Page 186 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

‘I can only imagine how many.’ And now she was one of them. Eek. Was it possible to actually die of embarrassment? What sort of idiot was she to drape herself across his lap and slobber all over his thigh? Arrgh. Talk about unsophisticated. Why had she let her guard down so much? She would never normally relax in a man’s company to the point of falling asleep on his lap. She hadn’t touched a man other than her father and brother in years. Her father got the most perfunctory air kiss from her on the rare occasions she saw him. Her brother wasn’t much of a hugger, but since he’d been with Isabella, he had become better at it. But now she had relaxed to the point of draping herself across Vic Jacobetti’s lap and drooling, yes,droolingall over his designer trousers.

Shoot me now.

Vic reached out with his hand and gently stroked her burning cheek with a lazy finger, his eyes holding hers. ‘Why do you blush around me so much,tesore?’

Her cheeks turned up the heat like he had pressed a button on her. But then, he had pressed a button on her. The lust button. It was heating not just her cheeks but other parts of her body. Secret parts. Parts that pulsed and liquified with silky warmth that made it hard for her to think of anything but him. The idle stroke of his finger, the shape of his mouth, the scent of his body—that heady combination of wood and citrus and maleness. An exotic scent to someone like her who was so inexperienced.

‘Erm…am I blushing? I—it’s hot in here.’ She mock-fanned her face with her hand. ‘The driver must have the heating on…or something…’ She sounded as pathetic as she was. A naive innocent alone with a cynical playboy and feeling way out of her depth…like a little goldfish suddenly flung out of her tiny glass bowl and tossed in the wide deep ocean with who knew what dangers lurked beneath.

‘I only have to look at you and you blush.’ His voice was deep and held a trace of amusement that she could see reflected in his impossibly dark brown eyes.

‘Erm… Do I?’ She ran the tip of her tongue across her lips, watching as he followed the movement with his gaze. Something fell from a high shelf in her stomach. Heat pooled in her feminine core. Molten heat that made her aware of every beat of her heart because its echo was pounding between her thighs. She had not been this close to a man in a very long time. She could see the texture of his skin, the way it was stretched over the long straight blade of his nose. She could see the flare of his nostrils as if he too was taking in her scent like a wild animal does a mate. She could see the sculptured perfection of his mouth, the sexy contours hinting at consummate sensuality. A sensuality she suddenly craved to experience with every cell in her body.

Vic’s gaze came back to hers in an unwavering lock. ‘You do. You did at the engagement party and the wedding and Katerina’s christening.’

She lowered her gaze a fraction. ‘Does it…does it annoy you?’

He gave a crooked smile. ‘Not at all.’

‘It annoys me.’

‘That you blush so easily?’

She nodded without meeting his gaze. ‘I wish…’ She squeezed her hands together in her lap and went on, ‘I wish I could control it, but I can’t. I’ve always been terribly self-conscious, much to my mother’s immense frustration. Marcus got the outgoing genes in our family, which is why she—’ She clamped down on her lower lip with her teeth before she revealed the full extent of her mother issues.

The driver slid back the panel at that moment, which gave her a chance to compose herself. He spoke in Italian to Vic and although she couldn’t speak the language, she could pick up the gist of the exchange.

Vic got out of the car and came around to open her door. She stepped out and looked around the moonlit scene. The villa was huge, set in beautiful gardens with formal hedges and flowing fountains and interesting pathways that drew your eye further. The three-storey villa was situated on the edge of the lake with stunning views of the water and the looming mountains on the other side. The moon was high in the sky like a silver eye casting its luminous beam over the lake. A light breeze scented with mimosa toyed with her hair and she closed her eyes and listened to the distant but still audible slap of water against the shore. It was so peaceful, so serene and magical it was like being transported into a fairytale.

Watch it, Cinderella. This is no fairytale; this is real life, and you have a job to do that involves a small and no doubt bewildered toddler.

She gave herself a stern lecture before she got too enraptured. But wait…she was hardly Cinderella, was she? The fairytale she most identified with wasThe Ugly Duckling, but she couldn’t see herself turning into a graceful swan anytime soon.

Vic closed the door of the car and placed his hand at her elbow. ‘Come this way. Careful of the cobblestones, they can be a little tricky to negotiate at any time, much less when you’ve had no sleep.’

‘But I did sleep. You didn’t.’

He glanced down at her with another knee-weakening smile. ‘I nodded off once or twice.’

‘I wonder what Marcus would say if he heard we’d slept together.’ There was another fact about her—she never made flippant and flirty comments. Never. But the words were out before she could monitor her tongue. Heat rushed through her. She could feel it burning like fire across her face. She could only put it down to lack of sleep and being in Vic’s disturbing but alluring company.

Vic looked at her in the moonlight, his expression inscrutable. ‘I think he’d be very surprised.’ His voice was so deep it sent a shiver coursing over her body.

She forced herself to hold his gaze. ‘Yes, well, I’m hardly the type of woman you normally date, am I?’

‘No, you’re not.’ His voice was still deep, but something changed in his expression. A subtle change that brought his eyebrows together in a slight frown, as if he were suddenly seeing her in a different light. Thinking about possibilities he had never considered before. Possibilities she had thought about from the moment she first met him. Truth be told, she didn’t think he had ever seen her in moonlight before, so there was a chance it was doing her a huge favour. She was photoshopped, filtered by the silvery moonbeams. Yay.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a light brown moth fly towards one of the outside lights next to the villa. It was dazzled, disoriented by the bright glow, just as she was by Vic Jacobetti. If she allowed herself to be any more attracted to him, she was going to be like that poor defenceless moth—smashed beyond repair.

CHAPTER THREE

The door ofthe grand villa opened behind them, and she turned around to see a woman of about seventy looking at them as if they were angels who had arrived to rescue her from being left alone with a rabid monster. She spoke in rapid Italian that Addie couldn’t follow at all, but could sense she was agitated, tired and overwrought. Vic responded to her calmly and reassuringly, his air of command-and-control reassuring to Addie too.

But as soon as they entered the villa, she could hear Katerina wailing from upstairs. Addie didn’t have time to take in the imposing surroundings. She barely noticed the works of art on the walls or the high ceilings with their heavy crystal chandeliers hanging with sparkling grandeur. She was hardly conscious when her flying footsteps left the cold, echoing marble of the foyer and landed on the ankle-deep carpet on the winding staircase. She gave the second floor a cursory glance without taking anything much in other than it looked a little faded, like an olden days Hollywood film star that had let herself go now the spotlight was no longer centred on her. The piteous cries tore at her heart like sharp claws, and she bolted upstairs, not waiting to ask directions or permission. Something about those desperate cries called out to her wounded inner child. The child that had spent hours crying alone without anyone coming to comfort her. Nothing and no one were going to stop her going to Katerina. That child needed comforting, and she needed it now.

She found her three floors up, standing up in a cot that looked like it might once have belonged to Vic or Isabella. Her eyes were streaming, and her face was bright red, her dark curls mussed around her head like a black halo. She was sobbing but as soon as she saw Addie the sobs stopped and only her little chin quivered. She reached her pudgy little arms and starburst hands out, and Addie scooped her up and held her close, breathing in the sweet warm human smell of her.

‘It’s okay, sweetie, I’m here now. I’ve got you.’ She stroked her little back and snuggled her face close to hers. ‘You’re missing your mummy and daddy, aren’t you? But they’ll be back soon, and Uncle Vic and I’ll take good care of you until then.’ She rocked from side to side in a soothing manner. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner, but I’m here now. There, there, precious. I’ve got you now.’

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