Page 225 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

The lightest breeze rustled her hair, brushing it over her shoulders and face, making her reach up and scratch her nose, and then, when her hand fell back down, it connected with a warm, bare chest, and her eyes flared open in confusion for a moment. She was disoriented. One part of her was in her flat in London, one part in the hotel in Athens. Then she remembered, and she blinked her eyes around them, smiling a little to realise they’d fallen asleep on the deck of the boat. It had continued to travel through the night; the mainland was now in the far, far distance. She sighed; the sense of freedom she’d begun to enjoy the night before exploding through her in waves now.

It was barely morning. The sky was a hue of pale silver with touches of peach and orange, and the water had a steely grey colour. The moon was still overhead, shimmering like a splotch of white paint. She angled her face, studying Zeus still asleep, and something in her chest twisted hard and plummeted all the way down to her toes.

She didn’t want to think about the future. She didn’t want to think about Lottie, about the marriage clause in the family business’s contracts; she didn’t want to think about anything outside of this bubble. Maybe it was naive of her, but she needed to believe they could enjoy this week without any of those complications having an impact.

And more than that, she simply needed him.

Her cheeks flushed as she remembered her dreams and how they’d been flooded by wild, and verynotPG images of Zeus. Partly memories, partly fantasies. She moved her finger over his chest, idly drawing circles around his nipples, before she smiled again, this time a smile of pure impishness, and moved her naked body over him, straddling him, before quickly leaning down and kissing his lips. He moaned, his hands instinctively coming to rest at her hips, his fingers pressing into the top of her bottom, so she dropped her waist, her sex connecting with his still-clothed erection, and she smiled against his mouth at the proof of how much he wanted this. Despite his patience. Maybe because of it?

‘Jane,’ he said, eyes bursting open and landing on hers.

‘You said I’d still be ready today, and you were right.’ She dragged his lower lip between her teeth, then deepened their kiss. ‘I’m so, so ready, Zeus.’

His hands began to stroke her naked back, her bottom, her thighs, touching her all over, both gentle and demanding, the perfect combination; she pressed herself hard against his arousal, finding her sensitive cluster of nerves and shamelessly using him to stimulate that pleasure centre until it was almost impossible to breathe, and her eyes were filled with stars. His hands brushed over her breasts, and she cried out, because every part of her was so overly sensitive. It was like she was a forest of dry wood, and he’d struck a match, so bit by bit, she was burning up, and all she could do was admire the ferocity of the fire.

‘Please,’ she said, simply. ‘I want you.’

He stilled, staring up into her face and then, to Jane’s relief, he nodded once, kissing her as he began to remove his trousers, kicking them off before reaching for them as an afterthought and removing a condom from one of the pockets.

‘You came prepared,’ she said with relief.

‘Naturally.’

Her cheeks flushed pink, because she hadn’t even thought of that.

He placed the condom on the edge of the mattress and went back to kissing her, but with Jane on top, she felt so powerful, so in control of where she was touching him, of how fast they were going, and that control was addictive. His trousers were removed, but his boxers were still in place, and suddenly, she wanted, more than anything, to seehim.To touch him. Her hands caught at the waistband of his shorts, and she began to push them down, but he stilled her to say, ‘Jane, I should warn you—’

She glanced up at him.

‘I’m big.’

Her brows shot up.

‘I promise I won’t hurt you.’

Curiosity now had her moving faster, pulling his shorts down just low enough to see that he was not exaggerating, even a little bit. He was huge. Long, wide and rock, rock-hard.

Her jaw dropped.

‘I—see what you mean.’

‘We’ll take it slow,’ he promised.

She couldn’t look away from him.

‘If you keep staring at me like that, Jane, this really isn’t going to last very long.’

Reluctantly, her gaze travelled the length of his body.

‘I’m— To be fair, I haven’t seen a man’s body in a very long time—’

His expression darkened then, and she knew why. Neither of them wanted to contemplate Steven in the context of this. He moved then, catching her and flipping her onto her back, bringing his body over hers.

‘Remember,agapaméni, you are in charge. Always.’

She nodded, her heart soaring towards her throat as he unfurled the condom over his length. But rather than separating her thighs and taking her, instead, he returned to kissing her, then her breasts, then her sex, until she was incandescent once more and so wet for him, she could feel it between her legs. ‘God, Zeus,’ she cried out, and only then did he nudge her legs apart and press himself to her sex, holding there a moment as he wrapped her into a hug and pressed her to his chest, whispering Greek words in her ear. She stared above them at the dawn sky, painted the kind of palette she would never forget, even if it weren’t the backdrop to such a moment, and slowly, gently, he pressed into her.

It had been so long for Jane, and she’d built it up to be such a terrifying event, she’d been so worried she might never have sex with anyone ever again. But in the end, in Zeus’s arms, it neither hurt nor terrified her. It simply felt…perfect.