Page 122 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Or sleeping with the boss.

Was this about Leo not losing an opportunity to drive home what he now had, and she didn’t? The best response to him trying to make her feel uncomfortable was to enjoy the perks, she decided. So she poured herself a cup and sipped contentedly as she took the time to examine her surroundings in a little more detail.

The first thing that caught her eye was a small button on the floor by the open bedroom door. Remembering how it had got there sent a hungry hormonal rush through her body.

She had decided to put down her behaviour last night to a combination of serious exhaustion and the fact that her sexual appetite had been virtually in hibernation for the past nine years.

It had taken Leo to reawaken it.

The thought sent a bolt of sheer panic through her as, with perfect timing, the door opened, not preceded by a knock, polite or otherwise.

Leo stood framed there for a moment, the image of his tall figure managing to imprint itself on her retinas.

His nostrils flared as his glance was drawn to the tray. ‘Is there a spare cup?’

She delivered a sweet smile before looking at him and, when she did, it stayed pasted there. She cleared her throat.

‘There is. Anyone would think someone knew you were coming when they ordered it.’ She had decided that if he mentioned last night she would just shrug and be cool, maybe even slightly amused that he was making a big deal out of nothing.

He hadn’t mentioned last night yet; he hadn’t done anything except send her pulse into orbit.

In her defence, he would do that to anyone, rocking up without warning in track bottoms and a damned running vest that clung damply to his golden skin which, gleaming against the black fabric, oozed pheromones from every perfect pore.

She fiddled with her hair as she tried and failed to look anywhere but at him.

‘Sorry, I ran for longer than I intended.’

She pressed her fingers to her temple, but she had no intention of telling him about her migraine, revealing any weakness.

‘Sorry as well about…’ His gesture took in his running outfit.

She licked her dry lips and swallowed, privately thinking that his smile was less apology and more taunt.

‘I didn’t want to keep you hanging around before we started the tour.’ With a frown, he walked across to the first window and raised the blind, before performing the same action on the other two.

She was stubbornly unwilling to ask him to lower them again. The discomfort was preferable to admitting a vulnerability to Leo. She adjusted her seat with her back to the windows and watched in silence as he poured his coffee.

He took a long swallow that caused the muscles in his throat to ripple before he folded himself casually into one of the armchairs. It wasn’t really built for someone of his stature but he was incapable of doing anything that wasn’t elegant and coordinated.

She practised a cool reply in her head but was fatally distracted. His body hummed with energy but underneath she could sense the tension vibrating off him.

Well, she reasoned waspishly, it only seemed right that the life of a billionaire should have some degree of stress. Maybe those articles she had read that claimed he slept the moment his head hit the pillow and woke up refreshed six hours later were part of the fictional narrative that surrounded him.

The women weren’t fictional though.

She experienced a moment of stomach-clenching nausea that she refused point-blank to acknowledge as jealousy.

‘I didn’t think it was a firm—’

‘Date?’

‘Arrangement,’ she inserted, her smile insincere but the accompanying scowl very authentic as she ignored the mocking note in his voice. ‘Another day will do just as well and if you’re busy it might be quite fun to explore on my own.’ Actually, a pair of dark glasses and some fresh air might, with the help of the painkillers, see off the incipient migraine.

‘It was firm, and I’m not in any hurry.’ He turned towards her as the light shifted and fell on her face, bleaching her skin of colour and emphasising the size and brilliance of her soft brown eyes. He frowned.

‘Did you sleep OK?’

‘Like a baby,’ she lied cheerfully. ‘Did you have a good run, or workout, or—’ She swallowed as her eyes remained unwilling to stop following the progress of a bead of sweat that slid down his chest.