Page 234 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

Her eyes were wide and stunned.

‘Oh, Tiger, it’s beautiful, thank you.’

‘Here, let me put it on you.’

She turned and he picked up the necklace and looped it around her throat, fastening it at the nape.

It looked exquisite. The facets caught the shimmering fabric so that it looked as though there were flames flickering at the centre. The same flame he could see in her eyes and an answering heat flared inside him. Heat and hunger.

‘Are you ready?’

The ball was the reason she was here. The reason he was here, but now he wished that he could just stay here with Sydney and talk and make love—

‘Let’s go,’ he said lightly.

Tiger had wanted the evening to feel like a dream for Sydney. He hadn’t expected it to feel like a dream for him too. Despite the glamour, he usually found these events boring and formulaic, but tonight, from the moment they had slipped on their masks and stepped off thegondolinoand walked into the palazzo’s glittering entrance hall, everything had felt as if it were in soft focus and weightless.

Only Sydney’s hand in his felt real, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to be with her. They sat opposite one another at the dinner, which meant he couldn’t touch her, but he could watch her, and so while the spoilt heiresses on either side of him droned on, he watched Sydney. Watched and marvelled, because she was holding her own. More than that, she was shining.

After dinner, he got to hold her as they danced and every time her dress brushed against him, he would think about her body and how, even though she was turning heads in that dress, she looked better without clothes, and then he would try not to think about her naked because it made him want to stroke the soft skin of her thighs or trace his hand over the curve of her hip.

‘Shall we go back?’ he said, leaning in to graze his mouth against her throat.

Her eyes were bright and steady. ‘Yes.’

As they walked off the dance floor, someone called his name, and he felt a hand on his shoulder and everything slammed into focus.

‘McIntyre! I thought it was you.’ Harry Atherton was grinning at him, swaying slightly, his eyes screwing up against the lights, his wife Juno clutching his arm. ‘These bloody masks, honestly, if there’s one thing I’d outlaw it would be masked balls.’ He straightened slightly, his gaze sliding over Sydney. ‘I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced.’

She smiled. ‘Sydney.’

‘Harry—it’s a pleasure to meet you, Sydney. So, what are you two lovebirds up to now?’

Tiger felt Sydney glance up at him. ‘I think we’re going back to the villa.’

‘Seriously, mate?’ Harry frowned. ‘We were all going to play some games upstairs. Come on, it will be fun.’

He tightened his hand into a fist. Maybe it was being recognised by Harry, but he felt suddenly disorientated and for a moment he was torn, but then again—

‘Yeah, why not?’

‘You know what we should do?’ Juno shouted over the music. ‘We should play hide and seek. Harry, you count and the rest of us will hide. Come on, Sydney.’

Juno dragged Sydney away and he stared after her, something jamming inside him as Harry started to count. It was just a game, and she was one of the few people on earth who had defied him, but that look on her face had been panic, fear almost.

He was moving before his brain caught up with his legs. Pushing past the other guests and up the stairs. Where was she?

‘Hey, McIntyre, you’re supposed to be hiding.’

He turned, eyes narrowing, and Harry stumbled back, holding his hands up. There was no reason to feel this panic, Tiger told himself, taking another flight of stairs, three steps at a time. But he couldn’t seem to stop it. Yanking open a door, he stepped into the room.

It was small and unfurnished and empty, and he was about to leave when he heard it. The sound of someone breathing, small, panicky breaths almost as if they were injured. And then he saw her. She was pressed against the wall, her eyes closed, body shaking, one hand in front of her face as if she was trying to hide something.

‘Sydney,’ he said softly. ‘Did someone hurt you?’

She was shaking her head, trying not to cry, he could see that now and it tore at him. He touched her wrist gently, wanting to comfort her, and her arm twitched and her eyes snapped open and then he saw her fear, and everything inside him turned to stone.

‘It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you,’ he murmured, scooping her up into his arms. ‘Just hold onto me. I’m going to take you home.’

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