Page 144 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

‘She had her first heart attack when I told them I was leaving to be with you. Dad told me I’d nearly killed her.’

‘So this was when you sent me away?’ he asked, rigid with tension.

‘We had just got back from the hospital. Mum made me promise I would stay. I loved you so much, Leo, but she’d nearly died.’

Hand over his eyes, Leo fell back onto the bed.

He had based everything he’d done over the last nine years on the belief that she had rejected him, that she hadn’t truly loved him… But the truth was so much more nuanced than that. Ultimately, his revenge had been to punish her for something that had always been out of her control.

He lay there, stunned, feeling as if a hand had just thrust into his chest and it was squeezing what used to be his heart.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ he rasped, seeing her standing there in the doorway that day, the tears gathering in her eyes.

‘I… There was no point. It wouldn’t have changed anything. And look, it didn’t turn out so badly. If I had gone with you, then most likely by now we’d hate one another. Instead, we are having sex, beautiful, fantastic sex.’

‘Sex,’ he repeated in an odd voice.

‘Don’t worry, I know you don’t want anything else. I know it’s just sex and it won’t last, but even you have to admit it is totally beautiful.’

She was saying exactly what he wanted to hear, so why did he feel…aggrieved to hear her describing what his perfect relationship would be?

The long pause before he responded made her fear that she had said something wrong, that he had realised the truth—that she still loved him. She had never stopped loving him, but voicing that love would be the end of this and even though they might have no future together, she was going to extract every last scrap of pleasure from the present.

‘Yes, totally beautiful.’ His voice was husky.

She gave a sigh of relief. It felt as though a barrier between them had fallen, and she felt physically lighter now that she had told him, though of course she hadn’t told him all of her secrets.

Her final one was still too painful to share.

Chapter Twelve

Amy woke andturned her head on the pillow, her warm fuzzy feeling dying when she saw the empty space beside her. Leo had been away for two days but was returning today in time for the gala.

As she lay there stretching she saw the scarlet dress hanging behind the door in its transparent cover emblazoned with the designer’s name. Her outfit for the gala.

Leo had produced it like a magician before he’d left, expecting her to be pleased. She knew her reaction had disappointed him—she loved it, she really did, and she felt sexy and powerful in it. It wasn’t even the fact that she had reservations about being present at the gala. It was more that it was an echo of all the times her father had demanded final approval on her mother’s outfit for an event.

Her phone rang and she reached for it, grimacing when she saw the caller’s identity.

She would ring Ben back. It had only been the previous week when he had rung, asking her if she would consider selling her share in Gourmet Gypsy. The temp, who had worked out really well and had increased their profits, was keen to buy in.

She was torn as the food truck was very much her baby, though it had only ever been intended to be a temporary stopgap, leading to better things. The better things had not involved staying in a Tuscan castle and becoming the mistress in everything but title to the most gorgeous man in the world.

Leo had already suggested she stay on after the gala, that their arrangement could become open-ended, but she hadn’t given him an answer yet. She adored him, she loved him with every cell in her body, but the longer she was here, the harder the inevitable heartbreak would be when it came. And when the man who you loved felt the need to slide the wordsjust sexinto the conversation every single time you made love, hanging onto any kind of hope was pointless.

She pushed away the decision yet again and instead fingered the red silk of her dress as she walked to the bathroom. Leo would be back later, and for now that was enough.

It was afternoon when the kitchen door opened; it was a quiet moment and she was alone. Amy looked up, emotions she struggled to dampen flaring and dying as the man delivering micro salad from the home farm walked in carrying their order in a cool box.

She was pathetic, she told herself. Even if Leo hadn’t been absent for the past two days, she wouldn’t have seen anything of him because she was too busy to see him.

Soon she wouldn’t see him at all. Even if she took up his offer, there was no promise of permanence, no commitment, but deep down she still had hope and she knew that she wouldn’t leave until she lost every scrap of that hope.

She pushed away the thought, which was more than a thought—a reality—but there was no point crying over something that hadn’t happened yet. She’d be damned if she was going to waste what time she had with him worrying about the future.

He had texted her when he had arrived back, checking she’d be able to make their meeting. Their so-calledmeetingswere often on the beach, sometimes by the pool, when he teased her for having a sentimental attachment to the second place they had made love.Little did he know!But mostly these meetings were late at night or early in the morning, before he left her room in cover of darkness.

Several of the staff emerged from the staffroom, where they had been taking a break.