Page 31 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4

CHAPTER TWO

Katla

My heart is beating so fast I can barely get a breath and I can feel him following behind me, dark and as full of electricity as a thunder storm.

Ulysses Zakynthos: CEO of Vulcan Energy, a huge energy conglomerate that spans half the globe, and utterly ruthless when it comes to business.

Utterly ruthless when it comes to other things as well, or so I’d heard.

Not that I’d taken much notice of him before the meeting Tanaka Solar had with Vulcan.

Afterwards, though…

Afterwards, I couldn’t think of anything else.

He was sitting opposite me and I could almost feel the energy pouring from him. A seething, electric magnetism that made the breath catch my throat.

He was dressed in black, the way he is now, his suit and shirt perfectly tailored, with a silk tie lying like a thread of gold in the coal seam of his business shirt.

His hair was short, as ink-black as his shirt and the straight black slashes of his brows.

His features were roughly hewn, as if a sculptor hadn’t bothered with the finer details of his proud nose, his imperious forehead, his carved cheekbones and his hard mouth.

It was his eyes, though, that held my attention. They were the same deep-gold as his tie, and molten. He was a furnace, generating heat and throwing out energy wherever he went, a living embodiment of the company he headed.

‘Handsome’ is too pretty a word for what he was. Compelling, mesmerising and hypnotic are words more suited to him.

He looked at me from across the meeting room table and I felt as if the air was igniting all around us.

I tried to ignore it, because if this was Ulysses Zakynthos then indeed every word the media said about him was true.

He was dangerous, ruthless, the expansion of his own company relentless.

And, if he wanted to swallow Tanaka Solar whole, then we were going to have to be very careful indeed.

Tanaka is a small company, but fast growing, and Mr Tanaka wants to stay in control of it.

I support him in that. He took a risk when he gave me this job, because I’m not an easy person to work with.

I am outspoken and blunt, and some people don’t like that, especially coming from a woman.

Certainly my references weren’t wholly glowing.

But Mr Tanaka only cared about my skill with money and, while I believe I’ve proved myself in my time working for him, I still owe him.

Anyway, though it was a tense meeting with Vulcan Energy, we managed to emerge from it without giving up anything, and I thought I’d seen and heard the last of Ulysses Zakynthos.

Yet, not a day later, he called me and asked me out to dinner.

I refused, of course, because, while I might be separated from my husband, I wasn’t interested in starting another relationship.

Most especially not with him, a man more a force of nature than a human being.

Which is why I have to keep my senses sharp as I follow Mr Tanaka now, heading towards his office, bitterly conscious of the man behind me.

Me—that’s what he said he wanted. He was here for me.

He swept into the staff Christmas party like a king sweeping through a crowd of commoners, leaving everyone silent and staring in his wake.

I hadn’t noticed him, because John arrived unexpectedly and was busy telling me what a big mistake I’d made when I’d walked out on him, and that he wanted me to come back to him.

So it wasn’t until Ulysses Zakynthos was basically right in front of me that I realised he was there.

He was the last person in the world I either wanted or expected to see and I hated how every muscle in my body tightened in response to his electric presence.

Then his golden eyes met mine and instantly I felt it again—the sense that the air around us was so charged that all it would take would be one spark for it to all go up in flames.

I didn’t like that feeling one bit, so I wasn’t polite to him and I wasn’t welcoming.

I’m suspicious of people as a general rule—certainly of what they say, because people lie all the time—and actions matter to me.

So the arrogance of him swanning into our Christmas party and demanding me, as if I was a possession of his and not the CFO of an up-and-coming solar energy company, instantly got my back up.

I thought he’d feel some shame about how I rejected him, or perhaps even some embarrassment, because I did refuse him six times.

Yet when I turned to find him standing there, looking at me as if everyone else in the room didn’t exist, it was clear that neither shame nor embarrassment were on his radar.

I’d be surprised if he even knows what either of them feels like.

It’s intoxicating to be looked at like that by a dangerous, compelling man; I can’t lie. Especially when my own husband never looked at me that way. And I do try not to lie, even to myself. But Ulysses Zakynthos has so many red flags around him that any woman would be a fool to get close to him.

And I’m not a fool.

