Blake Jennifer

Author:Blake, Jennifer [Blake, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romance
Publisher: Steel Magnolia Press
Published: 2013-04-23T07:00:00+00:00

14

IT PLEASED JOLETTA TO THINK that the route she and Rone were taking by car to reach Venice was not so different from that taken by Violet and Allain by carriage and train. The placement of roads had changed little in that part of the world, and the train embankment ran beside the autostrata for miles.

The car Rone rented, the only one available at the agency, turned out to be ancient and cranky, a standard-transmission compact that trailed a blue vapor of oil smoke and had no air-conditioning. Joletta knew without being told that few cars came equipped with air in Europe, but couldn’t resist pointing out that the tour bus had been.

Rone listened to her acid comments and watched her trying to keep the wind from tearing the hair from her head for half the morning. When they stopped at a pharmacy for their toiletries, he bought a white silk head scarf and a pair of oversized white-rimmed Italian sunglasses. As he handed them over, Joletta was too surprised, and irritated that she hadn’t thought of them herself, to offer more than a muttered thanks.

Regardless, when she tied the scarf over her hair, put on the glasses, and propped her arm on the open window as they whizzed down the road with the wind in their faces, she felt very European. She did not, of course, mention that to Rone.

Joletta had never learned to manage a standard transmission. Because of it Rone had to do all the driving. Less than ten minutes over the Italian border, she was delighted to have an excuse not to get behind the wheel.

The Italian drivers were demons on the road, charging forward with a disregard for safety that bordered on suicidal, or possibly homicidal. An automobile could at any moment become a weapon of aggression in the war of the motorways. When it happened, they took no prisoners.

The frantic traffic, streaking along at one hundred and forty kilometers per hour and beyond, nearly eighty-five miles per hour, didn’t seem to bother Rone; he merged with it with competence and élan. Hands rock steady on the wheel, senses alert, he held his own and did not flinch or give way to any man or vehicle.

By default it became Joletta’s task to act as navigator. Following the strange road signs and distances in kilometers was not as difficult as she had feared when Rone first tossed the map into her lap. The highway system itself was little different from the interconnected roads and interstates of the United States, and the method of marking the different routes was possibly even better. Her instructions as she guided their progress were short and to the point, and usually in answer to some request from Rone.

He whistled as he drove, snatches of some Italian folk tune, Joletta thought, though she didn’t know the name. Apparently he was happy because he had gotten his way about leaving the tour group. She was also enjoying the change. It was so much

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