Page 76 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

CHAPTER NINE

A URORA’S HEART RAGED .

‘Sebastian,’ she breathed into his mouth, against the lips that were kissing her how she’d wanted to be kissed for weeks, months. Without hesitation. Without resistance.

His hands cradled her face, angled it softly, gently, as his tongue swept into her mouth. And she mewed for him as he tasted her. She pushed her tongue against his.

‘ Oh ,’ she moaned as he possessed her mouth. Claimed it as his. And it was his. It had only ever known his tongue. His taste. It was what she craved. What she’d yearned for since that night.

Him. Only him.

His hands moved. He swept the hair from her face, trailed his fingertips down the column of her throat, over her bare shoulders, down her arms, and she tingled. Everywhere.

His hands went to her waist. His lips pulled away from hers. But she knew this time he would come back to her without prompt or persuasion.

He was hers. As she was his.

This, them, it was fated.

Destiny.

‘It will not be like last time,’ he promised, and swept her into his arms. She knew she was safe with him.

He moved back towards the window. To the sun now throwing gentle rays onto the dark floor.

‘I know,’ she said, and touched his cheek. Stroked it.

His step faltered. He looked down into her upturned face. His cheeks were flushed. His pink lips parted enough for her to feel the shallow exhale of his breath touch her skin.

‘I want to look,’ he said. ‘I want to see all of you.’

‘Then look.’

He nodded. A single dip.

Gently he placed her on her feet before the window. Positioned her directly in the sun’s warmth. And turned his back on her.

She didn’t speak. She watched him. He moved to the sink with stealth and yanked free a felt tapestry from the wall beside it. But he didn’t come back to her. He moved to the other wall and tore free the brown fur hanging there.

His eyes were black as he came towards her.

Her stomach somersaulted. A deep ache settled between her thighs. She reached for the tops of the spaghetti straps of her dress and pushed them off her shoulders.

‘ No ,’ he gritted out. ‘Not yet.’

Her hands fell to her sides. Her heart raced harder, faster, as he knelt at her feet and spread out the tapestry. She now realised it was a pelt of soft, short fur.

‘Here,’ he said, and turned to her, held out his hand. ‘Sit with me.’

She allowed his hand, warm and big, to close around hers, as he helped her down onto the floor with him.

They sat in front of each other on the makeshift bed.

The sunlight danced in his hair, which framed his face and fell to his shoulders. Her breath caught as she took in every line of his sculpted face.

‘You’re beautiful,’ she husked, because it was true.

‘No.’ His hair moved forward as he shook his head. And she touched it. His chestnut hair was highlighted with grey and red. And it was like silk in her fingers. Feather-soft.

‘Yes,’ she corrected him. ‘You are.’

His hand reached for her, and he stroked her own hair in return.

‘The night I saw you in the gardens,’ he said, ‘I thought you weren’t real, but a vision sent to torture me.’

‘Torture you?’

‘With your beauty,’ he rasped. ‘You lured me out because I wanted to see you, get closer to you. A siren calling me to my doom. My reckoning. I came willingly. And still you torture me. Because I want to see more. I want to touch all of you.’

‘Then end it. This torture.’ She sucked in a trembling breath. ‘And touch me.’

‘It will never end. I know this now.’ He raised himself up on his knees until she looked up at him, and he down at her.

‘I will only ever want more. More of your presence. Of your touch.’ He pressed her down until her head met the pillow he’d made using the long furs.

‘As I have every day, every moment , since we met.’ And he leaned down, caught her lips and kissed her.

‘ More ,’ she demanded. ‘I want more.’

His mouth moved, whispering kisses across the tip of her chin, her cheeks, the lids of her eyes.

He sat up on his knees, gazed down at her and tore the T-shirt from over his head.

And she looked at him. At the broad shoulders, taut with strength.

Power pulsed in his heaving, muscular chest. Her throat turned dry.

Her mouth opened, her tongue seeking his tight pink nipples.

Her eyes roved down to the prominent V leading down from his hips, lightly scattered with dark hair, and disappearing into his jeans.

‘I will give you more.’ He undid the button of his jeans, slid down the zip, and pushed them off with his boxers. Until he was naked at her feet. Proud and pulsing. ‘ Slowly ,’ he promised thickly.

With unhurried hands, he undressed her. Pulled the lightweight stretchy dress down and over the bump protruding between them. Down over her thighs.

