Adeline glanced at her watch. She had long ago made it a rule to never allow a prospective buyer to arrive at a site before her. And even though she had no desire to see this particular property sell, she still made a point of being on location before anyone else, as she hoped to derail Nicolo’s plans to destroy a building nearly a thousand years old.

Looming behind Adeline and to one side, the Romano del Mare resort was imposing even in its broken down condition. It was two stories high and swept the coastline of the small inlet bay that was shaped like a crescent moon. The building itself formed an enormous square and had a huge inner courtyard. Beneath the main building and the courtyard were an endless collection of nooks, storage rooms, and miles of catacombs that boasted an age even older than the above-ground building.

While the resort itself was practically a natural wonder, the resort’s dock was Adeline’s favorite place in the whole area. It was a wall made of rocks the size of a large man’s fist, held together with pale cement that matched the light color of the rocks. The wall rose ten feet above the water line, but as the land curved around, the man-made wall meshed into the natural landscape. From there, stairs cut into the stone of the earth followed the shape of the inlet down to the water’s edge.

It was the same on both sides of the long dock, and it allowed boats to load and unload passengers right at the resort’s hearth. In addition to that, a natural stone ledge extending out from one of the boat landings—bleached white by the sun and beaten smooth by the sea—was a perfect spot for sunbathing or swimming. As for the water, it was as blue and sparkled as brilliantly as a priceless sapphire. The water was crystal clear, and the loveliness of it all could mesmerize even the coldest of hearts.

The Romano del Mare complemented the land on which it stood. It didn’t try to compete with the natural beauty surrounding it, rather it did its best not to get in the way.

Putting her back to the sea, Adeline took in the large, now-empty resort. The client that Nicolo had arranged to meet with today had a reputation for bulldozing and rebuilding. She flinched at the thought of the Romano del Mare razed to the ground only to have a garish monstrosity built in its place. She’d seen pictures of Nicolo’s client’s other constructions. They were more about flash than substance. They didn’t understand the Sicilian culture, and anyone who stayed at any resort that they built here would miss out on all that being in Sicily was really about.

“I can’t stay to watch that,” Adeline said to herself. But then, she had no intentions of that. She had a plan. The buyer she had set up to view the resort owed her a favor. With his help, Adeline was going to convince Nicolo that he had a buyer willing to commit if some improvements to the property were made. In truth, though, her fake buyer was just that—fake. The sale would never happen. It was underhanded of her, but she knew that in the end Nicolo's investment in the property would pay off for him. He would come out financially ahead, and the Romano del Mare would live to see another century. It was a win-win.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Turning her back to the resort once more, she pulled it out of her pocket to check the incoming email she had just received. It was from Andalucia Real Estate, the Spanish real estate agency to which she had applied. Her application had been accepted and they were returning with an offer of a job. A salary bid was included. It was lower than anticipated, but that was to be expected. She would counter bid, aiming high, and then an agreement would be met somewhere in the middle.

She sighed heavily as she accepted that her future was to be in Spain. It was bittersweet, but the thought of new adventures brought a smile to her lips despite her sadness.

Typing in some search words, Adeline’s phone loaded with images of Spain. It wasn’t Sicily, she knew, but it was very charming. On top of that, she would be exposed to new foods, places, and people in addition to new excitement to satiate her need to do and see more than the everyday life she’d been living.

“Parasailing in Spain?” a warm tenor spoke next to Adeline’s ear, causing her to jump and send her cell phone tumbling. Nicolo’s quick hand snatched it out of mid-air before it could fall to the ground, then he handed it back to her. Turning, she found him smiling lazily back at her with the gaze of an early morning lover in his dreamy eyes.

“I didn’t hear you. You scared me.” Adeline said, her voice and body at first stiff with embarrassment at being caught so completely by surprise. Then, her shoulders relaxed and she allowed herself to smile, too, with her head titled slightly back so that she could look up into Nicolo’s face. He was standing close to her, as Sicilians often did, and she had to resist the urge to rest her palm on his solid and steady, muscular chest. She imagined the feel of his strength beneath her hand, and forced herself to focus instead on the fact that he wanted to tear down a building that had stood for nearly a thousand years.

“I am sorry,” Nicolo said, leaning in to kiss her right cheek and then her left. “I saw you standing here, looking as lovely as any day I’ve seen, and I could not resist the chance to look upon you before… how do you say? Before your guard was up.”

“Before my guard was up?” Adeline parroted him, her brows lifted in surprise and her smile growing.

“It is not your fault, bedda. You’re Americano. It’s your way.”

Adeline gasped, and her cheeks colored as her eyes sparked with ire. “I am not Americano!” she exclaimed in response to the implication that she was a Sicilian who had lost her roots.

