Page 12 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Another pillow, another thwack to his face.

“You’re the most arrogant man I’ve ever met,” she said, half joking, half serious.

He returned the pillow to her side with what he considered to be utterly gentlemanly behavior. “Is it arrogant if I want all the facts stated and acknowledged,bella? You’ve clearly decided that I’m the villain you have to protect yourself from. Then I would have this out in the open too. Do you want me to be a loyal husband? Because it might be hard for a powerful, virile man like me to go without sex for a whole year.”

“You’re making it crass on purpose.”

“I’m wondering if I’m allowed to seduce my very beautiful wife during the year or if that’s breaking the rules she’s setting for us.”

Her throat moved in a hard swallow. With her eyes wide and her breath coming in short pants, she looked very young, very vulnerable. “You aren’t joking.”

He liked how, disbelieving as she appeared, she made it a statement. “It seems our siblings have played one last joke on us,sì?”

“My blasted attraction to you has nothing to do with them.”

“And yet, you or I would have never even acknowledged it to ourselves, no?”

“I did. Long ago. But it didn’t mean I would act on it.” She grinned at him, and he liked that he had finally defused the tension that had been swamping her at the idea of marriage. “But I probably have better control over my decisions than you.”

“I’m counting all your allegations against me,bella. One day, I will take sweet revenge.”

And before he did something that showed his hand too much, he pushed back to his feet. “I guess we’ll see who caves in first.” Soft light from the lamps kissed the strong planes of her face. “One thing I’ll promise you is that I’d never hold your lust for me against you. Just a hint, though. A little begging should convince me to give in easily enough.”

“When hell freezes over, DiCarlo,” she shouted at his back.

Renzo threw her a grin over his shoulder and pulled out his cell phone.

It took him a half hour to make all the required phone calls. Food, security, and a doctor on call twenty-four seven, not far from the Victorian home. He hated the idea of leaving her in such advanced state, but he had no choice.

There was a lot he had to arrange and rearrange, to prepare for the baby’s arrival, to prepare for his wedding. For their wedding. It had to be soon, before the news of her pregnancy broke.

“I’ll be back in a week at the most. A new cell phone will be delivered within the hour along with food and…”

The silence behind him made his neck prickle.

When he turned, it was to discover that she’d fallen fast asleep. Her neck arched up, her palms on her belly, her legs crossed beneath her, she looked…intensely vulnerable.

His feet moved as if he were flying, and in two blinks, he was standing by her. Leaning over her. Feeling a desperate yearning for something he didn’t understand.

He gently pushed at a stray tendril that fell over her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. But that was all he could allow himself.

This tenderness…it was because she was so young, so uncorrupted by the world, he told himself. And like any decent man would, he felt protective about her because she was carrying his child.

Nothing more.

Then, with one last look at her sleeping form, he closed the door behind him and made his way to his car.

CHAPTER THREE

When Mimi steppedoff the sleek black water taxi a mere week later, she was momentarily blinded by the glint of the sun reflecting off the domed roof of Santa Maria della Salute.

She blinked rapidly, trying to process the magnificent sight before her.

No, no hallucinating here. The building in front of her clearly wasn’t the understated chapel that she was supposed to meet Renzo at, but a grand, awe-inspiring basilica.

The vapid smile she’d pasted on for any passersby slid off her face. Fury filled her as a poshly dressed woman in a white shirt and black trousers approached her, a notepad in hand.

Mimi bit off the scream that wanted to escape at being thrust into the starring role of this circus. Renzo DiCarlo was…was an arrogant, egotistical, scheming bastard, and she shouldn’t have trusted him at all.