Modern Romance Collection July 2024 Books 1-4

CHAPTER TEN

‘OH,WHATASURPRISE,’ Anton remarked under his breath. ‘Amelia’s late.’

Something shifted inside Benedetto, an irritation, an impatience, a quickness to judge he’d never felt towards his friend. He tried to suppress it, but when Anton looked at Benedetto with a grin, Benedetto didn’t return it. If anything, his expression was ice cold.

‘She’ll be here,’ Anna-Maria said. ‘And in the meantime, let’s carry on.’

The rehearsal was long and involved and as Benedetto was to stand with his best friend as a groomsman, alongside Rowan, who was best man, he was an integral part of proceedings. But so was Amelia.

Where was she?

Far from taking the cynical tone of voice his friend had adopted, he felt worry begin to fray at the edges of his mind. She wouldn’t have run away again, he was sure of it, but it also seemed strange that she’d be late for something as important as this. He gave the rehearsal about a tenth of his focus and spent the rest of his time looking at his watch surreptitiously and kicking himself for not having taken her phone number in exchange for giving out his own.

‘This is where the bridesmaid will take the bouquet.’

‘If she shows up,’ Anton drawled, earning a sharp gaze from his mother and a placating hand on the arm from his fiancée. At that exact moment, the doors to the chapel opened and a clearly flustered Amelia jogged in.

‘You’ve already started,’ she said as she drew near the group.

‘Yes, an hour ago, when the rehearsal was scheduled for,’ Anton sniped.

‘My schedule says three o’clock,’ she responded tersely, brandishing her phone. ‘And I’ve literally just got out of the dress fitting. Why did no one call me?’

They all looked at each other, but when Amelia’s eyes came to Benedetto, he hoped she could see how proud he was of her for speaking up to Anton.

‘Oh, dear.’ Vanessa spoke first, moving to Amelia and looking at her phone. ‘You’ve been sent the old timetable. I’m so sorry, that’s our mistake completely.’ Benedetto liked Vanessa more and more. ‘There have been so many changes in the last week, everything’s tweaked and you’ve received the schedule that was valid up until a couple of days ago.’

‘It’s fine.’ Amelia’s manner softened immediately in deference to her future sister-in-law, and perhaps in response to the obviously conciliatory tone in Vanessa’s voice. ‘I’m sorry to have missed so much.’

‘Oh, it’s nothing complicated. I’ll have a printed guide sent to your room, but other than walking in with me, and taking my bouquet, the main thing is to stand at my side and smile serenely.’

‘That I think I can manage,’ Amelia replied. There were smiles all round, except from Benedetto, who had a deluge of unfamiliar emotions cresting in his belly.

After the rehearsal, when Benedetto wanted nothing more than to leave with Amelia, and ideally whisk her back to the boat for a few hours of actual privacy, he couldn’t even get close enough to her to speak. Frustration bubbled beneath his skin as he watched her disappear into a limousine, bookended by the King and Queen.

She suddenly seemed incredibly untouchable, and he hated that...

Amelia’s feet were killing after a full day spent in heels, which she hadn’t worn for the longest time. In fact, she’d barely worn closed-toe shoes at all since leaving Catarno. She flicked on the TV in her room, smiling at the footage that came up of Anton and Vanessa meeting well-wishers outside the palace. They were a very handsome couple and Anna-Maria was right—Vanessa was clearly an excellent match for Anton.

Amelia was on her way to the bathroom to fill the tub when a knock sounded at her door. Not the main door, but the smaller door from her study. With an unsteadiness to her legs suddenly, she crossed the room and wrenched it inwards, smiling instinctively at the sight of Benedetto on the other side.

His eyes flared with hers and before she could make a joke about the contortions he had to perform to get through the space, he was in her room and dragging her into his arms, kissing her hard, fast, slamming the door shut with his foot and fumbling the lock before lifting her, legs cradled around his waist, and carrying across the room.

She squawked as he dropped her onto the mattress then felt breathless when he simply studied her as though she were a piece of delicate artwork. Her pulse quickened.

