Free When In Rome...Find Yourself: A Sweet New Adult Romance by Lena Mae Hill Page A

you trying to freak me out?”
    “It doesn’t mean we’re next,” Rory said. “I’m sure she’s changed.”
    “Dude, that’s so messed up. I can’t even tell if you’re joking.”
    Rory laughed, and he laughed, too, looking a little relieved and a little impressed. “You’re full of surprises, Rory Hartnett.”
    She smiled and studied Theresa, but she could feel Ned studying her, so close she was suddenly aware of the heat of him pressing her down into the chair. She balled her hands into fists and tried to keep her breath from shaking. Was he flirting with her, right there in the living room while their fragile host mother slept on the couch? Was she flirting with him?
    “It’s always the quiet ones,” Ned said. “You never know what’s going on inside their twisted minds.” He reached out and slowly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his knuckles brushing her cheek. She sat frozen, the heat of his touch skipping across her skin like a stone on the still surface of a lake.
    Let me be that lake, let me be that still, she begged silently. Don’t let me say something stupid and ruin this…
    This what? What was this?
    Her heart was beating so hard. She wanted to close her eyes and sigh into his touch, lean her face into his palm. But that wasn’t an option. If Jack had taught her anything, it was that she could not be trusted to give her heart away to the right guy. And she wasn’t going to make those mistakes again, to get so caught up in someone that she lost all reason. She and Quinn had agreed, love was for people who knew how to control their hearts. She wasn’t about to break a pact with her sister for some guy she hadn’t known a week.
    She leapt from the chair and fled upstairs before she could do anything stupid, like fall in love.
    “Dude, sorry,” Ned called after her, but she didn’t stop until she’d flung herself across her bed. If she pressed her face into her pillow, it would light her bed on fire.
    With trembling fingers, she typed a text to Quinn.
    “Help! I think my housemate just hit on me.”
    A minute later, her phone rang. “Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Quinn asked as a hello.
    “I’m fine,” Rory said, laughing with relief to hear her sister’s voice. She rolled onto her back. “I’m sure I’m overeating. He just touched my hair.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I ran away and hid in my room.”
    “Good girl,” Quinn said, laughing. “Showing him the door with real class.”
    They talked for a while longer, Quinn telling her about Cape Cod, seeing her ex, and her new friend who was also obsessed with Brody’s disappearance. Rory told her sister about Rome and the girls.
    “Have you gotten any good pictures?” Quinn asked.
    “I think so,” Rory said. “I haven’t looked at them on my laptop yet. I’ll post some tonight.” She’d meant to keep a good photo journal of her trip, but she was already falling behind. Her family loved her photography, but she didn’t know how many random people online would like it. Still, she’d promised her extended family, much of which had contributed financially to her trip, that she’d post about her travels on a blog so they could follow along with her adventures.
    Now, with all the classes, scheduled outings, and her host family, she didn’t have as much time as she’d expected to just sit and play with Photoshop. But a promise was a promise.
    “I saw this photography contest in a magazine on the plane,” she told Quinn.
    “Really? You should enter. What’s the prize?”
    “It’s this internship at a travel e-zine,” Rory said, looking up at the page she’d taped to her makeshift vision board, which was really just a spot on the wall she’d designated for the purpose. “But it’s unpaid, and I’d be here by myself,” she added.
    “You’re there by yourself now.”
    “I’m with a class,” Rory said. “It’s not like I’m traveling alone in Europe. Mom would never let me stay.”
    “Okay,