Page 196 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

Her hands grew slack and then she was running her fingers through her fiery red hair, eyes still scrunched shut and Lucas needed her in his arms through her journey back to earth. So he lay on his side beside her and pulled her to his chest, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to be closer. He grabbed her thigh, hooking it over his naked hip, sliding his hard aching cock into her slick heat, groaning animalistically as he watched her face. His heart racing. Consumed by her taste, and her smell and her satin skin.

‘Yes,’ she said in a laboured breath with a content smile and flushed cheeks.

How was he ever going to say goodbye?

He had been protecting himself by keeping her in her own room, but tonight that would change. From this point on she would sleep in his bed and leave her presence all over his home. He would enjoy every bit of having Katherine tied to him while he could.

Until Lukas thrust into Katherine, making her sing a litany of moans and whimpers, he hadn’t known a heart could soar and hurt at the same time. But Katherine’s hands caressed his cheek, and he didn’t care.

‘More,’ he begged. ‘Touch me everywhere.’

Mark me for life.

‘You’re ruining me,’ she said so close to his lips that they were breathing in each other’s pants.

‘You already have.’ He tried to memorise her roving touch on his chest and back and hair. His hands travelled the length of her body, followed the perfect curve of her ass. Fingers digging into the soft flesh, and Katherine’s movements, matching his, became more urgent. Any hope he had that he could take his time went out the window as he started thrusting harder, faster. Lost to sensation and lust and everything Katherine made him feel.

There was a coiling in his spine. Every nerve ending screaming for release.

‘I—I’m so close,’ Katherine stuttered through a frantic breath.

‘Touch yourself.’ He wanted her feeling as much pleasure as it was humanly possible to experience. He took her hand from his hair, brought it to his mouth, licking her middle finger and slid it between their bodies, making her gasp but he could feel her climax building in her body. In the way she gripped around him.

‘Come for me, Katherine,’ Lukas ordered. Demanded. Begged.

And then she was clutching onto him in a violent hold, her voice going hoarse as wave after wave of her climax washed over her pulling Lukas into the most intense release of his life.

‘Fuck,’ he growled, holding tightly on to her. He couldn’t let go. He couldn’t open his eyes. But he felt wetness fall from Katherine’s face onto his arm and he knew exactly what she felt. This was different. This was so much more than any other time they had sex because this wasn’t sex.

This time, out on the water, they made love.

They made love.

He loved her.

A woman he could never have. A woman fighting for her career in the media. The very same media he hated, but she was different. She had integrity, she was selfless and kind. And he trusted her.

He trusted her enough to be physical with her when he hadn’t been with anyone for three years. He trusted her enough to confide in her about his mother…his career.

What would it be like to be with her?

Their whole relationship would be in the public eye. People would think he was accepting of the media because he was with one of them. But right now they were in his boat because he had found a way around the attention.

Could he do this all the time? Did he want to live his life this way for the woman he loved?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Katherine watched Lukaswith a smile as he set a little Christmas tree on the table that sat between two armchairs in perfect view from his bed.

It was the first time she had set foot in here and it felt like they had moved beyond their agreement of just pleasure. Something had changed on the boat. Well, something had been changing before that but when she and Lukas had slept together earlier, it had been better than anything that had come before. There had been all the passion and fun she had come to expect but there had also been an intensity. A connection so strong between them she’d wanted to cling onto Lukas and never let go.

She didn’t even know why she had cried but her heart had been about to burst.

Now she was in his bedroom. Proof that Lukas, that viciously private man, had lowered his walls for her.

‘You know, you have a pretty large one of those two floors below you,’ she said, gesturing at the small tree.

‘But that tree won’t have this.’ He pulled out the snowflake she had given him and hung it on a branch. ‘This is just for me.’