She pushed up, reaching for him, as he came towards her, and their bodies melded once more, twisting together, legs, arms, lips meshed, hearts racing, clothes being shucked with so much urgency that something made a ripping noise and Amelia laughed softly, but only for a minute, because then he was taking her, and it was more, so much more, than she’d ever known. His possession of her was so fierce and absolute, so breathtakingly swift, so full of hungry need that something powerful seemed to be emerging in her mind, with his every thrust and movement, a voice was sounding, a bell tolling, a knowledge forming that she couldn’t quite grasp but knew better than to ignore.

It was all too hard to capture though. Passion was driving logic from her mind and as he moved, she pressed her nails into his shoulders, ran her fingers down his back, dug her heels into his spine for better purchase and then with a sound of frustration she rolled, moving him to his back so she was on top, in control, taking him in and arching, every part of her rejoicing in all of this, in all the perfection and pleasure that came from being with the man that she loved.

And there it was.

As pleasure exploded through her and she felt all the pieces of her fall apart at the seams, her brain forced comprehension to dawn on Amelia, so finally she understood exactly what her mother had been talking about that morning.

She loved him.

It had happened perhaps immediately, or maybe that had just been lust, but without Amelia realising what was going on, without her understanding the basis for her behaviours, and in contravention of everything she’d promised Benedetto, she realised it had all been about love.

That was why she’d felt panic at the thought of leaving him in Crete.

That was why she’d stayed. Because loving him made her brave and powerful, because, whether he was with her or not, knowing that she loved him made her strong, and whole. She hated the concept of needing any other person to be whole; she’d certainly never felt it before. It wasn’t that she’d been lacking in anything prior so much as, having met Benedetto now, she realised she would never be complete without him.

And the thought terrified her, because it was the exact opposite of what he’d said he wanted, what he felt about life and relationships and his future. How many times had he reminded her that this was just sex? That he was leaving after the wedding?

‘Amelia?’ His voice was raspy, his own explosion having coincided with hers, so his chest was racked with heavy, sharp breaths but his eyes were watchful, contemplative. ‘Are you okay?’

What choice did she have but to answer that she was? She couldn’t tell him how she felt. At least, not yet. The realisation was so fresh for her, Amelia needed time to interpret her feelings, to be sure she wasn’t imagining this, because of her conversation with her mother.

There was no sense complicating everything, and before the wedding, when it might turn out to be nothing.

She smiled at him brightly, collapsed onto the bed beside him and stared up at the ceiling. ‘I’m glad you came to see me.’

‘As am I.’ He caught her hand, lifted it to his lips. ‘Anton was hard on you today.’

‘He always is.’

Benedetto frowned. ‘I didn’t realise. In the past, when he’s mentioned you—’

‘You saw it from his perspective,’ she said with a lift of one shoulder, then pushed up onto her elbow to see him better. ‘That’s because you’re a very good friend.’

‘As he has been, to me.’ He hesitated. ‘I didn’t like the way he spoke to you.’

Her heart lifted. She cleared her throat. ‘Why is that?’

‘Because you don’t deserve it.’ He responded so quickly, she knew the answer was honest. ‘It’s not fair.’

‘Ah. So your sense of justice is offended on my behalf?’

‘You’re laughing at me?’

‘No.’ She leaned forward, brushed his lips with her own. ‘I just thought you might be being defensive of me, that’s all. I don’t think I’ve ever had a man, or anyone, be like that. I kind of like it.’

He frowned, and she realised she’d gone too far. ‘You don’t need me—or anyone—defending you. You are more than capable of defending yourself brilliantly.’ He kissed her back.

Her heart thundered and she felt the sting of tears cloying at the back of her throat, but she pushed them aside. There would be time to understand her feelings later. For now, she just wanted to feel, and no one made her feel better, physically, than Benedetto.

He hadn’t intended to stay the night. Not because he didn’t want to, but because there was a greater potential for discovery if they started acting like that and they both knew this had to be kept secret.

Or was it, he wondered, early the next morning as he lay awake beside Amelia, naked and reluctant to leave her bed, that he didn’t know how to define this, even to himself?

