Page 20 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

She winked. ‘I like to keep people on their toes.’

‘You certainly keep me on mine,’ he murmured.

The tingles of electricity increased.

They finished their meal with light, easy conversation that steered well away from anything else that was remotely personal, Athena doing her best to entertain him so she could hear that wonderful deep rumble of laughter again, whilst also doing her best to pretend her heart wasn’t racing and that there wasn’t a heated charge flowing through her veins. When their waiter appeared to clear their table she experienced a pang of mingled relief and regret that their meal was coming to an end. The pang deepened when she caught Draco indicating something with his eyes which the waiter nodded at before carrying their plates away without asking if they would like to see the dessert menu.

She lifted her chin and squashed the undeniable disappointment. She had nothing to be disappointed about. This wasn’t a date—she would never have agreed to it if it had been. Draco had taken her out to cheer her up out of a sense of duty and now his duty was done he…

A sparkling flame caught her eye and cut away her despondent thoughts. One of the waitresses had stepped onto the terrace carrying a plate with a chocolate bomb on it, one of those sparkler candles in its centre. To Athena’s astonishment, the waitress placed it in front of her.

Gobsmacked, she met Draco’s stare.

He smiled and softly said, ‘I know it’s a day late, but Happy Birthday, Athena.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

ATHENA GOT INTOthe car, rested her head back, crossed her legs and clasped her hands together. She could feel every staccato beat of her heart, a thud that pounded in her throat and rang in her ears. The shyness she’d felt entering Draco’s dining room that morning had nothing on what she was feeling now. The tension she’d felt within her own body on the drive to the restaurant had nothing on the tension she was feeling now. She was close to nausea with nerves, and she didn’t even have anything to be nervous about!

She’d blown the candle out and had wanted to cry.

She’d blown the candle out and had wanted to crawl across the table and fling her arms around him.

The last person Athena had flung her arms around had been Draco’s mother.

The car set off.

‘Music?’ Draco asked.

‘Some grime would be lovely.’

She felt him give her that stare of his, and giggled.

‘You don’t really like that shit, do you?’

‘Only when I want to annoy people,’ she admitted with another giggle. She chanced a glance and saw him shake his head with amusement. She also saw that he’d subtly angled his body away from her, just as she’d angled hers from his.

He named a singer she adored enough to have flown to London, New York and Buenos Aires to watch perform live.

‘He’ll do,’ she agreed nonchalantly, biting her tongue from excitedly sharing her adoration. It shouldn’t make her heart race even harder that Draco liked one of the singers she liked. There were so many musicians in the world that the odds of them not mutually enjoying at least one was infinitely tiny. It didn’t mean anything. She wasn’t an adolescent desperately striving to find something in common with her crush to prove they were meant to be together. Athena had never had a crush but she’d witnessed plenty of her peers have them, had always felt condescension at their stupidity.

The first track of her favourite album by the singer came through the speakers. It was an upbeat, funky song. Her throat tightened in anticipation of the second track, a low-beat song about unrequited love. By the time it piped through, their efforts at conversation had fizzled out. Her heart was thrumming so hard she could no longer feel its staccato. The collar of her jumpsuit felt tight around her neck and she grabbed it to loosen it so she could breathe, but it didn’t help. It wasn’t the jumpsuit stopping her breathing properly.

Four more torturously tense tracks passed before the driver pulled up in his usual spot outside her apartment.

Pulses rocketing, she swallowed before summoning a bright smile and turning her face to Draco. ‘Thank you for a lovely evening, boss, and, well, for everything. As far as bosses go, you’re actually an okay guy, and, well…’

Brain scrambled and her tongue tying itself in knots, she unthinkingly leaned into him to plant a goodbye kiss on his cheek at the same moment he turned his face to her. The corners of their mouths met. Beard stubble, softer than she’d imagined, brushed against her cheek.

She sucked in a shallow breath at the shock of it.

The world hung suspended.

Cheek to cheek, neither of them moved. Athenacouldn’tmove. It was as if the heat of Draco’s skin and the divine scent she so adored had fused to overdose her senses in one big hit of Draco, paralysing her. The only sound was the roar of blood in her ears, and though she knew on a hazy but fundamental level that she needed to move away, she couldn’t. Draco’s cheek against hers, so warm and rough and soDraco…

Warm fingers… Draco’s fingers…pressed into her cheek. Eyes she didn’t even realise she’d closed flew open and her lungs opened enough to suck in the tiniest breath of Draco-saturated air. Every vein in her body expanded and rose to douse her in a flush of heat.

Slowly, the fingers gently skimmed her jawline, trailing sensation. Slowly, he drew his face back, the bristles of his beard dragging exquisitely across her skin before his face tilted and a whispery tingle danced over her lips. Mouths barely touching, time slowed to nothing, the only movement the heady spinning of Athena’s head and the racing of her pulses before his lips slowly parted and drew hers apart with them.