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sleep with him. She was a grown woman with a considerable amount of discipline. It would have been impossible to reach the level of her career was at without it.
    “I can show you where to find the best zepoli ,” Gio said enticingly.
    She laughed. “All right. Meet me outside of my hotel after your breakfast with your aunt.”
    Those gold eyes gleamed in the night. “I’ll be there at ten.”

Chapter 4
    Gio’s body was alternating between flashing hot and cold as he made his way to the penthouse suite he kept in Firenze. Why didn’t he tell her the truth? What the hell was wrong with him?
    He’d kept going over it in his head—the perfect words to explain. But he chickened out each time. He let her keep thinking he was this other Gio, the street performer. It had felt so good to be out from under the cloud of suspicion following him that he hadn’t been able to go through with his confession.
    That, and she thought he was poor. That had been obvious when she tried to treat him at dinner and offered to buy his train ticket. It was the first time in his life that he had the opportunity to get to know a woman without her being aware of his wealth and status. Even as a student abroad, he’d never considered hiding the fact he came from money.
    Things were different now. Since his divorce, he was suspicious of women and their motives. But this was a novel situation. Sophia thought he was poor and she liked him, anyway. Or, at least she seemed to. She had even downplayed her efforts to pay his way in an effort to spare his masculinity.
    The fact he insisted on paying had been suspicious. He had no idea what a street performer earned, but it couldn't be much. However, he couldn't let her spend her money on him. Thanks to his intimate knowledge of her lab’s finances, he knew what her salary was. In fact, in the near future, her salary was going to be paid by the Morgese Foundation grant. For someone in research it was above average, but nothing near what he earned. Her annual salary couldn’t touch what he made in a week. Maybe even a day, if he was being honest about the numbers.
    He glanced down at the manila envelope she’d given him as he stepped in the elevator of his building. It had to be at least thirty pages of questions. No wonder the real Giovanni hadn’t touched it when it had been mailed to him. Whatever else this Kelly person was, she was too damn thorough. Enough to be shooting herself in the foot by making the survey so long.
    He was going to have to track down this Giovanni and make sure the questionnaire was completed. It was the least he could do for his small deception.
    Not small. Huge.
    Releasing a pent up breath, he entered the luxury apartment his family kept in the city. He would tell Sophia the truth as soon as he saw her tomorrow morning. In the meantime, he had a few calls to make.
    ****
    Breakfast with his aunt Perla had been a serious test of his endurance. His mother’s younger sister was sweet, but essentially a weak-willed person. She had been fortunate to marry a man of an equally amiable character, one who didn’t run roughshod over her. Unfortunately her good karma ended there. Her son, his cousin Lucca, had grown up to be a self-indulgent and selfish young man.
    In her efforts to make up for the loss of his father, his aunt had spoiled Lucca, giving him anything he wanted and covering for him whenever he was into trouble. She was always there to bail him out and would continue to do so, even now as the youthful transgressions were escalating into actual crimes. The fight at the club would have landed a less connected man in jail.
    Gio had explained the true circumstances of the bar brawl to Perla, but she would hear none of it. She bought Lucca’s story of being an innocent bystander who was dragged into a fight by circumstance. And she was unaware of Lucca’s damning contribution to his tabloid woes.
    Determined to put a stop to his cousin’s downward slide, Gio was using