Page 177 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

‘You can’t leave me like this,’ she begged. She was certain she would cry if he stopped now.

‘I have no intention to. I’m happy to feast.’ He licked his pink lips and she blushed to her roots.

‘I’m on the pill and you haven’t been with anyone in three years.’ A fact she trusted because Lukas always spoke the truth. He was blunt and seemed like he didn’t care how his words landed so there was no reason to doubt him now. Regardless of how much she hated him, his integrity was undeniable.

The thought made her realise something: She didn’t hate him anymore.

‘The pill wouldn’t make a difference anyway,’ he said against her skin. His fingers teasing her once again. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes,’ she panted. ‘I want you now.’

Lukas didn’t need telling twice and thrust his hard, throbbing cock into her. She gasped loudly, arching her back. And then he raised her leg and set a pace that made her light-headed. High. Her lungs were no longer adequately functioning and each of his growls and curses and pants raised goose bumps on her skin. Made her heart skip beats.

This was beyond anything she could have imagined. He kept pushing her higher, higher, higher. Like a firework rising above the clouds.

‘Come for me, Katherine,’ he commanded, and she exploded around him in pyrotechnic glory. Lukas, her pyromaniac, was close behind. He slid his large hand under her head, holding her forehead to his, cursing out her name as his body tensed, his muscles lower down undulating in waves until he could finally take a breath. Until he relaxed and let her leg down. Until he finally opened his eyes. They were molten silver.

‘Lukas,’ she breathed, scarcely able to believe what they’d done or how incredible it felt or how badly she wanted to do it again.

‘I know,’ he replied.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Katherine found herselfin the entertainment room, an inviting warmly coloured space. She ran her fingertips along the edge of the polished pool table. Picked up a ball, testing the weight of it.

She had left a sleeping Lukas in front of the fire. In the aftermath of them having sex, she hadn’t been able to rest. She couldn’t stop thinking about how crazed they were for each other. How perfectly they fit. How he had been the best she had ever slept with. How frantic they had been.

And then she couldn’t stop thinking about what he said.

The pill wouldn’t make a difference anyway.

She didn’t know what that meant but it made her think about her own choices. She didn’t want love and children and sacrifice.

She fetched a wooden triangle with rounded corners hanging on the wall and brought it to the table. One by one she placed the coloured balls inside, but kept looking at the door as she did so.

‘Get a grip, Katherine. The man is asleep.’ But she wished he wasn’t. She wished he was in this room with her and that was exactly why she needed a space to think. She stood back and looked down at the perfect J the solid balls had formed, then picked up the cue ball and took it to the top of the table.

‘So this is where you are.’

She swivelled her head to find Lukas leaning against the door-frame, hands crossed over his bare chest—well, she was wearing his sweater. His jeans sat low on his hips but the button was open. His golden-brown hair was mussed from sleep and sex.

‘I thought you were asleep,’ she said, turning around to lean against the table.

‘I was, but then I needed something and the one I needed it from was missing.’

‘Oh?’

Lukas pushed off the door-frame and stalked towards her. One hand went to her face, tilting it up to him, the other grabbed her hip.

‘I need this,’ he said before kissing her. Instantly, she was returning it. The passion from earlier that had lowered to a simmer was at boiling point again and she couldn’t get enough of him. Couldn’t pull him close enough, or touch his skin enough. He was utterly intoxicating. A drug made for her. A thought that made her panic and slow the kiss to a stop. She broke away from his lips but not out of his hold.

He smiled. ‘I like the way my shirt looks on you.’

She liked the way it felt on her, yet she didn’t welcome the feeling. She strived to keep her romantic partners at arm’s length, but she was already breaking that rule with Lukas because they were stuck together and she couldn’t help learning things about him. Connecting with him. Wanting him. Wanting to know him.

Like what he said earlier.

She needed to know, especially since they had been physical.