Page 142 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

‘You have no idea how glad I am that you said that. We need to finish what we started nearly ten years ago. It doesn’t need to be complicated; it’s actually very simple.’

She couldn’t see his eyes but she was hypnotised—hypnotised by his deep voice, which was like smoke that seemed to wrap around her and vibrate deep inside her like a pulse. The pulse was everywhere, but especially focused between her legs.

‘It’s not that simple,’ she whispered, her protest feeble as she thought,It’s dangerous because I’m falling in love with you again. It’s possible I never stopped loving you.

He leaned in then and she pressed into his hardness as his hands swept down her spine before settling on her bottom, drawing her in even closer.

A sibilant sigh left her lips. ‘But you make me ache, Leo.’

‘I think we can do something about that ache, don’t you?’ he rasped against her mouth, and as his tongue flicked along the outline his thumbs were on the corners of her jaw, positioning her lips perfectly for him to plunder.

‘I…’ The rest of her words were lost inside his mouth as his tongue plunged between her parted lips.

Resistance didn’t even cross her mind as she kissed him back with a raw, almost feral desperation, her fingers sliding under his tee-shirt to feel his smooth skin. Revelling in the strength of his hard body and the ridges of muscle that contracted under her touch, she experienced a slug of power as she both heard and felt his groan.

‘Is this real?’ she wondered, not even realising she had voiced her thoughts out loud until he took her hand and curved it over the rock-hard, pulsing outline in his shorts.

‘Does that feel real to you,cara?’

‘Very, very real…’ she mumbled thickly, tightening her grip until he groaned out a protest.

They were stumbling but she didn’t know where to until she registered a light… Maybe she was dying and this was the end of a tunnel?

She wasn’t dying; it was the swimming pool, with its underwater lighting creating a stunning rippling illuminated effect that was reminiscent of the northern lights.

‘I’m never going to make it to a bed,’ he bit out.

‘Don’t apologise,’ she mumbled.

Still kissing and half carrying her, he dragged the cushions off one of the recliners on the terrace and threw them on the floor before sinking onto them with her clutched in his arms.

Kneeling face to face, he ripped off his tee-shirt, pulling it over his head in one fluid motion.

She barely registered that the sound that emerged, part gloating greed, part awe, part longing, came from her own lips. Hands resting on his bare shoulders, she kissed her way down his bronzed torso, pulling up only when she reached the waistband of his shorts. Holding his gaze, she slid her hands lower, biting her lip, her eyes fierce with satisfaction when he groaned again.

He jerked her back, his big hands framing her flushed face. ‘This isn’t going to bejustsex,cara, it’s going to be mind-blowing, head-banging sex,’ he growled out.

After thejust sexpart, she felt unshed tears press at the back of her eyes. She wanted more than that, but if she told him what she wanted, what she felt about him, it would be a deal-breaker. It was kind of ironic, really. That she had once turned away the man who would now run for the hills at the mention of love or commitment.

She lifted her chin and bit the lobe of his ear and whispered, ‘Prove it!’

With bewildering speed, she was flat on her back, the improvised bed of cushions protecting her from the hard surface of the ground.

She felt his body on top of her, but more she felt the staggering power that poured off him, the hunger, the sheermalenessthat excited her more than she would have thought possible.

He left her alone for a brief moment and peeled off his shorts. The scent of jasmine that spilled from the nearby containers would always, in Amy’s head, be associated in future with the sight of him standing there naked and fully aroused, a perfect image of primal male virility.

He was her fantasy in the flesh, made real just for her.

Kneeling, he pulled off her skirt and top and peeled the bikini away from her skin. A moment later she was naked and then he joined her and she was no longer an observer; she was fully involved in this primal mating.

He abruptly interrupted their mutual touching and kissing. ‘Protection?’ he slurred.

She bit his neck and thought,Kill me now.

‘You’re right, you never were a Boy Scout.’

‘I can still make it good for you.’