Page 193 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

Only what had happened had been so freakingfantasticthat just the flicker of memory made him hot all over again. Aching—battling—he grabbed his tablet and forced his focus on making notes for his assistants. Taking time away from work was extremely out of character for him. He needed to give them extensive notes.

She lied. She cheated. Abandoned responsibility.

He repeated her self-confessed litany of moral crimes. Reminding himself to remain wary. Distanced. Yes, their chemistry was spectacular, but lust would be sated. He wouldn’t allow her to cause any damage. To his curling pleasure she was back within the ten minutes he’d assigned but he said nothing, and he even managed not to reach out and touch her despite the harrowing urge he had to. He ground through more briefings for his assistants and was ridiculously relieved when they finally made it to the airstrip.

‘Where are we flying to?’ she asked once he’d slid his tablet into his bag.

‘Gibraltar.’

‘Is that a private jet?’ Her eyebrows lifted as she looked at the small insignia on the plane. ‘Don’t tell me that’s your family crest.’

‘Okay then.’ He pursed his lips, mock pouting to remain silent.

‘You don’t seriously have a family crest?’ She stopped ahead of the stairs and studied it more closely. ‘Of course it would feature a bird of prey,’ she muttered. ‘But it should beallthe apex predators in a pile fighting with each other.’

He laughed. ‘That’s exactly what my family is like. I’ll have it amended.’

‘Along with that stupid trust for your property,’ she said and marched up into the plane.

‘Right.’ He ushered her to a seat near a small table. ‘After we take off, sign the prenup. There are more forms. Some are in Spanish.’

‘I don’t speak Spanish.’

‘Piotr will translate.’

‘Can I trust him?’

‘For now you have little choice. But you’re quick...you’ll pick Spanish up in no time,’ he said soothingly.

She shot him a mutinous look. ‘Are you going to teach me?’

‘As if you’d allow that,’ he chuckled. ‘You’re more likely to download an app and teach yourself.’

She didn’t respond, which meant he was right. He couldn’t help smiling at her determined self-sufficiency.

‘Piotr will witness then get the documents ready to file.’ He handed her a pen.

‘Is there nothing the man can’t do?’ she murmured. ‘Will he be flying the plane too?’

‘Don’t get any ideas.’ Ramon felt that jealousy ripple again and tried to lighten his response. ‘He has a wife and two children. And if that isn’t enough to deter you from trying to seduce him, you’re not his type.’ He smiled. ‘You’re too provocative. He likes them demure.’

But Elodie’s sarcastic facade had fallen away and she looked genuinely concerned. ‘Does he ever get to see them?’

Ramon’s defensiveness surged. ‘My bodyguards are on a week-on, week-off schedule. This is his week on.’

He took a seat on the diagonal from hers. Once they’d levelled out Piotr appeared from the rear cabin along with an assistant who offered Elodie refreshment. Ramon opened up his laptop and feigned focus while she worked on the forms but he saw she did indeed scratch out the cash provision for her. He counted down the minutes until Piotr took the documents Elodie had filled in and went back to the rear cabin.

‘Are you always this work-driven?’ Elodie sipped from the tall glass of juice.

‘You do realise how many people my companies employ?’ he gritted. Because the fact was he’d basically got nothing done, and while he could always focus on work, right now was the one exception.

‘Companies?’ A furrow appeared between her brows. ‘Don’t you mean hotels?’

‘The hotels come under one company. There are severalothercompanies.’ He stared at her. ‘Didn’t you do any research on me?’ Was he actually miffed by that?

‘Obviously not enough seeing I didn’t know you have a cousin with almost the exact same name as you. But then we can’t all afford an army of assistants with the skills to hack into people’s private databases.’

‘Your social media profiles were all set topublic.’

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