Page 15 of Modern Romance July 2025 #4-8

She couldn’t allow herself to regret her choice. Some people could rebuild their lives after everything went pear-shaped—they could come back bigger and stronger. But her dad was not one of that number. The humiliation of bankruptcy was not something her dad would ever recover from.

‘All set back there?’

Lizzie nodded, then realised that no one could see her.

‘Yes,’ she lied.

‘Have you ever been to Gibraltar before?’

‘Gibraltar?’

Straining in her seat belt, the older woman twisted around the side of her seat to look at Lizzie. ‘Honest to God!’ she exclaimed indignantly. ‘I made up an information pack for you. Didn’t he give it to you? Typical!’ she brooded waspishly.

‘Information pack?’ Lizzie echoed, thinking, Oh, be still my beating heart…how romantic! ‘Aren’t we going to a register office on the way to the airport?’

‘Airport first then wedding. Adonis has been in Gibraltar setting things up for the past few days. It’s less complicated to get married at short notice there as a tourist. Didn’t he mention that when he rang?’

‘He didn’t ring, but then,’ she added with a bright smile, ‘he didn’t need to. We hardly chat for hours every night, and I’m not counting the hours until I hear his voice.’

Lizzie stopped abruptly, discomfort spreading in her chest as she tried to read the expression on the other woman’s face.

In her desire to make it crystal clear she was not blinded by his smile or besotted by his sexual charisma, she had gone too far.

She had also spoken out on the assumption that this couple knew everything, but was this the case?

She fretted, her anxiety communicating itself to the cat, who began to miaow loudly.

Jenna also seemed to pick up on Lizzie’s unease. ‘Don’t worry, we both know what’s happening,’ she said, sounding sympathetic. ‘Well, obviously as much as we need to know.’

Probably they know more than I do…

Lizzie felt a stab of resentment. She might have basically said just do it, but that had been a figure of speech. She hadn’t meant she wanted to be left in the dark about basic stuff. Adonis was clearly a man who had no problem taking control without any encouragement, and she had encouraged him.

‘Can I call you Lizzie? Or do you prefer Elizabeth?’

‘Lizzie.’ She forced a smile. The other woman seemed friendly and it wasn’t her fault. She was obviously just the messenger.

‘Do you want to drop the cat off somewhere?’ Adonis’s PA asked as she pulled back into the front seat.

‘No, she’s coming with me.’

‘She’s got a passport,’ Dmitri supplied in a voice devoid of all intonation.

‘Is that even a thing?’ his wife asked doubtfully.

‘Yes, it is.’

Lizzie saw the couple exchange glances and her chin locked in stubborn determination. There was no way she was leaving her cat behind.

This was non-negotiable.

Lizzie had not acquired a cat. The cat, a bedraggled, underweight creature when she had arrived, dragging one injured leg behind her, had chosen Lizzie.

No Mouse and there might never have been any bestselling books. She had modelled her feline heroine on the stray who had worked her way into Lizzie’s heart.

It was a short flight and, though her dad did not own his own private jet or a fleet of them like the Aetos family, he hired them. It was his preferred form of travel, and Lizzie, who had flown in private jets before, was not overawed, and she wasn’t a nervous flyer.

Lizzie had worried a little about how Mouse would adapt.

The two times she had taken her cat abroad before it had been by car and ferry, and with the help of a mild sedative—luckily she had had some left over from the last trip, but had not so far administered it.

To this point the cat had taken it in her stride.

Released from her carrier once they had taken off, much to Jenna’s alarm, the feline had actually enjoyed the attention from the crew, who had fussed over her during the short flight.

Lizzie was not a newbie when it came to flying, but she sat with her nose virtually pressed to the window as they came in over the sparkling waters of the bay, the Rock behind them, and landed on the runway.

It was stunning.

‘Incredibly short runway,’ Dmitri, who was sitting on the opposite side of the plane, supplied.

‘Totally incredible,’ Lizzie breathed. ‘I felt as though we were going to end up in the sea!’

‘Shut up, both of you. You are not, either of you, normal. It is horrific,’ Jenna had declared, grabbing her husband’s hand in a death grip as they hit the tarmac with a jolt that drew a scream from her.

