Page 127 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

Her mother and father had never married, but he’d used her like a wife when it suited him and mistress when he didn’t.

She’d vowed long ago that she wouldn’t give a man—any man—a legal right to any of her.

‘Ridiculous?’ he repeated. ‘What is?’

‘You.’She waved at...him. The entirety of him. And there was so much of him. He’d walked into her cubicle as if he had every right to be there. And when he’d demanded answers to questions she’d already answered, she’d thought nothing of it. He’d exuded the kind of confidence that you didn’t think to question. She could see her mistake now.

Emma sucked in a fortifying breath.

‘This very conversation,’ she said. ‘It has no basis in reality.’

‘Why wouldIlie?’

‘Are you insinuatingI’mbeing dishonest?’

His eyes penetrated hers intensely. ‘No,’ he said roughly, and it crawled across her skin like a command for her body to react, to tighten. She dismissed it as an involuntary reaction because...he was consuming. His presence was stifling. And yet it soothed her too, in a way she couldn’t understand.

‘I’m not insinuating anything,’ he said. ‘Because youhaveforgotten whoyouare.’

‘I know exactly whoIam,’ she snapped. ‘My name is Emma Powell.’

His jaw hardened. ‘No, you are Emma Cappetta.’

‘Emma Cappetta?’ she echoed, because she couldn’t help it. And the name felt at home in her mouth. It shouldn’t, she knew that. And yet, it did.

‘Yes,’ he confirmed. And she saw the flare to his nostrils, the swell of his chest. ‘Mywife.’

Wife. He said it with such conviction. Such possession.

‘I am nobody’s wife.’

She would be no one’s fool.

His fingers edged towards her, and she couldn’t tell him to stop. Her vocal cords refused to cooperate because her body was so warm.

She found herself eager for his touch on her skin.

She must have bumped her head harder than she thought.

He claimed her left hand. ‘Look,’ he demanded, and dipped his head to where his thumb stroked her ring finger.

And she begged her body not to betray her, not to allow him the satisfaction of her obeying his whim.

‘What am I meant to see?’ she asked and met his gaze defiantly. ‘Because all I see is a man touching a woman he doesn’t know.’ She snatched her hand away because it...tingled. ‘Making absurd declarations!’

‘You can feel it, can’t you?’

‘Feel what?’

She swallowed hard. A smile played on his lips, and there was an arrogance in his gaze. He knew that his ministrations had elicited a reaction quite unlike anything she’d ever felt before. And yet, it felt familiar too.

‘The chemistry between us,’ he answered, and the most frightening thing of all was the intensity of her body’s response to the idea of him touching her again.

Maybe she’d knocked herself out completely and was still out cold. Maybe this was all a dream.

‘The only fool in this room is you, thinking I’d believe we’remarried.’

His hand fell to his side. ‘You may not be wearing your ring,’ he said. ‘But the evidence is there, if only you’d look.’

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