Page 151 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 5-8

He allowed his thoughts to drift with gloating approval over the night they had shared.

‘No, you didn’t wake me, Mum,’ Clemmie lied, glancing at the clock and repressing a guilty groan. ‘Yes, I’m fine.’

‘More than fine...’ he whispered into her ear.

Then he dragged himself towards her, his body effectively pinning her legs down, and started kissing a wet, wandering path up her belly.

‘No...what? No, Mum, I’m fine. Totally recovered this morning.’

She met the wicked eyes that held hers. With a sigh, she swivelled her legs over the edge of the bed.

There was a hesitation, and then her mother asked, carefully casual, ‘Have you remembered anything?’

‘Yes, I have, Mum. Things are coming back to me now,’ she said, feeling wistful for her previous ignorance, when she hadn’t known what the painful memory she’d been protecting herself from was.

She had paid heavily for that temporary blissful ignorance.

The only surprise was that the illusion she had built up had lasted so long. All it had taken to smash it to a million pieces was seeing the ring that was intended for another on her own finger.

She loved Joaquin—not just as a friend but as a man.

‘Oh, darling, that is so marvellous. I can’t wait to tell Harry.’

‘Harry sounds like one of the good ones, Mum,’ she said, feeling ashamed that she’d half wanted her mum’s new love to be a loser, like his predecessors. She really hoped he wasn’t. The Leith women deserved to be happy in love!

‘Oh, he is, but—’

She listened, holding the phone so that Joaquin could hear as her mum explained that Harry, who had been due to arrive later that day, would now not be coming.

‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ Clemmie said, meaning it.

‘His mother is very elderly and quite frail. She’s had a fall and she’s in hospital awaiting surgery.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’

‘He’s suggested I go there and keep him company, but I’ve explained that that’s out of the question.’

‘I don’t see why.’

‘Because... Well, you need me here, Clemmie. You are only just out of hospital.’

Clemmie frowned—she could tell from her voice that her mum was torn.

‘Good morning, Ruth... Yes, Iamhere,’ Joaquin said, smiling provocatively as he ignored Clemmie, who was miming a frantic zipping motion across her lips as she held out her hand for the phone.

He evaded her attempts to snatch it from him by levering himself lithely out of the bed. And Clemmie sat there simmering as she listened to the one-sided conversation and tried not to be distracted by his state of arousal.

She failed.

‘Yes, she is... I was listening in,’ he confided, before laughing—leaving Clemmie wondering what the hell that laugh was about. She dreaded to think as he went silent, clearly listening.

‘Oh, I agree,’ he said after a long pause. ‘Well, actually, Ruth, this could work out well. My mother has been in touch and she’s invited us to go to the castle for the annual family party. Everyone is anxious to meet Clemmie. Yes... Obviously we said we couldn’t, because Harry was coming, but now... Well, that’s sorted, then.’

He fielded Clemmie’s killer glare with an insouciant shrug.

‘I can promise you she will keep you up to date, and if there is any issue we will contact you. In the meantime, I will look after her for you. Here she is now.’

He handed the phone back to Clemmie who, aware that he wasn’t looking at her face, dragged the sheet up over her breasts.

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