Oceans Between Us (A Cinderella Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

seat and examined his bowl of soup.
    "It's my homemade mushroom." She winced inside at her eager tone. She must stop blowing her own horn over her cooking.
    He unfolded the napkin she had wrapped around the warm rolls and the corners of his lips twitched. "This is perfect, Maria." His gaze rose to her again. For a moment she couldn't breathe, then heat rushed to her cheeks. Heavens, woman, get a grip. She was behaving like a lovesick puppy!
    "I'm going upstairs for a while. When I come down, I'll make you a cup of coffee." She hurried upstairs intent on doing something useful and not thinking about Mr. Rossellini.
    ***
    Dino tasted the soup and his eyelids fell with pleasure. Sublime. She was a culinary angel. He glanced at the upstairs windows thoughtfully. In his home village of Riomaggiore, a pretty young woman who cooked as well as Maria would have suitors lining up at her door. Granted, Dino had not been paying attention up until now, but Maria wore no rings and he had not noticed a boyfriend visiting. The men in Porthale must be blind and stupid not to have snapped her up.
    He had just finished his soup and picked up his napkin when a bloodcurdling scream rang out from upstairs. Dino shot out of his chair, dropping his napkin. Had she fallen from a ladder, cut herself? He raced inside, bounded up the stairs three at a time, and slid to a halt outside the open door of a bedroom.
    Maria was inside, huddled in the far corner by the window. The healthy pink roses that had earlier colored her cheeks were gone, her complexion now chalk-white. Dino glanced around the room at a loss to see anything out of place. "What is the matter?"
    She gnawed her lips, staring at a heap of plastic sheet on the ground in front of her. "It's in there." Her gaze flicked up to him then back to the plastic. "A spider. A really massive one."
    The tension in Dino's shoulder's drained away, and he suppressed a smile. "Ah, cara , cara ." He shook his head as he strolled into the room and nudged the folded plastic with his toe. A spider scuttled out.
    Maria's scream rent the air again.
    Dino winced. She definitely did not have a singing career in her future, but she probably had a sore throat coming. The spider secreted itself beneath another fold and was hidden again. "Let me take this out for you."
    "Yes! Yes, please."
    He caught hold of the corners and gathered the plastic sheet into a bundle, then carried it downstairs. Maria's tentative footsteps sounded behind him. He went out the front door to the car park and flapped the sheet.
    "Where did it go? It won't get back in the house, will it?" she asked from the safety of the front step.
    He hadn't seen the spider fall out, but this called for a white lie. If she thought it might still be inside, his culinary angel would probably shut herself in her room, and he wouldn't get his crab tonight. "It is in the hedge, Maria."
    "Oh." She ventured a short way down the front path and peered at the bushes as if they might bite her.
    Dino bundled the sheet up again and headed inside. "Come, cara . I will spread this out for you to put your mind at rest."
    ***
    Maria hurried after her Italian, feeling like a complete twit. What would he think of her now? But at least he seemed happier. If rescuing her from her silly phobia took his mind off his worries, then some good had come of it. When they got back to room one, he spread the covering on the floor, then repeated the process with the other four small plastic sheets while Maria watched tensely from the doorway, ready to bolt if another eight-legged fiend appeared.
    "There you are." He surveyed his work and dusted his hands together.
    "Sorry. I know it's silly being afraid of spiders when we don't have any poisonous ones here. But their legs are just..." She shivered.
    He shrugged. "Do not worry about it. My brother is this tall." He held his hand a few inches above his head. "He is terrified of spiders. And my mamma, who is this tall." He bumped the edge of