Page 31 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

Kelly’s head was still spinning from all the things he’d told her and she was having to work very hard to hide her reaction. But it wasn’t easy. Her instinct was to cradle him tightly. To try to absorb some of his obvious hurt—though you could never really take someone else’s pain away, could you? But his words had come as a terrible shock. She’d suspected there’d been some dodgy stuff in his past but the horror of his early years surpassed her worst imaginings. Didn’t it make his cold and critical attitude a lot more understandable?

She wondered if that was the real reason why he’d been so opposed to her friendship with his half-sister. Not, as she’d initially thought, because he was a snob—but because he’d thought she was leading Floriana astray, as his own mother had presumably been led astray. And she had allowed him to go on thinking of her as that wild person, hadn’t she, especially after he had rejected her and she had been nursing her hurt pride? In fact, hadn’t she gone out of her way to encourage him to still think she was a party animal? If she’d known about his background, would she have behaved any differently? Of course she would. But the gift of hindsight was a wasted gift.

She stared up into the ebony glitter of his eyes, trying to reduce the facts down to the bare essentials. He still wanted her and she still wanted him. What womanwouldn’twant him? But he had spelt out in coldly pragmatic terms exactly what he was offering her.

Sex.

Nothing more and nothing less.

Not compassion, or understanding, or sympathy.

It wasn’t going to grow, or evolve into something more. He wasn’t going to suddenly decide he’d been a fool and fall to one knee with a diamond sparkler in his hand, in front of a technicolour sunset. And if she started wishing for those sorts of things then it would show and he would run a mile. If she wanted him, she had to be practical and not hanker after the unattainable. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t give him affection, did it? Her heart gave a sudden lurch. Because wouldn’t this big, proud man have missed out on a lot of physical warmth in his life?

So she snuggled up closer, her silent acquiescence causing the rigid weight of his erection to nudge insistently against her belly and for a moment she felt shy as well as excited. Did he guess as much? Was that why he put his mouth to her ear, his breath warm against her skin?

‘Show me what you want,la mia piccola,’ he instructed silkily. ‘Do not be nervous.’

Boldly, Kelly reached down to encircle the silky pole within her fingers, feeling his involuntary shudder of pleasure. ‘In that case… I think this,’ she murmured throatily. ‘This is what I want.’

‘You must come to Turin,’ Romano announced, without any kind of lead-in.

From across the other side of the fire-splashed room, he could see Kelly watching as he pulled the cork of a dusty bottle of wine he had just retrieved from the cellar. She was naked beneath his silken dressing gown, which swamped her as she sat curled up on a velvet sofa, nibbling at a grape. On the floor before her lay the debris of a cheeseboard, for they had been picnicking before the fire in one of the castle’s reception rooms, silently watched over by the sombre portraits of his ancestors.

Yet this rather domestic scene was liberally doused with feelings of confusion because Romano was aware that his mood was uncharacteristically carefree. For three whole days and three whole nights he and Kelly Butler had paid little attention to the convention of mealtimes—or, indeed, to any routine at all. Like teenagers or nomads, they had eaten when they were hungry and drunk when they were thirsty. Bath-time had served an infinitely more satisfying purpose than simply getting clean, morphing into long and sensual encounters involving slippery sessions of sex. He had been utterly absorbed in the pursuit of pleasure and that had inevitably spilled over into other areas of his life.

Unusually, he had instructed his office not to bother him unless it was urgent. He had put Graziana on leave and issued stern instructions for the security detail to retreat to the outskirts of the estate and leave them unobserved to do as they pleased. And they had certainly been doing that. Romano felt his groin harden. They’d been having sex at any and every opportunity and for once thecastellohad shed some of its grimmer associations. For so many years his visits here had been functional, almost grudging—yet now, for the first time, he found himself enjoying the many erotic possibilities offered up by the medieval stronghold with all its hidden nooks and crannies. Hadn’t there been something curiously triumphant about ravishing her on the ancient oak dining table, which could seat twenty-four? Or to have her suck him to sweet oblivion at the very top of the house in a forgotten room where a maid must once have slept?

He stared almost resentfully as Kelly’s nimble fingers hovered over the mound of fruit before popping another juicy grape between her glistening lips, and he swallowed. He had never given a woman so much constant attention before, nor existed in such a constant state of arousal.

He’d thought…

What?

That his appetite for her would have waned a little by now?

For sure.

Not sexually—for he was a man with remarkable appetite, technique and stamina who could pleasure women for many hours. But after seventy-two hours without a break from her company—effectively incarcerated with her in this hilltopcastello—he had expected the rapid onset of boredom and ennui. He had anticipated an increasing desire to get away from Kelly Butler and return to his preferred state of solitude.

But that hadn’t happened.

Again, he frowned.

He just couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

Was that because her innocent eagerness for his sexual tutelage made her utterly irresistible, or because she was endlessly provocative in everything she did and said, without her actions seeming in the least bit contrived?

He felt…

Trapped?

He sighed as he poured two glasses of the rich wine and crossed the room to hand her one.

Not trapped, no. Nobody was keeping him here against his will and there was nothing to prevent him from walking away any time he wanted. Instead, he felt compromised—as if Kelly Butler were taking something from him without asking. Without him having given his permission for her to do so.

Her soft voice broke into his thoughts, reminding him that he’d just asked her a question.

‘Sorry. Nice offer, but I’m afraid I can’t come to Turin,’ she answered firmly, before taking a sip of wine.

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