Page 176 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Katherine made him feel like this.

He shouldn’t be surprised. Hate was a passionate emotion and there was unbridled passion here.

Do you really hate her?

No. He didn’t. Not anymore.

He gripped his hair at the roots, then spun around and saw her watching him.

Every shackle broke loose.

Katherine saw the moment Lukas threw caution to the wind. He closed the distance between them. Everything about him screaming hunter. A silver-eyed wolf. But she wasn’t prey. The moment he was within reach, she grabbed the front of his jacket and tugged him to her. She kissed him the same instant his hands cradled her face, breathing him in just as she heard him inhale this kiss. His lips were urgent but so were her hands and then he was spinning them around. Pushing her against the thick post. His body pressed against hers. Her stomach was in her throat. Chest heaving. Moisture pooling her core. Teeth and tongues clashing. Uncontrolled, just like they always were.

Whether they were arguing or kissing, there was never any controlling what they brought out in each other. And she wanted to touch him. Wanted him to call out her name and to make him beg, but there was no getting through his bloody jacket, and yet she felt his hands push through the gap in the blanket and slide under her top. His hands, surprisingly warm, left a path of tingles in their wake that had nothing to do with the temperature of their skin.

And then they were moving again but she stepped on the blanket and Lukas growled in frustration. Picking her up bridal-style, he took her back inside.

‘The sky is beautiful right now, but I have no patience in me,’ he said, teeth grazing her neck.

‘I don’t want you to be patient,’ she confessed breathlessly. She just wanted him. He always heightened what she felt. It was no different when the sensations were physical. The moment he set her on her feet, she threw off the blanket, and his hands were pulling up on her top and pushing down on her leggings, desperate to get to her skin. But she understood because she was shoving him out of that jacket and tearing at his sweater. Lukas bent down, allowing her to yank it off his head.

Katherine had seen many impressive athletes in her life, but she was ill prepared for the perfection of Lukas’s lean, cut body. Every muscle defined, hard and exquisite. And yet his skin was so soft, as if silk had been poured over a perfect frame to form him.

‘Enjoying the view?’

She grinned. ‘Yes.’ She had always been brutally honest with him, there was no reason to hide her thoughts now.

That moment was all Lukas gave her before finally pulling her top off and laying her in front of the fire on the thick, fluffy rug. His fingers slid beneath the waistband of her leggings and underwear alike, pulling them both off in one. And then he was kissing her…there.

Everything was moving so fast but not fast enough. She wanted his lips on hers and his hardness inside her. There was heat in her veins and lightning in her belly. Lukas’s tongue sent sparks of pure pleasure throughout her body but she wanted more. More. More.

Gripping his hair, she lifted his head off her. His eyes were half-lidded, drunk on the pleasure that was intoxicating her, and placing her hand under his chin, she urged him up her body but she didn’t have to ask for what she wanted; he knew. He kissed her with a ferocity, holding himself up on his arms, allowing her hands to go to his pants and undo the belt, button and zip without looking. He shoved all the layers off him.

Finally, he was naked.

Gloriously so.

Impressively so.

God, this man should be on display in a museum.

‘Glad you think so,’ he said into her ear and she flushed red, realising she had spoken the words aloud. He sucked on a spot on her neck and she moaned out loud.

‘Make that sound again,’ he instructed. He begged.

His tongue teased the same spot, but this time his hands travelled down her body, his fingers parting her sex, slipping in.

‘Lukas,’ she moaned louder.

‘Mmm, that’s even better,’ he said, voice like gravel. He pulled his fingers away and brought them up between them, showing Katherine that they were drenched. And then he licked them clean. She couldn’t take it anymore.

‘Dammit, Lukas, give me what I want,’ she demanded.

‘And what’s that?’ he taunted.

‘You inside me.’ She couldn’t breathe. She needed relief from the assault of pleasure on her senses.

‘I don’t have a condom, Katherine,’ he admitted in a seductive voice.