Page 110 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

She turned quickly and the world spun again. She grabbed for the back of a chair but Gio was there first.

Muttering under his breath, he swept her up against his bare chest. Despite his swim his skin felt hot against her.

‘There’s no need to pick me up, or to swear.’

She sounded like a starchy schoolmistress. But better that than breathlessness at his take-charge action.

Her emotions were in turmoil. She wanted Gio but want wasn’t enough. She needed distance to untangle her thoughts and feelings.

He hefted her higher against his chest, his arms wonderfully strong about her, his silvery gaze meeting hers.

‘I was swearing at myself, for not noticing how tired you were. As for carrying you,’ he added as they entered the house, ‘you need looking after. Besides…’ His mouth curved in a tight smile that hinted at hunger. ‘I like holding you close.’ His nostrils flared on an indrawn breath and she had the crazy idea that he drew in her scent. ‘Unless you object?’

Object? Her whole being clamoured in delight. She’d given up pretending to herself. ‘No. I don’t object.’

Yet in her soul she knew their physical connection, while powerful, wasn’t enough. She needed more.

Did she have the strength to act on that knowledge? Or was she destined to capitulate to a heady affair that might leave her more broken than before?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Gio turned fromthe speedboat’s controls to the woman beside him. The woman driving him to the limit of his control.

She wore a dress of vivid amber, its tantalisingly thin shoulder straps and her fascinating baby bump obscured by the jacket she’d put on for the trip across the lake. She wore dark glasses and a flame-coloured scarf over her head and around her neck in the style of a fifties film star.

His heart vaulted against his ribcage.

Her face was turned up to the sun and her skin glowed. That dreadful pallor had been banished by two days’ rest.

Two days in which he’d kept his distance. He’d discovered it wasn’t only sex he wanted with Stella. Yes, he wanted to touch her, all the time. But he wanted her nearness too. He felt better when she was close.

That was a first for a man who’d never let himself depend on anyone.

His reactions to Stella were unprecedented.

Keeping his distance, allowing her space, tested him mightily. Because his need was urgent.

‘You’re staring.’

‘Just checking you’re not seasick.’

The corner of her mouth quirked up in an endearing curl that triggered warmth in his belly. At least now they weren’t snapping at each other. They’d developed a truce, realising they’d never actually been enemies.

‘We’re on a lake, not the sea.’

Gio turned back to the controls, slowing as their destination appeared on the far shore, a very exclusive lakeside restaurant.

‘If you suffered from motion sickness it wouldn’t matter if it was the sea or a pond.’

His sister had turned green the one time they’d been on a boat. Gio remembered being torn between concern for her and pride that the waves hadn’t affected him.

The memory surprised him. Most of his life he’d guarded the past behind locked doors, rarely letting himself remember. But since talking about the past with Stella, little recollections kept popping into his head. Things he hadn’t thought of in years.

They brought a wistful melancholy but often smiles too. As if the past wasn’t a poisonous place to be avoided. How had that happened?

‘Areyouokay, Gio? You look like you’ve got something on your mind.’

Since when had Stella been able to read him so easily?