Page 207 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

His eyes flared for a moment and then he pulled her closer, holding her against his body, stroking the naked flesh of her back. ‘Desire.’

Yes, desire. It had been a potent force between them, something she’d never really experienced. Not like that—a freight train, rushing headlong towards her. ‘Be that as it may,’ she said, the conversation becoming almost impossible to focus on when faced with the evidence of the attraction that was flaring between them, particularly from his growing hardness. She closed her eyes, praying for strength. She had to walk a fine line here to keep him interested without selling her soul to the devil. Lottie wouldn’t want that, and it was a bridge too far for Jane. This was not, and had never been, about sex. ‘I need to be honest with you about my… What I want.’

‘I would dearly like to hear all about what you want,’ he said, dropping his mouth to the curve of her neck and kissing it, so she groaned and shifted her head to grant him more access. Did she really have to do this? Of course she did. A man like Zeus undoubtedly had relationships that included sex. A lot of sex. And after last night, he probably presumed she was like any of his other conquests; but Jane wasn’t. This could only continue if he understood that she needed to go slow. To be in control. And yet, she angsted back and forth over the necessity of telling him, because a part of her wanted him to see her like any other woman, to kiss her and touch her and possibly even make love to her, because maybe then she could reclaim that part of herself that had been burned by Steven beyond—she’d always thought—repair.

‘I’m celibate,’ she blurted out, tired of the argument going on in her mind, placing a hand on his chest, needing some space, and sanity, to return.

‘Celibate?’ He arched a brow enquiringly, as though he’d never heard the word.

‘I don’t sleep with people.’

‘You don’t, or you haven’t?’

‘I haven’t, for a very long time,’ she admitted, pushing Steven out of her mind with difficulty. ‘And I don’t intend for that to change anytime soon.’

‘I see,’ he said when it was clear he didn’t. ‘Why?’

‘I decided I would wait until I was in a committed relationship. With someone I love. And trust.’ She lifted one bare shoulder. ‘I don’t necessarily mean I’m waiting until I get married, but at least…engaged,’ she responded. And the moment she told him that—which was the truth, from the bottom of her heart—she realised how a man in his situation might take it.

As an easy way to tick several boxes, all at once.

And her heart began to race at what she’d just unintentionally done.

If she were more Machiavellian, she might have seen it as a masterstroke, but for Jane, it felt as though she was being even more dishonest now. Devious and manipulative.

But he was listening to her with that intelligent, assessing dark gaze, studying her in a way that made her want to squeeze her eyes shut and run a mile, because she feared he saw so much more than she wanted him to.

‘I just didn’t want you to think, because of last night, that dinner would be a prelude to…you know. Me going home with you.’ She took a step back with difficulty, her whole body flushing with cold at the absence of touch. ‘If you want me to leave—’

‘Leave?’ he interrupted, frowning, as though she’d suggested she might grow another head from her hip. ‘Why would I want you to leave?’

‘Because I know what you’re like. What menlikeyou are like,’ she amended quickly, because she wasn’t supposed to know anything about Zeus. ‘And I don’t want to waste your time.’

‘Agape, there is not a chance on earth of you doing that. Sit. Tell me more about yourself, starting with your last name.’

CHAPTER FOUR

Itwastheone thing she could have said to drive him to the breaking point. If there was one thing Zeus loved as much as he hated an ultimatum, it was a challenge, and here was the most beautiful, sensual woman Zeus had ever met, a woman who had had the rare power of keeping him from sleep the night before, so tormented had his dreams been, telling him that she was off-limits.

It was like a red rag to a bull.

But it was something more than that, too.

It’s not like I’m waiting until I’m married…

Only, what if she did? What if she waited until she was married, and she just so happened to marryhim?

He needed a wife. He needed a wifequickly, and if last night had proven anything, it was that things between them had the power to move swiftly—faster than either of them had really expected. He thought of Philomena and his insides were cold, despite the fact he knew she was the smart choice.

Jane wasn’t marriage material.

No, that wasn’t accurate.

He couldn’t marry someone like Jane. She was dangerous. Threatening. Because with Jane, there was a risk he might come to want more—that he might actually care about her more than in a sensible, rational, platonic way. Even the way her lip had trembled a little as she’d confessed her celibacy had triggered a long-suppressed protective instinct, reminding him of how he’d felt as a young boy who’d desperately wanted to fix his mother, but couldn’t.

Zeus had grappled with that impotence and decided the only antidote to it was strength. Control. Making sure he was in charge of every element of his life. With Philomena, he could imagine that. It was easy. He liked and respected her, she was intelligent and interesting, but he could never imagine becoming addicted to her.

Whereas Jane… His eyes shifted to her face just as she pursed her lips together, almost as if she were nervous, and his stomach twisted.