Page 53 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

‘I think you’ll find I’m not a goddess and that I have feet of clay.’

He made a show of looking down at her shoes and back to her face. His lips curled at the edges into the hint of a smile. ‘Let me be the judge of that. I’m sure you have very pretty feet, even if of clay.’

She snorted, an un-princess-like sound, and caught herself. Aston grinned, so devastatingly handsome he could have taken her heart and torn it in two and she’d hardly have noticed, caught in the heat of his gaze, the glorious flash of his smile. But that was all a trap.

‘Before an official announcement of any engagement, I’ll be visiting my sister. She’s invited me. I’ve said yes.’

It was truth and a lie. Her sister had invited her to stay but Ana hadn’t accepted. She hadn’t wanted to involve Cilla in her problems. Her sister had her own wedding to organise and deserved this time, the joy. But perhaps staying in Isolobello would give her some clarity to come to terms with what had happened. How this was the price she was expected to pay for that night in Monaco and what had followed. To accept the crushing of her dreams. Moreover, it could be an escape from everything, most of all herself.

Aston frowned for the briefest of moments.

‘I see we have a lot to discuss.’ The lack of an immediate refusal surprised her. Instead, he motioned to the maze’s entrance. ‘Let’s begin. Which way, Princess?’

His voice was soft and deep, better suited to midnight than mid-morning. How would it sound, whispered into her ear in the darkness? She rubbed the centre of her chest, her heart fluttering against her ribs.

‘I’ll go straight ahead and you can take the left path.’

Whilst it wasn’t sporting, the path ahead was a shortcut which took her directly into the centre of the maze. There she could sit and try to untangle her knot of feelings, whilst Aston tried to find her. She dared a look at him. The corner of his mouth had quirked again into a knowing smile. Was she so transparent?

‘No chance. You know the way and I don’t. I’d be lost without you.’

There was that fluttering in her chest again, joined by warm sensation flooding over her. Now they were outside, it was probably just the sun.

‘Don’t be so sure I’ll show you the right direction,’ she said. If she went straight ahead, he’d know she’d been planning to cheat, so she turned left. He laughed and a sparkle of goose bumps shimmied down her spine at the sound.

Aston adjusted his long stride to fit hers, walking at her side. ‘I’m happy to follow.’

‘I thought you’d be more of a leader.’

They strolled along the gravel path with the hedges above their heads. Something seemed to bloom in the moment, become almost pregnant with expectation, even though she wanted to run from it.

‘I’m happy to see where you take me...for now.’

There was something slightly ominous in those last two words. ‘Fine. How about you pick the way next?’

‘You’re prepared to take your chances with me? That’s gratifying.’

‘I’m curious to see whether you’ll succeed or fail.’

They reached a crossroads in the maze. She knew the way, of course: right. Which would he choose?

‘I’m not one for losing, Princess—atanything.’

More words of warning, she was sure. Aston stopped for a moment, as if deciding, then took a left. They walked a little way and reached a dead end.

‘You’re not going to make it easy for me, are you?’ he asked, making his way to an alcove cut into the hedge. There sat a beautiful, creamy marble sculpture of a woman in classical style. A stopping point for contemplation. Aston studied the sculpture for a moment.

‘Venus, I believe—the goddess of love,’ he murmured with a grin. ‘A sign, perhaps?’

‘Of the universe mocking us.’

There was no love here; he knew it, she knew it. Once she might have had fantasises that this man could fall in love with her when no other woman had seemed able to tame him. But even she’d been sensible enough to know that they weren’t rooted in reality.

Aston’s expression was unreadable. Of course, being a renowned businessman, he’d have to know how to keep a poker face.

‘The universe wouldn’t dare mock a goddess.’

‘And yet here we are, Mr Lane.’ She nodded to the statue, one of her favourites in the whole maze. ‘What do you think of love?’

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