Page 2 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

And then he realised it wasn’t adrenalin. It was lust.

‘Sadie Ryan...’ Quin breathed, not quite able to believe he was uttering her name out loud, or that she above all women still had the power to bring his libido back to life after four years.

This was the woman who had betrayed him in the worst way possible—by making him trust her.Love her.No, he told himself now. It had never been love. It had been lust. That was all. But the assurance rang hollow, mocking him.

He blinked, hoping that she might disappear. But she didn’t. She was all too real.

He said, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

Sadie Ryan looked up at Quin Holt and couldn’t quite believe that she was standing here in front of him. And that she was still breathing—that she hadn’t fallen, overwhelmed, into a mass of emotion at his feet. Blood was pounding through her body, drowning out the strains of music and the muted chatter of people coming from the party.

He looked as amazing as she remembered...More.Short, dark blond hair. Dark eyes. Stubbled jaw. Classically handsome, but with an edge that elevated him to truly gorgeous. Charisma oozed from every pore. As did pure, raw sex appeal.

Past and present seemed to blur into one another as the memory of seeing him for the first time flashed back into her head. He’d been standing against one of the wooden pillars on the porch that had wrapped around the little beach house in Brazil, drinking from a beer bottle. He’d been wearing nothing but long board shorts. Bare-chested. Utterly gorgeous. And then, as if feeling her gaze on him, he’d looked at her, and she’d felt the electriczingfrom him to her as if they were connected by a wire.

Sadie forced her mind back to the present. She couldn’t get lost in memories now. Her mouth was dry from nerves. She tried to swallow, to lick her lips but her tongue and mouth wouldn’t function. She’d dreamed of this moment for so long that it didn’t feel real.

Emotions churned in her gut and moved upwards, making her chest swell. Finally,finallyshe would get to see—

‘I said, what the hell are you doing here?’

Quin’s question cut through the emotion. Sadie realised that he looked angry.No.Livid. A muscle was popping at his jaw, reminding her of when she’d been in hospital four years ago, in intense pain, and no one had seemed to be listening to her. His jaw had popped like that when he’d been talking to the staff.

She concentrated on the present moment even as the past threatened to drown her in images and memories.

But instead of the rehearsed speech she’d been practising—I know this must be a shock—she heard herself blurting out emotionally, ‘I’m so happy to see you.’

Quin frowned. Sadie had only barely taken in the dark suit and light blue shirt. The way that his clothes moulded to his tall, powerful body. She’d never seen him so formally dressed. When she’d known him he’d worn a uniform of T-shirts and faded jeans or board shorts, and more often than not he’d spent his time bare-chested. Or naked. Heat flooded her body at that memory.

‘You’re“so happy”to see me?’ Quin’s voice was incredulous. ‘What is this? Some kind of sick joke?’

Sadie shook her head. She cursed her naivety. Of course he wasn’t going to be overjoyed to see her. She’d walked out without any explanation. Vanished into thin air. Left him and—

‘You were not invited to this party. You should leave.’

The hostility radiating from the man in front of her made Sadie shiver. ‘I tried calling you a couple of times recently, but your number must have changed...or maybe you blocked me.’

Quin was silent for a moment, and then he said tautly, ‘I had the same number for a year after you left...when you didn’t use it, I didn’t see any point in keeping it operational. You’re not welcome here.’

She said, ‘I know I wasn’t invited, but I saw in the press that you were due to be here, so I took my chances and they let me in when I said I knew you.’

Quin’s dark gaze swept her up and down, nothing warm in it at all. He looked at her and said, ‘You“knew”me a long time ago.’

Sadie’s heart shrank inside her chest. He was looking at her as if she was a stranger and she knew she couldn’t blame him.

‘Four years isn’t that long,’ she said weakly, but the lie tasted like acid on her tongue.

The last four years had felt like a lifetime. Each hour crawling past torturously. Each day taking a little bit more of her heart and soul and crushing them to pieces. Until the glorious moment only a few weeks ago when she’d got the news that she could start living again.

Quin shook his head. ‘You have some nerve, showing up like this. What do you want?’

‘We need to talk.’ Surely he couldn’t deny her that?

Quin folded his arms across his chest and Sadie hated how aware of his biceps she was, bulging against the expensive fabric.

‘Talk about what? How you disappeared without a trace? Leaving behind only a note with no explanation. How did it go again?’

Quin pretended to think for a second and Sadie wanted to beg him not to say those hateful words that were engraved into her soul. But it was too late, he was biting them out with caustic relish.

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