Page 3 of Modern Romance Collection May 2024 Books 1-4

Erin had no idea what to expect...she hadn’t gone as far as audaciously fantasising about what it would be like with a man like this. But she knew she never would have imagined this...this exquisite slow-burn torture.

He cupped her breast and her nipple pinched tight. Her breath became more shallow. And then he lowered his head and his mouth closed over the straining tip.

It was like an electric shock to the system, the laving of his tongue and the sucking of his mouth...all that hot moisture. Her hands tangled in his hair. She couldn’t even remember putting her hands there. She wanted to do the same to him—take off his clothes, bare him—but he was kissing her again and palming her breast, fingers trapping that nipple and pinching.

She gasped into his mouth.

His tongue was hot, demanding, and she had no choice but to submit with an eagerness that might have mortified her if she’d been capable of rational thought.

Erin could feel his erection pressing against her and she moved against him instinctively, seeking more contact. He pulled her skirt up, bunching it over her hips, and then his fingers were spreading over her thigh, lifting it to hook her leg around his waist, bringing her into even deeper contact with his body.

She broke the kiss. His hardness wasright there. At the apex of her legs. Where every nerve-ending was throbbing. Erin wanted to free him and push her underwear aside, so there would be no barrier to a more intimate connection. The need was so intense she could hardly breathe.

She tried to communicate it with her eyes. She’d never wanted anything so badly. So urgently.Here. Now.

Time stood still, and for an infinitesimal moment she could see that he was as hungry as her. But then something flickered across his face. So fast she couldn’t decipher it. Yet it looked like shock.

He pulled back, and Erin almost whimpered. Mortifyingly.

He put her leg back down and said roughly, ‘Not here...like this. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.’

Erin’s brain was too heated to fully understand until he pushed the elevator button and it softly jolted into movement again. Upwards. She breathed out when she realised he wasn’t taking them back down to the ground level.

They ascended so high her ears popped. Then the elevator stopped again and the doors opened, straight into what had to be Ajax’s apartment. She’d never been there. His offices were a few levels down.

The apartment was sleek and minimalistic. Huge ceiling-to-floor glass windows. Modern art on the walls. Sofas and chairs that looked inviting but which Erin had a feeling had never really been sat in. She knew Ajax tended to entertain in venues. Not at home.

Even though she’d been working for him for weeks, she still wasn’t used to the level of opulence in his world. But she wasn’t given a chance to linger or look around. He took her hand and led her silently through the dimly lit space, down a corridor and into a room at the other end of the apartment.

His bedroom. There were huge walls of glass again, giving what had to be a breathtaking view of lower Manhattan at night, a glittering skyline of lights. The blinking lights of a helicopter flew across the night sky.

But then it was all eclipsed. Because Ajax turned her around to face him and she swallowed. Suddenly intimidated to be here, in his private space.

‘Are you sure you want to do this, Erin? You can stop...walk away at any time.’

Something inside her eased. She’d known he was a man of integrity after watching him do business, but to have him really care about her consent was something she hadn’t even realised she needed.

She nodded. ‘I want this.’You.

She’d never considered herself a very sexual person. She’d had one boyfriend in college, here in Manhattan, and they’d both decided to amicably split up when they’d graduated and he’d moved to Los Angeles. There had been no major grief. She’d had no intention of leaving New York, where she’d been born and had grown up. And the sex... Her boyfriend was the only person she’d had sex with, and at no point had she ever felt for him what she was feeling now.

Desperate. Hungry.

It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once. As if she wasn’t as in control of her own reactions as she’d always thought she was. Erin was a cerebral person, and she’d never been so aware of her body.

Ajax started to take off his clothes. Jacket shucked off and thrown to the floor. Tie pulled off. Shirt opened, revealing a broad, muscled chest with a dusting of hair across his pectorals.

Erin had hardly caught her breath when his hands were on his trousers and he was undoing them, pushing them down over lean hips. Stepping out of them. Shoes and socks gone.

Now he stood before her fully naked, and she was...in shock. She didn’t know where to look and she wanted to look everywhere. Her gaze travelled over inches of dark golden flesh, the evidence of his lineage from Greece. Down further. Flat stomach, slim hips and...his erection. She gulped. He was big. The sheer evidence of his virility was daunting.

‘I’m feeling a little underdressed here, Erin.’

She looked up and could see his mouth twitching. That beautfiul sexy mouth.

Her heart hitched.Oh, my.

She realised her own state of undress. Shirt and bra half on, half off. Jacket gone. Still in the elevator? Skirt still ruched up over one thigh. Hair tumbling over her shoulders. Too long. She hadn’t had time to get it cut.

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