Page 210 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘Ramon,’ she reproached him gently. He had—she realised—doneeverythingshe’d asked of him. ‘Are you not already?’

‘So do what you want with me,’ he breathed.

He sat like stone, but he was burning hot and he needed this from her. And she needed to give it. She scooted off his lap and moved to kneel on the floor before him. She hadn’t stripped him on their wedding night because she’d been lost to his ministrations but now it was his turn to succumb to the vulnerability of being so intimately exposed. She would strip him entirely—slough off the bitterness until there was nothing but this heat between them. Because it was pure and so good, it couldn’t be wrong. And because at the core of him there was hurt and it echoed within her. He was hurt and alone and she knew exactly how much that sucked. So she would take him to a place where his brain no longer functioned. It wasn’t just a balm...it was absolute bliss. And she would do this because she wanted it too. She wanted him entirely.

His breathing shuddered as she unbuttoned his shirt and traced her hands over his muscled chest, tracking her finger through the light dusting of hair. She battled with his belt and jeans and in the end pulled him so he moved down from the chair to the floor with her. Then she could strip him completely, drawing it out, savouring his strength, his deeply male beauty. She touched him everywhere in all the ways she’d secretly dreamed of for days. She wanted to find out all his most sensitive spots and torment him. To please him. And as he grew restless, and his breathing quickened, and that one part of him strained... Elodie smiled.

He watched her avidly with heavy-lidded eyes. He liked looking, just as she liked looking at him. So she slowly slipped her own dress off, her underwear too. He wanted to look? Well, she would let him. She prowled on all fours, engaging as the animal he reduced her to. Not degraded in any sense, but fully provocative because she wanted toplaywith him.

‘Don’t turn your back on me.’

His strangled groan made her cringe. Too late she remembered what he’d said when she’d turned from him before. He’d wanted her to face him, to know it was him—as if she wouldeverbe thinking of anyone else?

But when she froze, he suddenly moved. He rose and scooped her into his arms and carried her into another room. But he didn’t put her on a bed; instead it was the floor again.

‘We can do it how you want, but we’ll do it here,’ he growled.

She glanced up and saw he’d put her before a floor-to-ceiling mirror. Elodie burned, hardly wanting to look at herself in this moment but in the same second she met his gaze in the mirror. She saw his muscles flex as he knelt behind her. His hands swept from her shoulders down her waist to rest on her hips and her flush spread.

‘I want to see your face,’ he gritted. ‘Every time I’m inside you.’

‘Why?’ She shouldn’t have asked. She was afraid he’d make another comment about making sure she knew who she was with, and she didn’t want that hurt right now.

‘Because you’re so bloody beautiful.’

He cupped her breast and possessively slid his other hand between her legs. His gaze was pinned to hers as he stroked her—watching her every reaction even as he felt it. She saw the triumphant lift of his chin as she began to quake.

‘Watch,’ he muttered fiercely. ‘Watch how beautiful you are.’

But she dropped to all fours and he took her just as she began to scream and that made her scream even more. He ground her name as he ground deeper into her. It was frantic and hard and relentless and so freaking good she just screamed more as he pounded into her again and again and again. He was fierce and she’d never, ever felt as hot or as wild. She’d never wanted anything as much as she wanted him like this—primal and free—and so she pushed back on him, bucking her hips and tossing her head and he grabbed her hips harder. Sheadoredit, screaming his name until finally he finished with a raw growl and a powerful thrust that almost made her pass out with pleasure. Indeed, she slid completely to the carpet and he slumped right over the top of her.

Together they gasped for air until suddenly he growled and lifted his weight off her.

‘I cannotbelieveyour ex let you go,’ he muttered harshly.

Elodie chilled and turned her head away from him—hating that Ramon had reminded her ofhimin this moment. Because Callum hadn’twantedto let her go. Not because they’d been good in bed together but because he’d turned out to be as controlling as her father. Yes, he’d wanted her—but ultimately as a possession, not a person. She hadn’t realised that he’d been interested in her sinceschooldays. She hadn’t realised that he’d built up a fantasy of their future that couldn’t ever become real. Hadn’t realised that the chemistry that he’d assured her would develop, hadn’t. When she’d distanced herself from him intimately, he’d insisted she show affection in public so no one would know that there were problems in private. He’d started to insist on more and more and she didn’t want Ramon—or anyone—to know any of that now.

‘I’ve changed,’ she said coldly. ‘I’ve got better at it since then.’

‘Then why didn’t any of your other lovers try to collar you for good?’ Ramon challenged her. ‘You’re an opiate, Elodie. I can’t get enough.’

She glared at him. Apparently he was still angry, and now so was she. Because she couldn’t get enough either.

‘Have at me then,’ she snapped. ‘Because I’m not satisfied.’

His eyes flared. ‘Really?’

‘Yes!’

Ramon was in an even more horrendous mood when he woke. He left Elodie’s warmth and stalked to the kitchen to make coffee. He hated being here. Wouldn’t have come if it weren’t for Cristina’s jibes. But she only wanted this island because she wanted to destroy every last thing her sister had loved and she was using her son to do it. As if what she’d done after his father’s death wasn’t enough? Yet apparently still she sought vengeance for all those years of being in the shadow—wronged, silenced, embittered. He growled in annoyance at the memories that surfaced. He definitely shouldn’t have come here. They’d leave as soon as possible.

He sucked in a breath. Elodie wouldn’t be thrilled. Elodie who he couldn’t get a read on. Elodie who was hot and wild and who he couldn’t resist when her face was flushed and her fiery hair a tumbling mess. She was a tornado and he couldn’t believe she’d been controlled by her own father, that she’d married young to some guy who hadn’t been able to give her what she needed. But she had. Hell, he’d seen her freeze in front of her father. Yet something niggled at him—what she said and how she acted didn’t quite add up and it set him even further on edge.

‘Out of practice,cariño?’ He set the coffee down beside her when she finally stirred. ‘I thought you had no problem partying all night.’

She didn’t answer, merely sipped the coffee and stared back at him.

Yeah, he was being a jerk. He’d been a jerk last night. Then he’d had the most passionate night of his life, and yet here he was, still being a jerk. The sooner they got out of here the better.

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