‘Jenna is not a good flyer.’

‘I hate you,’ his wife said firmly. ‘Both of you.’

Lizzie, laughing, unfastened her belt and discovered that the cat, who was safely secured back in her carrier for the landing, was asleep.

‘So what happens now?’ Lizzie asked, thinking, That was the fun bit, now comes the nightmare. Man up, woman , she snapped out in her head.

‘Jenna usually throws up.’

Lizzie laughed. She might not like her future husband, but the people who worked for him were another matter. Unbuckled, she stood up and smoothed the silk of her short blue skirt while Jenna talked her through the immediate schedule displaying brisk efficiency and no visible signs of nausea.

‘Through Customs, shouldn’t be an issue. Adonis will be meeting us. Nowhere is far from the airport on the Rock. If you want to freshen up or change, Adonis has been using the owner’s suite at—’

‘He owns a hotel?’

‘He does, several actually—he believes in diversification. But the one here belongs to a friend of his.’

Friend covered a lot of territory. Were they talking friend or was it shorthand for old or maybe even present lover?

She pushed the intrusive thought away. Those were not the sorts of questions that came as part of the territory of temporary fake wife.

‘But if you don’t need to stop, it’s straight to the wedding venue, a celebrant and a private setting, for the ceremony.

Then it’s back here and you fly direct to Xania.

You’ll be on the island for dinner.’ Seeing the expression on Lizzie’s stunned face, she paused, seeming to realise she was delivering a lot of information.

‘Are you OK?’

‘Finding it a bit hard to process,’ Lizzie admitted. ‘So we are travelling directly to Greece.’

‘It isn’t a long flight.’

‘Then transfer to the island?’

‘We can fly direct. It’s a recent addition and more an airstrip than airport. Previously you did have to land on the mainland and get a helicopter transfer to Xania, which was a nightmare.’

‘Have you stayed at the island much?’ She had read up on the Aetos family’s private island and seen the photos. ‘Island paradise’ was an overworked term, but in this instance, if the photos told half the truth, the description was deserved.

‘A few times. Not at the house. We stay in one of the bungalows.’ Jenna flashed her husband a secret smile. ‘It’s one with all the facilities we need for Robert when he comes. He just loves it there.’

‘Robert?’

‘Our son, well, my son. He has some complex needs, but he is spending this week in respite care. He loves it at the farm. He goes there several times a year. We are so grateful to Adonis; the breaks help us.’ Lizzie watched the other woman’s eyes fill with tears before, after a short struggle, she regained her composure.

‘Though of course he says he is the beneficiary of us functioning…’ She gave a light laugh.

‘That’s sort of true. He forgets sometimes that not everyone has his energy levels. ’

Lizzie digested this information in silence, gripped by unfamiliar and uncomfortable emotions. Whatever else her future husband was, he inexplicably appeared to inspire fierce loyalty from his employees.

Inexplicably, mocked the voice in her head. You mean other than his being sensitive and thoughtful?

Any problem could be worked through if you broke it down into manageable pieces. It was a philosophy that Adonis applied in practical terms every day of his life.

It was the same attitude he had approached his prospective marriage with, and so far everything had gone according to plan. He rejected the voice in his head that suggested this was only because he had avoided Lizzie Rose during the interim.

With her sharp tongue and her wicked sarcasm, not to mention that mouth, she was a disruptive influence to his peace of mind. He had never experienced a person who… He felt her presence like an internal pressure.

Obviously he could negate this, but it seemed reasonable to delay any time-consuming conflict until after the contract was signed.

Pushing the problem ahead does not make it go away, scorned that voice in his head.

The scornful voice was proved correct when he saw her walking towards him.

She hadn’t opened her mouth yet and he was chained to the spot by nothing more complicated than lust as he felt a scalding streak of heat slide like a blade through his body and settle in his groin.

He had suspected what his bride had spent a lifetime hiding, but the reality was more in every sense of the word than he had imagined. And all of that more was showcased by the outfit she was wearing, a skirt and cropped jacket ensemble in pale blue.

