Page 105 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

She looked at him and shook her head, but not to disagree, rather out of confusion.

She couldn’t fathom his feelings, and it bothered her.

It was like he’d hardened his heart intentionally, because he knew that without taking that precaution, her death would hurt too, too much.

She supposed it made a sort of sense. To pre-emptively cope with a wound that might otherwise have the power to cut you off at the knees.

So, he’d emotionally withdrawn from the situation, while still supporting his father and mother.

But had he pulled all of his emotions back? Did that explain his string of short-term affairs and no serious girlfriends?

‘Shall we get moving?’ His voice was light, as though that conversation hadn’t just taken place. Her eyes held his as her mind continued to ruminate, but she nodded.

‘Sure, let’s go.’

She knew, though, that no matter where they went, she wouldn’t let the conversation drop completely. She’d started to see more of Zeus, had begun to understand him, and she wouldn’t rest until that was complete. She had one week—she intended to use it fully.

The sunset was particularly beautiful, observed from the deck of the boat, which was moored in a cove on the other side of Crete, in the Gulf of Mesara.

But it was not the most spectacular thing in Zeus’s vision.

No. That would be Jane, swimming in the crystal-clear waters just off the boat, as though she’d recently discovered she was, in fact, half mermaid.

She ducked and dived beneath the surface, spun pirouettes, then emerged for air, her big blue eyes surrounded by dark lashes courtesy of the water, her hair plastered to her head.

He’d heard the expression breathtaking without really understanding that it could describe an actual physical phenomenon.

Right now, looking at her, it felt as though his breath had been squeezed from his lungs.

And not in the way he’d felt when his mother had died.

That had winded him, had made him feel as though his own body was losing life.

He’d braced for it, yes. Or thought he had.

But how could one really brace for that sort of loss?

Months later, he still found it almost impossible to believe he was living in a world that was absent his mother.

In a way, her having been sick for as long as she was had made that a new kind of normal.

He was used to going to his parents’ place and taking up a book from the shelves, taking it to her and picking up wherever they’d left off.

Or sometimes, she’d have something particular she wanted to hear about, and then she’d make a request of him, which he was always happy to oblige.

It had been three months, but the sense of being winded hadn’t really eased.

His father’s revelation about his affair and love child had been proverbial salt in the wound.

It had hurt like the devil. To imagine his father sleeping with some other woman, while his mother suffered.

While his mother faced what must have been every parent’s worst nightmare: the idea of leaving behind a beloved small child.

‘You’re sure you don’t want to swim?’ she called up to him.

He’d initially demurred. He rarely swam in the ocean, though he couldn’t really remember why. An old fear? A habit? A disinterest? There was a pool and spa on board. If he felt like swimming, he could use either of those.

But Jane’s delight in the raw, elemental ocean was like a lightning bolt bursting through him.

She looked so free and unburdened, and suddenly, an urge to dive into the ocean and let it wash away his grief—a grief he kept so firmly locked inside that no one, not even Jane, not even here, could know.

Before she could ask again, he was pushing out of his slides at the same time as removing his shirt.

Her delighted expression was the hammer in the nail of his decision. What wouldn’t he give to see her features shine like that?

He took the steps down to the pontoon at the rear of the yacht, strode to the edge then dived in, surfacing right beside her. She spun to him and laughed, treading water easily, as though she swam often.

‘You’re like some kind of mermaid,’ he observed, kissing her softly, because he couldn’t resist.

‘I like the water. Always have.’

He caught her around the waist and held her close, his legs taking over the work of keeping them afloat. ‘Do you swim often?’

‘I was on the team at school,’ she replied. ‘It was a lot of early starts.’

‘And now?’

‘Now I prefer to swim for pleasure. There’s a Lido not far from my place. I go there a few times a week.’ She looked around, her expression serene. ‘It doesn’t really compare to this, though.’

‘No?’

She shook her head. ‘You must love coming out here.’

He considered her, felt something churn in his chest. Her vivacity and love of life were just so palpable. Even after the betrayal she’d endured, the hurt she’d lived with, Jane had still managed to hold on to something rare and precious: positivity.

