Hot Christmas Nights by Farrah Rochon Page B

of a smile was enough to excite him. They’d tiptoed around each other, speaking in hushed monosyllables, the relaxed camaraderie from the night before nowhere to be found.
    Aiden had been on the verge of apologizing for driving the uncomfortable wedge between them when Nyla spoke up, suggesting a moratorium on talk of anything that was too heavy. She wanted the day’s focus to be on the magic of Rome at Christmastime.
    If he’d had the choice, he would rather they spend the day hashing out everything that was standing in the way of them being together. But Aiden knew better than to push her. If he pushed her, she would run.
    Instead he’d agreed to go along with this charade. He would traipse around Rome with her, ignoring the discussion they must have, pretending that his life’s happiness wasn’t hanging in the balance.
    “Okay, okay,” Aiden said, holding his hands up. “Maybe not a beer since I’ve never been a fan, but old Julius and I could talk over some iced tea.”
    “Would you please behave?” Nyla asked.
    Deciding to give her a break, he posed for several more pictures, amused at her seriousness behind the camera.
    “Exactly how many shots does that digital camera hold?” Aiden asked.
    “About four thousand,” Nyla called. She laughed when he dropped his head and groaned.
    “Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away,” she said. “I dabbled in photography for a while. It’s been a long time since I had a human subject to shoot. I’ve mostly taken scenery.”
    “Did you take those framed photos on the wall at your apartment?”
    She nodded. “Back when I was in Paris. That city is a photographer’s paradise, professional or hobbyist.”
    “I can only imagine. It’s on my list of must-sees before I return to the States.”
    Her eyes lit up. “Oh, you
must
visit Paris while you’re here. It would be a shame not to.”
    Aiden’s brow arched. “Are you volunteering to join me?”
    The thought of venturing through the romantic streets of Paris with Nyla by his side, not as an old friend too afraid to admit her feelings for him, but as his woman, his
lover,
was the stuff of fantasies. What he wouldn’t give to make that a reality.
    He took several steps forward, bringing himself within inches of her. He captured her hand and ran his thumb across her inner wrist. “What do you say, Nyla? Are you willing to show me around the City of Lights?”
    Her gaze dropped to his mouth, then quickly returned to his eyes. She let out a deep breath and tugged her hand from his hold. “We should probably go.” She took a step back. “The lines to get into the Colosseum will be long.”
    “Not until you answer my question.”
    She shifted from one leg to the other, clearly uncomfortable. At the moment, he didn’t care.
    “We agreed we wouldn’t do this,” she said in a small voice.
    Yes, they had, but for the first time in his life, Aiden was going back on his word. He was tired of her pretending that he was the only one who had been affected by the attraction between them.
    “I have a modification to our earlier agreement,” he said. “I’ll agree to put the conversation off while we’re in Rome, but you have to agree that we discuss it before I leave for Zurich, Nyla. I don’t want to go back to being just someone whose status you occasionally like on Facebook. I don’t know what I mean to you anymore, but you mean too much to me to continue on the way we have been.”
    Her eyes slid closed. For the briefest second Aiden thought she would turn down his request, but then she said, “Okay.” She looked up at him. “But we wait until after Christmas.”
    He nodded. “I’m holding you to that.”
    She released a weary laugh. “I wouldn’t expect anything different.”
    They made their way to the Colosseum, which was as magnificent as Aiden had imagined. As they stood in the line that wound its way around the massive structure, Nyla pointed out the grass-covered stone ring about twenty