Guildhall Guardian: Thamesian #1 (Thamesians) Read Online Free Page B

home."
    She blinked, looking confused, her long chesnut lashes brushing against her cheeks.
      "You're a dark, secretive man, Mr Thamesian." she said softly.
      "I just have to check a missing wine lorry, taking care of the deliveries, hardly mysterious here'' he said.
    He trusted Gioia. She was human yet he wished he could share some truth with her.
      "I can come with you" she almost cried out.
    *
     
      Why, oh, why would I ever want to do that? I spoke before even thinking about it and now my picture was forever framed in Roydon's memory with the label: Needy, nosy Italian girl I picked up in a pub, never to repeat again.
    "I mean..."I tried to correct myself.
    Roydon almond eyes were stuck on me.
    "After all, why not? It's only a twenty minutes drive and after I check the shipment we can get back where we're interrupted. Nice idea, Ms. Di Terzi."
    Were we interrupted? Doing what?
    My heartbeat sped up again.
    The line of his shoulders was set and determined, his muscles ripping through his blue blazer. No, wouldn't go there again. Unless someone, namely Roydon, gave me a proof of the contrary, I wouldn't believe there was something physical between this man and me.
    He took my arm and said "Let's go, shall we?"
    Sigh. I knew I should have kept my sneakers instead of those new, painful black heels.
     
    I was really getting used to the luxury of Roydon's car. He drove faster than the speed limit. Eager to get to the booze? What was up with this Quarter, all they seemed to do was chasing after the damn alcohol!
      "So, you have to solve this for the Olde Pub?" I asked, gathering the missing pieces from my tipsy memories.
    Roydon's eyes were steadfast on the road. It was a country road, not the highway.
      "Not only. This is a very...special vintage delivered to the Guildhall too."
      "So, what's the destination?"
    This question again. Maybe it was the one and only question I had been asking myself all the time, even before my coming to England.
      "The lorry should be somewhere around Warwick Castle."
      "A castle? Great!"
    "This is Heritage night especially for you, Ms. Di Terzi". He said with, was that a smile?
    *
    They were speeding through the dark English countryside. He had never been fond of this part of the county. Gioia was warm beside him, one strand of her loose hair slightly brushing his forearm.
    This woman was more than meet the eye. Roydon had an instinct for it. She was special somehow.
    "Why were you so anxious to leave your country?" he finally asked.
    "Anxious? What makes you say that?''
    Her big blue eyes had pierced him with a defensive stare.
    "You work for the City Council , with your qualifications you could be a gallery administrator, in Rome, the city of Art."
    Gioia's eyes were stormy grey now. It mesmerized Roydon. She was so human, so volatile, so unlike him.
      "I wanted to come to the UK" she whispered with a smile.
      ''In fact, my grandmother was British, I never knew her but my mother says I look like her."
    She brushed the skin of her neck, nervously until it was pink and the seductive motion distracted him from her face.
      "And you know the old cliché. I didn't belong blahblah..."
      "Belonging is fragile" he stated.
    He did not want to go into details. But he didn't believe anymore about feeling at home somewhere. He knew the Guildhall like the back of his hand and he liked the inhabitants of the Quarter but above all he was tied by the pact. Brand and his other brother in Scotland had left easily. He couldn't do the same.  Not out of sentimentality.
    His home had died with his wife and child, long ago.
    He needed the wine ASAP or he was going to lose it.
      "Anyway" she outed him of his thoughts "I am here now and I enjoy every second of it. Okay maybe not at work. And..." She gasped mid-sentence.
    The dark outline of Warwick Castle had appeared before them.
    He spotted the white lorry crashed against a fence.
      "And here we are Ms. Di Terzi."
    *
      "Please stay in