He gripped her ankles, one after the other, and pulled the dress free from her body until all she had on was her white knickers.

‘I want to see all of you,’ he growled, and reached for the white material sitting low on her hips. And slowly, agonizingly slowly, he took them down. His knuckles grazed the skin on her outer thighs.

‘ Oh ,’ she moaned, electrified.

He didn’t pause. Didn’t falter. He kept pulling the cotton down against her knees, down the tender flesh of her calves to her feet.

‘Bend your knees,’ he commanded, and she did just that. She bent her knees and planted her feet. Presented herself to him.

‘Aurora,’ he growled, his eyes moving over every naked inch of her skin.

Her breasts, her darkened aureoles, her tight nipples.

And down. Across her wide hips, her round stomach.

His eyes rested on the dark triangle of curls between her legs.

And she slickened. Felt the moisture coat her intimate lips.

‘You are beauty itself,’ he told her.

And she felt it. She felt precious. An artwork created just for his eyes. For his body. His hands.

Only for him.

He positioned himself between her knees. And ducked. Pressed his lips to the bone in her ankle and licked her.

‘Sebastian!’

He didn’t answer. He moved. Kissing upwards. Up her calf, her knee. Her inner thigh.

And then he kissed her there. At her core.

She squealed. Tried to lock her hips.

‘I want to taste you.’ He gripped her hips, pulled her onto his mouth and laved her with his tongue.

‘Yes,’ she panted, closing her eyes to encourage the intensity, or to diminish it, she didn’t know. But the pleasure was overwhelming. Having his mouth on her. Kissing. Licking.

‘Ahh!’ She reached down and thrust her fingers into his hair as he caught the swollen nub at the centre of her and brought it between his lips. But he didn’t relent as she pushed his head harder against her. He flicked his tongue and sucked until all she became was heat and trembling desire.

She didn’t feel his hand leave her hip, but she knew it had when his finger pushed inside her. She clenched intimately around him. Rocked herself on the welcome digit. He pushed another inside her as his mouth worked her flesh.

And she was frantic. She clawed at him, tugging hair. Until all she could do was hold her breath and let it take over her. The warmth. So hot, so intoxicating was the illicit heat he dragged from inside her. It drugged her. And she was helpless as the light burst in her abdomen. Behind her eyes.

She locked her thighs around his head.

And Aurora screamed.

Pressure unravelled in her every muscle. Loosened her, until her legs fell, her fingers unclenched. And she was breathless. Panting. She felt—

‘Wonderful!’ She opened her eyes, and they found him high above her. Watching her, with his eyes on fire. ‘You are a gift!’ she said, a light, breathless chuckle leaving her lips.

‘Again?’ he rasped, and she heard the question. Recognised it.

‘Again,’ she said, and gave him the permission to take what he needed. What they both desired.

More.

She lifted her legs to his waist and wrapped them as best she could around him.

‘I want you,’ she husked her truth. ‘I need you inside me. Now.’

His eyes darkened.

He positioned the silken length of him at her core.

‘I want you again, and again, until you have nothing left to give,’ she told him. ‘And I will take it all from you.’

‘I will hurt you.’

‘I can take it,’ she said. ‘I want it. All of you. And I will give you the same. All of me,’ she promised, and waited. Watched him fight the fight he’d been battling since the gardens. Since the first time he’d let her kiss him and he’d kissed her in return.

But it was a fight he couldn’t win.

There was only surrender.

Their surrender.

To each other.

‘Aurora,’ he growled, and he pushed inside her to the hilt. She was so full. Complete.

And she surrendered to it. Surrendered everything she was, and all she would become, to him.

And she felt him do the same. Surrender all he was. All he would become.

To her.

Her tightness wrapped around Sebastian in a silken fist.

He understood it now.

This pain.

This pleasure.

It was his punishment.

And he would bear it. Endure it. For her.

He gripped her hips and thrust.

‘Sebastian!’ She gasped his name, and he gritted his teeth. Watched her eyes widen. Watched the pleasure bleed into them. The pleasure he was giving her.

Endless pleasure.

It was a just punishment for his crime. For taking her into his arms, for using her, taking what he needed, and discarding her roughly with his seed inside her.

His eyes fell to the swell of her between them.

He’d left her vulnerable and alone.

