Page 128 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘Do you see another?’

She tilted him a glance, her tone wry when she spoke. ‘That’s what worries me.’

‘Why should you be worried?’ He was close enough that she could reach out and touch him if she wanted to. She didn’t. But a light breeze lifted off the Ionian Sea and fanned her hair across her face. They both reached for it at the same time, their fingers brushing, and she startled from the jolt of electricity.

‘Sebastian...’ She heard her voice, heard the plea in it, hadn’t realised she’d been going to do any such thing.

‘Come on,’ he responded, tone gruff. She swallowed past a strange thickness in her throat. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

It was like being doused in ice-cold water. Whatever flutterings and rushings of her pulse she’d been convinced she felt a moment ago, she now experienced nothing but disbelief that she’d gotten herself into this situation. Every so often, she thought back to the fateful afternoon when the king had presented her with this plan, had begged her to help him. He wanted to bring his daughter and grandson home but couldn’t do it without her. She was the only person he trusted to ensure the kingdom would be in good hands. His request alone would have been enough to ensure her compliance, but he’d sweetened the deal with just the right lures. Rosie had found herself agreeing even before she’d contemplated the way Sebastian seemed to have broken all of her previously held thoughts about men and masculinity. He was unlike anyone she’d ever known, and she’d felt that, strongly, from the first moment they’d met.

He hadn’t been wrong, when he’d suggested she favoured a more cerebral type.

And while Sebastian was intelligent, he was so much more, and it was themorethat set her nerves on edge. Rosie liked to be in control of every aspect of her life, but she’d known from the first moment of meeting Sebastian that he would never be controlled by anyone.

He was his own man, running on his own instincts.

She spun her wedding ring on her finger as she walked towards the car. To her surprise, Sebastian strode ahead of her and opened the front passenger door.

He ruined the effect of the chivalrous gesture with a slightly mocking, ‘Princess,’ as she swept past him and into the seat. She threw him a glare, and would have pulled the door shut, but before she could do any such thing, he reached for the seatbelt and drew it across her, buckling it into place. It was so unexpected. His body was so close to hers, his face just an inch above. A small gasp escaped her before she could stop it, and her eyes widened. He glanced at her, something in his features that made her pulse race.

She could tell that he wanted to mock her. To tease her. To say something condescending. But whatever flames were igniting Rosie’s bloodstream were also firing through Sebastian.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ he muttered. ‘Not here.’

‘Not here?’ she repeated, mainly because she couldn’t think of anything else coherent to offer.

‘Do not look at me like that, when we are here on my island, completely alone.’

‘We’re not alone,’ she said, thinking of how warm his breath was against her cheek. ‘There’s your pilot and flight crew.’

‘They’re not staying.’

‘Oh.’ Her tongue darted out, tracing a line over her lower lip. She asked the question that had been plaguing her since they touched down. ‘Your staff?’

‘No.’

‘No?’

‘Not here.’

‘Oh.’

‘We’re alone.’ He lifted his thumb and brushed it over her lower lip. ‘And it does not matter to me that you and I don’t like one another—if you look at me as though you’re imagining me naked, I will make love to you as soon as we get to the house.’

Her eyes widened, her heart speeding up. ‘I—’

He dropped his hand from her lips to her breast, his fingers running over her with possessive heat.

‘And while I would enjoy that immensely, it’s not why we’re here.’

‘It’s not?’ she asked, almost petulant sounding, and she could have kicked herself for revealing how much she did want to be ravaged by him.

His lips tilted into a half smile. ‘We’re getting to know one another, remember?’

Can’t we do both?She bit back the question just in time.

‘Disappointed?’ he asked, moving his hand lower still, over her stomach, towards her thigh. He traced a circle there, eyes latched on hers.

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