Page 142 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

‘To all the fun and adventures we are about to embark on,together.To us!’

‘To us,’ she repeated and when she went to take a sip, he stopped her with an ‘op!’

She paused, the glass an inch from delectably pink lips.

He adopted an expression that could only be read as ‘silly girl’, and held out his arm in a hook.

It seemed to take her a moment to realise that she was supposed to weave her arm around his and that they were to sip together.

But the nauseated look that crossed her features for just a second was an utter delight to him and worth every moment of the ridiculous act. An act that brought her close enough for him to see the swallow of her throat as she took a sip, the breeze bringing just a trace of the complex heady scent she wore.

Cirtus and pepper. Sharp and hot.

He liked it. It suited her.

‘So,’ he said, pulling out a chair for her at the small table, already laid with crostini covered in mouthwatering toppings, ‘tell me about this project that would have stolen you away from me,’ he commanded with mock officiousness as he took the seat opposite.

‘What do you want to know?’

What you’re after, he thought.

‘Everything,’ he replied instead. He could find out of course—at the drop of a hat. There were any number of highly skilled and extremely discreet investigators he could turn to. But Enzo felt somehow as if that would be cheating. And besides, he wanted to know what she would tell him. But he was sure that her excuse hadn’t been some whim, some easy lie. He couldn’t exactly explain why, but there had been something about it, about her, that had rungtrue.

‘I...’

Was she going to continue the charade or give him something real? He was almost on the edge of his seat.

‘I have an opportunity to purchase a company I’ve been looking at for quite some time.’

Oh really.Was she just laying foundations for the long con to relieve him of his well-earned money? Or was there something genuine here?

‘It probably wouldn’t mean much to you,’ she said, as if he could not understand such sentimentality. ‘It’s just a small, floundering publishing company whose name few remember. But it was excellent once,’ she said, the smile gracing her lips both sad and beautiful at the same time. He’d not seen her wield this one before. ‘It published crime novels full of murder and mystery from authors all over the world.’

‘You like these books,’ Enzo saw.

‘Yes,’ she replied, nodding her head definitively.

‘Why?’ he couldn’t help but ask.

She hesitated, as if choosing her words. ‘I like... I like that the murder is symptomatic of something that is inherently wrong with society,’ she said, surprising him a little with her philosophy. ‘I like that it reflects a societal failing that has resulted in the death of the victim. That while the detective can identify the criminal, the murderer, whose reasons are almost always selfish, he can also point to a moral failing inherent in society.’

He wondered if she realised that her syntax had changed. Her use of language. This, Enzo was beginning to suspect, was the real Erin Carter. And he was just a little frustrated, becausethisErin, he might have actually have enjoyed even more.

‘That is important to you? Moral judgement?’ Enzo asked, trying to keep the scepticism out of his voice. This seemed to run so contrary to everything about Rin’s scheme to marry him and use him for his money.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Is it not to you?’

‘I think we may have different morals,’ he replied, using a smile to cover his reaction to her audacity.

‘Does your publisher do any other genres?’

She struggled to hold onto her smile. ‘It’s not my publisher yet.’

‘But it will be. Of that I am sure. I can see the determination in your eyes,’ he said, gesturing to her with his glass. ‘How did you come to know of it?’ Enzo asked, wanting to hear a little more ofthisErin Carter.

Erin shifted in her seat. She probably shouldn’t have told him about Charterhouse. It was too personal. Too real. But she had started, and now she couldn’t quite unring that bell.

‘I knew the family who once owned it. I’ve been...notified the current owner is willing to sell.’