“Then finish quickly. I need to hold you.”

“Oh, Carlo.” She closed her eyes and tried to hang on. “I want to believe I can have a life with you without giving up what I am, what I need to be. But you see, I love you so much I’m afraid I’d give up everything the moment you asked me.”

“Dio, what a woman!” Because she wasn’t certain if it was a compliment or an insult, Juliet remained silent as he took a quick turn around the room. “Don’t you understand that I love you too much to ask? If you weren’t who you are, I wouldn’t be in love with you? If I love Juliet Trent, why would I want to change her into that Juliet Trent?”

“I don’t know, Carlo. I just—”

“I was clumsy.” When she lifted her hands, he caught them in his to quiet her. “The night I asked you to marry me, I was clumsy. There were things I wanted to say, ways I’d wanted to say them, but it was too important. What comes easily with every woman becomes impossible with the only woman.”

“I didn’t think you’d meant—”

“No.” Before she could resist, he’d brought her hands to his lips. “I’ve thought back on what I said to you. You thought I was asking you to give up your job, your home, and come to Rome to live with me. I was asking less, and much more. I should have said—Juliet, you’ve become my life and without you, I’m only half of what I was. Share with me.”

“Carlo, I want to.” She shook her head and went into his arms. “I want to. I can start over, learn Italian. There must be a publisher in Rome who could use an American.”

Drawing her back by the shoulders, he stared at her. “What are you talking about, starting over? You’re starting your own firm. You told me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can—”

“No.” He took her more firmly. “It matters a great deal, to both of us. So you’ll have your own firm one day in New York. Who knows better than I how successful you’ll be? I can have a wife to brag about as much as I brag about myself.”

“But you have your restaurant here.”

“Yes. I think perhaps you’d consider having a branch of your public relations company in Rome. Learning Italian is an excellent decision. I’ll teach you myself. Who better?”

“I don’t understand you. How can we share our lives if I’m in New York and you’re in Rome?”