Page 265 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8
‘You,’ was all she managed.
‘And what about you?’ Enzo asked. Charlotte swore that in this moment, he was the embodiment of flame, and like a moth, she was drawn in regardless of the danger. He was uncovering a side to her she hadn’t even known existed. She wasn’t dull Celeste. She wasn’t even bright, talkative Charlotte. She was just a woman who craved the man before her.
‘What about me?’
‘The way you affect me. I am not blind,cara, but I have seen nothing tonight. Nothing but you.’ He took another step forward, and Charlotte had to crane her neck to look up at him. ‘I have spoken to people, but all I hear is your voice. I don’t want this drink in my hand or anything they could serve because I have no taste for it.’
‘What do you have a taste for?’ Charlotte asked.
‘Do you really not know?’ Enzo challenged. His lips were so close to hers that they shared breath, and it only made Charlotte more light-headed. As if she was floating.
‘I want you to say it,’ she replied boldly, closing the distance between them a little bit more.
‘You.’
‘Then, kiss me, Enzo.’
The words had barely been set free when his lips met hers, and all that crackling current built by those burning touches was finally freed in the most explosive feeling Charlotte had ever experienced. His warm hand found her jaw just as she wrapped her arm around his neck. Her fingers sank into his thick hair, grabbing hold in a fist that had him growling low in his throat. The sound made butterflies take flight in her stomach. And then he bit her lip and, as she gasped, plunged his tongue into her mouth, and Charlotte felt it in the most intimate part of her. She was lost to the taste of him. To the sensations in her body. It was as if she was awakening from the hibernation her life had become. Brought back to life by Enzo, by this kiss.
‘Gioia,’he whispered against her lips, never breaking the connection.Joy.
And when his tongue danced with hers again, Charlotte moaned into his mouth and felt his arm wrap around her, pressing her into his body. Felt the hardness pushing against her stomach. She wanted all of him. She was too lost to care where she was. She didn’t even feel the glass of Franciacorta in her grip. Didn’t feel it slip through her fingers.
Crash!
Glass hit the stone floor, shattering into a million pieces. The sound was dull and distant, only just reaching Enzo, making him pull away from Celeste’s intoxicating lips. The first things he noticed were her still-closed eyes, but then, almost in slow motion, he saw heads snap in their direction. The silence was suddenly deafening. The music had stopped. Every eye was on them, and just like that, sense returned to him. There was too much attention on them. Attention Celeste didn’t want.
That set him in motion.
‘Cara,’ he said softly, ‘look only at me.’ When she opened her arresting eyes and he was confident she was with him, he said, ‘We’re leaving. Don’t give anyone your attention. Don’t even look at them.’
He couldn’t take her back the way they had entered: they’d have to walk through the entire ballroom. Then he remembered that there was a second way out. Gripping Celeste’s hand tightly, he used himself as a barrier between the guests and her. Barely breaking stride to place his glass on a passing tray, he kept walking until they were back in the passage they had used before.
‘Have my car ready to go,’ he said into his phone without greeting or farewell. As they reached the back doors, he put his arm around Celeste’s shoulders, forcing her close to his body to ensure no one could directly see her face.
The valet had his car ready, the engine idling throatily, but Enzo paid no attention to the man until he’d ushered Celeste inside the car, still shielding her with his broad frame. Once he was in with both doors closed, he turned to face her. Her face was flushed, red slashes on her cheeks and neck.
‘What about the ball?’ she asked in a small voice.
‘I don’t care about it. What I care about is you and whether you are okay.’
‘I’m fine, Enzo. I—I didn’t mean for you to have to leave.’
‘Look at me,’ he instructed. It took a moment but she obeyed, and he cupped her cheek. ‘I don’t care about any of that. All I want is you, if you will have me.’ He’d had to get Celeste out of there so quickly that he hadn’t had a moment to process that kiss until now. It had rocked him to his soul, and he’d had nowhere near enough of her. The fact that he was still hard was testament to how badly he wanted her.
‘Yes.’
Music to his ears. Enzo kissed her hard and fast, then tore through the streets of Milan.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THEELEVATORDINGEDon the topmost floor of the hotel, opening into a penthouse suite that would have certainly been big enough for Charlotte to have shared with Enzo. But she had fled from him, from all that he saw. From their attraction. After that kiss, she didn’t know why she had. That kiss was everything she had hoped for and more. That kiss was a factor in why she had run from an arranged marriage. Because how could she be married to a man she couldn’t tolerate when the world held so much passion?
The man beside her held so much passion.
He burned with it, and she wanted to dance in the flame.
Never had Charlotte craved a man so badly. Yes, she’d had her share of boyfriends when she was a teenager and in her early years of studying, but those relationships—while sweet and innocent—couldn’t compare to how she felt now.