Page 26 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

And she couldn’t deny that for all his high-handedness, there was a rough kindness hidden beneath the arrogance. A loyal heart and a sensible head that made up the thrumming power of his personality.

The exact kind of man she’d have eventually wanted in a partner,ifshe wanted to go that route. Nor did she fool herself that it was his physicality that tugged at her every time she looked at him. All the female nurses and staff, while extremely professional, hadn’t missed the easy sensuality he wore like a second skin. A couple of them had teased her, even congratulated her for “landing and leashing” such a man.

And yet had anyone—man or woman—seen him like she did? Gotten glimpses of who he truly was beneath the designer suits and the luxury CEO mantle? Seen the flashes of overwhelming love in his eyes as he looked at their son, a responsibility he had never foreseen?

Now, with the rising steam making enticing curls of the short locks of his hair, cuffs pushed back to reveal corded forearms, he looked…touchable, real. As if he existed on the same plane as her.

Mimi fisted her hands by her side, fighting the urge to sink her hands into that thick hair. She wanted to touch every strong plane and hollow divot he was made of, muss up his perfection, somehow reduce him to the same level of distraction as he did her. Some of it was sexual, and some of it sprouted somewhere else that she was far too scared to examine.

“What are you doing?” she said, to fracture her own fascination.

He turned. A small smile tugged at his lips, deepening that misplaced dimple. “Drawing you a bath. Do you prefer lavender oil or rose?”

Mimi fiddled with the knot of her robe, suddenly aware of the deep V at her chest. “I can do that myself.”

“I don’t doubt that,cara,” he said, before upending the tiny bottle into the bath. Instantly, the room filled with a cloud of scented steam. “Rose it is. I think I smelled it on your skin before.” His voice turned into a gravelly whisper. “It suits you well.”

Tendrils of warmth uncoiled through her lower belly. The sensation was so sharp, so different from the aches and pains that accompanied childbirth, that she gasped.

“Come, check if the water feels right,” Renzo said, still kneeling on the floor, the cuffs of his white dress shirt damp. His olive skin glowed with the sheen of the steam.

She reached the tub and hesitated, her body feeling altogether alien. Which was saying something after the last month.

His gaze traveled up, lingering when the robe parted to reveal a good amount of her bare thigh. Awareness sparked through her, a tiny, flickering pulse.

She had pumped before leaving the hospital, but already, her breasts ached with heaviness and milk. But there was more, too—a pleasurable ache, as if her body was determined to remind her that she was a woman who had her own needs, that she was more than just a mother.

Still, she felt self-conscious outside the familiar surroundings of the hospital, without their son as the bridge. The fog of the last few weeks lifted suddenly. She felt like she had been dropped in the middle of some unknown land with a stranger who affected her in ways she didn’t understand. And yet he wasn’t a stranger either.

She rubbed her chest, confusion welling up over all the things she wanted from him.

Renzo’s throat moved as his gaze climbed higher. It snagged for an extra moment over her lips before colliding with her eyes. “You have that look again,bella.” Distaste colored his tone.

“Like what?”

“Like I’m your enemy. Like I am the big bad wolf who might swallow you up.”

“I don’t consider you my enemy. But I…” she fiddled with the knot at her waist “…have been making you the target of my…frustrations and fears. And that’s unfair. I’m sorry.”

Surprise made his chin dip, and a smile played with the corners of his lips, though he didn’t let it show. “Your honesty, as always, astounds me.”

“As for the second,” she said, his gaze making her bold, “I’m aware that you could very well be the big bad wolf, Renzo. And that you might swallow me up if I’m not careful.”Physically, yes, but in other ways too, she didn’t say.

He laughed and it sent a million tingles through her nerve endings. Mimi stared open-mouthed at the sheer beauty the smile carved into his face.

His chest was still shaking when he said, “Do you plan to hide yourself away?”

She shook her head, slowly bending toward the lip of the tub. “The ideal scenario would be to swallow you up in return. Since I have no idea how to do that to a man like you, the next best thing is to enjoy the inevitable, I guess. Which, with your enormous experience, is what you’ve been saying, I imagine.”

He held her gaze and touched her hand. “A man like me, hmm. Am I so different from other men you’ve known, then?”

Mimi stared at him, aware of the pulsing tension his casual question carried within. But she couldn’t quite put her finger on the source. “Of course you are. And not just because you’re wealthy or powerful or look like that.”

“What is it?”

She shrugged, unwilling to lay everything out for him. The fact was that he was unlike any man she’d ever met or dated, and he made her feel things she’d thought she would never feel.

“I keep thinking I know you now,cara,” he said, a bite of disgruntlement to his tone, “and then you go and surprise me all over again.”