Page 37 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

‘Oh, he was asking me lots of questions. How long I’d known you. How we’d met. Stuff like that.’ She put her cup down. ‘But then he said something a bit odd.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Really?’

‘Mmm. He told me I wasn’t like your usual girlfriends.’ She pulled a face. ‘Which obviously, I knew. But it was a little bit personal, considering we’d only just met.’

‘Maybe it was your sunny disposition which invited his confidence,’ he suggested carelessly. ‘What did you say in response?’

‘I told him that I could hardly believe my luck to be dating a man like you and that every night I said a quiet prayer of gratitude.’

He frowned. ‘Youarejoking?’

‘Of course I’m joking!’ She slanted him a smile. ‘I said you could be a real pussycat at times, even when you were trying very hard not to be.’

There was a pause. ‘Are you trying to ruin my reputation, Kelly?’ he taunted softly.

‘Or improve it?’ She tilted her head. ‘Your phone’s vibrating, by the way.’

He glanced down at the screen, raising his dark eyebrows in surprise. ‘Speak of the devil,’ he murmured, clicking to connect the call.‘Pronto, Silvano,’he said.‘Come va?’

Kelly watched as the billionaire rose to his feet and began to pace around the vast kitchen, speaking to the old man in fluent Italian, so she didn’t have a clue what he was saying. But at least the conversation gave her a moment’s breathing space. Time to reflect on what was happening. Or rather, what wasn’t happening. She needed to focus on the difference between fantasy and reality.

On the table lay the yummy remains of the fresh bread, which had been delivered barely an hour ago. Beside them stood a jug of coffee as dark as treacle and a dish of iced pineapple, which Romano had deftly sliced himself—and all this against a backdrop of Turin, which looked as pretty as a picture postcard. The situation felt intimate and yet weirdly normal and at times it almost felt real. Like a real relationship. But it wasn’t, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could carry on pretending everything was okay, when everything most definitely wasn’t okay.

She almost wished he would start being mean to her again, the way he’d done in the past, because that way she could manufacture a row—allowing her to blurt out the awful truth and then deal with his reaction. But he wasn’t being mean. On the contrary. This morning, he was being unbearably thoughtful and his exemplary behaviour was adding a big dollop of guilt to the already uncomfortable mix of her emotions.

Romano was ending the call and she could see an expression of unexpected delight lightening his carved features as he put the phone down. ‘Well, well, well,’ he said slowly.

‘Good news?’

‘You could say that,’ he agreed, shaking his dark head in disbelief. ‘Silvano is willing to go through with the sale after all.’ He must have seen her look of confusion, because he started to explain. ‘It’s a deal I was trying to broker with him before the christening. An iconic car factory I’ve been chasing since for ever, but he refused to sell it to me, even though I offered him a price which I doubt anybody else could match.’

‘So what do you think swung it?’ She blinked. ‘The money?’

‘No, not the money.’

‘What, then?’

He hesitated for a moment and then walked towards her, pulling her off the bar stool and into his arms, and instantly she was enclosed in the warm power of his embrace. ‘You did,’ he said softly, nuzzling her lips with his own. ‘You swung it.’

She pulled back a little and blinked.‘Me?’

‘Mmm.’ He was busy exploring her neck with his mouth and Kelly was having to concentrate very hard not to let her eyes flutter to a close and give into his lovemaking, but she mustn’t. She really mustn’t.

‘Why should it have anything to do with me?’ she questioned weakly.

At this, he drew away from her, his black eyes as watchful as she’d ever seen them, his ebony stare underpinned with an element of calculation. ‘If I answer that question, will you answer one of mine in return, Kelly?’ There was a pause. ‘And answer it honestly?’

Kelly’s heart started thudding and she couldn’t decide whether it was through fear or excitement. Was he implying that sometimes she was dishonest? And didn’t he have a point—even though at the moment he was unaware of it? ‘Sure.’

He nodded. ‘Silvano didn’t want to sell to me because he didn’t approve of me, or my supposed playboy lifestyle. He’s a very old-fashioned man whose wife and only son were tragically killed in a car crash, so he had nobody to leave his company to. Maybe it was that which made him determined to sell to a family man—one with traditional values, much like his own. And I definitely didn’t fit that category.’

Kelly licked her dry lips. ‘So what has all this got to do with me?’

‘He thinks I’m a changed man.’ There was a pause. ‘And that my relationship with you is different.’

‘Different?’ she questioned weakly.

‘Mmm. He seems to imagine that I have radically altered my playboy philosophy.’ His black eyes were glinting out a mocking challenge. ‘And that I should make you my wife.’

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