Page 109 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

And stopped. If he knocked, if they picked up where they had left off, his physical desires would be satisfied. He had no doubt they would spend all night, if not most of the morning, enjoying each other’s bodies. Exploring, savoring, delighting.

But the deeper yearning would still be there, the void in his memories rivaling the emptiness in his heart. He didn’t just want Esmerelda in his bed.

He wanted her, all of her.

Slowly, he lowered his hand. Then he turned and walked down the hall, the thud of his footsteps mirroring the heavy beat of his heart.

Tomorrow.

He opened the door to his own room. A soft click sounded behind him. He looked over his shoulder.

All that greeted him was an empty hallway and Esmerelda’s closed door glowing silver in the moonlight.

Esme sat at the kitchen island, her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of tea. Every sound, from the creak of a floorboard to the caw of a seagull, made her glance over her shoulder.

Where is he?

She’d laid on her bed for what felt like hours after Julius had left. One minute she’d decided to race after him, only to talk herself down the next. When she’d finally decided to find him, to tell him everything and lay bare not only their history but her desires, his room had been empty.

Both frustrated and relieved, she’d gone back to her room and sank into a hot tub. Not half an hour later she’d heard Julius and Aroldo on the terrace. She’d gone to fetch her robe, had been pulling it on when she’d heard his footsteps in the hall. Heard the pause outside her door.

Coward.

Her moment of bravery had evaporated beneath the twin weights of exhaustion and fear. She’d wanted him to knock, to open the door, to make the first move. To give her proof that she wasn’t imagining things. To give her a much-needed dose of bravery to voice her wants.

And then he’d moved on. She’d opened her door just a crack, watched him move down the hall, before softly closing her door and sinking onto her bed once more.

Yet sleep had evaded her.

I want him.

So simple, yet so complicated. This time there was no underlying need for validation, none of the sycophancy that had overshadowed their first encounter. Then, there had been a sense of gratitude, that a man like him would deign to kiss a woman like her.

Unattractive. Unwanted. Unlovable.

Funny how one moment could wake someone up. Wake them up to the cold, hard truth that sometimes other people weren’t right, they were simply awful. People like her parents, who had been so caught up in themselves and their own wants and desires that they hadn’t bothered with their own child. People like the man Julius had been before, who had dismissed her so cruelly.

The seconds after she’d walked out of Julius’s office had yanked her from that dark place where she thought she had to work more, do more, be more to be enough for others, and thrust her into the reality that whether she knew herself or not, she was enough.

A realization she had worked to accept over the past few weeks, along with exploring what she wanted instead of living her life for someone else.

And what she wanted, right now, was Julius.

In the span of a heartbeat, it had all fallen into place. She wanted Julius, wanted this complex man who had flown halfway around the world to seek her out. The desire she felt now didn’t hinge on a need to be loved by someone else. It existed simply because she wanted it.

It was thrilling. Terrifying. It was still fated to end the way it had the first time; with them parting ways. But this time, it was on her terms.

As the shadows from the moonlight had shifted across the silk covers, she planned. She would tell him everything. She would lay bare their past, tell him her wishes now and place the choice at his feet. To have one last affair before he returned to Rodina and she continued on with her new life. Or to part ways now with the memories, both good and bad, of who they had been and what they had shared.

After I give him a piece of my mind about wandering off.

She’d slept until nearly ten in the morning and awoken to an empty villa. Panic had sent her running from room to room. The housecleaning crew had already been through, leaving behind fresh vases of flowers and polished floors in their wake.

But still no Julius.

What kind of bodyguard overslept and let her charge wander out of her sight?

She’d called Julius. He’d sent her to voicemail. She’d texted him. He’d told her Aroldo’s son-in-law, a police officer, had a day off and was accompanying him on an errand in town.

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