Page 138 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

‘But that is no problem at all!’ Enzo insisted. ‘Stay with me. On my yacht.’

‘Mr Rossetti,’ Rin cried indignantly. ‘I don’t know what kind of women you usually associate yourself with—’

Intelligent, beautiful, sensually confident, he mentally answered.Not vipers like you.

‘But I am not that sort of woman,’ she proclaimed with vehemence.

That’s for sure, Enzo thought, but instead, he put his hand on his heart, pretended to be hurt by the implication and declared, ‘Of course not! I wouldneverthink such a thing.’

She glared at him in a way that very much reminded him of an old-fashioned schoolmarm and he just about stopped himself from laughing.

‘I was raised in a very traditional household and I have very traditional views on those sort of things.’

Those sort of things being...Ahhh. Thiswas how she was going to get around not sleeping with him. There would be no sex before this carefully orchestrated marriage. Clever. Very clever, Ms Carter. He was half thankful that she had brought it up herself, and while it might have been amusing to see her bend over backwards to avoid the kind of physical intimacy that was almost expected these days with a serious relationship, he was pleased that they didn’t have to do that particular dance. It would have been a step too far for him, given the brutal punishment he planned to dole out. Oh, she was beautiful, very much so, but the thought of tangling himself in all that cold calculating avarice left him with frostbite.

‘Have no fear, Rin. There are more than twelve rooms on my yacht, and a full contingent of staff at all times, any of whom would be willing to act as chaperone. Why, it is nothing short of a floating hotel! We would simply be suitemates,’ he said with a wild gesture of his arms that nearly took out one of the restaurant’s waiters.

‘I couldn’t possibly,’ Rin demurred coyly.

‘Oh, but youcould,’ he insisted, deciding to go all in. ‘I’ve never met a woman like you before,’ he said, reaching for her hand and placing it on his heart. A heart that was beating quicker with mirth rather than sincerity. ‘And I am not ready to let you slip through my fingers just yet. Are you?’ he asked, throwing it back to her. ‘Because I thought... I thought perhaps that we were building something special...’

Special was one way to describe it, that was for sure.

He let the implication dangle, sure that she wouldn’t be able to refuse the bait.

‘Oh, I had thought it was justmethat felt that way,’ she said, doing the doe-eyed thing again.

‘Not at all,cara,’ Enzo said, with a grin that was beginning to hurt his cheeks. ‘I am as deeply touched by our...friendship...as you are. And it would mean more than you could possibly imagine if you would do me the honour of joining me on-board my yacht.’

‘Well, I suppose I could defer my project.’

‘Would you? Could you?’ he asked eagerly, pulling back at the slight flare of alarm in her gaze at his flamboyant response. It wouldn’t do to scare her off now. Not after how much he was invested in this. How much—to his surprise—that he’d enjoyed this. It was the most daring competition he’d had to date.

‘Oh yes, that would be utterly darling, wouldn’t it?’ she said, finally giving in.

And it felt like the most natural thing in the world to kiss her. He’d meant it as little more than a way to seal the deal, the punctuation mark to their decision. Nothing more than a light, almost friendly kiss. But the moment that his mouth met hers, every thought, every intention went up in flames, and all he was left with werefeelings.

The jolt in his heart, the slight gasp from her lips that he swallowed, the way that after just a moment, they opened to each other instinctively, the hint of a growl in his throat and a sigh of surrender in hers, the delve of tongue and the way his hands moved, one gripping her hip, the other cupping her jaw, the sigh that she made as he turned something easy into something heady. He felt her hand press against his thundering heart, heat spreading like wildfire through his body, until he was breathless and she was wide-eyed with wonder. He pulled back, her cheeks flushed, blinking as if Erin was as shocked as him at how quickly things had escalated.

It had been a mistake, he realised, to be so smug. He had been unprepared. But he wouldn’t let it happen again.

Chapter Four

Erin’s head was spinning,her mind oscillating between being so close to what she wanted, and losing herself to the memory of the sudden and utterly inexplicable kiss.

She pressed her fingers to her mouth, still bemused at the way that she had so easily succumbed to the shocking pleasure. She’d been unprepared—it was that simple. Surely if she’d expected it, it wouldn’t have had such an impact?

She’d returned to the hotel and packed her suitcases, the entire time still feeling the tremors that had spread from his touch, from hispossession. As she’d messaged Sam to let her know of her success, still she caught the scent of his aftershave as if it had become imprinted on her clothes.

Even now, as she got out of the car that had brought her and her cases down to the marina to meet the speedboat that would collect her and bring her to Enzo’s yacht, she was still back in the middle of the restaurant, her hand on his chest, her mind unspooling at their feet. The port was still humming with tourists streaming on and off boats, even at this late hour, but she saw none of it. Instead, a pair of dark brown eyes with golden flecks consumed her. But she couldnotlet him distract her and she could not lose herself like that again. And she wouldn’t. She would know better now, she would be prepared.

Her phone beeped as the driver placed her luggage down beside her.

If I don’t hear from you in two days, I’m calling Interpol.

Erin smiled at Sam’s response to the message she’d sent earlier, letting her know that she’d accomplished Step Four. Getting on his yacht. It was nice to have someone worried about her. It was...she swallowed, unfamiliar. Her mother, following her father’s fall from grace and subsequent abandonment, had retreated into herself. Losing everything they’d had and known seemed to have taken a large piece of Arla Carter and what had remained had been focused on getting through the day. Erin had sworn to herself by the age of seventeen that she would never let a man do that to her. She would never let a man determine the choices she made about her life.

Where her father was now was anyone’s guess. She hadn’t heard from him since he’d called just before her twenty-first birthday to ask her for money to invest in thebestnew business idea.