Page 14 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

Kelly clutched her glass a little tighter. No, she bet he had no idea about what his girlfriends did with their lives, unless it involved fawning over him. No wonder his ego was so colossal. She’d observed the way all the other guests had practically prostrated themselves in front of him, and his admittedly gracious response had made her blood boil. Smug, orwhat?

And in the meantime she was stuck.

Stuck here, with him.

No, not just stuck with him.

Workingfor him.

She knew Floriana had been acting out of the goodness of her heart but how Kelly wished she’d kept her impetuous question to herself. She felt embarrassed colour rising in her cheeks. She knew Romano had always looked down his nose at her. That he saw her as the poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Was he quietly laughing to himself at this latest development? Maybe he thought that cleaning for him would make her accept her place and that this new, servile role might reinforce her real Cinderella status in the lives of the Castelliari family once and for all.

But it was a done deal and there was no point being ungracious and sulking about it. So embrace it, she told herself fiercely. Show him you’re not too proud to earn an honest buck. Concentrate on the positives, not the negatives. And not the kind of positives which involved drooling over the charcoal suit he was wearing, which hugged his muscular frame to perfection.

She forced the words out. ‘It’s very kind of you to give me work.’

‘A kindness I would have preferred to forgo,’ he commented acidly.

‘I kind of worked that out for myself from the look of horror on your face.’

‘I had no idea I made my feelings so transparent,’ he said, frowning a little as he loosened his silk tie.

And annoyingly, Kelly found herself transfixed by that simple movement, especially when he undid the top button of his shirt to reveal a tantalising glimpse of chest hair, dark against the olive gleam of his skin. ‘Do you want me to give you a get-out clause, Romano?’ she enquired hoarsely, desperately trying not to stare. ‘Because it really won’t be a problem if you do. I’m well aware that you were railroaded into it.’

‘I do not renege on promises.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘And besides, how else will you pay your rent?’

‘Likeyoucare!’

He gave a short laugh. ‘Even I am not hard-hearted enough to see my sister’s friend being kicked out onto the street.’

‘Bad for your image, I suppose?’

‘I don’t spend my whole life trying to enhance my image, Kelly.’

‘Perhaps you should.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Or perhaps you’re attempting to exasperate me so much that I’ll just tell you to go to hell?’

She sucked in a deep breath, hating his shrewdness. Hating the fact that she was depending on his benevolence and that only a fool would flounce out of the room in a huff, which was what she felt like doing. And hating most of all the way he made her feel like no man had ever done before. Weak and strong and invincible yet vulnerable, all at the same time. ‘No,’ she said, wondering why her voice sounded so squeaky. ‘I don’t want that.’

‘Then we’ll just have to make it work, won’t we?’ He slanted her a steady look, which was underpinned with warning. ‘You can easily keep out of my way. It’s a big castle.’

‘Our paths need never cross,’ she agreed readily. ‘I’ll look on it as a personal challenge to stay as far away from you as possible, Romano—as well as eradicating every cobweb in the building, of course.’

But he didn’t smile at her flimsy joke. His black eyes were narrowed with curiosity. ‘You seem to know my nephew very well,’ he observed.

‘I make video calls as often as I can—and Rocco loves to chat.’

He didn’t seem satisfied with her response.

‘And do you often visit them in France?’

She opened her mouth to skate over the question, when something stopped her. Because the best thing about this weird situation—possibly the only good thing—was that she didn’t have to pretend to be anything she wasn’t. He might not like her or approve of her forming a close bond with his nephew, but she didn’t have a single thing to lose. And surely that gave her the freedom to speak the truth to him.

‘Hardly ever,’ she said. ‘I can’t afford it. Unlike you, who can, but never does.’

‘Excuse me?’ His words were discharged in a disbelieving hiss.

‘You know very well what I’m talking about,’ she said, swallowing a little as she thought whether or not it was wise to proceed, because the expression on his stony features was more than a little forbidding. But so what? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. ‘You never go and see them, do you? Floriana said you’d been once—that you zoomed in by helicopter and zoomed straight out again, without even staying for dinner.’

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