Mr Tanaka opens the door to his office and we file in. Mr Zakynthos sits at the head of the meeting-room table as if this is his office and we’re all lackeys waiting for his orders.

I sit at the opposite end, as far away from him as I can get, trying not to think about John still out by the Christmas tree, waiting for me to tell him that I want him back. Expecting me to say that I want him back…

No, I can’t think about him now, because Mr Zakynthos is down the other end of the table and he’s staring at me with his wolf-gold eyes as if he wants me for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It makes me hot, makes my pulse speed up, makes it difficult to breathe. It’s as if he’s leaching all the oxygen out of the air, and I don’t like how part of me is enjoying the all-consuming way he’s looking at me. As if I’m the only thing that exists for him in this moment.

His desire for me is obvious, and part of me appreciates his honesty. He’s not a man who plays games, I don’t think. Even his persistence is honest and I’m reluctantly admiring of that.

Certainly, John was never honest. He was never straightforward.

When we married he told me that he’d never lie to me, but he did.

He lied when he said he wanted children, and he lied when he said I was the only one for him.

He lied when he said that he’d take care of me and that I’d always be safe with him.

He lied to me the way my mother lied to me.

So now only honesty will do. It’s why I like numbers—because numbers never lie. Numbers are the cold, bright truth of the universe, and numbers I can trust.

Not like the curious part of me that wants to know what makes a man like Ulysses Zakynthos tick.

He’s a brilliant businessman, that much I do know, because it was his brilliance that catapulted Vulcan Energy from its humble beginnings in Greece to the world stage, where it’s now the biggest provider of renewable energy in the world.

His drive is undeniably formidable, and so is his intellect, and there’s part of me that finds that… intriguing.

I want to know why he’s interested in a woman like me, for example, since I’m not what you’d call typical. Men usually approach me in an attempt to headhunt me, and that’s what I thought Ulysses Zakynthos wanted too.

Apparently not.

He doesn’t want me for Vulcan Energy, he wants me for…

me. And I don’t understand why. I have a head for numbers, yes, but I’m not beautiful.

I’m not interesting, unless you like mathematics and finance, and I’m terrible at small talk.

In fact, many people find me aloof, cold and far too blunt, so I can’t think how or why I caught his eye.

‘So,’ he says suddenly, making everyone in the room jump. ‘Let’s not waste time. Mr Tanaka, you know my interest in Tanaka Solar, and I’ve made you a very good offer for your company, which you refused, as is your right.’

‘Yes,’ Mr Tanaka says, frowning. ‘Are you here to make another offer? Because, if so, you’ve come in vain. I’m going to refuse all other offers you might make, because this is my company and mine it will remain.’

‘I can respect that.’ Ulysses’s deep voice, with its faint hint of an accent, rasps over my nerves and makes something vibrate inside me. ‘I too keep what’s mine. Which is why I’m here. It largely concerns Ms Sigurdsdottir, but also you by association.’

I’m impatient for him to get to the point, but I hide it the way I hide all my emotions. They’re intense, my emotions, and hard to manage, so I lock them away where they can’t hurt or anger other people.

‘Yes, so you keep saying,’ I state coolly. ‘Please do enlighten us as to how it concerns me.’

Ulysses gives me that slow smile again, and there’s nothing in it but threat, yet it brings warmth to his hard features all the same, like sunlight touches the granite face of a mountain.

‘I have decided I don’t want your company, Mr Tanaka,’ he says, all the while looking at me, as if there’s nothing he’d rather look at.

‘I have decided I want your CFO instead.’

Mr Tanaka’s frown deepens. ‘I’m sorry, but Ms Sigurdsdottir is—’

‘Very happy in her present position?’ Ulysses finishes for him. ‘Yes, she probably is. But I’m not here to headhunt her for a position in my company. I’m here to headhunt her for a position in my bed.’

The words fall into the shocked silence like stones in a glassy pond, causing ripples to flow out from where they hit the water.

There’s a traitorous heat in my cheeks, shock and anger winding its way through me.

How dare he say something like that, out loud and in front of my boss?

It’s offensive, and I want to tell him so, but I know that will only give him the reaction he’s no doubt looking for, so I say nothing and give him my best icy stare instead.

Mr Tanaka looks as mortified as I feel. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says slowly. ‘But…what you…what Miss…’