Page 61 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

So it wasn’t as if she’d be completely alone with Aston on the yacht. A sensation, something suspiciously like relief, washed over her.

‘You’re welcome to explore anywhere on board. There’s nowhere off-limits to you.’ He motioned to a large wardrobe. ‘Clothes are in there. You can select whatever you want to top up what you’ve brought till we can reach landfall. There’ll be something to fit. If you like it, it’s yours.’

She walked to a door and opened it to find hangers draped in myriad soft fabrics of bright colours.

‘Who do you keep these here for?’

They were all women’s clothes of impeccable quality. Were they kept for lovers? She didn’t know why it was so important to know the answer to that question.

‘I use my yacht for business. I find that people appreciate the extras I provide them whilst they stay here.’

‘How...calculating of you.’

‘I prefer the wordshrewd. Anyone who stays onReine de Maréeswill remember their time on her.’

‘Queen of the Tides. Are you expecting me to remember mine?’

‘Oui. Bien sûr. I’ll ensure it.’

She glanced at the clothes in the wardrobe again, all women’s, looking like all kinds of sizes. ‘And when not you’re conducting business here?’

A look passed over his face, something stark that, if she’d been asked, looked a lot like isolation.

‘I always sleep alone.’

The last rays of sun sank below the horizon as Aston waited on the yacht’s deck. The lights of the Italian coastline twinkled in the distance as he breathed in the salty air of a cool autumn evening. It had been months since he’d felt such peace. A calm washed over him, a settled sensation. Nothing at all to do with Ana, of course. It was the same feeling he had when he climbed the mountains. The silence. Presence in the moment. No past, no future. It was the same on the ocean, the vastness of it all. Whilst he had a firm view of his own importance, he enjoyed the sensation of being insignificant for a few moments in his life. It was freeing.

Whilst his parents’ edict had impacted his equilibrium, he hadn’t realised how easy the idea of having a wife would be. He didn’t really think too hard about whether it was the woman rather than the state of being itself. That was introspection he wasn’t required to make. It was enough to have Ana here. The rest would come, he was certain.

He walked to the table for two, set out of the breeze, because Ricci had told him Ana had worried about it earlier—something about her hair. Strange, but then he’d do what it took to make her life comfortable, show her how easily they could work together, to be so much more. The table was set as he’d asked, for an intimate dinner for two: tea lights, flowers, gleaming crystal glasses and sparkling silverware. He’d requested something romantic so the external lights had been dimmed and string lights hung in their place, imbuing the space with a magical kind of ambience. It was an odd sensation, seeing the setting. He’d never asked for anything like it ever before.

A time for firsts, for him.

For Ana, too.

He wanted her as any man would want a woman he was attracted to. But thoughts of ‘firsts’ led inevitably to the thought that he would be hers. Be the only man to witness a look of pleasure slide over her face as he touched her, entering the tight, wet heat of her for the first time. Teasing her nipples till she gasped as she came. It was all he could do not to stalk down to her room, kiss her and take things to their glorious, inevitable conclusion.

Hisneedfor this woman, the hunger for her, had many reasons. Call him old-fashioned, but as his wife Ana would be his to protect. That naturally had evoked all kinds of complex and perfectly natural feelings. He’d had no one gracing his bed for some time so that was the clear reason for this drumbeat of desire which pounded through him, that was all. That was all it couldeverbe.

He made his way towards the railings of the yacht once more, into the dimness of dusk, adjusting himself in his trousers. It wouldn’t do to have his future fiancée walk out onto the deck seeing him flagrantly aroused. She wanted to be kept safe, and he’d ensure she always felt that way around him. It was a promise, and he knew how important they were to the living and to the dead.

‘This looks beautiful.’

Ana’s voice sounded surprised, in a good way. Something deep inside him curled with primal pleasure that she might have liked what he’d done for her. She’d changed from this afternoon, and it was with slight disappointment that he saw her wearing something she’d brought herself: a black dress with three-quarter sleeves. It was attractive the way it fell softly round her calves, and hugged her curves, but it didn’t satisfy him in the same way wearing something he’d provided might have.

Time.

That was what she’d asked for and no doubt she was still asserting some control over the choices she made, and excluding him from the equation. No matter. He was a patient man, with big plans. He could wait, a little while at least.

‘You look beautiful,’ he said. Her hair hung loose, the fringe covering her forehead. She reached up and adjusted it, looking self-conscious as she did. At what he’d said or something else, he couldn’t be sure.

‘Thank you.’

Ana smiled, but it was what he might have called her business smile. Something that seemed easily practised but didn’t touch her eyes. He wanted her real smile, the one reserved just for lovers who knew each other’s secrets. Once again, he was sure that would come. It was more important to get an engagement ring on her finger. His plans for that would be executed once they’d arrived in Paris.

He approached her and Ana stood a little straighter. She seemed to stiffen. Aston didn’t want that but appreciated it might take a while for her to relax around him. She’d probably never been alone with a man who wasn’t her family or otherwise a long-term employee. ‘Please, come to the table. Dinner will be served soon.’

He placed his hand on her lower back and she didn’t object. Her body was warm under his palm. Her hips swayed as she walked. When they arrived at the small table, he pulled out the chair for her.

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