Page 119 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

She had seduced him. This woman. With her plum lips. Her words. The song she sang, and he understood.

She’d made him a liar, and there was nothing he could do about it.

She made him need. Ache with it.

He lowered his head, and he accepted that this time, their kiss…

It was for him.

CHAPTER THREE

EXCITEMENT FEATHERED OVERAurora’s skin. His mouth was on hers.

And she wanted more. Wanted him to possess her, wanted him to claim her as his. Because she was his. In this stolen moment of time when they’d met, against all odds, both at an impasse in their lives.

The heavens opened.

Without a word, he tore his mouth from hers.

‘Come.’ He took her hand in his. Fire erupted in her palm, the blaze spreading up through her wrist, her forearm.

Using her other hand to stem the fat dollops of water as they fell onto her from the sky, she moved with him.

‘Your feet,’ he said as they ran, the rain so heavy it dripped from the flick of his nose.

She glanced down at her unpainted toes, covered in strands of wet grass. ‘They’re fine,’ she said dismissively, but his hand was already releasing hers.

His arms circled her waist, and he lifted. She didn’t think, didn’t question. She clung to him with her thighs. Wrapped her arms around his long, thick neck. Dipped her head into his throat.

He was warm. Safe.

He strode up the stone path. Pink blooms and white flowers overcrowded by taller green reeds led their way forward.

He entered the terrace between two tall decorated stone columns, a balcony sheltering them from above.

She lifted her face. Met his eyes. His pupils were black disks pushing out the amber and green. She could feel his hammering heart. It mirrored hers.

She didn’t need to remove his mask, know his face, or kiss his eyelids, the nose hidden to her, or his cheekbones. She recognised it by the feeling inside her.

It waswant. The flare of desire burst inside her. In her chest. Her breasts, her nipples, hardened against the solid wall of his chest.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’ She nodded.

She reached up to his face, and the air stilled. As did her heart. She tilted her neck, and he lowered his head. Lips met, mouths opened, and tongues mingled. Breathlessly.

How could he have wanted to deny himself, her, this? This connection between them.

It was more than skin-deep. It was fate. This awakening. Their awakening to the flesh. To feelings. To more…

Aurora didn’t know exactly who she was, who she was becoming in this moment, but she knew who she didn’t want to be anymore. A pinnacle of goodness. A golden girl.

Tomorrow, she knew, she would be changed.

Brand new.

Brave.