Page 56 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

It was what he’d called her all those years ago when they’d met secretly in the stables or the old summerhouse, surrounded by its concealing tangle of roses.

He’d called her that the first time they made love, when she’d been full of wonderment. And the last time too, when she’d been fervent with excitement, knowing that from that night they’d be together forever.

They’d been soulmates, or so she’d believed. Lex was the one person apart from her mother who’d accepted her for who she was. The tomboy, horse-mad and romantic. Portia had seen beyond Lex’s taciturn demeanour. He was clever and driven but generous and caring.

‘Portia?’

His eyes bore the glaze of arousal. There were no shadows. No doubts. No what-ifs.

That was what she needed, complete absorption in the moment. No more of the past. No more if-onlys. She closed the distance between them, stopping only when she stood between his thighs.

Lex smiled, his hands finding her bra’s fastening, then smoothing the straps off her shoulders so it fell to the floor. Admiration flared in his eyes and something that might have been awe.

His expression had her arching her back, thrusting her breasts out and into his waiting hands.

Her eyes fluttered shut as he cupped them, his murmured praise a silky ribbon that wove around her body and deep inside, tighter and tighter, making her need escalate.

Portia planted her hands on his shoulders, feeling the rigid muscle and bone and that glorious heat.

‘I need you, Lex.’

‘Soon,’ he crooned against her breast as one hand trailed down her abdomen to the damp nest of curls between her thighs.

A lightning spark shuddered through her and she tried to open her legs wider, only to be trapped by his thighs.

‘No!’ She saw his heavy-lidded eyes snap wide open as she spoke. ‘Now. I don’t have time for foreplay.’ The need was too urgent. She craved the relief of his body with hers.

His mouth hooked up at one corner, his voice a lazy drawl. ‘What do you think we’ve been doing?’

But then he lifted his gaze to meet hers and his expression changed. Understanding pulsed between them and for a second it felt more than sexual.

But that wasn’t possible. They didn’t know each other anymore. They were simply strangers who shared a past.

‘Poor Portia,’ he crooned, as he skimmed his hands along her sides, thumbs brushing the underside of her breasts and stealing her breath. Then he opened his imprisoning legs and slid his hands to her hips. ‘Ride me, then.’

It was the work of the moment to step over his thighs and straddle him, her knees either side of his hips.

His attention dropped to her breasts, bobbing before him and he leaned in to suckle one, drawing slow then hard, making her body hum with arousal. Portia buried her hands in his thick hair, clamping his mouth to her breast as he drove her to the edge of reason.

Eyes the colour of a summer storm cloud looked up at her as he released her breast and nuzzled the other, making her hips shift restlessly. ‘Ride me, Portia. Let me have all of you.’

Then he closed his mouth on her other breast and drew hard.

She bit her lip against the sob of need rising in her throat, and reached down to hold him.

He was heavy between her thighs, hot where he nudged her, and when she sank onto him there was nothing but the sensation of oneness. The stroke of hard maleness against sensitive femininity. The friction that turned anticipation into pleasure and pleasure into desperation.

Eyes closed, Portia rocked against him, driving them together, feeling the unstoppable spark grow and grow.

Lex’s hands were tight around her hips, encouraging yet slowing her too, not letting her race too fast towards oblivion, making her work for each morsel of pleasure.

His mouth was on hers now, murmuring words of encouragement interspersed with groans of delight. They rocked together, moving in tandem, drawing out the gratification with complete sureness as if their bodies remembered every detail of their past loving.

Finally Lex pushed even higher, even harder, biting her earlobe and telling her the other things he wanted to do with her.

She felt the gathering rush at the base of her spine and deep inside. Felt the spasms begin.

Her eyes snapped open and there he was, watching her, joining her, sharing the shock of too-sudden ecstasy. Bliss beckoned, consuming her, so profound she would have been scared but for Lex there with her, looking as stunned as she felt.

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