Page 41 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

Let that feeling be purged by Athena’s passion. Let it all be driven out of him.

Kneeling between his legs, she took him deep into her mouth, using her hands as well as her mouth to pleasure him, her hair falling like a blonde cloud over his stomach and thighs. Groaning his pleasure, he submitted himself entirely to the bliss of Athena. The sensations were incredible…incredible.

Shewas incredible, and when she laved her tongue back up his chest and gently bit a nipple with her teeth before straddling him and sinking onto his length, euphoria flooded him and he lifted his head and caught her face in his hands, kissing her hard enough to bruise both their mouths.

Lying back down, he gazed at her with glazed eyes as she began to ride him. Hands on his chest, her own glazed stare focused entirely on him, she rode his length with breathless moans that lengthened until her nails dug into his chest and she cried out and he experienced the glorious sensation of Athena’s orgasm tightening and spasming around his hardness and pulling him deeper into her. But it wasn’t enough for him to let go, too, not yet, not this time.

Like a drug to him, he needed more of her, much more, neededeverything, and he flipped her onto her back and roughly pushed her thighs up and apart before driving his full length inside her with one thrust.

Pinning her hands, he soaked in her flushed beauty and thrust in and out of her slick tightness, driving himself as deep as he could go with deep groans he had no control of, the sensations absorbing into every crevice of his being. All abandon gone, he pounded into her, the scratching of her nails down his back and her thickening moans of pleasure and encouragement spurring him to thrust even harder, even faster, harder and faster, until he lost all control and bucked into her with a strangled cry that came from another realm, and he was taken to another realm, barely conscious that Athena was gripping his buttocks and grinding herself into him as she climaxed again, only aware that when their mouths and tongues found each other as they drew out the last ounces of the pleasure, the only thought in his head was that this was how he wanted to die.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE LOOK FROMevery employee Draco passed the next morning as he made his way up to his office made it clear that the incident with Diego Guardiola had already got out.

His gut instinct proved right when he entered the boardroom and found he didn’t have to tell his directors that the deal with Diego was a non-starter. It took everything he had not to look at Athena, sitting where she always sat in meetings, in the corner of the room with a bottle of water in one hand and a notepad and pen she wouldn’t use in the other.

Growth had always been his business mantra. He actively encouraged innovation and lateral thinking amongst his staff and welcomed debate because only by debate could bad ideas be discarded and good ones develop and flourish. He allowed no political bias or personal preferences sway decisions on what was developed or who they collaborated with. It was a rare occasion that he walked from a deal that could make him money, the last time being four years earlier when he’d caught the figurehead of the company he was looking to go into business with snorting cocaine off a keyring at eleven in the morning. His gut had already been telling him there was something off about the man and that incident had solidified his instinct.

And so walking away from a business deal that, if it had reached its full potential, could have added billions to Manolis Technology was as shocking to his staff as if he’d announced that everyone was being made redundant. His obvious bad mood meant no one spoke up to question this or ask what had gone wrong, but they filed out of the boardroom at the end of the meeting muttering between themselves.

‘You look like you need coffee.’

He closed his eyes before bringing a tight smile to his face and turning to Athena, who’d moved next to him. ‘A coffee would be great, thanks.’

With the utmost discretion, she stroked his hand with her little finger before darting towards Grace, who was reading something on her phone, saying, ‘I’m making coffee, Grace. Want one?’

His PA looked up with a tired smile. ‘Please.’

To his puzzlement, Athena then put an arm around her recent enemy for a quick hug and squeezed her hand as if in sympathy before disappearing from the boardroom.

About to ask Grace if she was okay, he stopped himself. He had enough going on in his head without adding Grace’s potential problems to it. That enough was Athena.

She hadn’t just infected his life but his mind. Everything he was feeling for her…it was all wrong.

He’d never lied to himself that what they were sharing wasn’t serious, had never lied to himself that what he felt for her wasn’t more than he’d felt for another before, but what they’d shared in his bed had blown more than his mind.

He’d lost control with her.

She’d slipped into his veins and if he didn’t get her out, soon he would bleed only Athena and then he risked the potential of losing everything.

He’d walked away from a deal for her. Thrown potential billions away for her.

It was as if some kind of madness was swallowing him and if he didn’t act fast it would consume him.

The tiny heat of sensation on his hand where her little finger had touched it… He rubbed his thumb over it as if it could erase the sensation and said, ‘Grace, call the flight crew and tell them we’re flying back to Athens this afternoon.’

‘But we’re not due to leave until—’

‘It’s not up for discussion,’ he snapped. ‘Just do it. I want to be in the air no later than six—make sure Theodore and Stav are packed and ready to leave on time, and call Wanda and tell her to pack Athena’s stuff and arrange for it to be couriered to the airfield.’

‘Whose room shall I tell her to take it from?’

It took a beat for him to understand what his PA had just said. ‘If you repeat anything like that to anyone else, you’re fired.’

‘Do it,’ she snapped back, her bottom lip trembling. ‘It will save me quitting.’

‘You even think of quitting on me then I really will fire you.’