Page 9 of Modern Romance December 2025 1-4

She dredged her best Athena-everyone-loved-to-hate smile. ‘Life is short, and a girl needs to get her kicks where she can.’

‘The rate you’re going, the only kicks you’ll be able to get soon are from people you have to pay to take them from you.’ Disdain positively dripping from him, he turned sharply and strode to the door.

Athena had to swallow hard to loosen her throat enough to drink her coffee. Clutching her bag tightly to stifle the tremors in her hand, she lifted her chin and straightened her spine, and then followed Draco out to the waiting car.

After a drive conducted entirely in silence, Athena trudged up the twelve flights of stairs in her purple stilettoes without a single one of her usual complaints, and it wasn’t because Draco was impervious to her complaints. Everything inside her felt all tight, as if all the cells in her body had wound themselves into a coil.

The coil loosened a little when her phone buzzed in her hand. Heart skipping, she took her seat at her desk and swiped it, only to see that it wasn’t a message from any of her family or friends but a bank deposit notification. She’d been paid. Well, that was one good thing. She’d actually have money to spend that evening. Despite telling Draco she was going out clubbing, she’d worried she’d be forced to stay in due to lack of funds. Her credit card was maxed out and when she’d called Alexis the night before, asking him to increase the limit, he’d laughed and told her to get a second job. As if she had the time for a second job!

Her phone pinged another message. Hope rose then was dashed, finding it was from her favourite beauty store, emailing a discount code.

‘Are you planning to turn your computer on any time soon?’

She looked across the room to meet Draco’s baleful stare, smiled, and made a big deal about putting her finger to the on switch.

‘Well done. Now go and make us a coffee.’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘And leave your phone on your desk.’

She smiled through her scowl, then disappeared to the kitchen area and fixed the coffee in the exact way Draco liked it, which handily was the same way she liked it. When he’d first ordered her to make it, she’d deliberately made it too bitter, thinking it would stop him asking her to do it again, but all it had resulted in was him demanding she make it again and again and again until she got it right. When she carried the cups back into the office, she set his down carefully, having learned her lesson not to deliberately slop it everywhere when he’d forced her to clean his entire desk as punishment.

‘Thank you, Athena,’ he said, his voice deliberately edged with politeness.

‘You’re welcome, boss,’ she said, mimicking his tone.

She had to wait until he left the office for a party planning meeting before she could snatch another look at her phone. Draco was throwing a huge party to celebrate his acquisition of Tsaliki Shipping but, despite the whole of Greece knowing Athena was the queen of parties, she was excluded from all planning. They were the only meetings he attended that he didn’t drag her along to, which was incredibly unfair as all the meetings he did make her attend were as exciting as watching vegetables grow.

No new messages. The coil inside her tightening a little more, she impulsively called Stelios, the only one of her brothers she shared a mother as well as a father with. He was working in the company’s logistics department and no one had demanded he be fired!

‘I’m about to go into a meeting,’ he said tersely when he answered.

‘Poor you. Fancy meeting for lunch?’

There was a beat of silence that was a beat too long. ‘I’ve already got plans.’

‘Can I gatecrash?’

‘The others won’t want you there.’

‘Then dump them and come out with me,’ she half-joked.

‘I’m not going to do that.’ There was another too long beat of silence. ‘How about lunch one day next week?’

‘The dragon’s making me go to California with him, but we can definitely do that when I get back. Are you flying straight to Sephone after work?’

‘You know I am.’ Yet another too long beat of silence. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Of course! Glad it’s Friday—this has been a long week!’

‘Good… I need to go.’

‘So do I! Don’t get too bored this weekend, and don’t miss me too much.’

She ended the call to find Draco standing in the doorway, glaring at her. Her heart made the familiar jump. She was glad she hadn’t let the smile she’d maintained throughout that whole wounding call drop.

He strode to his desk to collect a file he’d forgotten to take into the meeting with him. ‘Next time I catch you making personal calls in work time, I’m going to put you on toilet cleaning duty.’