Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

the city pretty regularly. I always knew I would end up living here as my primary residence, but I
have vacation homes in other places.”
“Like where?”
“Northern Italy.” He glances at me. “I have a small place there in Bellagio, right on Lake Como.
It’s a quiet town. It was the first vacation home I bought. By my standards, it’s a pretty modest flat, but
it has incredible views. It’s a great place to decompress and enjoy a slower pace when you need it.”
“Mm, sounds nice. I’ve never been to Italy, but I’d love to go someday.”
He reaches around and grabs my waist, pulling me against him. “I’ll take you. We won’t stay at
my place for your first trip, though. Maybe part of it, but I’ll take you to one of the nicer resorts.
There’s a place you’d love in Cernobbio, it’s called Villa d'Este. It used to be a royal residence, so
it’s obviously very nice. Beautiful grounds. I always thought if I ever got married, it would probably
be there.”
“Should I brush up on my Italian?” I joke.
He’s not as alarmed by my possible joke about us getting married as an almost first date should
be. “No need. I speak it fluently; I’ll do the talking for you.”
I smirk as we pause at the crosswalk. “That must be your ideal scenario. Maybe you should have
just whisked me off to Italy to begin with.”
He smirks back as people crowd around us, waiting to cross. “Maybe I should have.”
We walk the rest of the way to the theater alternating between companionable silence and small
talk mostly about the city. When we get there, there’s a crush of people commiserating outside before
the show or arriving in cars. The theater sign is lit up and a surge of excitement hits me because I love
coming to the theater, and it’s not something that’s in my budget to do regularly.
I don’t love the crowds, though. Before we make our way through this one, I slow down and turn
to Calvin. “Can we take a picture in front of the theater?”
“Like tourists?”
“Exactly like tourists.”
He cracks a smile. “I suppose we can if you want to.”
He draws out his phone and we turn so the theater is our background. Since we have already
been touching and leaning close from the moment we left the restaurant, I don’t feel strange about
leaning in and doing a typical couple pose with him while I snap a picture with his phone.
Jackson would never let me touch his phone. I grabbed it just to hand to him once when he left it
on a restaurant table and he snatched it away from me like it had physically hurt to have me touch it.
I wait for Calvin to react to my going through his photos. I’m not snooping, just checking out the
three pictures I snapped to make sure I save the best one. He doesn’t seem to be anxious about my