Page 281 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8
‘Is it yours?’
‘Si, tesoro.’
He led her towards it, and for once, Charlotte could think of nothing clever to say.
‘Are you going to sail it?’
‘No. I have a two-man crew that I trust to be discreet.’
Enzo helped her aboard, then instructed one of the crew to fetch their luggage while he took Charlotte below deck. The living and kitchen areas were modern and furnished in creams and light wood with soft cove lighting. But they didn’t stop there. They moved through the cabins, and in the farthest one, she found the master suite.
The bed was huge. The wood-panelled walls enclosed them like a hug and the en suite was like something straight out of the world’s best hotels.
‘What do you think of your surprise?’
Charlotte was blown away. How did Enzo continuously surprise her like this? How was he able to give her exactly what she wanted without compromising her safety?
And in that moment, she realised that her heart was softening to Enzo far more quickly than she would ever have thought. All the things she had noticed about him in the last two years were only a small part of the man he truly was, and her admiration for that man just kept growing.
Enzo was fire and passion and consideration and intelligence and kindness in one being, and she kissed him then. She kissed him hard and with abandon. He responded instantly, and before she knew it, he had her on the bed, and she was calling out his name.
She was so consumed with him, she didn’t even really notice when the yacht left Amalfi.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked against his lips in the shower that followed.
‘Everywhere,’ he replied.
And he meant it.
They sailed first to Ischia and took the dinghy to the island to enjoy the hot springs, and from there they went to Sorrento, Capri, Positano. They spent days out on the water as they sailed along the Amalfi Coast, slowly making their way towards Perlano.
Enzo had made it possible for Charlotte to have something she thought she never could again. He showed her a life worth living. A life with safety and travel. He took her to numerous small towns where she enjoyed being anonymous. Never once did she feel the need to look over her shoulder.
Moored out on the water somewhere off the coast of Calabria, Charlotte stood at the rail on the aft deck looking at the twinkling lights of the distant towns with Enzo’s arms around her and his lips on her neck. The sky was inky black, stars bright overhead in a spray of silver.
They were utterly alone. Enzo had instructed the crew to return to land for the night. Charlotte hadn’t seen all that much of them anyway with Enzo keeping her so occupied, but she was grateful. They both knew that their time in Italy was coming to an end. They had lives in Sydney. Enzo had a company to return to, and Charlotte—well, she didn’t know what awaited her.
So before real life could barge its way back in, she would enjoy what freedom she had left.
‘It’s funny. I was so scared to go to the ball, but now I’m glad I did. Without it, we wouldn’t be here.’
She knew Enzo was listening, even though he said nothing and his kisses hadn’t even stuttered a moment. But she wanted a reaction from the man. Unable to resist poking the bear just a little, she said, ‘I guess I have Charles Moreau to thank.’
Enzo’s low growl had her laughing.
She turned in his embrace and hooked her arms around his neck. ‘Why, Enzo, I think you might be jealous,’ she teased.
‘I don’t get jealous. If I need to be jealous over something, it means it was never really mine, and you,tesoro, are mine.’
She didn’t want to point out that she was her own. After all, Enzo had given her freedom. Right now, being his didn’t seem like a bad thing, even if the whole debacle with the vineyards had shown her just how possessive he was. She was also certain that he was denying the truth. Of course he had been jealous. She had seen it then. Seen it in the way he guarded what belonged to him.
But that wasn’t a path she wanted to travel down now. In this moment, she wanted another memory to cherish.
‘Kiss me,’ she demanded. Her lips parted, ready. Enzo’s green eyes glowed in the pale moonlight. His hands cupping her face steadied her and made her heart race at the same time. A moment passed between them, and then his lips were on hers in a ferocious kiss. Breathing her in. Charlotte plunged her tongue into his mouth, and he pressed his body to hers, backing her against the rail. The slide of his lips, the taste of him, was making her frantic with need, but she wasn’t alone. She could feel his hardness pressed against her. His breath as harsh as her own. The kiss morphing into a punishing, bruising force that couldn’t contain what they felt for each other. She knew they were only this explosive because he reflected the same intoxicating attraction, the same passion that he ignited in her. The same insatiable need she felt for him. Mirroring their desire to infinity.
And just as her hands had gone to his shirt, tugging it apart and pushing it off his shoulders, he was pulling her dress over her head and tossing it onto the deck. She ripped her lips from his, kissing and nipping at his throat, down to his chest. Tasting the skin there.
Overwhelmed and on fire, she needed him now. Needed an outlet for these feelings, emotions that were so big it felt like her heart was bursting with them.