“Bedda! Forgive me!” Nicolo bent low to kiss her hand. “I only meant that you are from America. I can hear it in your voice, no?”

Adeline gave Nicolo a sideways glance as she considered whether or not to forgive him. After all, she had come home to Sicily, and she had embraced her roots with both arms wide. She was not Americano. She ignored the fact that she was considering abandoning those roots to move to Spain. She had not moved yet, she was still in Sicily, and so for now at least, she was still not Americano. And that Nicolo had called her bedda—beautiful—did help to soothe the fire he had sparked within her a little, so she demurred with a Mona Lisa smile.

“Bedda, there you are!” Nicolo exclaimed, throwing his arms wide before giving her another two-cheek kiss to greet the return of the happy Adeline.

She laughed and batted Nicolo away with the back of her hand. The man was solid. She had not expected the wall of muscle her hand had met.

“It’s not me who is the Americano…” Adeline said, giving a slow, flirtatious blink of her eyes to soften her words. She wasn’t sure that she could call him Americano. It wasn’t that he had given up his roots for the sake of America. It was more that he had simply given up his roots of anywhere, so far as she could tell from what she’d heard from others or gleaned from the Internet. He was a jet setter, never staying in one place for very long. He had wanderlust every bit as bad as she did—either that or the idea of anything permanent sent him running. She wasn’t sure which.

Nicolo slapped his hand over his heart as if wounded by Adeline’s words, and then said, lifting a hand into the sky, “I am a child of the world. For that, you will have to blame my mother. But! Enough of that. I want to know why you are looking at the waters of Spain when you have the wonderful Ionian Sea at your fingertips.”

Adeline waffled on whether or not to tell him the truth—that she had been offered a position in Spain. She was still holding out hope that he would be willing to renovate the Romano del Mare rather than sell it for demolition. If he thought that she would not be there to help implement renovation plans, he might more easily turn around and walk away from one of the most fantastic resorts the island had ever known. The place just needed some TLC, some love to rejuvenate it. She couldn’t turn her back on it now when she had finally, after so many months of trying, gotten the attention of one of the resort’s new owners.

“I was considering a vacation,” Adeline answered. “Adding a little adventure to my life.”

Nicolo’s entire face registered surprise as his eyes went round and his full lips parted. “You live here,” he said with a wide sweep of his arm, “and you want to go to Spain for adventure?”

Adeline shrugged, unapologetic. “I’ve seen all of the major spots at least three times. I’ve been to Mt. Edna, the Valley of the Temples, and Palermo Cathedral. I’ve taken five different tours covering the Greek, Roman and Spanish histories of the island, just to mention a few. I don’t know how much more there is for me to see.”

“Oh… It’s so cute that you think that,” he said with a crooked smile and devilish eyes. He moved close, turned her to face the sea and draped a strong arm over her shoulder. She fit perfectly against him. Stretching an arm out before her, he pointed at the horizon in a sweeping motion. “Have you heard of Taormina’s Grotta Azzurra? Winding tunnels into solid rock with water so blue it will make you weep tears of joy.”

He moved his outstretched hand as if he could paint the images of his words, mesmerizing Adeline. His voice was a seduction in her ear and she found herself leaning into him more. Shaking her head no, she didn’t speak the word for fear that it would break the spell he was weaving.

Dipping his head, Nicolo whispered, and it gave her goosebumps. “Then there is Dead Man’s Waves and Mermaid’s Retreat.”

“Mermaid’s Retreat?” She gave his side a playful nudge with her elbow. “Now you’re making stuff up. Don’t tease me.”

The sound of a car entering the parking lot reached Adeline’s ears, and she tucked her phone away inside her pants pocket. As easy as breathing, she shifted from play into work mode—that is, until she felt Nicolo’s large hand settle over the small of her back. It made her shiver and her breath hitch. When he spoke again, his voice had deepened and it vibrated over her. It made her have to bite her bottom lip to keep from releasing a sighed whimper of want.

“Bedda, let me show you Sicily. Its beauty goes deep, and you need an experienced guide to help you find all the pleasures it has to offer.”

Adeline’s cheeks turned pink at his choice of words, but when she twisted to look him in the eyes, all that was within their stunning blue depths was sincerity. She risked one word and one word only. To say more would give away how much his touch and his presence affected her, and she wasn’t ready for that. She also wasn’t ready to give up on living life to its fullest. Her grandparents had lived with a motto of embracing life and all it had to offer. She would too.

“Yessss,” she breathed on an exhale.

It turned out that even that one word revealed more than she had wanted, and the heat in her cheeks grew as she faced forward once more. But her heart and her body sang with the word and the possibilities before her.

Yes.