Page 2 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8

Duh.Morethan in the biblical sense, she knew him for what he truly was—cold-hearted and careless. He was a liar and he used people. She scrambled to recover her wits enough to answer and tried to put her vacuous hormones on ice.

‘Ares.’ She paused, fleetingly pleased with how steady she sounded. ‘I wasn’t aware you were in town.’

As if it weren’t more than two years since she’d last seen him. Since she’d walked out on their week-old marriage. The whirlwind romance they’d taken too far.

‘Obviously not.’

Her anger flared. Did he expect her to be at home pining after him? No matter that she’d been doing exactly that for too long to consider. As if he even cared.

That was the point. He’d never really, truly cared. He’d deceived her.Hewas the one who had cheated. Because it hadn’t been a romance for him. It had been a calculated plan that ultimately had nothing to do with her. She’d merely been the tool—the gullible fool who’d believed his seduction meant something.

‘Was it a disappointing date?’ The edge of his already sculpted jaw sharpened as a muscle tensed. ‘You didn’t invite him in.’

No. Ares Vasiliadis was the only man she’d ever invited ‘in’. But while he knew he’d been her first lover, he didn’t need to know he’d still been heronlylover. He had nothing to do with her any more and had no right to pry into her personal life.

‘You were watching me?’ she queried coldly.

His mouth compressed.

Her suspicion flared. ‘The whole night?’

How was that possible? Why would he have? She was suddenly certain that her prickle of intuition had been bang on buthehad no right to turn up late at night, unannounced and unexpected. Excitement battled with outrage. Why had he—what was hethinking?

She stepped towards him as outrage won and her anger roared. ‘It’s no business of yours who I spend my time with.’

‘No?’ He cocked his head and his slow smile was wolfish. ‘You think it’s not my business?’

‘Not at all.’ She tensed, knowing she was playing with fire because she recognised that flicker of emotion.

‘But of course it is,’ he said smoothly. ‘You are Bethan Vasiliadis, my errant wife.’

Ares shoved his hands into his pockets not just to hide his fists but to stop himself from grabbing her, pulling her close, pressing her against—

No.He would never do that ever again. Didn’t want to. He damned welldid notwant to.

They were done. They’d been done for years. He braced, knowing his was the last face she’d ever wanted to see. He was used to the barely masked loathing in her eyes. It was a look he’d stonily stood before more times than he had dollars in the bank. He drew on the cold rage that had fuelled him since he was thirteen years old and had been the unwanted illegitimate brat forced on his unfaithful father’s family, and stayed stock-still. He would remain outwardly unmoved—always—in the face of rejection.

But seeing Bethan in person for the first time in for ever—he couldn’t stop staring. His pocket Venus. How was she even more beautiful than he remembered? Or was it just that he’d tried so hardnotto remember that she’d always been a walking fertility symbol with her abundance of curves and softness and pouting lips that were made for him to possess—with his mouth, with his fingers, with his cock. They were filthy, the fantasies that instantly flooded his mind. What he’d do with her and her stunning mouth. Again. Now—

No.He would never do that ever again. Didn’t want to. He damned welldid notwant to.

‘I never completed the paperwork to take your name,’ she said sharply. ‘And I’m yourex-wife.’

Breathe in for four. Hold for four. Breathe out for four. Hold for four.

Box breathing, the doctor called it, to centre himself, calm the hell down when his pulse raced. Not a heart condition, yet. Just needed to lower the stress levels. Work a little less. Straighten out the kinks. Bethan was definitely a kink. Actually, the impact of her was catastrophic. Apparently she was still his physical weakness, not to mention his biggest mistake. He’d made many mistakes over the years but none like the supreme mess that was the succulent woman before him. He didn’t know whyshedid this to him. Why her? Why only ever her? Well, he wasn’t succumbing to it this time. Give him twenty-four hours and it would be over. For good.

‘Not good with paperwork, are you?’ he replied as patronisingly as possible because he knew she hated it. ‘Your legal name is indeed Bethan Vasiliadis. And in the eyes of the law you’re very much still my wife.’

His AWOL, soon-to-be ex, should have been ex a long time ago...wife.

He couldn’t hear for the pulse thundering in his ears as for the second time he uttered the word he’d not said in months and he sure as hell couldn’t count to four. His wife who’d been out with another man tonight. He gritted his teeth as bitterness burned the back of his throat. Hedid notcare.

Bethan’s doe eyes widened and her full lips parted. Surely she was not surprised? No way could she still claim to be naïve. Almost two and a half years ago he’d fallen for her sweet routine and while she mightn’t be as greedy, she was as untrustworthy as everyone in the ‘family’ he’d been encumbered with when forced to take the Vasiliadis name himself. She’d bailed the second she could.

‘No,’ she muttered fiercely.

None of this evening’s events should bother him. He should bepleasedshe’d been out on a date. It would make their impending divorce even easier. But he hated it and hatedhimselfmore for hating it and to stop himself tumbling into a stormy vortex he needed to wrest back control over something. Anything. Ideallyher.