Page 129 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

He found himself smiling—because he realised that it was highly likely to be the voice of Ms Carter. Her English was crisp, her accent untraceably regional so it was probable that she grew up in London. But it was that fire, the one that heated her words, that had drawn him. The blaze in her gaze that he’d—

‘Once he marries me, I’ll get what I want and the rest is history.’

Enzo blinked. Once. Twice.

‘I just have to engineer another way to meet him, before he gets back on his yacht and disappears off down the coast.’

If Enzo had been in any doubt, if he had been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, her next words sealed her fate.

‘I don’t care that Enzo Rossetti is obnoxious, arrogant, and clearly immoral if notdepraved,’ Ms Carter continued blithely, his faults highly exaggerated in his honest opinion. ‘I’ll just have to grin and bear it. At least until the ink of his signature is dry on the paperwork.’

He reared back as if he’d just been slapped.

Marriage?He nearly barked out a laugh.Nothingwould convince him to marry. And she thought that she could, what, entrap him?

For what reason? Money? Fame?

‘No, that’s okay, Sam. You’ve done enough already.’

Sam? Who was this Sam? Her lover? Herreallover, in on this scam?

Gritting his teeth so hard he was in serious risk of breaking a tooth, he turned on his heel to leave, but—

But what if he didn’t?

Anyone looking at Enzo Rossetti at that exact moment might have had the urge to shiver at the sight of his narrowed gaze, the furious intelligence radiating from those dark eyes, the stillness of a predator very carefully assessing his options.

What if hedidn’tturn and leave...?

What if, he wondered to himself, he instead chose to teach Ms Erin Carter a lesson? Perhaps she should get her just deserts. As the Masters had found out this morning, when they’d woken to discover several of their business associates had cut ties with them following last night’s scene, Ms Carter would come to see that he was known to the world as an itinerant playboy, but that he was not a man to be messed with.

Grin and bear it, indeed.

Oh, this, Enzo Rossetti assured himself, was going to befun.

Erin ended the call with Sam at the knock on her door. She’d woken up that morning and thrown herself into the shower determined to head down to the marina to see if she could get hold of Enzo and had only stopped to take the call from Sam.

But when Mrs Agostino explained that there was a gentleman here to see her, a Signor Rossetti, Erin knew her luck had turned. She told the hotel manager that she’d be down shortly, closed the door and promptly sank against it.

Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

Enzo Rossetti was downstairs and asking for her. Oh, she didn’t bother wondering how he’d found her. A man with that much money and free time could do pretty much anything, she was sure. Butwhy? Maybe all that practice making eyes at herself in the mirror had worked! Could it be that the Italian billionaire had fallen for her charm? She all but laughed at herself for having even considered it.

But no matter. She had to be more...calm. More like Rin, the fictional femme fatale she had created to ensnare the Playboy of Amalfi.Rinwouldn’t rush down to meet him. She’d make him wait. So even though it went against every fibre of Erin’s being, she took her time choosing—with very specific intention—what to wear.

She riffled through ‘Rin’s’ half of the wardrobe with something very close to nerves. Her research had shown her where Enzo Rossetti’s sartorial tastes ran, and it appeared to be either very low or very high, depending on the body part in question. Erin pulled out a pair of high-waisted blue shorts, and a very low-cut white shirt that seemed to cover more than it actually did.

She gave one last longing look in the mirror at the elegant, sophisticated trousers and cool cotton jumper she had been wearing before getting changed. She might not be sure why Enzo was here, but she was going to take full advantage of it. He’d slipped through her fingers last night, but she wouldn’t let it happen again.

A short while later she entered the courtyard to find Enzo Rossetti on the small wooden bench, ankle crossed over knee, head tilted back in a ray of sunlight, reminding her for some strange reason of a fox. But not red in colour. Black. A wolf then, Erin decided, and took it as a warning to be on her guard. Despite that, her mind was still able to catalogue all the ways in which he was one of the most aggressively handsome men she’d ever encountered.

‘Ms Carter,’ he said without opening his eyes. ‘Are you spying on me?’ he teased.

She suppressed the instinctive shiver that rolled across her body, his English heavy with an alluring Italian lilt. They hadn’t spoken the night before, and the tone he used now was markedly different to what he’d used last night with the husband and wife he had so badly wronged.

‘Mr Rossetti,’ she said, inclining her head, ‘I was going to ask you the same question.’ His eyes opened on hers and, to her immense satisfaction, widened in surprise.

He licked his lips as he took her in from head to toe, lingering on the rather shocking amount of leg on display thanks to the shortness of the shorts and the height of the wedged heel. It was almost indecent, but at least Enzo Rossetti wasn’t tacky, she’d been relieved to discover. Even if she was still uncomfortable about the lack of her attire.