The Prince's Scandalous Baby Read Online Free PDF Page A

story, but he stopped himself. And, while Juliette had already grown to love listening to his voice, she was glad she wasn’t about to be regaled with all the details of basement renovation—especially since she was supposed to know a little something about it, herself.
     
    Things were uncomfortable below ground, and Juliette’s sense of propriety was growing, in spite of herself, the longer they were down there. When they emerged from the basement into a hallway, followed by the huge main salon, however, it was all worth it.
     
    There were some plastic sheets around, covering the furniture, and they were blowing in a cross-breeze from somewhere that Juliette couldn’t quite identify. The giant antique windows framed the moon perfectly, and, if Juliette looked carefully, she could make out exquisite frescoes that were being carefully restored along the right-hand wall. She could see the sea, here, again. It anchored her.
     
    “It’s beautiful.”
     
    The words slipped out of her mouth before she had time to think, and she instantly regretted them.
     
    “You haven’t come here before?”
     
    The question was completely fair. She needed an answer, and quick.
     
    “This property is mainly my colleagues’ responsibility. I’ve seen it from the outside, but I’ve never been in here.”
     
    Her eyes darted to his face, trying to determine if he had bought it. As far as she could tell, he had.
     
    “Well, then you’ll be needing a tour,” he said lightly.
     
    Juliette opened her mouth to protest, not wanting to leave this view just yet, but he interrupted her.
     
    “No excuses. I promise, the rest of it is just as good.”
     
    So she followed him.
     
    She’d been doing a lot of that, that evening. Usually she wasn’t much of a follower. She hadn’t followed her high school boyfriend to his college. She hadn’t followed her father into the family business when she had had the chance. She hadn’t followed her mother’s lead and gone into studying the hard sciences the way she knew her mother had always wanted.
     
    And the pattern had only continued when she’d come to Italy. She hadn’t followed the other foreign exchange students out on their wild, nearly-nightly benders in the old town. She hadn’t followed them as they’d recreated American college life in a foreign city. And, when they’d all gone back to the States, she hadn’t followed them back, either. It had been tricky finding a way to get her new school to accept the transferred credits for both her exchange program and her previous courses. But she’d done it.
     
    Tonight, however, she’d followed Nico to a cocktail bar. Then she’d followed him to a grand mansion. Then she’d followed him over the wall, and up to the top of the garden. She’d even followed him to a damp, dark basement.
     
    Something about Nico was different. She wanted to follow him. And she kept following him as he led her around the house.
     
    From the outside, it had almost seemed like it might be some kind of official building. It had enough space, after all. She could see it as somewhere that could be rented out for weddings, or school trips. She half-expected to find a museum in one of the rooms.
     
    But the more she saw of the house, the more she was sure that this was not the case. No, a family definitely lived here, and had done for some time. There weren’t a lot of personal possessions lying around. No pictures on the wall, or anything. But, here and there, she would see a child’s drawing that had found its way behind now-removed furniture, or other such remnants.
     
    She wanted to ask Nico where the family had gone while renovations were taking place, but knew she should know this already. More than a construction worker on site could be expected to know, anyway. Wherever the family were now, she figured it had to be a fairly large step down from here. It had to be.
     
    Juliette and Nico worked their way through the house methodically. The