Page 27 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘You still want me?’

‘Haven’t I admitted that already?’ she exclaimed in extreme self-consciousness.

‘I only pushed you away last night because I wasn’t sure you knew what you wanted from me,’ Nic confessed, disconcerting Lexy as well with his frankness. ‘And I didn’t want to risk screwing things up with you again.’

‘Oh...’ Lexy felt hot and uncomfortable, probably, she reflected ruefully, because she wasn’t used to discussing anything to do with sex. And the law of averages being what it was, she had landed the guy who would say anything and talk about it even in the equivalent of a church!

Nic muttered a Greek curse under his breath. He felt weirdly light-headed for an instant. Lexystillwanted him. No doubt it was pleasing him to hear that so much because he burned for her every time he looked at her. And he reckoned that he looked at her and thought about sex at least sixty times an hour. No woman had ever had that effect on him before and he was seriously hoping that that fixated hunger died away soon because it wasn’t easy to tolerate in a relationship as fractured as theirs was. It had been even less easy to tolerate when he had been unable to find her, he reminded himself darkly. Heneededto get that sexual infatuation out of his system before the divorce happened. Of course, getting a divorce didn’t need to be set in stone, he reasoned. That was something that could only be decided between the two of them and who knew how their marriage would develop in the coming months?

All of a quiver, literally, because Lexy couldn’t get that disturbingly intimate conversation out of her head, she returned to the house with him and they spent time with the children in the nursery on the floor. Ezra adored Nic, crawling straight to him, grabbing at his hands to play his favourite game of standing up, because Ezra was desperate to stand and walk. Ethan came more slowly to him, wary, grasping his hands and then bouncing with all his exuberant energy and laughing out loud with sweet baby vigour. Lily came to Lexy, a calmer personality like her mother, and rested on her lap sleepily. She was always quicker to tire than her brothers. Lexy cuddled her daughter with a heart full to overflowing.

‘Dinner is set for six-thirty because I said we don’t mind eating earlier,’ she told him softly. ‘I didn’t consult you—’

‘No, that’s fine with me. It’s been a long day,’ Nic conceded, tugging loose his tie and undoing his collar, sculpted stubbled jawline clenching to throw his flawlessly chiselled features into prominence, accentuating his high cheekbones, his straight ebony brows, his aristocratic nose and wide, perfect mouth.

And she thought, how do I handle this, this unbearable longing, this hunger that comes out of nowhere and just seizes hold of me? He looked as delicious as a long cold drink on a too hot day. Swallowing hard, she turned away as they entered their room, heading straight for the dressing room to choose a fresh outfit. She chose a slim pink sheath dress and changed inside the dressing room, not wishing to hand out signals she wasn’t sure she wished to follow up.

Returning to the bedroom, she learned that Nic suffered from no such inhibitions. Naked, bronzed and muscular, Nic was getting dressed too and she drifted straight back out of the bedroom and downstairs to wait for him. How did she traverse such intimacies now? Certainly, she shouldn’t be watching him the way she did,unless... Why shouldn’t she want him when she was married to him? Would a man think twice about watching his wife undress?

They ate a meal of so many dishes and courses, arranged across the tabletop in Korean banquet style, that she had to name it all for Nic. He sampledbulgogi, thin beef marinated in sweet soy sauce,ssam, grilled meat wrapped in vegetable leaves,samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup,gimbap, round rolls of rice with savoury extras,fish, rice and noodles.Kimchi, pickled vegetables, she explained, appeared at every meal. She suggested that she take him out to sample street food some evening and offered him hints for how he should behave when he dined out later in the week with the chairman at a renowned restaurant.

As she finished the cookie provided for dessert, Nic stood up and closed a hand over hers. ‘Let’s go to bed,’ he murmured lazily.

Lexy reddened because it was still very early. ‘It’s only—’

‘And this is our honeymoon,’ he reminded her smoothly.

As he pressed her upstairs, she shed her insecurity. He wanted her and she wanted him. There was absolutely no reason why they should not explore that connection more. He was kissing her long before they reached their bedroom and she was grabbing handfuls of his shirtfront in her eagerness to reach actual skin.

‘You’re wearing far too many clothes,’ she told him.

‘So are you,’ he said, closing the bedroom door, peeling off his jacket, ripping off his tie and his shirt with an urgency that thrilled her.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this,’ she framed without much vigour.

Nic spun her round, ran down her zip and the dress fell to her feet. ‘But itis...’

While she kicked off her shoes, Nic stripped off his clothes and she couldn’t take her eyes off that lean, muscular physique of his and the heated ache at the core of her merely gathered strength. With new decisiveness, Lexy reached behind herself to undo her bra and cast it off, wriggling her hips to shed her knickers. Even while she was doing such things, she was marvelling at the new confidence he gave her. But then a guy viewing her body with the same appreciation he might have awarded a goddesswaspretty encouraging, she thought, helpless to resist such silent flattery.

He came down on the bed with her, all urgent and aroused and reaching for her, and her heart was hammering so hard she was out of breath, losing herself in the allure of his hungry kiss, the crushing of her lips by his, the sensual exploration of his tongue that sent sensation winging through her whole body.

‘I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you,’ Nic growled, spreading her across the bed to work a slow steady passage down over her slender curves, long fingers touching, teasing, penetrating, watching as her spine rose and a gasp escaped her. ‘And I really couldn’t wait any longer tonight.’

He made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world and when she looked at him his sheer gorgeousness almost overpowered her because, realistically, Nic Diamandis had been her fantasy from the first moment she saw him. She ran admiring fingers through his thick black hair, moaned as he found a raspberry-pink straining nipple with his devouring mouth and moaned even louder when he traced the most sensitive spot of all and shifted his attention there with keen concentration. Her first orgasm hit her like a train roaring down a hill and, moments later, he tilted her up and thrust into her slow and deep.

‘Ah...’ she sighed because as her body so welcomed the invasion of his, it felt impossibly good and little quivers of response eddied through her pelvis.

He flexed his hips and changed speed with a grunt of pleasure as she lifted up to him. From that point, self-control fled Lexy, if it had ever existed. Excitement vanquished discipline and drove every thought out of her head. Sensation was cascading through her willing body in a dam burst of elation. Breath caught in her throat, her heart racing, she was flying higher and higher, particularly after he slid off her, flipped her over and grabbed her hips to raise her again and drove back into her in that new position. She hit an explosive climax right then again, pleasure surging afresh when he kept going, jolting her with ever deeper thrusts. A shriek she muffled in the pillows erupted from her as she reached the plateau again and finally flopped down, convinced she would never move again.

‘That was...’ Words escaped her.

‘Wild. You like it fast and hard...as do I,’ Nic informed her, words not evading him.

Lexy grimaced into the pillows and flipped over again. ‘Just don’t ask me to comment afterwards,’ she mumbled awkwardly. ‘This is all still too new to me for me to feel comfy talking about it.’

‘Still?’ he queried.

‘Well, when on earth could I have had the freedom to do this with anyone else?’ she shot at him irritably.

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