Page 229 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

Dante’s lips flickered in the hint of a frown. ‘Your best friend?’

‘Right. But really, we’re more like sisters—like family. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her and she’d say the same about me.’ Charlotte glanced down, her stomach twisting with guilt at what Jane was currently doing for her. The feeling that she’d thrown her bestie to the wolves—or rather a very specific wolf—wouldn’t go away.

‘There’s no guy that broke your heart, that made you this way?’

‘What way?’

‘Determined not to settle down. Self-protective.’

‘You say that like it’s a bad thing.’

‘It’s not,’ he murmured, but his frown deepened. ‘Except, I feel like you have so much more to give,cara. If only you’d let yourself.’

‘I’m okay with how things stand.’

He reached over and took her hand, lacing their fingers. Butterflies burst into her veins, their wings flapping and making her body shiver from the inside out.

‘You think that because your father didn’t love you, no one ever will?’

Her lips parted on a harsh exhalation. It sounded indignant, but in truth she was shocked. That he’d understand her so well. That he’d verbalise her fears so concisely. That hearing him say it would unstitch something deep down inside of her.

She looked away, towards the pool and, in the distance, the string quartet. They were playing beautifully—but neither Charlotte nor Dante were listening properly at all.

‘I think it’s not worth the risk,’ she said, unevenly, because Charlotte didn’t know what she felt any more and what she’d be prepared to risk, if there was any chance of being with Dante—of really being with him. Of being free to love him and being loved back by him.

But it was all so impossible, wasn’t it? She didn’t know how to love—not without fear, not without mistrust—and he wasn’t prepared to try, after what had happened with Jamie. That was why they had all their rules and boundaries. For more than six months, they’d kept each other at arm’s length, telling themselves they were safe from consequences because they refused to let this thing get out of hand. But what if it wasn’t so easy to control? What if their relationship had developed a mind—and heart—all of its own?

‘One day, you might meet someone who changes your mind.’

Her heart slammed into her chest. Someone else? Did he have any idea how impossible that was to contemplate? Just the idea of opening herself up to another man was like pouring acid over her skin.

‘Do you thinkyou’llever let yourself fall in love again?’

His eyes lifted to hers, speared them, held her gaze for so long, her breath seemed to be stagnating inside of her. She waited as if everything she was hinged on his answer to this one, all important question, and she didn’t really understand why. Only, she knew that whatever he said next was meaningful and important.

‘No,’ he answered, eventually, shaking his head a little and removing his hand. Ice flooded her whole body. ‘I will never let that happen.’ He glanced away from her, towards the band, so she had a full view of the way his jaw was clenched and her stomach dropped to her toes.

He would fight love, even if he thought he felt it, because he was determined to avoid what he’d gone through with Jamie. He would fight love, even if it was sitting right across the table from him, looking at him with unmistakable longing.

There was no way he would ever want to hear the revelation she’d just had.

There was no way she could tell him.

He wouldn’t allow himself to return her feelings, but he’d feel obliged to her, for the rest of his life, just because of who he was, just because of how he seemed to think it was his job to save people.

Well, Charlotte would never become a problem he had to save.

She was brave, she was strong, she was independent and, no matter what, she wasn’t going to burden Dante any more than he’d already been.

Long after the dinner plates had been cleared away, they sat on the edge of the pool, feet resting on the first step, knees touching, beneath the starlit sky.

For Charlotte, there was such a finality to this evening, though it was their second to last night in Italy and not their last. It just felt like a new beginning, even when it was a goodbye of sorts.

She’d come here believing herself completely immune to love and now she knew she wasn’t. Dante, and this magical, beautiful villa, had opened up that side of her and she supposed she should be grateful.

But in many ways, she also recognised she had a life ahead of her just like her mother had lived. Alone, lonely, pining for the one man she’d ever loved, knowing she couldn’t have him.

Dante wasn’t married, and she wasn’t even sure if he was still in love with his ex-wife, but it was clear that his marriage to Jamie was going to prevent him from ever being able to move forward. So, in all the same ways Aristotle Papandreo had been unable to return Charlotte’s mother’s feelings, Dante was unable to return hers.