Page 182 of Modern Romance September 2026 Books 5-8

‘What did we have, Sanzio?’ Her voice was low. ‘We had a marriage that was made for a set purpose. A purpose that would be fulfilled when the Palazzo’s restoration was finished. A purpose that included you settling a score with Tonia. That…that was it really.’

He could see her face working, her hands in her lap start to twist as she went on.

‘A purpose that never included—’ she drew a ragged breath ‘—becoming lovers. And…and just because we did become lovers didn’t mean anything else had changed.’

His eyes were on her. Fixed on her.

‘It changed everything,’ he said.

* * *

She heard him speak. But she felt a faintnessfill her.

‘It changed everything,’ Sanzio said again. He frowned. ‘At first, I didn’t realise it. At first, I simply wanted to indulge myself with you. I knew I shouldn’t, because you hadn’t married me for that, but I gave in to my own longing for you, told myself—’ his voice twisted ‘—that it would be a way for you to finally be free of your sister’s lifelong lies. You were so scarred by what she’d done to you, that I wanted you to trust me—trust that I found you beautiful and desirable. That you inflamed my senses! And that was true. All true. But there was more, oh, so much, much more! Just being with you, in bed and out, was bringing me what I had never known existed.’

He stopped. His eyes had never left hers, and she could feel the faintness increasing now.

‘Happiness,’ Sanzio said. He drew a breath, a ragged one. ‘We were so good together! It just worked—everything about us worked! Whether we were in Rome or the Palazzo, or anywhere at all! I just thought it would go on, just being like that. Because why shouldn’t it? When it was so, so good between us.’

His voice changed. ‘But when…that morning by the pool, you started to talk the way you did, it hurt. Hurt to hear you say so calmly that we would soon be divorced. That’s why I behaved as I did with Tonia. To try and get you to—’ he took a heaving breath ‘—to feel possessive of me, not dismissive, as if I meant nothing to you. When you—’ she saw his jaw clench suddenly ‘—were all the world to me.’

* * *

He had said it. Said what he had crossed the ocean to say. And now it hung there in the space between them—the space that gaped like an abyss. He could barely feel his heartbeat, yet he knew it was pounding within him. Every muscle was stretched as if on a rack.

‘All the world to me,’ he heard himself say again.

His eyes were on her, fastened on her, and her face was still white, her hands still clutched in her lap. But no longer twisting. They lay still, so very still.

And she was not speaking.

No word, no answer, no reply,

Nothing at all.

He made to turn, to go, to leave. He had crossed the ocean in vain.

Then, before his racked body could obey, his eyes still fastened on her, he saw something change in her face.

Tears welling in her eyes…

* * *

She could not stop them. They spilled, pouring down her cheeks. Silently and unstoppably.

He was there in an instant. Coming down beside her, taking her hands in his. His strong, warm hands, so dear to her, so very, very dear to her. She clung to them as if it were the only way she could exist.

He said her name and she turned her face to him, tears still pouring unstoppably down her cheeks. He was speaking now, his voice jerky, faltering.

‘Oh, God, Eleanora, don’t cry—don’t cry!’ She saw his face work. ‘If you want me to leave…’

A cry broke from her, and her hands gripped his so tightly it hurt. ‘Don’t leave me!’ It was a cry from her heart. The heart she had thought broken. Broken for ever. ‘Don’t leave me,’ she said again, a whisper now. A plea.

His arms came about her, slipping from her gripping hands, holding her close, so close.

‘I will never,’ he said, ‘leave you.’

And in his voice was all that she had ever longed to hear. And more as well.