Not Juliet by Ella Medler

straightened her skirt and retrieved
her backpack. Then he helped her walk on wobbly legs to a car. A
car? That didn’t make much sense. Luca was riding a red Ducati.
    Her world moved
in and out of focus for a while and Riella just went along with it.
At some point her stomach revolted and she retched, barely holding
onto a bathroom sink. A horrible smell invaded her nostrils and she
retched again and again. Luca mumbled something in the background
and laughed his rumbling laugh. It sounded like ‘Hmm, I preferred
Grom’s gelato on my t-shirt, but I guess you’ll feel better now you
got it out’ – the man wasn’t making much sense – and then she felt
a cool washcloth wipe over her face, and neck, and shoulders,
making her feel a whole lot better. She was mostly asleep when Luca
shook her awake again and forced her to drink a massive glass of
water, and then peace took over and she knew no more.
    The sharp
brightness of the morning sun pierced Riella’s eyes and all the way
through to the back of her head. She groaned and hid under her
cover. Before long, a musical chime sounded from the table by the
TV. It went on and on for a couple of minutes. Just as she resigned
herself to getting up, it stopped.
    She let herself
drop back onto the bed, on top of the covers, and closed her eyes
again. There was a tight band around her head, and she was doing
her best to keep it from becoming a headache.
    Luca’s voice
spoke and she jumped off the bed and to her feet in one leap.
    “Good morning,
beautiful.”
    With her pulse
hammering in her ears, Riella scanned the room. Empty. Luca’s
enticing citrus scent lingered in the air, but she was the only
living, breathing soul around. Spooked, she swallowed loudly, then
her eyes landed on a bright patch of colored light. She approached
with caution, then burst into giggles.
    “How did you
sleep? Feeling better?”
    Luca’s face
smiled at her from the screen of a smart phone laying beside a tray
laden with pastries and fresh coffee in an insulated jug. She gazed
at his smiling face. His winning smile and bright eyes looked like
he was trying to smolder right through her.
    Hmm…
Overconfident much? She shook her head, but didn’t stop the
recording.
    “I’m sorry I
can’t be there when you wake up. I’ve had to take care of some
business. But I’d love it if you could join me for the day. I have
a lot of beautiful places to show you.” There was a short pause.
“Actually, I plan to kiss you in pretty much every square mile in
Italy. No, make that every square inch. That’s a lot of kissing, so
I thought we’d better get started early.”
    Riella giggled
at his self-assurance, but she couldn’t deny the happy feeling
fluttering inside her chest. Luca, her personal Romeo, hadn’t been
a dream, as she had feared, but very much alive and certainly very
determined. And he still wanted to kiss her, even after the fiasco
of the previous night, when she got way more drunk than she’d
intended and ended up almost naked on Orazio’s sofa…
    Her hands flew
to her mouth to stifle a gasp and her eyes grew wide as a swell of
memories flooded her mind all at once. No! She’d done more than
strip on Orazio’s sofa. The heat rose to her cheeks and she
involuntarily searched for somewhere to hide in shame.
    She remembered
Luca’s hands on her waist, on her breasts, and… and… down there.
And not only his hands! What had happened after? Her memories
stopped abruptly at that point, only fractured sections permeating
through, like a bad recording of an amateur film director before he
learned to coordinate movement with sound.
    Luca chuckled
softly from the screen of the phone. “I’m guessing you’re probably
thinking back to last night. It’s okay. Nothing you should be
ashamed of happened. I’ve had a wonderful time, and I’m guessing so
did you… until we got back to the hotel.”
    Riella could
have cried with embarrassment. He was trying to make her feel
better, but