Page 187 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

‘Can I ask why, though?’

Mateo looked at her. She was so fresh-faced and, just for a second, he was tempted to spill out his life story. The temptation came as a shock. He felt as though he was being sucked down into something over which he had no control, a rabbit hole. Some crazy place where he was tempted to let go and see what happened next.

It was enough for him abruptly to step back. Control had got him where he was in life. He had controlled his time, his energies and his focused climb to the top. He had lived through the sadness and despair that had ruined his father when he had lost the love of his life. From his own place of quiet grief—with no one to turn to, because it had felt as though his father had been taken from him along with his mother—he had learned the value of never handing control of his life to someone else.

His love life, after the horror story of Bianca, had been even more controlled, if anything, and after she had showed up asking for money years after their divorce nothing in his life had been left up to chance.

The fact that he had already played fast and loose by allowing his physical attraction to the woman staring at him now to dictate his behaviour was an uncomfortable fact. He had no intention of compounding his lapse by launching into a self-indulgent revisiting of his past or contemplating rabbit holes full of unknown outcomes.

‘You can go right ahead and ask.’ He tempered the coolness of his voice with a smile. ‘But I’ll be sticking to “no comment” on that one. And, now that we’ve had this illuminating conversation, can I entice the sexy vicar’s daughter into a little more mutual physical exploration, or will it be shower and something to eat...?’

‘Food beckons,’ Alice murmured drowsily.

‘Agreed.’ Mateo’s voice was laced with amusement. ‘It’s important to have stamina when it comes to the business of making love...’

The driving force of the snow eased off but somehow it was agreed that two nights together would become two more.

‘Why not?’ They’d been in bed at one-thirty in the afternoon, lazy and content after making love, and Mateo’s voice had been soft and persuasive. ‘We haven’t exhausted the passion between us yet, have we? I certainly haven’t. I haven’t even been tempted to go out there and put the skis on, which is a first for me. So phone your friends and tell them that the kindly family who rescued you from the blizzard want you to stay on until they leave.’

‘I’m not sure I mentioned anything about a kindly family,’ Alice had returned drowsily, but her mind had already been racing ahead, eagerly accepting his proposition and mothballing the little voice inside her warning her that she was playing with fire.

It had only been a couple of days but he had cast a spell over her. She’d never met anyone like him. She still didn’t know that much about him, aside from the skeleton list of facts he had given her in passing, but she didn’t care, because what shedidknow was that he was clever, thoughtful, witty and mind-blowingly sexy.

Could stolen time feel more glorious?

She’d made a something and nothing excuse about staying on to her friends, which might have been a little problem, given her limited amount of clothing, but that hadn’t mattered because lots of the time was spent without any on at all.

‘I’ll make it up to you,’ she had told Bea on the phone the day before. ‘It’s so rude, and I know we’d all banked on spending time together, but...’

But she’d discovered a selfish streak in herself and she just hadn’t been able to face the prospect of saying goodbye to Mateo. Not yet, not when she didn’t have to. And what was so wrong with grabbing this little window of fun and stepping out of her predictable comfort zone? That comfort zone would be waiting for her when she returned to London.

‘I just feel that to ski back for the sake of a day before we all leave, well, it feels more recuperative to...er...stay put and recover from my ordeal.’

And she would have another two fantastic days here with Mateo... She was being selfish but it had felt like taking charge of her decision making.

And today they would ski to the little town he had mentioned when she had first landed on his doorstep so that she could replenish her wardrobe. It all felt very clandestine and exciting.

Taking the stairs at a quick trot, she stopped and just gazed at Mateo, who was scrolling on his phone by the door, all black ski gear, his ski sunglasses on his forehead. He was all sexy, gorgeous male.

Not for a second did she regret staying on.

He glanced up at her and smiled slowly.

He’d surprised himself by giving in to impulse and asking her to stay with him for the rest of the time he was at the lodge. Having spent years valuing the sanity and solitude he got here, he’d done a complete about-turn.

She’d said yes, and he’d found that he’d been holding his breath, desperate for her to concur.

‘We could always drive. The snow stopped yesterday and the roads down to the town will be passable. No need to take to the slopes.’

He was talking, but mostly relishing the sight of her as she walked towards him. Her ski outfit hugged womanly curves that were still managing to keep him in a state of semi-permanent arousal. She’d tied her hair back and stuffed it into a colourful woolly hat, but tendrils had already escaped, and his fingers itched to twirl one of them round his fingers.

Frankly, he itched to do a hell of a lot more than that. He itched to release the weight of her heavy breasts straining against her stretchy top, to feel them in his hands, to lathe the big, blushing pink nipples with his tongue and mouth, to feel her responsive wetness between her thighs and hear her little cries when he touched her there.

‘If we leave now...’ he banished those pleasantly erotic images to savour when he could do something about them ‘...we can be there in twenty minutes and back here within a couple of hours. Lunch at one of the cafés might be nice.’

‘We should take a backpack for whatever I buy.’

‘Already thought of that. Let’s go; if we stay here much longer, I’m going to have to put this little trip on hold and take you back to bed.’

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