Page 214 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

She had asked if he’d watched it. He had assured her that he had no interest in entertainment and besides, he did not keep electronic devices around this house. There was only his tablet and his mobile. Nothing else.

Don’t tell me that at heart you’re a Luddite, she’d said, clucking her tongue.

She was wearing one of the dresses he’d bought her, something shimmery and bright that reminded him of her laughter. He liked to see her in it. He liked to hear her laugh. He particularly liked to make her laugh when he was deep inside her and couldfeelher laughter, like he was learning how to be something more than ice by feeling her do it.

But this was no longer that first night and the glut of need thereafter. There was no longer the same driving requirement to take her in a wild rush, knowing that he would lose her by his own hand, and soon.

It was possible that even if he tried such a thing now, his own hands would defy him and do as they liked. Which could never involve hurting her in any way that did not involve the bedroom.

These days he could allow the anticipation to build. He could actually let himself enjoy it. He couldfeel, which was something he certainly wasn’t comfortable with, but he was willing to do it.

Around Rux only.

Electronic devices can be hacked, he told her.The fewer I have, the less likely it is that they will be compromised. And the more easily I can monitor them on the off chance that someone imagines they might best me.

She’d eyed him for a moment and he’d braced himself, imagining that would be one of her quiet questions that he always interpreted as an attack. That was what it felt like—as if she was taking a sword she should not have been able to wield and slamming it straight to his ribs, through to that place where his heart still ached.

But she didn’t ask him anything. Instead, she started acting out the movie—something involving a princess named after a flower and her romantic travails.

The strangest part was, he was actually enjoying it.

Jovi found anything and everything she did charming. That was the issue.

And he was already deciding how best he would reward this charm, what level of obedience he would require, and how many times he would use it to make her melt in his hands. He liked a challenge, after all. Particularly oneshefelt was impossible.

But instead, he heard the sound of a familiar car on his drive, and everything…splintered.

He was no longer made of ice, perhaps, but he was still him.

And he didn’t need to go and see who, precisely, was approaching the villa. Time was up no matter who it was.

Suddenly, the time they’d had until now seemed like a blink. A moment.

When Rux froze, her gaze on him, he realized she was mimicking whatever he was doing. He didn’t have to tell her not to speak, to let him listen. She knew enough to simply watch him and wait.

Everything in him stilled, the way he’d taught himself long ago.

He heard a car door slam, but only the one. He knew it could only be one person—the one who would scoff at the notion that he needed henchmen no matter what he was doing, but who would also have been forced to bring them along if he’d come to do something himself.

That meant that Antonio was extending an invitation to his nephew.

Jovi let himself work through the various chess moves that this opening salvo on the family’s part put into play, then moved his gaze back to Rux.

Who stood there waiting, God help him, as if she would wait for him forever.

“Go into the garden,” he told her, and did nothing to make his voice less dark. “Hide yourself well and don’t come out. Not until I tell you to.”

He thought she might argue, but she didn’t. She only whirled around, and darted into that undergrowth. He watched her go and noted exactly where she disappeared, crouching down into a gnarled section that looked like thorns.

Good girl, he thought.

He picked up the tray offriscuandarancinaand tossed it all into the greenery, so that it would not look as if he was entertaining anything but his usual grim thoughts.

And when his cousin made his way out of the house and down the back stairs, Jovi looked the way he always did.

Sitting still beneath the tree, gazing at nothing. Doing nothing.

Although this time, it was clear to Jovi that he’d lost his touch. He was no longer the man of ice he been his whole life. He was well and truly melted. But he could not allow himself to worry about that. He thought of ice. Stone.