Page 42 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 5-8
DULCIE OPENED HER EYES, moving from one kind of darkness to another, seeking the cause of her abrupt awakening. And then she realised what it was.
Ettore was gone.
She didn’t try to deny or stifle the disappointment that swelled up inside her chest to fill her ribcage. She was done burying her emotions. And last night, they had risen up inside her like a natural spring.
And out of everything that had happened last night, that was the most surprising part. That despite having clutched her guilt and shame close to her for so many years, telling Ettore the truth about her childhood had been easy.
Not painless, but he had made it easy somehow.
His honesty and support had overwhelmed her, and it had felt like the most natural thing in the world to lean into his hard chest, and for him to stroke her hair and hold her close.
And when he had tilted her face up to his so that his mouth was so temptingly close to hers, how could she not have kissed him?
Or touched his face, his arms, his chest…
She pressed her thighs together around the ache there, a slide of heat cutting through her like a hot knife through butter as she remembered his fingers pressing hers around the post and the feel of his cock as he thrust inside her.
Afterwards, when he’d held her close, it had felt more than just post-coital satisfaction. It had felt like an admission of something. Of possibilities and the potential for a rearranged world order where this lie they were living wasn’t pretence any more.
Because she knew who he was now, and why he had reacted as he had when Oscar had turned up, unannounced, drunk. She had seen his confusion and shock and interpreted it as disapproval. But now she knew that he had seen Oscar as yet another responsibility to add to all his other responsibilities.
She glanced up as the door to the bedroom opened, blinking into the light angling across the floor, and her heart slipped free of its moorings.
It was Ettore.
‘You’re awake.’
She nodded. ‘I just woke up.’
‘Good.’ He nodded, and the hope rushing through her veins slowed to a trickle. He didn’t sound unfriendly, but he didn’t sound like the man who had stretched her hands above her head and licked her throat and sucked her nipples into his mouth until she’d begged him to take her.
‘I have a couple of calls to make but I’ll tell Valentina to bring you up some breakfast.’
‘I can—’ she began, but he had already closed the door.
She had barely managed to press the remote to open the thick curtains that covered the windows before she heard Valentina knock on the door.
‘Buongiorno, Signora.’
‘Grazie, Valentina,’she said as the housekeeper placed one of those folding wooden trays that you saw in period dramas across her lap. ‘Goodness, what’s all this?’
‘Scrambled eggs and pancetta. And then some fruit and coffee. Signor Ettore said you’d had a restless night, and you might need something for energy. But I can make something else if you prefer?’
‘No, no, no. This is perfect. Truly.’
‘Buon appetito!Would you like me to bring another cup?’
Dulcie looked up from her tray in confusion, wondering why Valentina was asking her that, and was shocked to see that Ettore had returned. She stared at him mutely, caught in the honeytrap of his golden gaze and that devastatingly beautiful face. As Valentina retreated, she half expected Ettore to follow her. But instead, he murmured something to the housekeeper and then closed the door softly. Dulcie stared at him in silence, waiting for him to disappear through the connecting door back into his room. But he didn’t do that either.
Instead, he walked over to the bed.
‘Have you eaten?’
He nodded. ‘Earlier. I didn’t want to wake you. I thought you needed some sleep.’
‘You mean after my restless night?’ she said softly. ‘Restless?’
She watched his mouth pull up at the corners minutely in a way that made her skin feel hot and shivery and her fingers reached for the edge of the sheet, tightening it around her body.
