Page 238 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

And now that she knew what love really was, she knew that what she had felt for Noah was a pale, bloodless imitation of love, a delusion, a cruel trick. When she was eighteen, he’d seemed to represent all that glimmered only for the gilt to flake off and reveal dull lead beneath.

But Tiger, he was a ride on a roller coaster, all dips and tumbling turns and soaring upwards into a never-ending blue. He was also a safe haven, a lagoon in a stormy sea, and when his strong hands touched her skin, she could feel her scars healing. And his hands were touching her constantly. Even while they ate lunch out on the terrace, he kept reaching out to touch her almost as if she were necessary to him, like oxygen or daylight.

His phone buzzed and, pulling it from his pocket, he frowned.

‘What is it?’

‘It’s the office. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to deal with these emails.’ He pressed her hand to his mouth and kissed it and she felt an intense, almost unbearable tug of hunger ripple through her body as she imagined leading him back upstairs to bed.

‘Unfortunately, the business doesn’t stop when I do.’ He kissed her on the mouth then, and she tried not to read too much into his words. Tried to ignore the way it made her feel when he said things like that.

She’d thought he would disappear into his office, but he had lolled beside her on a lounger with his laptop and the fact that he had chosen to stay by her side simply added to the soft-focus happiness that seemed to burst from her skin every time they touched.

‘I’ve been thinking about tomorrow,’ he said slowly, sliding the laptop under the lounger.

The happiness oozed out of her. Tomorrow was always going to be her last day. On the flight over she had actually written those exact words in her diary and put a smiley face beside them. But nowmy last daysounded like an epitaph and she didn’t feel like smiling any more.

‘What are you thinking?’ She lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, but also to make it harder for him to see what she was thinking. His gaze seemed even more intense and golden than usual today.

‘I’ve been planning a little surprise for Harris, retribution, you might say, for his meddling in our lives. But he will come out fighting, so I’d rather you weren’t in New York when it goes live.’

‘That’s fine. I was going to go back to Los Angeles anyway.’ Her throat tightened, but there was no reason to stay in New York. Or not one she could share with Tiger.

‘You don’t have to feel responsible for me.’

Her chest felt oddly tight. Or full, maybe that was a better description. But then she was breathing so much more easily today, maybe it was just all that extra oxygen.

‘But I am,’ he said slowly. ‘So just stay in LA. Keep your head down. Maybe move back home for a while.’

‘I can handle myself.’

‘I know.’ His eyes moved over her face. ‘So how would you like to spend our last day?’

Sunlight was skimming across his face so that it was hard to see his eyes but all too easy to imagine him stretched out above her.

‘So what would you like to do? I want you to choose. We can do anything you want, go anywhere...just tell me what you like.’

‘I know you’ve probably done it a hundred times already, but I’d really like to see Venice,’ she said after a moment. ‘Properly, I mean. You know, do the touristy things? Only, would that be too boring for you?’

Tiger stared down into her face.

Boredom was the secret curse of the super-rich. To a normal person a palace or a private jet was something you dreamed about. But to the top one per cent, they were assets, the adult equivalent of trading cards that you played with at school. With nothing out of reach, it was perilously easy to get bored.

But he couldn’t imagine anything getting boring with Sydney.

It wasn’t just the sex either. Right from the start, she had challenged him, challenged his status, and she was curious, which he loved. She wanted to learn, to explore, to lift up stones and see what was underneath. Character traits that made her such a good hacker. Such a good person.

‘I can’t think of anything I’d like to do better. Except go to the moon, but maybe we can do that next,’ he said softly, and he felt his heart beat out a complicated rhythm as she smiled.

Making Sydney smile, making her happy, was not a burden but a pleasure, he thought as they made their way to St Mark’s Square the following morning.

The hand that wasn’t holding hers tightened into a fist. He couldn’t understand how anyone could have hurt her, and with such systematic brutality. He hated to think of her alone and scared and trapped. Her ex deserved to be hung, drawn and quartered. And Sydney?

She deserved so much better. She deserved to be safe and happy, and more, so much more, and he couldn’t give her everything she deserved but he could give her this.

He could give her Venice.

He gazed up at the Basilica with its great arches and Romanesque carvings and the four horses that presided over the whole piazza.

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