Page 73 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

Carried away as she’d been? His nostrils were flared as he dragged in air and his proud features seemed sharper, as if pared to the bone. But his eyes were unreadable, except that they were no longer silvery but a dark, enigmatic grey.

Her gaze dropped to his mouth, his reddened lips. A rough pulse of possessiveness jerked inside her. She wanted his mouth on hers again. Wanted to kiss him until he groaned with pleasure and gripped her with those strong hands and gave her more than just a kiss.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Why shouldn’t I be?’ Was he intimating there’d been something wrong with that kiss? Her forehead knotted. Surely he’d felt what she had.

But then she’d been disappointed many times before. What was it they said? A girl had to kiss a lot of frogs before she found a prince. She wasn’t after a prince, just someone genuine. What they’d just shared had felt genuine, but looking into those darkened eyes she wondered if she’d made a mistake.

She slipped from his grasp. ‘Don’t apologise for kissing me.’ She couldn’t bear that.

He frowned. ‘I wasn’t going to. Should I?’

Stella shook her head. ‘No. I enjoyed it.’

The taut lines of his face eased as his mouth curved. ‘Good. So did I. But it was time to stop.’

His gaze flicked past her and for the first time she registered voices approaching. She turned and glimpsed a party of people picking their way through the trees and ruined stonework towards them.

That was why Gio had stopped? Relief was a buzzing in her ears and lightness in her chest.

‘It’s time to get down to the city,’ Gio said as he reached for her hand.

Warm fingers closed around hers and her heart leapt. She wasn’t seeking romance and the last thing she needed was anything to complicate her already complicated situation. But she didn’t care. The problems weighing her down had been banished, replaced by a feeling of rightness.

It was an illusion, she knew. Only temporary. But she’d take that reprieve. ‘Yes, let’s go.’

CHAPTER SIX

Gio was gladof the stream of tourists who’d finally found this part of the Palatine Hill. Their presence meant he and Stella barely spoke as they made their way down towards the modern city.

He didn’t know what had happened up there but that kiss had knocked him like a sucker punch to the gut. Except instead of pain there’d been only pleasure, potent enough to thrum through his blood and awaken a longing he felt in the very marrow of his bones.

He’d kissed many women, made love to enough, but couldn’t remember feeling so undone. Undone yet at the same time triumphant, as if kissing Stella made him invincible.

Hearing voices, he’d lifted his head and could have sworn the day was brighter, the scarlet poppies scattered between the stones more vivid. He’d felt stronger, ready to take on anything.

He couldn’t recall enjoying a kiss so much that he’d been lost to everything except her generous mouth on his and her body pressed close.

Stella Barbieri’s body. Your enemy, remember?

He grimaced yet kept her hand in his as they made their way down the hill.

Of course he remembered. He’d seen the excitement in her eyes the moment he’d held her to him,knownshe was eager for him. And he’d recognised the dazed yearning in her features when he lifted his head. Because he’d felt it too.

For the first time he could recall, a kiss had swept him away.She’dswept him away, making him forget she was a spy, trying to inveigle her way into his secrets.

His belly clenched as he reminded himself why she was here. To help Alfredo Barbieri, the man who’d destroyed his family. Gio thought of his mother and older sister, now long gone because of Barbieri. And Gio’s father who’d outlived them by years, though his soul had died the day they had. He’d lived on, a shell of the man, desperate to revenge himself on Barbieri and bring him to justice since the legal system hadn’t.

And here was Gio, consorting with Barbieri’s daughter.Wantingher.

He told himself it had been a ploy to get close to her. If she thought he trusted her it would be easier to find out what she was after.

But he wasn’t into convenient lies. Of course he spent time with her to stymie her plans. But that wasn’t why he’d kissed her and didn’t explain his elation or the thrill he experienced, just having her hand nestled in his.

His flesh prickled. Instinctively he distrusted the feelings she stirred. They were new and intense and he, more than anyone, understood how destructive strong feelings could be. He’d watched them turn his father into a hollow husk, cut off from everyone, including his son.

Gio firmed his resolve and tightened his grip as they walked from the ancient site and headed towards the hotel.