Page 141 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

I take one step to the edge of the bed where she’s sitting, and even though I’m towering over her, she only stares back at me, that challenge still glinting in her eyes, and I’m helpless to resist it. I know one way to get her begging, to get her agreeing to anything I ask, anything I demand.

I bend and take the tray off the bed, placing it on the bedside table.

‘Hey,’ she says. ‘I haven’t finished.’

‘Too bad.’ I step closer and lean down over her, forcing her backwards and down across the mattress. She is breathing fast as I place my hands on either side of her head, her gaze dipping to my mouth and up again, the colour rising in her cheeks. ‘I haven’t finished either,’ I murmur, then I cover her lips with my own.

CHAPTER TEN

Olympia

I lie backon the mattress, trembling as his mouth comes down on mine. My heart is beating hard and fast, and the touch of his lips makes the breath catch in my throat. He’s gentle, his kiss coaxing and hot, but it’s not me who’s surrendering and I can’t escape the intense satisfaction that coils tight inside me.

I used his own tactics against him, lying about marrying him, and he was the one who broke in the end, not me. No doubt he thinks he can make me do what he wants using sex, but if so, he’s in for a surprise.

My anger flickers as I open my mouth to let him in. He tastes of dark coffee and chocolate, and it’s delicious. I want to grab him, devour him, show him that the one thing I’m not is a tool for his use.

Ironically, it was talking to Ulysses that solidified my determination. I’ve heard him be funny, frustrated, impatient, and furious, but I’ve never heard him be afraid. I didn’t want to be the reason for that fear, but that choice was taken out of my hands by Rafael. I didn’t want to tell Ulysses about the pregnancy like that either, but again, that was Rafael’s fault.

Then again, if Rafael hadn’t taken me, would I have ever confessed to Ulysses? I’d still be there in the villa beside the ocean, still, in many ways, a prisoner of my own fear and indecision.

I’m not there now though. Rafael took me away, made me search within myself to find the strength I didn’t know I had, and sure enough, it was there. Strength to save me and my baby, to stand up to him and maybe bend him to my will even as he’s trying to bend me to his.

I managed it last night, locking him out of his own bedroom, which was incredibly satisfying. I didn’t want to fall asleep in his far too comfortable bed so quickly, but I must have been more tired than I thought, because I did.

My dreams, though, were hot and fevered, and I woke up aching. My body is Sleeping Beauty woken by a kiss and now hungry for nothing but more of them, everywhere, all over. Especially when I’d pulled open the door to find him standing on the other side, holding a tray full of delicious-looking breakfast.

Yet it was he who made me even more hungry, dressed in worn jeans and a black T-shirt, his short black hair standing up as if he’d run a hand through it one too many times. His dark eyes met mine and I’d felt the need rise in me, watched it flare in his gaze, too.

I always planned for him to do this, to take me down onto the bed and kiss me senseless, but I’d also planned to be the one in control of it, to be in control of myself and to stay in control.

Yet as his hot mouth devastates me with a kiss so sensual I can’t resist placing my hands against his hard chest, I can feel that control slipping. His body is as hot as his mouth and I want to lick him all over, explore him the way I never got to do in Singapore.

‘Marry me, dragonfly,’ he whispers against my lips. ‘I’ll make you feel so good every night. You’ll never go to bed hungry.’

I want to tell him no, I’m not going to marry him and he’s a fool if he thinks I will, but that kiss of his…hot chocolate, whisky, sex and sin, everything I’m craving and I can’t help but whisper in return, ‘Make me.’ And something in me wants him to. Something in me wants him to convince me that marrying him would be a good thing. I’m not immune to his promises. The thought of having him every night is…seductive. Too seductive.

His mouth trails kisses along my jaw and down my neck, and he gives a low laugh. ‘Is that a challenge?’

‘Yes,’ I breathe, the words escaping before I can stop them. ‘Convince me.’

He lifts his head, the look in his eyes scorching me to the bone. ‘Are you sure that’s what you want? I can beveryconvincing.’

I know exactly how convincing he can be and exactly how weak I am in the face of it. But to hell with that. If there’s another way, a better way, to test my own strength against his I don’t know it. I can’t compete with him anywhere else but this room, this bed, and there’s a piece of me that wants to test him and test myself too.

‘Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m a doormat, Rafael,’ I tell him huskily. ‘Or a sheltered virgin who knows nothing about the real world. I’ve been through things you can’t imagine.’

His gaze sharpens. ‘What things?’

Silly of me to mention that, because I don’t want to talk about it, not now and not here. So I reach up, sliding my fingers into the raw silk of his hair and holding on, pulling his mouth back where it belongs. On mine.

He is rigid in my grip for only a minute and then his mouth opens and he’s devouring me as hungrily as I’m devouring him. But he won’t have forgotten. What I’ve said has sparked his interest and I know what happens when his interest is sparked. He’ll get it out of me at some stage.

But that’s not now and so I lose myself in the heated glory of his kiss. His weight on me is heavy, yet not uncomfortable. It’s a barrier between me and the world, a brick wall protecting me. Hard and strong and impenetrable.

I spread my legs so he can settle between them, the hard ridge of his cock pressing down right where it feels so good, making me want to writhe against him, intensify my pleasure.

‘Ah, dragonfly,’ he whispers against my neck. ‘If I give you what you want right now, that’ll leave me with nothing to bargain with.’