Page 146 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

‘Oh, let me see...’ He patted his pockets. ‘I knew I’d forgotten something.’

Her head lifted, reproach in her eyes. ‘This isn’t a joke,’ she sobbed.

‘I can see that.’

‘That thing is probably worth a fortune.’

‘Probably,’ he agreed, crossing to her side and holding out a hand. ‘You do know you look a little bit crazy down there?’

‘Well, your sensitivity lessons really worked, didn’t they?’ she snapped, finally taking his hand. Not because she would admit she needed it, but because she was suddenly very aware that she had nothing on under her robe, and covering all the essentials while getting up unaided would not be easy.

The way Joaquin was looking, and where he was looking, suggested that he was well aware that she was naked under the robe.

He removed his burning stare and his hand at the same moment, and as he took a step back she fought the magnetic tug that made her want to lean into him.

‘As a general rule, I have no objection to women on their knees at my feet.’ His smile deepened. ‘But I do believe you are blushing all over.’

She stifled a gasp and brought her lashes down in a protective shield. ‘The ring...’ she pushed out in desperation, wanting to focus on anything but the internal shudder, the rush of liquid heat between her legs, the nipping contraction of her nipples.

‘Is hideous. And, yes, extremely valuable. I will arrange for it to be retrieved and put in the back of a dark bank vault. Where it belongs. So, forget about the ring and relax. Take some deep breaths...not too deep,’ he added, seeing there was a danger of her hyperventilating.

She sniffed and tightened the belt on her robe, thinking that being able to relax did not seem likely any time before next year—maybe longer. But despite her gloomy prediction she followed his advice, and felt the buzz in her ears recede.

‘Excellent.’

On another occasion she would likely as not have told him where he could shove his pat on the head and patronising approval, but at that moment she was just happy that there were no black dots.

‘Let it go.’

The hand on her shoulder and the thumb massaging her collarbone through the silk was not a recipe for further relaxation. Wearing an inch of armour would not have made her feel relaxed with him...wearing very little made it a laughable concept.

‘Sorry for the drama.’ She stepped back and felt his hand fall away before opening her eyes, not sure if she was going to laugh or cry. Luckily it turned out to be the former. ‘All a bit OTT.’

She left a gap for him to join in with her laughter. But he didn’t. He just carried on looking down at her in that dark, intense, hungry way that made the knot of helpless longing in the pit of her stomach tighten.

‘I just wanted you to know that I had remembered.’

Pity you didn’t remember to put any clothes on, she told herself.Though the cooling updraught on her heated parts was something of a relief...

‘Not the part when you rescued me, because I was pretty out of it then, but I do remember you were in the helicopter. I remember your voice.’

She remembered clinging to it when she felt herself sliding into the darkness. She looked at his chest, at the wall of strength it offered, and wanted to cling again.

‘You held my hand, I think?’ she said.

Something flashed in his eyes. ‘I did. I was terrified.’

‘You...?’

The silence between them stretched, and so did Clemmie’s tension.

‘So, barring the cuts and bruises...’ he ran a light finger over the fading bruise on her cheek ‘...and the loss of a little hair...’

He lifted a wet skein, rubbing it between his fingers before allowing it to fall, allowing his thoughts to drift for a brief, indulgent moment to his private fantasy of wrapping himself in that glorious mane of hair.

With a sharp inhalation, he pushed it away while he still could. ‘And let’s face it, you can spare it. We are back to normal...’

Which of course was what she had told herself she wanted. But now he had come around to her way of thinking it didn’t feel such a desirable outcome—or, for that matter, so normal.

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