Page 143 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

‘Talk?’ His mind raced. They did nottalk. They did not stop their love making for a chit-chat break. ‘About what?’ he asked raggedly.

‘Us,’ she breathed. ‘You.Me... I don’t remember the marriage we had, but I want to know. I want to learn. I want to know my husband better.’

‘Are you not learning, Emma?’ he asked. ‘What I taste like? How it feels to have my tongue in your mouth and my hands on your body?’

A blush bloomed up her throat to kiss her cheeks. She shifted on a heavy exhale and stared fixedly ahead. Spine straight. ‘I want to learn who I was, who I am, who you are, without—’ she swallowed ‘—this. Without this complicating things.’

‘“This”?’

Her gaze met his. ‘This urgency between us. It’s too frantic. It’s too—’ She looked down at her shirt and began to do the buttons back up. ‘It’s too...indecent.’

‘Indecent?’ he growled, becausehisEmmy would be between his thighs taking him into her mouth.

And he ached for his wife’s lips.

‘It is not indecent to want my wife. To want you naked. To feel your thighs squeeze against mine as you take me inside you.’

He saw her blush.

‘Enough.’ She shook her head.‘Please.’

And he was on that ledge again. Alone and waiting.

They both remained silent but for the heaviness of their breathing.

‘Is there somewhere to sleep?’ she asked.

He nodded. He knew she was running again.

But he also needed her to leave, didn’t he? So he could lick his wounds. Replan his attack. His seduction. Because somehow his reaction to her kiss—her rejection—was affecting him in ways he didn’t like.

He buzzed for an attendant and requested she take Emma to the plane’s master suite. Emma stood to follow the smiling attendant.

‘Dante?’

He looked up into her face. His eyes lingering on the swollenness of her lips after his kiss. And he wanted to reach out and touch her mouth.

He fisted his hands on his thighs.

‘I look forward to getting to know you in Japan,’ she announced, and turned on her heel.

Never had Emma walked away from him. Shut him out. Physically not wanted him close. And now she’d done it twice.

He couldn’t fathom it. They’d never talked before. He’d learned more in the hospital room a few days ago than he had in a year married to his wife. Her mother, her job, the empty fridge. And he had more questions than he’d ever imagined.

How often had the fridge been empty? How many jobs had her mother worked? How many had Emma worked over the last three months? Had the fridge been empty again?

He scowled. Because these things...what did they matter? He wanted his wife back. What was there to know that he didn’t already?

But it weighed on his conscience.

Had Emma wanted more? More of his time? More conversation? Would he have been open to talking if she’d asked him? Was he open to it now?

It was captivating, wasn’t it? This change in his wife. The idea of seducing her without sex was...

A novelty.

An intriguing one.

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