Page 98 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 5-8

“No need to parade the sheets through the village, then,” she murmured. “Lucky me. Or do I mean lucky you?”

A phalanx of retorts lined up inside him, but he tamped them back down. “I would think that you would be pleased that you possessed, this whole time, the means to prove yourself. What I do not understand is why you did not use it sooner.”

“Because I shouldn’t have to prove myself to you,” she said, but quietly. “Or anyone.”

“You would prefer that I continue to think the worst of you?”

“Apostolis.” She breathed out his name in a way that made him think she liked to taste it as much as he liked hers. Her gaze laughed at him, though she did not smile. “I already know the truth. That doesn’t change. So what does it matter what you think of me?”

He felt that glowing thing inside of him swell once more. And he didn’t like the way her question made him feel, so he shifted, letting her head fall back on his shoulder so he could kiss her once more.

But she laughed as she pushed him away, and surprised him by turning around so she could straddle him on the bench.

“Maybe you should ask yourself why it is that nature did not provide men with a similar, handy little lie detector test. Is it that men are more trustworthy? Or less, rendering everything they say moot before they say it?”

“I am not the liar here.”

“While I am sure you will find a way to make sure that I still am,” she replied. “Now that I cannot use my innocence to shame you.”

But then, to his surprise, she reached down between them and busied herself with stroking the length of him.

Already at attention, he grew harder, thicker at her touch, and then had to grip the edge of his seat as she rocked up on her knees and guided him into her heat once more.

And then she took them both on a wild, glorious ride that had them both shouting out their pleasure as the hot water pounded down all around them in the dark of his shower.

It was much later when he found himself wide awake, staring at the moonlight that fell across his room and caught at all her blond hair as she lay there, tucked up beneath his arm.

As if she had always been meant to fit just like that.

Apostolis found he was having trouble breathing. There was a tight band across his chest and it had nothing to do with the arm she’d thrown over him.

Jolie had been a virgin. She had been avirgin,and that meant so many things that he was almost reluctant to look at.

The band around him pulled tighter and tighter.

It got no looser as the night wore on.

He held her as she slept and found himself going over every single interaction they had ever had, looking for clues that this was possible. How had he missed it? How had he misread her so completely?

By the time the sun rose over another perfect blue-and-gold day, he had moved over to the window. He heard her stir in the bed behind him and turned, rubbing a hand over his chest to make sure that the last of that band that had clamped so tight all night had finally loosened its hold on him.

He was relieved to find that it had. Because he had discovered the solution.

Jolie sat up, pushing all that hair back from her face. That wild blue gaze of hers settled on him warily.

He watched her, aware of a kind of spiraling fury that rose in him, because she was still so damnedbeautiful. She still looked like a dream, every dream he’d had. A bit of tousled elegance in his bed after such a long night.

It was entirely possible that this woman was going to be the death of him.

But if that was true, he had every intention of taking her with him.

And he had five years to work on the perfect exit strategy.

That wariness in her gaze intensified when all he did was stare at her.

But if he expected her to let the tears he’d seen in her gaze the night before take her over again, he was mistaken. He’d expected her to cringe away, but she sat up instead.

Until she was very much giving the impression that he was the one currying her favor here.

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