Page 149 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Her eyes widened fractionally. ‘So she is—’

‘In love with someone else who… Well, it’s not my story to tell, but I can tell you that she wants to make this someone—’

‘Jealous?’

He shook his head. ‘More like make them realise that she will not wait around for them forever. This is only an assumption on my part, you understand. I’m not getting involved. I just agreed to say nothing, and it gets my grandfather off my back for a few days.’

Not getting involved… So, nothing new there, she thought, pushing down her resentment.

‘You’re not going to tell me any more than that, are you?’

‘No,’ he agreed with an enigmatic smile.

‘Did anyone ever tell you that you have a terrible attitude?’ Amy broke off, gasping as a wave washed over her feet, swirling around her calves until it retreated with a soft hiss. A second wave peaked as it approached.

Leo caught her hand and pulled her back onto the dry sand. The impetus brought their bodies onto a collision course.

The air left Amy’s body with a soft oomph as she stepped back. She went to take another step back but his hands came to rest on her bottom, and the impulse to pull free vanished in a puff of smoke.

She tilted her head back and looked into his face. He brushed the hair from her cheek and hooked a finger under her chin, bringing her face up to his. The featherlight touch made her think of his hands on her body, his fingers inside her body, and the things he did with his tongue.

She cursed her imagination, and her breathing had slowed to almost nothing as his nose grazed hers. His breath was warm on her cheek as his mouth moved soft as a whisper over her lips.

‘While it lasts, we are exclusive.’

She blanked thewhile it lastsand focused on theexclusivepart as she nodded in agreement.

‘You don’t leave me much energy for anyone else, anyway,’ he murmured against her mouth before his tongue sank hungrily into the sweet welcoming depths.

She kissed him back, her hands winding into the dark hair at the nape of his neck. ‘It’s been a bad morning, and everyone is a bit tense about tonight, especially with the entire gala hysteria.’

‘You love a challenge,’ he said with a heartless lack of sympathy as he lifted her into his arms so she could wind her legs around his waist and began to deliver a series of slow open-mouthed kisses down her throat. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing you in that dress. Next year you’ll be…’

His words cleared the sensual fog that suffused her and she became achingly aware of the carnal pressure of his erection against her core and the fact she was grinding against it to increase that delicious pressure.

Hands on his chest, she shimmed down until she was standing in front of him, her chest heaving.

‘Next year? I won’t be here next year. I was only meant to be here for six weeks.’

The truth was she had been drifting, avoiding the good offer from Ben’s friend, partly because she didn’t want to think ahead. She wanted to enjoy every moment.

‘Who knows where any of us will be next year, so live in the moment.’ His voice had a hardness to it, but not as hard as his stare, which was skewering her. ‘Don’t act like I’m holding you here against your will.’

He didn’t need to, and he knew it. She wore the dresses he wanted her to, she went to parties she didn’t want to go to…and suddenly her resentment rose.

‘I couldn’t walk out before the gala, that wouldn’t be fair.’

‘That is so bloody kind of you.’

Her jaw tightened at his sarcasm.

‘We’re having fun. Why are you so afraid to admit it?’ he asked.

‘I know it’s just convenient for you, having me around when you’re here.’

A raw laugh erupted from his chest as, hands in his hair, he turned back to the sea before, moments later, swinging back to face her. ‘Convenient! You are many things, Amy, butconvenientis not one of them.’

‘You’re never going to forgive me for the past, are you?’