I smiled, snuggling in next to him. “Yes.” The mooring lights cast a faint glow around us, and as my eyes adjusted I could see as well as if there was a small lamp on.

“We will wake up wet and covered in … what’s the word when everything is wet from the air in the morning? I forget it in English. In French it’s la rosée.”

“Dew?” I suggested.

“Yes, dew.”

“God, that sounds better in French. Everything does.” Especially whatever the hell it was that poured out of his mouth while he was making love to me.

He kissed the top of my head.

“Now, tell me why you are so famous to Cristo. And why does he call you Pasqualey?”

Xavier chuckled. It was a dark rumble under my cheek. “One line of my mother’s family is originally from Corsica. There was a famous hero named Pasquale Paoli who at various times tried to help keep Corsica independent, working with the Corsican resistance against the French in the 1700s. Cristo is convinced I’m descended from him somehow.”

“Are you?”

“I have no idea. But likely not. Pascale is my father’s name, and as far as I know he has nothing to do with Corsica.”

I frowned. “Something doesn’t add up about tonight. That’s a lovely story, but I’m not buying it.” I poked him between the ribs and he jerked with a hiss. “Oh em gee, are you … ticklish?” I laughed.

He grabbed my hand just as I was gearing up to really go for his ribs. “I would be careful if I were you.”

We gazed at each other a beat, my face turned up to his.

Then he kissed me on the nose. “I … maybe …. did something to help clean the area up of crime and corruption by helping the local municipality with donations and contributing to the election of a more upstanding councilman.” He paused. “Who also happens to be Cristo’s nephew.”

“Ahhh.”

“They are good, honest, hard-working people. They deserve to run their own city and not give in to the organized crime that is never too far away. It also has a lot of history, which can be easily lost to too much progress. And I mean of the greedy, commercial kind.”

I turned my face up to him in surprise. “Really? I would have thought a businessman like yourself would be into applauding business opportunities wherever he could find them.”

“You make me sound mercenary.”

“Aren’t you? I’d heard you were.”

He hummed. “Maybe only about things that fascinate me. Technology, innovation. Commercial building development is not one of them.”

I chuckled, warmth zinging through my veins. “That’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“How so?” I felt his gaze on me again, curious.