Page 52 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

He’d loved her. He should have trusted her. Guilt was a sharp blade, slashing through his ribs.

Now he understood that beneath his bravado there must have been an undercurrent of self-doubt, fed by years of contempt and suspicion from the local squire and many of the villagers. Had their doubts insidiously undermined his own conviction?

When he’d got that poisonous text it had seemed like confirmation that Portia’s love for him had never been real. That the very idea of it was too good to be true.

‘It’s over, Lex.’ Her mouth turned into a flatline ‘It’s in the past.’

He hated the way she kept saying that. She was right, they were no longer in love. But there was something still between them, apart from the weight of guilt in his belly. Something he couldn’t ignore. It had dragged him back to the UK in the depths of a dreary winter. More, it had disrupted his work schedule, something unheard of.

‘But is it really in the past?’

Her eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean? We don’t have a relationship anymore. We don’t even know each other now.’

Lex nodded. ‘I agree. We have our own lives, our separate futures. We’re not destined for a romantic happy ending, even if we believed in it anymore.’ He paused, waiting to be sure she wouldn’t contradict him. She didn’t. ‘But you feel this too.’ He knew she did.

She didn’t answer straight away. Was that trepidation in her expression? ‘Feel what?’

Her chin was high, her face giving nothing away, but he didn’t miss the slight tremble in her voice or the way her breathing shallowed.

‘This connection.’

He lifted his hand and let his fingertip skim her cheekbone, down to the corner of her mouth where her lips parted on a gasp that made the smouldering heat in his groin ignite.

Her pupils dilated, turning those velvety eyes into dark pools of longing.

‘It’s real, isn’t it, Portia? Still there after all this time.’

He needed her to admit it. Despite her lust-darkened gaze, he needed absolute confirmation he wasn’t alone in this.

Lex’s pulse jumped as warm fingers closed around his wrist. He stiffened, guessing she was about to drag his hand away and deny the powerful tug between them.

She held his hand steady, then unexpectedly turned her face to kiss the centre of his palm.

Lightning struck, bolts of it sheering through his body, turning muscle and sinew to white-hot metal, making his blood thunder.

He moved instinctively, looping an arm around her waist and pulling her hard against him.

Instantly sensations bombarded him. He felt her against him from chest to thigh. He hadn’t held her for years yet his body remembered and revelled in her proximity.

Arousal stirred and he knew she must feel it.

He tried and failed to remember any other woman who’d affected him so instantaneously.

She curled her free hand around the back of his neck. Her other hand still held his, bringing it close again for another kiss. Anticipation was an effervescent tide in his blood, a streak of tingling awareness shooting straight to his groin.

But instead of pressing her lips to his palm, Portia nipped the flesh at the base of his thumb, sending his whole body into overdrive.

Dark eyes surveyed him from under long lashes. ‘If you’re talking about sex, the answer is yes. The attraction’s still there.’

CHAPTER FOUR

OFCOURSEHE’Stalking about sex!

Love is long gone. He spelt that out just now, careful that there not be any misunderstanding.

If he’d really loved her he’d have trusted in her all those years ago instead of believing father’s lie so easily.

Portia cut off that train of thought. Regrets and what-ifs were luxuries she couldn’t afford. But right here, now, was some consolation for the pain she’d borne.

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