Page 92 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

He frowned. The wedding was common knowledge, even if he hadn’t known about it until the last minute. ‘Half of Italy knew about it.’

‘Not the wedding. The baby. How did you know?’

Gio’s brain took a second to digest her words. Another second to make sense of them. Even then he couldn’t believe what she’d said.

She didn’t sound or look smug. She looked stressed. Or was she an even better liar than he’d thought?

His heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be true! It had to be another scam. ‘You’re saying there’s actually a baby?’

Stella’s eyes rounded. Her mouth dropped open and her breasts rose on a shuddery inhale. She looked as stunned as he felt. ‘But you said in the church… You defied any man to step between you and your child.’

His child.

A curious sensation stirred in Gio’s chest and belly. His lungs tightened, constricted by some powerful force. There was a thrumming in his ears.

A baby? They’d had sex often enough. Gio had never thought of himself as insatiable, but the word fitted. He’d run out of condoms and had to buy more because he was always scrupulous about protection.

He stared at the puffy layers of her skirt. It was impossible to make out her shape beneath them. It was months since she’d left him. Time enough for a pregnancy to show? He had no idea.

His flesh grabbed tight across his bones and his stomach somersaulted. Emotion smacked him back in his seat.

She’s not pregnant. She’s just trying to mess with your head. She’s a Barbieri, brought up to hate you and do everything she can to bring you down. Inventing a pregnancy is just a ploy to put you off.

Yet even knowing that, Gio couldn’t walk away from her. Couldn’t let her walk away from him and into the arms of another man. Not yet. Silently he cursed the hold she had over him.

‘A baby?’ He shook his head. ‘Impossible. I said what was needed to get you out of there.’

For months everything had seemed wrong. He couldn’t concentrate. His temper was uncharacteristically short and he’d been prey to strange moods. He’d once been a man who found certainty came easily. But recently certainty had deserted him Until he heard about Stella’s impending wedding and instantly knew the right course of action.

Even if he refused to interrogate his reasons and put a name to that impulse.

He’d never felt so sure about anything as he’d been about stopping the marriage.

‘You mean what you said back there was all a sham? You didn’t think I was pregnant? You just waded in and made a fool of me for the sheer fun of it?’ Her voice dropped and her hand went to her throat in a gesture of acute vulnerability that he felt like a fist to his chest. ‘What sort of man are you? I thought I had some idea, but to do that… You must really hate me and my family.’

There it was again, not just fury and indignation, but hurt in her voice and expressive eyes. It seemed so real he felt sick in the gut.

‘You didn’t want to marry him anyway.’

Her pale face blushed then paled again. She opened her mouth then closed it as if he’d stolen her ability to speak.

Instead of making him feel better, Stella’s silence stirred doubt deep inside. And guilt. She couldn’t really have wanted to marry Morosi. He didn’t believe it.

‘Well, that’s all right then, isn’t it? Sinceyouknow whatIwant without even asking. What remarkable powers of perception you have.’

Gio ground his teeth, hating her sarcasm. Hating that, despite everything, he still needed her.

She folded her arms so tightly her breasts plumped high against the demure neckline of her dress.

She should have looked ridiculous with that fussy, frou-frou dress. But she was still Stella and, even disguised as an overblown meringue, she was as sexy as hell. The animal part of his brain had noticed immediately, which was one of the reasons he’d been grateful for his anger, since it diverted him from the need to reach out and haul her into his arms.

Even after all that had happened, he wasn’t anything like immune to her.

Immune! At the villa you’d almost convinced yourself she was an innocent. You wanted to keep her with you.

Until the investigator’s report scared her off. If she’d had nothing to hide she’d have stayed to talk with him, explain it all. Instead she’d run like a thief in the night. Like a spy sent by her appalling father.

‘You can’t expect me to believe you wanted to marry Morosi. You weren’t thinking of him when we were inseparable. How often did you call my name as you climaxed? Youbeggedfor my touch.’ He paused to suck air into cramped lungs, memories coming thick and fast. ‘Was there anywhere in my villa we didn’t have sex, Stella? I can’t think of one. Don’t try to pretend you were Morosi’s loyal fiancée then. If that dossier hadn’t arrived you’d still be in my bed.’