Page 223 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

He was quiet, watchful.

Charlotte let out a small sigh. ‘Honestly, Dante, my mother went between hating me and ignoring me. I was a constant reminder of what she’d had and lost.’

A harsh invective flew from his lips. ‘Charlotte—,’

‘It’s fine,’ she lied, trying to summon a casual smile. ‘I stopped waiting for her to love me a long time ago. I stopped wishing my father would acknowledge me, want to know me. I stopped looking to anyone else to care about me, whatsoever. If it weren’t for Jane, I would be completely alone,’ she added. ‘Which is fine, because that’s kind of how I’ve always known it had to be. I was only a teenager when I came to understand something I’d probably instinctively known for even longer. The only way to avoid being hurt is to never, ever trust another person with your heart.’

He nodded, as if in total agreement, but there was a sympathy in his eyes, a look of pity that she hated.

‘Really, you don’t need to worry.’ She forced a bright smile more successfully now. ‘I’m an excellent actress, but everything that happens up there is purely for your grandmother’s sake. We both need this ruse to work, Dante—and while I’m not asking for your heart, I am asking for your trust. We both are.’ Her smile began to feel brittle. ‘So, we’re all good, right?’

It took him a beat to answer, but when he did, he nodded. ‘Yeah, we’re all good, Shaw.’ But God, how she wanted him to call hercarain that moment. And what kind of a liar did that make her?

After five days in Tuscany, at his grandmother’s villa, with Charlotte in full-blown fiancé-for-hire mode, Dante was in desperate need of a break. He’d thought that telling her about Jamie, their fruitless quest for a baby, the toll that had taken on his marriage and his life, might have somehow fundamentally changed their dynamic, but it hadn’t. He felt this oppressive need for her, all the time. And while he kept telling himself it was just physical, all this time together was making her crave other things, too. Like the stories she so artfully weaved. The way she laughed. The way she was so kindly solicitous with his grandmother. The way the afternoon sun bounced off her hair, making it look almost like lava. Or the way sheadoredItalian food, savouring absolutely every meal that was produced, eating it in a way that was so sensual and downright sexy they often barely made it into the pool house before he started ripping off her clothes, kissing her like it was the one thing he’d been designed for.

Sometimes, they didn’t even make it to the pool house.

Sometimes, they didn’t even make it out of the house.

Once, his grandmother had found them kissing, just outside the front door and promptly slammed it shut again, causing them both to laugh like teenagers.

Cristo, what was happening to him?

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Allegra San Marino cut into his thoughts, topping up their glasses of mineral water and gesturing to the evening antipasto platter spread out before them.

‘Uh oh,’ Charlotte teased. ‘This sounds important.’

Allegra wiggled her brows. ‘I have a proposal.’

‘We’re already engaged,’ Dante pointed out.

‘Yes, that’s right. You’re getting married, in London, in three weeks. Correct?’

‘Yes,’ Dante agreed.

‘But what if you were to get married here?’

‘Here?’ Charlotte looked from Allegra to Dante and then to the gardens surrounding them.

‘Oh, yes, of course. It is far nicer than some registry office in England.’ Allegra shuddered, as though the very thought was truly awful.

‘We can do another ceremony,’ Dante offered. ‘Later.’

‘Darling, I might not have “later”,’ Allegra said, gent-ly though, as if she was worried he didn’t understand the complication her health presented.

Charlotte’s features softened.

‘Unless there is a reason you feel the need to marry so quickly?’ Allegra pushed.

He saw Charlotte’s cheeks heat as she computed his grandmother’s meaning. She was as subtle as a sledgehammer.

‘No, Allegra,’ Charlotte said, gently, though, reaching over and putting her hand on Allegra’s. He looked at their hands and wondered at the strange, twisting feeling in his gut, the sense of being out of control, unsure of himself suddenly. He didn’t like it. He also didn’t like the things Charlotte had revealed to him earlier, the depths of emotional neglect she’d had to live with, the fact she’d been made to feel unwanted by everyone in her life. While Dante had lost his parents and grandfather at a young age, he’d never known anything but love from them before hand, and afterwards from hisNonna. He drew his gaze back to Charlotte’s face, wishing she could have known that same feeling of affection. Wishing she’d had more security in her life. Wishing she had it, even now. ‘The only reason is that we don’t want to wait.’

His eyes bore into hers, as that statement shifted around inside of him.

He knew she was just saying something to placate Allegra. To ensure they could still go through with their swift marriage. To meet her requirements of inheriting the Papandreo empire. But that didn’t mean her statement was entirely false.

Dante found, on some level, that thought absolutely terrified him. Hecouldn’twait. He didn’t want to. No matter how he felt about marriage, about his marriage to Jamie in particular, this was all so different. Charlotte was different, their relationship was different and the marriage they’d planned out was something else entirely.