Page 27 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

She pulled one of her many amusing faces but he could see it was an effort for her, that she was going through the motions and her mind was elsewhere. ‘Draco, we both know that I am as useful in business as a chocolate coffee pot. When my contracted time with you is done it will be a competition between us over whether I run out of the door first or you push me out.’

‘Trust me, I’ll win that one,’ he jested lightly, even as a weight pushed down on his stomach to imagine a time when Athena wouldn’t be a part of his daily life.

But there was no answering riposte or laughter or even a smile. The little sparkle still left in her eyes extinguished like a candle being pinched out, and she broke the lock of their stares to put her plate on the coffee table. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t finish it.’

She’d eaten barely a quarter of her portion.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, no longer willing to pretend that there wasn’t a tension running through her. Athena wasn’t the biggest of eaters, but she normally ate a healthy amount. ‘Talk to me. I can tell something is troubling you.’

She drew her legs up and hugged her knees, her pretty top teeth biting into her bottom lip.

Her voice, when she finally spoke again, was low. ‘I’m a virgin.’

CHAPTER NINE

DRACO’S FIRST INSTINCTwas to laugh. Athens’…Greece’s…premier party girl, a woman infamous for her wide and varied sex life, had just declared herself a virgin. ‘Say that again.’

‘I’m a virgin.’

The men Athena had been pictured with over the years flashed through his head, a collage of Athena and her myriad lovers pictured together falling out of nightclubs, on her family’s yacht, at parties, out shopping…

She wasn’t the only one of the Tsaliki offspring to shamelessly embrace her carnal nature—before he’d settled down, Alexis had been one of the biggest playboys in Europe. Naturally, Alexis had been celebrated for his sex drive and conquests, while the whiff of old-fashioned double standards had seen Athena’s embrace of her sexuality spoken of and written about in unflattering and disapproving terms. That she’d been so blatantly unashamed about it had only added to the opprobrium.

‘I didn’t know you were that desperate,’Tobias had said in The Playroom when Draco had been looking for her. He’d wanted to hit him for that, but Tobias had only been vocalising what so many people in Greek society thought.

His brain was starting to burn.

So much of the Athena the world thought it knew was a constructed façade, but a virgin? It wasn’t possible.

‘If you don’t want to sleep with me then just say so,’ he said roughly. ‘There’s no need to lie.’

Her leg flew forward, the sole of her bare foot slamming into his thigh before she twisted off the sofa and jumped to her feet. ‘Fuck you,’ she spat, her beautiful face contorted with pain.

She’d reached the end of the living area before he absorbed what had just happened.

‘Athena, wait!’ he called as he strode to catch up with her.

She ignored him and charged down the corridor towards the bedrooms at a run.

He reached her just as she was slamming her bedroom door shut, would have successfully locked him out if he hadn’t wedged himself into the gap and forced his way in.

One look at her stricken face was all he needed to know how badly he’d got it wrong, and he kicked the door shut and closed the gap between them to haul her into his arms.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, holding her rigid body tightly to him. ‘I should never have said that. I know you’re not a liar.’

She didn’t say anything, didn’t make any response at all, not an arm around his waist or a hand to his chest to push him away.

It was only when he felt his shirt dampen against his skin that he realised she was crying.

He held her even tighter and pressed his mouth to her head. ‘God, Athena, don’t cry.’

Her whole body shuddered before she sagged against him and buried her face into his chest with huge, gulping sobs.

His chest twisting painfully at her desolation, he scooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed. There, he sat with her on his lap and propped himself against the headboard so she could curl into him, and just held her close as she sobbed her heart out.

It felt as if she was sobbing his heart out too.

Athena didn’t know why she was crying. She’d expected incredulity, but Draco’s accusation of lying had cut something open in her, and now it was as if the floodgates of all the pain she’d spent a lifetime smothering had opened and she didn’t know how to close them, could only cling to him as if he was the life raft stopping her from drowning.