He’d known for as long as he could remember what he didn’t want in life.

Even as a boy, he’d formed the strongest belief in a need to be on his own, never to put his life, heart, future in anyone else’s hands, because that was where true happiness and freedom lay. And then Sasha had come along, and he’d experienced the wonder of loving someone—and the intense, awful vulnerability of losing them, and every lesson he’d ever learned as a child had rammed back into him at warp speed.

Nothing with Amelia changed his feelings on this score. If anything, she’d reinforced them all over again, because she was the one person he’d ever met he actually perceived as a threat.

She threatened him, with her very existence.

She made him vulnerable, just by being her.

Because if he let himself, he could really come to care for her. Not as he did now—as someone he felt protective of, someone he was incredibly attracted to—but as someone he simply wanted in his life.

The thought had him standing, pacing to the window, stark naked and unconcerned with his nudity, his gait long and athletic, as if the adrenaline coursing through his veins had energised him.

There was risk here, the kind of risk he usually avoided like the plague. With a spine of steel, and panic surging in his gut, he reminded himself how temporary this was. He was leaving, just as soon as the wedding was over. And yet, even the thought of that turned his blood to ice. Which only served to underscore the urgency of his departure.

‘Good morning.’

Her voice wrapped around him like tendrils of silk, sending unwelcome sensations through his body and into his bones.

He turned slowly, steeling himself to look at her. ‘Hello.’

She sat up, the sheet falling to her waist, revealing her beautiful breasts. Good intentions be damned, he prowled back to the bed like a bee drawn to a wildflower.

‘You stayed.’ She smiled, putting a hand to his chest, fingers splayed wide.

‘I didn’t mean to.’ The words were unintentionally curt. ‘I fell asleep.’

‘I’m glad.’

‘Are you?’

‘Sure.’ She pressed a kiss to his lips. ‘This is my favourite way to wake up.’

He groaned inwardly. This was getting way out of hand. The sooner he left Catarno, the better. They both needed to get on with their lives and forget this had ever happened.

‘What will you do, after the wedding?’

The question, as she sipped her strong black coffee, caught her so completely by surprise that her hand trembled and coffee spilled down her front. She swore softly, grabbing a napkin and dabbing at her robe. Benedetto reached over to do the same, but she batted his hand away.

‘I’m fine. Just clumsy.’ She replaced the cup carefully. ‘Why do you ask?’ Her pulse was racing, her heart bursting with such an intense hope she found it difficult to speak. Her insides seemed to be bouncing around all over the place.

‘No reason,’ he responded with nonchalance, sipping his own coffee in a far more successful manner. ‘I’m going to fly out to Athens the following morning, spend a couple of days in my office there, then move on to New York. My boat, however, is still here, and can be put at your disposal, if you’d like to use it to get back to Spain.’

Amelia reached for the coffee cup so her hands would have something to do, so she could focus on something other than his words. There was nothing new here. He’d said again and again that he was leaving after the wedding, but that was so soon now, and she hated the thought of it. She forced a bright smile to her face. ‘I hadn’t really thought about it.’

She stood up abruptly, aware that she was acting strangely, that she was probably revealing far too much of her feelings and not able to care.

‘You don’t want to return to Valencia?’

‘To do what?’ she asked. ‘Is there any point in running away again?’

‘You had built a life for yourself.’

She nodded, digging her nails into her palms in an effort to control her rioting emotions.

‘So you plan to remain here?’

She turned to face him, the sun streaming in through the window behind her, highlighting her hair with natural gold.

‘What’s in New York?’ she asked instead, staring at him as though he were a stranger. Twenty minutes ago, they’d been making love as though they were one another’s salvation, their reason for being, and now he was calmly discussing exiting stage left of her life in two days’ time.

‘A company I’m buying. I’ll be there six months or so.’

You should come visit.

She waited for the invitation. Waited for him to say something, anything, that might suggest he was leaving the door open to something more happening between them. Even after his insistence that this was just sex, she hoped against hope, and it was then that she understood how desperately she really did love him. And how important it was to hide that from him.