Page 70 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

‘Gio!’ A less suspicious man would read the husky edge to her voice as eagerness. He suspected it was tiredness from her nocturnal activities. ‘I didn’t expect to see you.’

Her smile sparkled. Gio curved his own lips in response, trying to hide the angry clench of his jaw.

A waiter appeared and Gio ordered coffee.

‘You’re not breakfasting this morning? I can recommend the food. Mine was very good.’

Of course it was. He insisted on the best.

‘Coffee will do.’

He didn’t have the stomach for food and for that he blamed her. He must have revealed something of his mood because she paused, tilting her head as she watched him. Much as she’d considered the security keypad at the entrance to his corporate headquarters last night.

The memory made his gut churn with distaste and it took every effort to hide his feelings.

‘You didn’t sleep well?’ She sounded solicitous and that annoyed him too.

‘I had things to deal with. You?’

She shook her head. ‘I should have, after all that walking we did. But I had trouble getting to sleep. Isn’t that stupid?’

‘Not if you had things on your mind. Work, maybe?’

Her gaze slid from his. ‘I’m on holidays but yes, sometimes it’s hard to switch off.’

‘Is that why you were distracted yesterday? Because of work?’

She seemed to find the view of the piazza enthralling. ‘Partly. Partly family stuff.’

Gio stifled a grimace of understanding. In her case work and family were intertwined since she worked for her father. Had Barbieri pressured her for a progress report?

He thanked the waiter who brought his coffee and took a sip, enjoying the sharp, rich flavour. ‘What do you do when you can’t sleep, Stella? Do you have tried-and-true remedies?’

She turned, smiling slightly and, even knowing what he did about her, he found it hard to reconcile this woman with a corporate spy. Her eyes were warm, her expression easy and open as if she had nothing to hide.

It infuriated him that if he hadn’t been warned he might have been taken in. He regarded himself as a savvy judge of character!

‘Exercise. When I can’t sleep I exercise.’

Gio had an instant recollection of her on the security footage—glowing with exertion, skin damp, hair tousled, breathing heavy—and imagined the sort of exercise she might enjoy in the night. In his bed.

His body reacted instantly, groin growing heavy and tight, fingers flexing as if remembering how she’d felt naked in his arms, even if it had only been in his dreams.

Damn her! He knew who and what she was, yet that didn’t obliterate his yearning. Sitting at this small table, so close he could see the amber flecks in her velvety gaze and inhale her fresh flower scent, he realised his mind and body were at war. His mind decreed she be unmasked and sent on her way. His body wanted…her.

‘Gio, are you all right?’

She leaned in as if concerned and it took everything he had to push down his reactions and tilt the corners of his mouth up. ‘I’m fine. Tell me more, what sort of exercise?’

She sat back, twisting her empty cup in its saucer. ‘Sometimes I put on a headlamp and go running.’

He sat straighter. ‘At night? That’s not safe.’

‘It depends where I am. I wouldn’t do it at night in a big city like Rome.’

Gio released a sigh of relief, then wondered at his ability to worry over his unscrupulous opponent. ‘So when you can’t go running in the city?’

Once again her gaze dropped, her expression a little furtive. He leaned in. ‘I couldn’t run the streets so I walked the hotel instead, up and down the corridors.’