Page 81 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

How had she got into this situation?

She should be making decisions for the future, for the baby. Yet whenever she tried she found herself dwelling on Lex’s suggestion that they marry.

It was an outrageous idea. He’d taken her heart and stomped on it. While she was a stronger woman now, the notion of sharing her life with him scared her. Did she trust her emotions not to lead her astray again?

Madness to think of them trying to sustain a long-term relationship with no basis other than sex and a shared child. But the idea kept creeping back into her head.

Something moved on the other side of the olive grove. She turned her head and there he was, walking towards her.

Her breath snagged in her lungs. Lex was such aphysicalman with his leanly muscled torso and long, strong legs. He moved with a fluidity that reminded her how easy he’d always been in his own skin. How athletic.

Portia’s gaze skated across his black polo shirt and long khaki shorts, drinking in the proud set of his shoulders and the outline of powerful thighs.

She released a shuddering exhalation, the pungent scent of wild herbs intensifying as her hands curled into the plants beside her.

Each day it grew harder to resist him.

If he even wants you anymore! Maybe you did him a favour saying you wanted separate beds. He seems happy sleeping alone now.

‘Portia.’ He smiled but she couldn’t read his eyes behind his sunglasses. ‘I thought you’d like a drink.’

He hunkered beside her, unpacking the picnic basket his housekeeper, Aspasia, must’ve packed. As well as the promised drink there were grapes, fragrant little cheese pies wrapped in thin, papery pastry and walnut biscuits dripping with honey syrup. Her mouth watered.

It was easier to focus on the goodies in the basket than on Lex. He smelt so good that her nostrils flared, trying to absorb more of that tantalising male scent.

‘You mind if I join you?’

It would be churlish to refuse. She held out her hand in invitation. ‘Please.’

‘How’s the work going?’ she asked when the picnic was unpacked and he lounged nearby, looking at the view and munching on one of Aspasia’s cheese pies.

‘Good. Very good. We’ve had a bit of a breakthrough in our discussions with the British research team.’

Portia and Lex hadn’t discussed their work. In England they’d been too busy assuaging the storm of passion that had engulfed them. Here on the island their conversations had been carefully general. Portia had steered clear of anything too personal and had deliberately reined in her curiosity about Lex’s world beyond the island. He, the perfect host, had followed her lead.

But what was the harm in discovering more? Whatever decisions they made, Lex would remain in her life, father to her child.

Her deliberate decision in London,notto discover more about Lex’s business and family—as if that would cement the distance between them and keep her safe—seemed farcical now. The more she knew, the better she’d understand him. Better for herself and their baby.

Besides, shewantedto know more. ‘These are the discussions you were having on your visits to London?’

‘That’s right. My time there has paid off.’

He bit into the pastry and she watched him chew.

Since when had the everyday sight of a man eating become so fascinating?

It was ludicrous, yet she had to tear her attention away instead of reaching out to brush a crumb of pastry off his lips. Already she imagined the feel of those lips against her fingers.

‘They’re hard negotiators, these researchers?’

He shrugged, apparently unsurprised by her curiosity. ‘They have specific criteria they want locked in before they decide to partner with any production company.’

‘Really? I thought researchers would be glad to find investors who’d manufacture their product.’

His gaze snared hers. ‘That’s just it. To what extent does it remain their product once they partner with a company that will turn their concept into a commercial product? There are questions about how their ideas will be used.’

Portia frowned. ‘They think you’ll misuse their inventions?’

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