Page 80 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

She shouldn’t have come to Paris. They had a function to attend together in Boston at the end of the following week. That would have been time enough for them to meet again. But Faye had given in to an impulse too strong to ignore...

‘Here you are.’

A shiver of longing went down Faye’s spine and directly into her gut at the sound of Primo’s voice. She closed her eyes for a second, and then opened them as he came to stand beside her, facing her, one elbow resting on the wall of the terrace. Like this, his mouth was on the same level as hers, and all Faye would have to do would be to lean forward and—

He reached out and touched her jaw with a finger. ‘You look very stern.’

Faye relaxed her facial expression, felt her skin tingle where Primo had touched her. ‘I was admiring the view.’

Liar.

She found herself divulging, ‘I spent a summer here as an au pair, between school and college.’

Primo looked at her. ‘That’s impressive. Why weren’t you swanning around the Mediterranean on a yacht, presumably like the rest of your peers? You could have had an easier summer.’

Faye shrugged again. She felt pricklingly self-conscious under Primo’s blue gaze. ‘I was never into that kind of vacuous social life. And I didn’t mind working.’

‘Your independence means a lot to you,’ he observed.

‘I was an only child. I think I learnt from a young age to be comfortable on my own.’

Until she’d lost herself in her first marriage, believing herself to be in love.

Primo looked at her. ‘You’re not on your own now. I’m here.’

Faye’s heart thumped unsteadily at the gleam in his eyes. ‘I guess so.’

He arched a brow and moved closer, until there was no space between their bodies. ‘Do you doubt it? Should I show you how real I am?’

In her head Faye said,Please...But all she could manage was a kind of pleading sound. No words.

Primo stood up straight and cupped her jaw and face with both hands. Something inside Faye melted. Relaxed. She spent so much time in her head that she was fast becoming addicted to the way Primo could silence everything with his touch.

His mouth covered hers, stealing her breath, and she was lost. The party just feet away was forgotten. The kiss started out chaste enough—as if Primo had intended it to be just a perfunctory thing—but neither broke contact, and then it became something far more incendiary and explicit.

His hands had moved down to her waist and he was pulling her closer, so she could feel the evidence of his arousal through their clothes. Faye moved her hips enticingly.

Primo pulled back and said in a rough voice, ‘Witch.’

He lifted a hand and cupped her jaw again. Faye wanted to lean into his hand and purr like a cat.

‘I think I’ve had enough of this party. You?’ he asked.

Faye nodded.

Primo took her hand and led her back into the thronged room. They went to the host and said goodbye.

Outside the party, Primo still had Faye’s hand in his. He lifted it and pressed a kiss to it, causing Faye to suck in a sharp breath. His easy tactility and affection were fast becoming addictive.

‘Fancy a nightcap in my room? I presume you’ve booked your own room in the hotel?’

Faye nodded, almost feeling guilty now. But Primo said nothing. He just led them to an elevator.

It ascended to the very top level of the hotel. Naturally he had a penthouse suite that appeared to Faye to run across the entirety of the top floor, with views even more impressive than those a few floors below.

‘What would you like?’ Primo asked.

Faye looked across the room. He’d taken off his jacket, and his back and shoulders looked very broad.

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