Luke pressed the button next to a smaller set of doors and smiled at the other guests. When the bell dinged, he gestured for me to enter before him. As the doors slid closed, he retrieved his wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a card, waving it in front of a sensor. The engine whirred to life and the elevator moved.
“Wow, it’s almost like it knows you,” I marveled.
“In a way, it does. My family pays for a private room to be available to us at all times.” My fiancé fidgeted next to me, and I took his hand in mine.
“Are you getting nervous about this trip?” I asked.
“A little,” he admitted. “I’ve stayed away for a very good reason, but you have given me a better one to return.” He brushed his lips over our entwined fingers.
The bell dinged again, and we exited directly into a sprawling space.
“Sweet tea and spells, is this like a penthouse?” I took tentative steps into an entryway bigger than my entire cottage. The soles of my flats clicked on the shiny marble covering the floors.
“We’re on the top floor,” Luke said, walking past me to flick a switch on a far wall. The curtains pulled away from floor-to-ceiling windows and light flooded in. “Claudio will bring up our things and arrange them in our room. Come out here to the balcony, there’s something I want you to see.”
Trying not to catch flies with my gaping mouth, I closed the distance between us and stepped outside into the warm sun. Church bells pealed and echoed off of buildings, welcoming me to the city. Off in the distance, I spotted large buildings that must have some huge significance. Below us, people shuffled down both sides of the street like ants moving from place to place, their voices rising in the air in a constant chatty murmur.
A giddy giggle burst out of me, and I covered my mouth to capture it. “This is so amazing. I can’t believe I’m here.” I gripped the metal of the railing to ground myself.
Luke stepped closer, covering my back with his body. He brushed my hair out of the way so he could plant a kiss on my neck. “Do you want to rest and go out later or would you like to go see what we can find right now?”
“I took a nap on the plane. Let’s go do this!” I exclaimed, practically jumping up and down like a little girl. “Wait, should I change into something more comfortable? Picking up my feet, I pointed at my flats.
“You won’t have to walk very far if you’ll allow me to take the mode of transportation I want.” His eyes twinkled in challenge.
I slung my purse across my body. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
We made it back downstairs in the private elevator and stepped outside. Luke talked to one of the bellboys who yelled into a walkie-talkie. After mere moments, a valet pushed a shiny scooter in front of us. Two helmets were looped over the handlebars.
“You’ve got to be kidding. Didn’t you see the crazy traffic out there?” I shrieked as Luke slipped some bills to the hotel staff.
My fiancé took the white helmet off and handed it to me. “Trust me. I have excellent reflexes.”
I opened my mouth to argue but remembered who and what he was. If anybody here had the skills to keep us alive, surely a very old vampire did.
Shoving the helmet over my hair, I accepted his challenge with wordless determination. He helped me buckle the strap underneath my chin and mounted the scooter.
I suddenly became very aware I was wearing a dress and thought about going back upstairs to change. At that moment, a couple younger than us flew past us, the girl’s dress riding higher up her thigh than mine fell. She yelled something at the boy in loud Italian, and I smiled at Fate’s direct dare.
Being careful to tuck the skirt of my sundress tight under my body so it didn’t flow about too wildly, I wrapped my arms around Luke, who balanced the scooter while I got settled.
“I used to own a Vespa like this. They’re incredibly efficient for navigating busy city roads,” Luke’s voice echoed through speakers in the helmet.
“Wow, I figured we wouldn’t be able to talk until we stopped,” I said.
“The microphones and speakers will allow me to continue telling you about things as we pass them. Just try not to scream when a vehicle comes close to us,” he chuckled. “I promise I will get you where we’re going in one piece. By tonight, you’ll be begging me to let you drive.”
“Doubtful,” I replied, squeezing him a little tighter.
I soon discovered that a scooter cut through a lot of the congestion easier than a car. Only a few times did I close my eyes and take deep breaths to keep from squealing when other scooters got close enough that they almost touched my leg.
Luke drove me to different sites, parking the scooter out of the way and giving me more information than any tour guide could possibly know. He pushed his way to the front of an enormous fountain with carvings to make it look like a rock landing leading up to a white building with frames that held intricate statues of figures inside.
“This is the Trevi Fountain, and it is pretty young in comparison to a lot of other sites in the city. I think it was finished in the 1760s. That building is the Palazzo Poli, and the main statue is Titan, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.”
“Ah, so it goes with the water theme,” I teased. “I think I’ve seen this in some old black-and-white film Granny made me watch with her.” At the
