Page 197 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8
‘So?’
‘So, it’s fine. Thank you for organising it. Do you want me to sign it now?’
‘No rush. Take it to a lawyer, get a second opinion.’
‘I’m quite capable of understanding a document.’
‘I wasn’t implying otherwise,’ he said. ‘You are always so quick to see the worst in me.’
‘No, I’m not. But I am a lawyer, you might remember, and there’s nothing in here that concerns me.’
‘You are not a family lawyer,’ he continued, in that slightly patronising tone he had, that always made her glad their relationship was purely physical. ‘There might be items your lawyers want included that mine haven’t thought of. There’s no downside in taking some extra advice.’
She compressed her lips, trying to suppress the frustration she felt at his superior tone. ‘Sure,’ she said, because it was easier than arguing. And also because, on some level, his advice was sound. Getting legal advice never hurt. In fact, it was one of the first things she counselled anyone to do, because lawyers often saw things in a way that could prevent difficulties in the future. She forced a smile, even when she hated to concede the point to him.
‘How’s the wedding planning going?’
She arched a brow. ‘Wedding planning?’
‘Dress. Flowers. That kind of thing.’ It sounded a little ludicrous to hear a man like Dante, who was all pure alpha, talk about the pretty wedding requirements.
‘So, because I’m the bride I have to organise the flowers?’
He stared at her with a look of total non-comprehension. ‘Do you want me to do it?’
She pressed her lips together now to stop a laugh from escaping. She had to admit, to herself at least, that the idea was kind of ridiculous.
‘I do not know my roses from my lilies, but if you have some aversion to it, I can get my assistant to handle it.’
She opened her mouth to object, but then it occurred to her that the idea of having an assistant organise all the details was one sure fire way to keep their wedding just as it should be: meaningless. Something they had to go through for the sake of legally marrying, and little else.
‘I’ll hire a wedding planner,’ she said, tapping a finger on the prenuptial agreement. ‘I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me before now.’
He lifted the glass of wine towards her and when their eyes met, something charged the air between them. Static electricity lifted the hairs on the back of her neck. She looked away again quickly.
‘To our wedding, then,’ he said. She couldn’t help but detect the grimness in his voice. To wonder, again, at what had happened in his first marriage to make him so deathly against the whole institution. Questions, questions, questions that she would never ask.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t read his feelings and sympathise with him.
‘I can’t thank you enough for this,’ she said, softly.
‘It is not just for you, Charlotte. This wedding benefits me too, remember.’
She nodded, clinking her glass to his then replacing it on the benchtop.
‘In fact,’ he said, taking a sip of his drink before echoing her gesture. ‘My grandmother is expecting us next week.’
Charlotte’s eyes flared wide. ‘When you say expectingus—,’
‘To stay with her,’ he said.
‘Oh.’
Her pulse went all thready and something like anxiety stormed through her, because keeping Dante at arm’s length was fine when they were alone, but in the presence of hisNonna, she’d have to do a much better job of acting enamoured with the man. And she’d have to know more than the superficial stuff about him.
‘Dante, when you say ‘next week’, you don’t mean we’re staying with her for a whole week, do you?’
‘She wants to get to know you.’
