Page 261 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

Screwing up her courage, she walked into the room. The very first thing that caught her eye was laid out on the bed. A gorgeous long sequined black dress. She ran her fingers over the shoulder, dragging them down the diagonal neckline. It was exquisite. When she turned the tag around, she saw a haute couture label that she hadn’t even had access to in her old life. Beside the dress waited a pair of black stiletto sandals and a velvet box that she opened to reveal a pair of earrings and bracelets.

When she had remarked that she had nothing to wear, Enzo had said he would take care of it—but she didn’t expect this! She picked the dress up, holding it to her body as she stepped in front of the full-length mirror. It was perfection. Her concern might have been a convenient excuse, but it had been honest: she really didn’t have anything to wear to a ball. She did have the money to buy something and theywereright on the Via Monte Napoleone, surrounded by high-end stores. But the moment she swiped her card, she would have been paranoid that the transaction would alert people to her location. Now Enzo had taken that worry away.

As she placed the dress back on the bed, she noticed a cosmetics counter’s worth of luxury makeup on the table. Her heart swelled at the sight. Enzo had thought of everything. It all showed her how much attention he really paid—especially when there should be no reason that her dress and shoe size should be correct. Then it struck her. On one of their previous business trips, her heel had broken, and Enzo had arranged for a new pair to be brought to her. At the time he had said he’d done it so that they didn’t lose any productivity, but maybe, just maybe, he had been taking care of her.

Warning bells sounded in Charlotte’s head. She was growing attached. Enzo had just proved that he had remembered something about her, when her aim was to be unmemorable. She had to hide, not get noticed. And in all this, she woulddefinitelybe noticed.

But she wanted it.

She wanted to wear this dress. She wanted to wear heels that made her feel tall and invincible. She wanted to do her makeup and style her hair. She wanted to let herself out of the cage. Toss away dull, quiet Celeste and let Charlotte shine. She wanted to stand in front of Enzo as the person she truly was and see if he would want her then. If he would sweep her up and let her bathe in that presence that made all else fade into nothing. She wanted to know if he would see her and know all of her, know that the intelligence she showed at the office came through a carefully controlled filter. That she was so much more than she seemed.

She was already showing him parts of her that she kept hidden, and every time she did, he came a little closer. And God, was it intoxicating!

Charlotte needed Celeste, but as scared as she was, she was liking who she was around Enzo. This trip had turned everything on its head, but she couldn’t regret it because since coming to Italy, he had revealed so much more of himself. She wasn’t deluding herself into thinking she knew him yet. He was so guarded, played everything so close to his chest, but some things were obvious to her now. He was witty and occasionally sarcastic. He liked taking care of people. He loved his home. There was an entire ocean of emotion within him, not to mention pain.

‘What happened to you, Enzo?’ she wondered, picking up a tube of lipstick and twisting it open. It was a stunning shade of red. Bold.

She looked around the room and laughed softly to herself.

‘No one has ever treated you like this, Charlotte.’

Even before she had left her life of wealth behind, no one had made her feel special. And in this one gesture, Enzo had.

She thought back to seeing Enzo disembark the plane looking fresh and glamorous, remembered how badly she wished it could be her. She so badly wanted a chance to live again, just briefly, before she went back into hiding. And Enzo had promised to keep her safe. Maybe she could have just one night to make her soul happy.

She turned to face herself in the mirror. ‘Maybe we could let Charlotte out, just this once?’

Enzo stepped out of the elevator on Celeste’s floor. He adjusted the cuffs of his shirt peeking out of his black tuxedo sleeves and then stood with his hands clasped behind his back. There were two reasons he was waiting for her. The first—and the one he acknowledged most willingly—was that, given how reluctant Celeste was to attend at all, he wanted to make sure she actually turned up. One day she would thank him for it, if not for the fact that he would have helped her find her fire, then maybe for the considerable bonus she would earn from helping him attract more business. Besides, they were meant to be attendingtogether.

The fact that he’d happily attended events alone ever since his relationship with Gia had crashed and burned was something he ignored now.

The second reason was that when Celeste had told him that she didn’t want her privacy invaded, she had looked so vulnerable that he absolutely had to ensure that she was protected. He had given her his word, and he stood by that.

But even he had to admit that there was one more motivation behind this. And when he saw Celeste walking towards him, that third reason revealed its name. Desire.

His breath caught. His PA was gone, erased entirely. Walking towards him, like some fairy queen wearing the night sky as ifshecontrolled the stars in the galaxy, eclipsing the beautiful marble pillars and dissolving the sculpted walls into nothing, was the woman he had almost kissed twice. Images flashed in his head. Celeste pouring wine. Celeste pulling off her glasses. Celeste dragging him out of his fury. Celeste in his office, waiting to be kissed. With every step she took, he felt the weight of each moment in his whole being. Those were just peeks into the woman he saw now. Uncovered. Exposed. Utterly breathtaking.

Desire and arousal unlike anything he had ever felt coursed through him now. He wanted her. He wanted her so badly that part of him wanted to take her up to his suite and forget about the ball. Forget about everything apart from her.

He would kiss that bare shoulder while slipping that single strap off the other. He would worship at the leg that was revealed to her thigh with every step. His hands would settle on her tiny waist, stroke at the teasingly small part that two sheer stripes exposed. The rest of her was hidden away in swathes of black sequined fabric.

He had to get his thoughts under control because he could feel the pressure in his trousers from her effect on him, and he was not some adolescent boy. But when he saw the white gold earrings with the rare blue garnet that he had bought her dangling down her elegant neck, he wanted to kiss her there. Leave a mark for all to see.

Desperation gnawed at him. He wanted her in his arms because for all their attraction and near misses on this trip, he still hadn’t experienced that, and he felt bereft of something he had never known. It was pure insanity, wasn’t it?

He couldn’t stop himself when Celeste came to stand before him. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek and saw her eyes follow him.

‘You look beautiful.’ That wasn’t enough of a compliment. Enzo was struggling to keep his hands to himself and not brush them through her long dark hair that she had styled in a way he had never seen on her.

Different. Celeste was changed in every way, and yet he had never seen her more herself.

There had been a look of apprehension on her face, but it had morphed into satisfaction when she saw him, telling Enzo that she’d known all along who she was beneath her camouflage. Satisfaction then morphed into triumph when her gaze roved over his body displaying his overwhelming desire for her.

‘You look pretty good too, Enzo.’ She smirked. ‘I imagine you’re going to get all kinds of attention tonight.’

He chuckled at her joke, self-satisfaction rolling through him. His plan was already working. He’d had no doubt, of course, but to see Celeste already being herself, being bold, made him happy in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time. He offered her his arm.

There was only one person’s attention he wanted.