Page 16 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

Sadie said a very faint ‘Bye...’ as she watched them leave, feeling all at once frustrated and relieved that her attempt to explain everything to Quin had been interrupted again.

Later that night Quin was not in a good mood as he took a swig of alcohol from the thick crystal tumbler in his hand. He was staring out through the massive glass wall of his living area, down to where he could just make out the guesthouse, illuminated through the trees.

He’d just endured a function in central Sao Paulo where all the women seemed to have made it a national sport to get his attention. His mouth tightened cynically. Amazing what becoming a billionaire could do for your eligibility.

Not that he’d evernotbeen eligible, he had to concede, with no sense of hubris.

He’d been distracted all evening—and not just by the women seeking his attention. He’d been distracted because he hadn’t been able to get one woman out of his head. The woman who had haunted him for four years. The woman who was no longer a ghost but very much alive and breathing—and existing mere metres from where he stood now.

That night in New York he’d finally been ready to cut her ghost and her memory loose. To get on with his life, take a lover... Only for her to appear in the flesh, thwarting him and setting him back. Four years.

He’d just had a conversation with Lena, who’d told him, ‘She knows her way around cleaning a house and doing laundry—that much is obvious. But, Quin—’

Before she’d been able to say anything more—like demanding to know what the hell was going on with this woman who had just appeared and who looked ridiculously like Sol—he’d terminated the conversation and she’d left to go back to her own house.

He didn’t like it that his conscience was prickling with the knowledge that he was keeping something huge from the two people who had been more of a family to him than his own family, and the fact that the mother of his child had been doing menial chores around his house.

It all mixed together with the residual anger, hurt, confusion, distrust...andlust...to make a volatile mix.

He swallowed the rest of the drink and took off his bow tie. He opened his top button, feeling constricted. Restless. He could keep drinking and brooding, or he could go and confront the woman who was lodged in his side like a burr.

He pulled off his jacket, dropped it on a chair, then pulled back the glass door and went outside. The air was warm. Soft. When he felt hard. Prickly.

He walked down through the garden, and as he came closer to the trees and the guesthouse he could hear the soft strains of familiar music. But not that familiar... He hadn’t heard it in four years.

He came to a stop in the trees as the sensual voice of a well-known Brazilian jazz singer washed over him. For a crazy second he wondered if he was losing his mind. Had he hallucinated Sadie back into his life and now he was hearing things? She’d loved this artist and had used to play her all the time. She’d given birth to Sol with this music in the background.

He kept moving forward until he could see the house. Low lights were on, but he couldn’t see any sign of Sadie. He walked around and saw the front door was open. The music was louder now.

He walked inside and could smell her scent. Not a ghost, then. He went over to the sound system in the den area and pressed theoffbutton. Silence enclosed him.

Then from behind him a voice said, ‘You used to say that I played her too much.’

Quin turned around and the blood rushed straight to his head. Sadie was standing before him in a short, belted robe. Long bare legs. Pale. Hair damp and falling in golden-red skeins around her shoulders.

He dimly realised she must have been swimming, just as she gestured with her hand behind her and said, ‘I hope you don’t mind... I had a swim.’

He shook his head, but everything had turned fuzzy. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Off the vee of skin exposed by the robe...the hint of plump cleavage.

Blood thundered through his veins. It had been so long. She’d tortured him for four years with X-rated dreams that had left him aching and frustrated. He’d been tortured by endless questions.Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?Yet now she was here in front of him, and he could actually ask herwhy, Quin perversely didn’t want to know. It was as if he’d intuited that once he knewwhyhe would no longer have anything to hold on to.

The hatred. The justifiable anger. The pain.The loss.

He moved towards her as if pulled by a magnetic force. He couldn’tnot. She looked at him, eyes wide. That mesmerising shade of blue and green. Depths he’d drowned in. But no more. There would be no drowning this time.

She spoke. ‘Quin...we should talk. Maybe now is good because Sol is away tonight. We have time—’

Quin put his hands on her arms and the words stopped. Good. He didn’t want words. Except to say, ‘I don’t want to talk right now. All I want isthis.’

He pulled her into his body, where she fitted like a missing jigsaw piece, slotting into place against him. He lowered his head and took a breath as he closed his eyes and slanted his mouth over hers, and everything inside him turned to heat and fire and longing and an almost unbearable demand for satisfaction. It had been so long...and he’d never stopped wanting her.

Any recrimination he might have felt for giving in to this weakness was burnt to ashes in the conflagration of their kiss.

CHAPTER FIVE

SADIEWASRIGIDagainst Quin for a long moment. It was the shock of being in his arms again after so long. The shock of his mouth on hers...all at once familiar and utterly new. But the shock was fast dissolving under his touch, being replaced with a desire and a hunger so deep and ravenous that within seconds she was pressing closer, twining her arms around his neck and stretching up as much as she could, so she could meet his kiss with a desperation that clawed up from the centre of her body and spread out to every limb, making her shake with it.

They ceased to be bodies. They were heat and need and intense burning desire. Quin’s hands were on her robe, undoing the belt, pushing it off her shoulders so it fell to the floor. His fingers were under her swimsuit straps, pushing them off and down, then the wet material was being peeled from her body to fall to the floor.

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