He’d never leave her alone again.

She’d never be lonely.

‘Deeper,’ she urged. ‘I need you deeper.’

Gently he took hold of her ankles resting on his hips and lifted them. ‘If it is uncomfortable,’ he said, and swallowed, attempting to wash the roughness from his voice, ‘tell me.’

‘What?’ she panted.

He placed her legs on his shoulders. ‘This.’

He moved his hips forward.

‘Wow.’ Her neck elongated, the muscles stretching long and taut. She squirmed into the makeshift pillow. ‘Oh, wow.’

And his body strained. He hardened inside her until the agony had no end. He was so deep. Deeper than he’d ever wished to be inside another human being. And it was… everything . To be this deep inside her . To give her this. To give her what she wanted. When he had already taken so much from her.

He would take no more.

‘ Please ,’ she cried. ‘Move.’

And he did. He moved inside her. Pulled himself out to the entrance of her core and thrust back in. He slid in and out of her, again and again, until his chest was on fire. His erection was so hard, so deep, it hurt.

And he accepted the pain.

‘Oh, Sebastian!’ Her breasts rose and fell rapidly. Heat deepened the red undertones of her skin.

She was a goddess, and he would worship her as such.

‘Oh, please. Oh, please! ’

She would never beg him again. Not for company. Not for his kiss. Not for pleasure. She deserved everything she’d asked for, and he’d give it to her. But he would always hold himself back. Restrain himself. Never hurt her with the force of his desire. He’d never take. Only give.

It was his compromise. It was the only way to keep her safe.

To protect her and his child. To be with her.

To use his arms and his body to hold her, to keep her close, but to never let her in.

He would never get attached. He would never feel anything but this .

A physical need he would sate in her body.

She clenched around him intimately.

He closed his eyes. It was so intense. Almost too much.

‘Aurora!’ He roared her name as she squeezed his pleasure from him and found her own.

And he was flying.

Pure euphoria made him feel weightless.

It was a pleasure he had never known, never knew could exist, and it lifted him higher and higher.

‘Sebastian!’

He opened his eyes, and there she was beneath him as he soared above her, calling him back to her with open arms. To cushion his fall.

And he knew he’d let him himself fly too high. If he fell now, into her softness, into her arms, he would crush her with the force, the impact of him.

He would pull himself free, roll off her. Fall on his own.

‘Again,’ she said. ‘I’m—’

‘Aurora!’ She arched her hips, took him deeper still. Massaged him tightly with the heart of her.

And he couldn’t help it.

He fell.

Aurora caught him up in her arms.

And all he could do was breathe. Breathe her in. Her scent.

‘That was amazing!’ she sighed after minutes, hours. God only knew.

He raised himself on his elbows, prayed for the strength to return to him.

But he was weak.

How could this be a punishment when it felt so right? When he felt so right here in her arms?

It swept through him. Despite his bold words of punishment. Temptation teased at him. In his mind. Somewhere in his chest, it stroked. Her words, her promise of having what he never had. A family. That he didn’t have to be alone.

But she did not know him.

She only knew this. The chemistry they shared. She didn’t understand that he couldn’t give her the type of family she wanted. Couldn’t be the man she needed.

‘Thank you,’ she said, and smiled at him. Reached up and stroked his cheek.

And he knew he had only one response. He had more to say this time. More than a pitiful thank-you in return for what she had given him.

‘We will try it your way,’ he husked. ‘We will be together as you want . In all the ways you suggested.’

‘In what ways?’

‘We will talk.’ He leaned down and stopped a whisper from her lips. ‘We will touch.’

She tilted her mouth. ‘And kiss?’ she added for him, and closed the distance between their lips until it was nothing but millimetres. Their heated breath mingled. And he yearned for the gap to close completely.

‘Yes,’ he breathed. ‘We will kiss.’

Her lips feathered his. And he longed for more.

‘We will do all the things a real couple do,’ she said against his mouth.

‘We will,’ he said, and pushed his promise into her mouth with the tip of his tongue.

He’d give her everything she wanted. Everything but love. He had none to give. He did not deserve hers. But everything else.

This…

He deepened their kiss, and she moaned into his mouth. His body pulsed, swelled, with the pleasure he was giving to her. The pleasure he’d continue to give until he couldn’t.

Sebastian would embrace…change.

And he’d do it for her.