‘Yes,’ he agreed, simply, because she was right. He did love being on the water. It made him feel elemental and powerful again, but also human, because it was a stark reminder of how much more powerful the ocean was. ‘Though I tend to swim on the boat.’

Her brows lifted skyward. ‘There’s a pool on the boat?’

He laughed. ‘And a spa.’

She let out a low whistle. ‘I mean, it’s obviously fancy. I just didn’t expect…’ She trailed off and shrugged. ‘I get the impression you work a lot,’ she said after a beat. ‘Does that leave much time for this?’ She gestured towards the boat and then the sunset.

His eyes roamed her face, and he was transfixed. Not just by her beauty, but by the ability she had to ask the kinds of questions he usually sidestepped with ease, in just such a way that made him want to bare his soul to her.

It had to be because she was leaving within a week.

There was a security that came from that, a certainty that no matter what happened between them, it wouldn’t change either of their futures.

He was destined for a pragmatic, sensible marriage, to jump through the hoops so he could inherit the company he’d always considered his by right.

And she… He frowned reflexively. What did Jane’s future hold?

She’d come into his life as a woman still carrying the wounds of her past, and in many ways, those wounds had broken her.

But she was stirring back to life, becoming whole again; he could see that happening before his eyes.

So, what did that mean? That she’d go home and instead of being repulsed when another man kissed her, might she lean into it?

Start to enjoy the promise of flirtation and the spectre of sex?

He pulled away from her quickly, so she said his name on a short breath of surprise. ‘What is it?’

‘Nothing,’ he lied. ‘Let’s swim.’ He smiled, but it felt like a facsimile of the real deal, and he knew she saw that, because her face showed concern.

He ignored it. He didn’t want her concern, and he didn’t want to contemplate what came next.

Suddenly, the idea of Jane moving on from him sat like a rock in his gut.

They raced around the yacht until Jane’s arms were like jelly and her legs were sore, as the sun slipped lower and lower towards the horizon, and then, as they passed the pontoon on the back, she stopped swimming and grabbed hold of the rails.

‘I think I’m done,’ she said, trying to keep her tone light, when there was something dark stirring inside her. A frustration, with the way he shut her down whenever she took the conversation in a direction he didn’t want to go.

It hurt.

It hurt, after she’d told him about Steven. It hurt, because she’d trusted him.

But at the same time, it wasn’t as though she didn’t have secrets of her own. Like Lottie.

They didn’t have to tell each other everything.

Except, her friendship with Lottie was somewhat irrelevant to all of this.

It might have been the catalyst for their meeting, but their relationship now existed in a way that was totally outside the bounds of the plan Lottie and she had discussed before Jane had met Zeus.

Anything important about her, she’d told him. She’d shared herself with him. And yet, he seemed determined to keep parts of himself closed off, even from her.

Was it possible that she was mistaking their physical intimacy for something more?

Lottie always said Jane was messed up because of the way her parents had treated her, and she knew her best friend was right.

All her life, she’d known that her parents didn’t love her like parents should love their child.

They’d sent her away to boarding school at five years old, and from then on, she’d seen them only briefly during holidays, and sometimes, not even then.

When Jane had started dating Steven and professed herself in love with him, Lottie had laughed and shaken her head.

‘You want to be in love with him, because you want him to love you back. No one is going to fill that hole in here, though, that your parents dug, except for you. You have to love and accept yourself before anyone else can.’

Well, she’d been right about Steven, and she’d probably been right about all of it.

Now Jane was looking at Zeus as though he were in some way a mythical piece of her that had been missing all this time.

Whereas she was probably just trying to fill that same awful, painful void.

Not with love, but with intimacy and trust. Yes, the kind of trust she’d never known, because she sure as hell couldn’t have said she felt that for her parents.

And the fact he wouldn’t open up to her showed that he didn’t trust her, even after all she’d shared with him.

It hurt.

It hurt way more than a casual week-long fling should be able to hurt her.

But Jane found, as she showered alone, that there was nothing she could do to change that.

She wanted more from Zeus than he seemed willing to give, and she had two choices: accept it, or leave early. She didn’t like either alternative.