Page 90 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

He frowned, taking in the elegant curve of her obdurate back, a sudden frustration rising in him. Was this all he was going to get from her? Just this...silence?

Are you surprised? It’s not as if you’ve given her anything but dismissal.

A memory gripped him then, of the hurt in her eyes as she’d said what was the point of a visit without sex, and he’d implied that the health of their children was more important. Which it was, but still... They were strangers, and yet...they weren’t. He’d touched every inch of her body, he knew the feel of her, the taste of her. He knew what she looked like when she came, the noises she made when he gave her pleasure. He knew her kiss, the touch of her hand, the way her nails dug into his back...

He didn’t know her mind, though, and perhaps he should. Especially when she was their children’s mother and they’d be raising those children together.

‘Do you need food?’ he asked, at a loss for what else to say, but wanting to say something to break the ice. Small talk, though, had never been his friend.

‘No, thank you.’ She was scrupulously polite and still didn’t turn.

‘Perhaps you would like to rest?’ He took a couple of steps towards her. ‘The bed is very comfortable.’

‘I’m sure it is.’

His jaw felt tight and he didn’t know what else to say. Words were always a barrier. They got in the way, imperfect and inexact, a primitive vehicle when it came to expressing ideas and concepts. Apart from sex, though, he didn’t know what other tools he could use to express himself. Mind to mind would be so much easier, and it was a constant aggravation to him that no one had yet invented telepathy.

If sex hadn’t been forbidden, he would simply have crossed the space between them, taken her into his arms, kissed her thoroughly, then given her all the pleasure he was capable of to make her feel better.

But he couldn’t.

So he stood there uselessly, impatient and annoyed with himself, until she finally turned around. ‘I’m sorry?’ she said coolly. ‘Don’t you have other places to be?’

‘I want to know if you need anything,’ he said, irritated by how inarticulate he was being, and how it almost made him feel stupid. Which he wasn’t in any regard.

‘I don’t.’ Her gaze was very level, telling him nothing.

‘Do you like the villa?’ he demanded, getting even more irritated with himself.

‘Yes, it’s fine. I said that already.’

‘But do you—?’

‘It’s fine, Mr Katsaros,’ she repeated, her voice cold as a splinter of ice.

‘Aristophanes,’ he growled, realising all of a sudden that she’d never said his name out loud, not once. ‘You can’t call me Mr Katsaros. Not when we will be having children together.’

At last, to his enormous satisfaction, tiny sparks of temper glittered in her eyes. The satisfaction was akin to when he gave her an orgasm, but sharper somehow. He liked that he could disturb her, that he could affect her in some way.

‘I’m not calling you Aristophanes,’ she said with some irritation. ‘It’s ridiculous and far too long.’

He glared at her. ‘How dare you—?’

‘I’ll call you Dylan, after one of the naughtiest boys in my class.’

‘You willnotbe calling me Dylan,’ he forced out through gritted teeth.

Nell tilted her head and abruptly he realised that it wasn’t only temper in her eyes, but something else, almost like...amusement. ‘Bear, then,’ she said. ‘He’s the second naughtiest and you’re certainly bad-tempered enough to be a bear.’

‘Bear?’ he repeated blankly. ‘You have a boy in your class called Bear?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘So, thank you, Bear. That will be all.’

Nell watched Aristophanes’ dark brows plunge into yet another one of his sexy scowls and felt extremely pleased with herself. It was a strange thing to discover that she could render this powerful, apparently humourless, billionaire genius speechless. Not to mention annoyed. And he was definitely both now, his mouth tight, his grey gaze thunderous.

It was satisfying. That she could get under his skin so easily made her feel better about being here, on this Greek island that she hadn’t asked to be brought to and would effectively be imprisoned on for the next five months.

She’d thought that nothing she said would move him, since it appeared he didn’t care about her at all, except that she was the mother of his children.

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