Chapter 9: A Magical Roman Night

They talked about the conference over the table at first then as the evening wore on, Sharon spoke less and less. She was feeling light headed, dreamy, a heat and excitement running through her veins. Across the table, Bryan watched her with those hypnotic eyes while they drank their coffee. 'Liqueur?' he suggested as the wine waiter arrived with his rattling trolley of bottles. She hastily shook her head. 'I have already drunk too much wine. I don't want a headache in the morning', she looked at her watch. 'In fact, I think that I should be on my way to bed now, we have to get up very early and there's a very crowded day ahead of us'. On their way to the lift, she paused to look out through the main doors at the Rome night. 'It's stopped raining.What I wanted to do this afternoon was take a walk round the city, but I couldn't go out in all that rain'. 'Why not take a short stroll now?' Bryan suggested. 'It's much too late and I haven't got my jacket with me', she said. But she was dra