Page 195 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

‘Don’t get stuck in your head,’ Lukas said. ‘This doesn’t have to mean more than you want it to, but we’ve met our obligation, and I really don’t want to share this part of you with anyone.’ He sat Katherine on the edge of the bed, placing the plate down beside her and the snowflake next to it. ‘Have I read your gift wrong? This is a reminder that we’re temporary, is it not? Is no strings sex like we had in the cabin not what you want?’

Katherine had bought him that snowflake because no matter what happened between them, they would always have Lapland, the place where they connected with each other, memories of how good they could be together. But she could see how he would interpret it as a symbol of what they’d shared there, passion with an expiry date, and only that. A reminder that they were always meant to be temporary. She could have corrected his understanding, but what difference would it make? This wasn’t forever.

‘I want you, Lukas.’ That was an irrefutable truth and the best deflection she could think of.

Lukas knelt before her, taking off her shoes one by one. ‘Silly Katherine,’ he said, moving to pop the button on her jeans, then pulling off her sweater. ‘You can’t want what you already have.’

But she didn’t have him, not really.

I can pretend I do.

As soon as Lukas had said the words, he wanted to take them back because now Katherine would overthink them. She was falling for him, he saw it in the things she did, the words she said, in her eyes that hid so little, but she didn’twantto. She was with him to save her career. If she was starting to feel more, she would likely quash those feelings because her success would always come first. He understood that. Respected it, even, because that was how he’d ended up in this situation too.

Except he couldn’t lie to himself. What he felt for Katherine was far more than just passion or lust. The problem was they could never be more because she was still a journalist, and he didn’t want a life lived in the media.

You’ve found a way around that right now.

A few weeks wasn’t a lifetime.

A lifetime wasn’t what Katherine wanted.

So now it was up to him to help them focus on something else. Get them out of their heads.

He lay Katherine on the bed and peeled off the rest of her clothes, dropping them to the floor and leaving her wearing nothing but the gold ring on her finger. Then he took off his own clothing, smirking as the look in her eyes changed from pensive to hungry.

He crawled over her, letting his skin brush hers, but he didn’t kiss her in any bruising, intoxicating way. He kissed her lightly. Teasingly. Maddeningly. And when she tried to push up on her elbows to reach his lips, he grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head.

‘You don’t get to rush this.’ He wanted to take his time because when it came to Katherine, time was very much a finite resource. One day soon she would be gone and this connection that was more powerful than anything he’d shared with anyone else would be gone too.

‘You’re a damn tease, Lukas,’ she complained.

‘I am.’ He reached over to the plate and plucked a piece of mango. ‘But I’m a nice tease. I see that hungry look—’ he leaned down to whisper in her ear ‘—and I’ll feed it.’ His cock twitched and at the same time, he brought the piece of fruit to her mouth and she obediently bit into it with a moan. Juice glossed her lips and ran down his fingers. He put the rest of the piece in his own mouth, savouring the sweetness. Katherine freed a hand and pulled his towards her, licking the tracks of juice up his skin to his fingers, which she took into her mouth, sucking them clean one digit at a time. It was his turn to moan out loud.

‘And I’ll happily take it all,’ she husked.

Damn this woman. ‘You’re killing all the restraint I have.’

‘Then let go.’

‘I want to make this special for you,’ Lukas confessed.

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m certain you’ve misunderstood my intentions for bringing you here today. You got so quiet after I told you what we’d be doing today—that we’d be making an appearance. I didn’t say it to remind you of the state of things between us. I said it so you’d know that I respect your commitment to your career, that I wouldn’t jeopardise it, which means showing up publicly. But I also wanted you to myself, Katherine.’ He ran his nose up her neck, inhaling her scent. A scent that he both craved and didn’t want in his bedroom because when she left and it lingered, it would be torment. ‘And right now, we’re perfectly alone. No one can see us. No one can hear us. You’re mine and I’m yours.’

Katherine closed the gap between them, kissing him savagely and he wished that it wasn’t just for right now. He wished things could be different. He wished he could call himself Katherine’s without any quantifiers. But that wasn’t reality. Reality was the ache in the base of his abdomen from how badly he craved her. It was his brain clouding over from the touch of her tongue to his. It was the pleasure encompassing his whole body as if he’d dived head first into a pool of pure ecstasy.

He needed her to know this pleasure too.

So he broke away from her lips, his stomach somersaulting from the half-blind way she looked at him—lust in her dilated pupils—and he kissed a path down her chest. He stopped to worship at her breasts, his body moving with hers as she writhed.

‘Lukas,’ she whimpered, ‘more.’

He grazed her nipple, revelling in the way she cried out and continued kissing down her body until he was hovering above her sex. Her skin glistened with her arousal, making him curse under his breath. There was a look of anticipation in her eyes that matched the feeling burning through his body. He needed her. Wanted her. And he would have her now over and over so that she would chant his name until it was so embedded in her soul, she would never be free of him because he would never be free of her either.

His mouth closed over her smooth skin, his tongue delving through her folds as he sucked her clit into his mouth making her shout his name. He’d never known such satisfaction. He was thankful they were on the boat so no one would hear them but wished with equal measure that they were somewhere public so everyone would know it was his name on her lips. And maybe in her heart.

He feasted on Katherine, drinking from her as her breaths grew louder and her moans more insistent. Until she was pulling on her hair and on his. Until she was fisting the covers and bucking her hips. Locking her legs around his shoulders, he reached towards her with his hands so she could grab on to them. A tether as she threw her head back and screamed out her release.