The skirt that managed to swish and cling to her bottom ended three inches above her knee and showcased really incredible legs, which he instantly decided would be criminal to hide.

The jacket was fitted with a tiny peplum that showed off a tiny waist and the feminine flare of her hips.

Beneath, the cream corset affair was held together with a row of tiny pearl buttons; it had a square neckline that didn’t distort the full curve of her dramatically incredible breasts.

He recognised the moment she identified him—her spine went significantly stiffer and her chin rose before she paused for a moment, putting down a basket she was carrying.

She balanced on one leg while she removed a crepe-soled trainer and slid on a slingback spiky heel she had produced magician-like, then the balancing-on-one-foot routine was repeated.

The ground under her feet was even but Lizzie felt as if she were on a tightrope as she walked towards the tall waiting figure.

Elegant to the nth degree in his dark formal suit and snowy white shirt, he looked as though he had just stepped out from the pages of a fashion shoot intended to make the gullible male believe if they too used this brand of hair product they would become utterly irresistible, have a beautiful woman in their bed and drive a designer car.

She blamed it on the heels, except of course no glossy fashion shoot had ever projected the sort of earthy sexual aura that Adonis did.

‘Hello, nice day for it.’ It wasn’t but, as the other option had been help or, even worse, wow, Lizzie settled for gentle sarcasm.

He did look wow!

Actually, wow was an understatement. Lean and muscular, his carved features could have graced a statue, but they were real, glowing, alive.

She held herself tense as dark, heavy-lidded eyes that seemed to hold no expression flickered over her.

‘You are not wearing the wedding dress.’

‘Very observant of you. It’s lucky I’m not, really, as I would have looked every kind of lunatic wafting through the arrivals lounge in white lace and frills.’

‘I didn’t think of that and there should not have been frills. I specifically mentioned that.’

His ready admission took the wind out of her lofty superior sails.

She fell back on attack, it being the best form of defence, she really hoped, against the hormonal overload that was nibbling away at her ability to string words together that made sense.

‘Well, neither did I, think, that is, because I didn’t know I was about to get on a plane, because you didn’t have the courtesy to inform me of your plans. ’

‘You told me to do what I liked. You were not interested,’ he pointed out.

‘Well, I didn’t mean this…’ She faltered, annoyed with him for paraphrasing her own parting shot against her. ‘And Jenna went to the trouble of putting together an information pack for me and you didn’t even bother to pass it on!’

‘Did she?’ he said, pretending ignorance. ‘It must have slipped my mind.’

He had actually been on the point of pressing the send key on that information pack when he had hesitated, Jenna’s comment when he had requested the schedule springing to mind.

‘Most brides would prefer flowers.’

There was a balance between formal and flowery, and maybe the timetable was not hitting it, but then flowers would have been overkill too and possibly thrown back in his face.

Decision-making was not something that Adonis struggled with, he didn’t like the paralysing indecision, and in the end had opted for doing nothing.

He should have known that lack of action would not save him from her sharp tongue.

Lizzie snorted. ‘You mean you wanted me to feel even more helpless and out of my depth than I already do!’ She immediately regretted the fact she had just admitted a vulnerability to him that she had managed to deny even to herself.

‘I don’t want you to feel that way.’

‘I don’t,’ she countered.

‘You look stunning.’

Her defensive stance melted, as did her insides. Blue eyes met dark and the world seemed to still for the space of several heartbeats, until she brought her lashes down in a protective shield and mumbled, ‘You look OK too.’

His brows lifted. ‘Thank you, yes, we make a handsome couple, I think,’ he concluded, making her think of some sort of preening, self-satisfied jungle cat sheathing his claws before he swiped her verbally with one satiny sharp paw.

‘Jenna said there is an option of pausing to redo my lips, but it won’t be necessary.’

Her comment brought his eyes to her mouth just as she moistened her lips nervously with the tip of her tongue. The flickering action, unintentionally erotic, sent a surge of reckless lust through his body.

Dmitri repeated his question three times before Adonis, thinking about how she would taste, reacted with a vague, ‘Ah yes, fine, you go ahead, we’ll follow.’