Page 79 of Chasing Caine

“Antonio.” She paused, caressing my cheek with her thumb. The smile faded slowly, giving way to a tight mouth. She swallowed hard, holding something deep inside. Maybe it wouldn’t have been an eye roll. “You’re too good to me.”

“Honestly, I may have to go to medical school if you keep this up.”

She threw her head back with a laugh. “My own personal physician? Imagine all the trouble I could get into if I had one of those!”

I stood and kissed her. “Why did you get involved?”

“Instinct.” She shrugged, looking away from me.

“Between your ankle already being hurt and the way that man was shoving people...” I leaned between her legs, against the wall, and wrapped my arms around her. “If that ever happens again, let me take care of it.”

She hugged me back, but her shoulders shrugged again. My reaction was to protect her. Hers was to protect everyone else, at her own peril. “You’ll have to be faster next time.”

As I separated from her, I looked her square in the eyes. “I think it’s time you told me your long and uninteresting story.”

“Which one?” She leaned forward to kiss me, but I moved out of her reach. She was not getting away with it this time. “I have a lot of them.”

“You just took out a man for the Polizia, despite a sprained ankle—”

“I think it’s just twisted.” She was like an insolent child at times.

“After talking to a man who says you revised the security models at the British Museum? Oh, and after meeting yourbossfrom an internship with the FBI.Andafter watching you handle Umberto yesterday. And you ask me this silly question?”

She looked down the walkway toward the Castel, silent for a few moments. Over and over, she stressed how important honesty and trust were, yet she was terrible at both.

I placed a hand under her chin and lifted her face to me. “No gelato until you tell me.”

She shot me the Samantha glare, her trademark look, at the midpoint between exasperation and mischief. It may have been a look she reserved for me. “You play dirty.”

“Sì, I do.”

“It’s not that interesting. I was sort of in the FBI. Not just as an intern.” At that, she stopped with another shrug.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head, biting back a chuckle. I knelt again and removed the sandal from her left foot to fuss with the compression bandage on her ankle, attempting to regain some of my earlier irritation. There was nothing wrong with it, but for once, I didn’t want her to see me laugh. Otherwise, I’d never get the truth out of her. “So, bella, ifthat’s not interesting, what exactly is?”

“Gelato? I’m thinking caramel?”

“Did you fly all this way to spend time with me and make this relationship work?” I undid the clips on the bandage and tightened the last few wraps as gently as I could. “Or for food?”

She leaned back on the concrete partition and looked up at the sky, closing her eyes in that way she did, as though she gained peace and strength from the sun.

Chapter 26

Samantha

Hewasright.IfI wanted a future with him, I had to let some of the bad stuff out. I had to share with him. Sharing had been easy so far on the trip. Our time had mostly been sex and smiles and lots of touristy stuff. Except for the injured ankle yesterday. The fury inside me at Umberto getting away. And Friday at the nightclub. That argument had taken us to a new level. We’d been more honest that night than I was comfortable with him yet.

When I’d shown up on his doorstep last week, I told him I was running toward him. I couldn’t say it and not do anything about it.

“When I was twelve, we took a summer vacation to Boston. Me, Cass, and my mom.” I opened my eyes and he was still kneeling, fixing the bandage on my ankle. He looked up at me with a smile and my heart fluttered, like it did every time I saw the love in his eyes. I could do this. I could tell him. It was just a stupid story.

“I’d been obsessed with fine art for a couple of years.” Since I’d first seenLes amoureux dans le ciel.Pointing that out was a very different conversation, so I skipped it. “But it changed when we went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.”

He stood again, hands sliding up my legs to my waist. “And you learned about the heist?”

The man understood me on a level that didn’t make sense. Like he was in my brain.

“Exactly. The heist, the investigation, and...” My fingers grew numb, so I rubbed my palms against the concrete barrier I was sitting on. “That was the day I decided I was going to join the FBI’s Art Crimes Team.”