Page 129 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4

This wasn’t going to backfire, she told herself staunchly as she walked past the booth she’d hired all those months ago. Alexisdidlove her. If she had to have faith in only one thing then it would be that. The purest, most unconditional love in the world.

The dancefloor was packed and she had to elbow her way through it to reach the DJ.

Catching his attention, she rose onto her toes to tell him what she wanted.

He reared back and looked hard at her, as if satisfying himself that she hadn’t just been released from an asylum, then turned his gaze to the direction of the most private of private booths before looking back at her.

She held the stare unwaveringly.

He inclined his head in dubious agreement.

She expelled a breath and smiled her thanks, then elbowed her way back through the dancefloor until she reached the exact same spot she’d danced at all those months ago and fixed her gaze at the club’s most private of private booths, the one most hidden in the shadows, where a tall, well-built man with perfectly quiffed hair so dark it was almost black was holding court with his sycophants. Except, if it was a court he was holding, it was a court he didn’t want to be at. His gaze was fixed in the distance. He didn’t look bored. He looked vacant.

Her heart ballooned.

Why had he bothered to come? Alexis asked himself moodily. He should have stayed at home. The club’s vibe was doing nothing for him, the incessant chatter and laughter of his friends and various hangers-on like sharp needles in his head. He couldn’t even be bothered to drink himself into oblivion as he’d intended, his second full glass of Scotch mostly untouched.

He slumped back in the booth, lifted his face to the ceiling and closed his eyes.

‘Anyway, Anastasia said…’

He tuned the voice out, would have inched away but was penned in. He didn’t care what Anastasia had said. He didn’t care about anything. Only Lydia. He should have been honest about his feelings from the start instead of expecting her to be a mind reader when he’d always known that she didn’t believe him capable of being faithful and had known how much the thought of losing her family was hurting her. Where his feelings for Lydia were straightforward and uncomplicated, Lydia was not him, and he’d driven her away, punished her for not having the same faith in her feelings and in him as he had…

‘I have a special request for Alexis Tsaliki.’

His eyes snapped open at the DJ’s words echoing loudly through the speakers.

‘Your wife asks that you join her on the dancefloor.’

A loud roaring noise filled his head, louder than the music, louder even than the sudden booming of his heart.

Hardly daring to believe what he’d just heard, Alexis slowly lowered his gaze.

A small curvy figure in a mid-thigh-length silver mini dress was standing directly in his line of sight on the dancefloor. Her blonde hair was loose around her shoulders, wisps of her fringe falling into her eyes.

Their stares locked.

Her chest and shoulders rose.

Slowly, she raised her arm and held her hand out to him.

Unable to tear his stare from her, not at all certain he wasn’t dreaming this, barely aware that the people penning him into the booth had all fallen into stunned silence, Alexis rose to his feet and took the most direct route to the woman shining brighter than any strobe light by climbing over the table.

Lydia fought to keep her feet grounded, and keep her trembling hand held out to him.

Time slowed to a crawl.

There was not a flicker of emotion on his face and yet each slow step he took to her added to the emotions filling her so completely she could hardly breathe for them.

He stopped a foot away from her.

Her extended arm fell to her side.

The blue-grey eyes that had seduced her so completely from that first look bored into hers. The longing making her heart cry reflected back at her.

She took the final step to him.

With a tremulous smile, she palmed his cheek.