Page 75 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

So he wasn’t sure why he stopped dead in his tracks, his gaze fixed on the woman at the desk. There was something familiar about her. Something familiar about the thick auburn hair hanging down her back. It reminded him of that night in Melbourne, of Nell, his Burne-Jones angel with her thick and silky hair that he’d gathered in his fist as he’d driven inside her from behind, making her bed shake...

The woman turned her head slightly and an arrow of desire so intense it stopped his breath pierced him.

Itwasher.

Nell.

She hadn’t seen him, still talking urgently to Karina, who was now shaking her head as a couple of security guards came over. Clearly they were on the point of escorting Nell from the building.

His thoughts seemed to stop in their tracks, overwhelmed utterly by the reality of her, and then, with the same abruptness, they began to move again and this time at lightning speed.

She was here. In New York. In his building. Which must mean she wanted to see him. Why? He’d told her it could only be one night and she’d agreed. He’d left her sleeping and she’d been as good as her word. He hadn’t heard from her since.

Something must have changed, something urgent enough that she’d come to see him herself. Something important enough that it required a face-to-face meeting and out of the blue.

For a second his brain furiously sorted through all the possibilities until there was only one left. One that made him go icy with shock.

He’d thought they’d been careful with protection that night. Every time, he’d used a condom. Also, she’d told him she’d been on the pill in preparation for giving herself to that pathetic, ungrateful boyfriend of hers.

But...now he thought about it, he couldn’t remember using protection that first time up against her bedroom door. He’d been so hungry for her, so desperate, so motivated by his own base instinct, he hadn’t even thought about it.

There was a failure rate for the pill. It was slim, but it was there, and it only took once...

The shock penetrated the whole way through his body and then something else seemed to ignite in his chest. Smouldering, leaping into flame, burning hot...

Shemustbe pregnant. That was why she was there, that was theonly reason he could think of, and it would certainly explain the urgency with which she was talking. And how she gripped onto the front desk with her fingers as one of his security guards took her arm, trying to urge her away, then pulling...

‘Stop,’ Aristophanes said coldly, his voice echoing in the vaulted spaces of the foyer.

Everyone standing at the front desk froze, then turned.

And the fierce burning in his chest shifted and changed as Nell Underwood’s dark eyes met his then widened, her creamy skin flushing with colour. His body hardened almost instantly, his brain no help at all as images of their night together began playing in his head.

Ruthlessly, he shoved them aside, ignored the demands of his body, and strode over to where Nell was standing, staring at him like a deer in the headlights of a car. ‘Leave this to me,’ he ordered to the security guards and Karina, who all obediently went back to their posts as if nothing had happened. Then he looked down into Nell’s beautiful face. ‘You,’ he said. ‘You’re coming with me.’

It wasn’t a question and he didn’t give her a chance to protest. He took her arm in an unbreakable grip and urged her over to the elevators.

‘I’m coming, I’m coming,’ she said irritably, though she didn’t resist him. ‘You don’t need to manhandle me. I was actually here to see you.’

‘I thought as much.’ He hit the button for his private elevator and, though every base instinct in his body was screaming at him to keep hold of her, he released his grip on her arm. ‘You didn’t have an appointment.’

The doors opened smoothly and he ushered her inside. As they shut, he pressed the button for his office and the elevator began to rise.

‘No, I didn’t.’ She’d taken a few steps away from him, as if she wanted to put some distance between them. It grated on his nerves for reasons he couldn’t have explained. Her hands moved restlessly, adjusting her coat and smoothing her damp hair. ‘That woman at the front desk told me it was impossible to see you,’ she said, her familiar voice clear as a bell. ‘That you were booked up for an entire month, and even if there was a space in your schedule, you wouldn’t be able to see me, because you were far too important.’

‘I am,’ he said without irony, because it was no less than the truth. ‘However, I find I have some time now.’ He didn’t, of course. Claire was waiting for him. Yet Claire seemed to be the least important thing to him in this moment.

Nell’s dark gaze was wary, but that little chin of hers was stubborn. He remembered taking it in his fingers, remembered how warm her skin had been and how silky it had felt. ‘Why now?’ she asked.

‘Because you are here.’ He met her gaze head-on. ‘I thought I told you that you weren’t to contact me again.’

‘You did.’ She made another nervous adjustment to her coat. ‘And believe me, I wouldn’t have done so. But...’ A breath escaped her and she swallowed. ‘I need to tell you something.’

He could smell her scent, sweet and tantalising, and the fire in his chest seemed to burn brighter, hotter. He was going to be so late for Claire, but, now that he was here in this elevator with Nell, he couldn’t think of anything he wanted less than to leave and find a different woman. A woman who wasn’t Nell.

Remember why she’s here.

Ah, yes. There was that.

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