Page 46 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

He had been hurt tonight by his family’s boorish behavior. He had been furious on her behalf, even though she had held her own. He had made her feel so protected that just having him by her side had made her strong. Bold. She had stood up for herself, something she’d never done, not even with her own family.

And she had seen the very same loneliness in his eyes that she had known for so long. But together, they could be so much more than what they were alone.

And if she was willing to take the risk with her own heart, if she could trust him and trust herself to get this right, they could have something real. Something Mimi had never thought possible for her.

Something like…true love.

A pained gasp escaped her as she realized that she was retrofitting rationale and good sense to something that was already out of her hands. Trying to exert control over a situation when it was too late…

She was in love with her husband. Irrevocably. Completely. Like a steel fist clutching her heart in its grip. The knowledge of her love for him filled her bone and sinew, truly remaking her now.

How could she not love him when he had helped her see who she could be when she was wholly herself? When she didn’t doubt her own self-worth? When she simply let herself be?

“That is my least favorite sound in the world.”

His caustic tone brought Mimi back to the present, to the reality of him. To the clawing, painful truth of loving him and knowing that he might never love her in return. That had been their agreement, hadn’t it?

Neither of us wants anything to do with love, he’d said when he’d proposed marriage to her. More than once he’d made it clear that the thing he admired about her was that her head and her heart were firmly planted on cold, hard ground.

“I’ll check with my database and try not to produce any sounds that might offend my lordly husband,” she said, her response tart and sharp, as if it could stop her love from flashing across her face like a neon sign.

God, could he see in her face how hopelessly in love she was with him? Would he mock her, cut their deal short?

His chuckle brought her gaze to his mouth. She sighed. When he laughed like that, her entire being seemed to light up as if that laugh was powering every cell.

“I do not like it when you hide yourself away,cara. When you’re sad. I take my duties very seriously.”

She knew that much about him for sure. “I’m not sad,” she said morosely.

Fingers clasped her cheek, and he tilted her face this way and that as if he were searching for the truth. Throwing an arm around his neck, she pressed herself to him, her face landing in the hollow of his throat.

Joy and fear duked it out inside her, and she trembled from the effort of struggling with both. The drag of her bare breasts against his chest, though…pure, glorious sensation. She anchored herself to it.

“You’re trembling, Mimi,” he said, lifting her chin.

Like a wanton creature in heat, she rubbed herself against him from head to toe, hoping to distract him. Hoping to drown herself in so much sensation that she could escape the truth sitting on her chest like an anvil.

He caught her lips with a rumbling groan that she swallowed happily. But contrary man that he was, he didn’t let her deepen the kiss. Didn’t let her give in to the frenzy. And she didn’t have the confidence yet to push him into his own.

It was a soft kiss. Almost an apology of sorts. Something else too, something deeper that she wished he would put into words. And it nearly broke her resolve to keep the admission that burned on her lips to herself.

When he released her, she clung to him. Her mind whirred in a thousand directions. Luca was going to come home soon. And from everything she had learned about her husband so far, their bond with Luca would only deepen their bond with each other.

And yet she knew nothing about why he was so against love. Was it having been exposed to his father’s constant infidelity growing up? Then there had been Pia and Santo’s marriage—another disaster.

He had been upset with his family earlier tonight, but the emotion beneath had been a pulsing anger. Even hurt.

“That woman Chiara invited tonight… Rosa, I think,” Mimi mumbled, impressions from the evening coming back to her now.

Instantly, Renzo tensed. “What about her?”

Mimi pulled back casually, though she kept her cheek on his arm.

“You could barely stand to look at her.”

“You read me well,cara.” He turned to lie on his back, though one arm stayed wrapped around her. “Icouldn’tstand to look at her.”

“May I ask why?”