Page 34 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

What if he had already…

“Nyra!”

Flushing, she turned.

Adriano stood at the entrance to the bedroom, clad in nothing but a towel around his hips. The white of the fabric contrasted richly against his olive skin. Heat prickled over her skin, as she followed the trail of a waterdrop down the thick ridges of his chest and abdomen.

“You look like a ghost,” he said, coming to her. The scent of his soap made her flesh shiver and ache instantly. “What is it,bella? Was it a bad dream?”

When he laid a hand on her shoulder, she jerked back. “Have you…”

“Have I what?”

“Have you been with another woman in the last few months, Adriano? When you thought I was…”

His jaw tightened and a vein ticked in his temple. “No.”

Relief poured through her in shivers. Turning toward him, she wrapped her arms around his waist like a child. Though the damp heat of his skin and what it evoked was another matter. “I’m sorry.”

His heart was a steadying beat at her ear. Though he didn’t put his arms around her or press his mouth to her temple. If anything, he stiffened in her embrace. “We’ve already established you have no trust in me. There’s no need to apologize.”

And yet he sounded angry. No, hurt.He was hurt.That wasn’t possible.

Hurt required attachment and expectations and some sort of affection. All they had was lust and this determination to be good parents now.

“You have a mirror right up against the bed and your assistant of nearly fifteen years blocked my calls. And you thought I had betrayed you.”

Suddenly, she could feel an echo of the pain he must have felt in seeing those photographs of her twin, naked and writhing in another man’s arms.

His humiliating her in front of his parents had blinded her to his pain.

She didn’t know if she could ever forget how easily he had thrown her out, but she thought she could forgive his jumping to conclusions.

“I couldn’t bear it if you even looked at another woman, if you…let someone touch you or give them the right to touch this body.” She dug her teeth into his chest, feeling a near savage thirst to mark him as hers. “I couldn’t stay then, not even for the babies.”

“Shh…” he finally said, one hand coming to the nape of her neck. Those long fingers bracketed her neck possessively, an adornment she liked more than diamonds. “My assistant,” he said, as if knowing not to bring the woman’s name to his lips, “had no right to block you and has been dealt with severely. I apologize for causing you that extra stress.”

“Fabi said she used to be your preferred partner at any number of society galas and parties.”

His sigh ruffled the hairs at her temple. “Because I didn’t like playing games with women I had no interest in. As my assistant, she was a safe choice.” Like an ice cube rolling down her skin, he marched those fingers down her spine. And then he was winding her braid around his fingers and tugging, exerting just the right pressure on her scalp.

It dripped like drops of molten honey down her limbs. Every inch of her pulled taut with anticipatory pleasure.

Nyra gave her own hands free rein, tracing the thick ridges and valleys of his muscles. The power thrumming through this man, the thick length pressing against her thigh…it was all hers. How had she never realized the bounty the universe had given her, for once?

She would never take it for granted, ever again.

“And you never…before we met?” She knew she was pushing it, but she wanted this topic closed. Just thinking of how naive she’d been in not seeing his appeal to other women seemed foolish now.

“Never. She’s under my power and protection. I’m not my father.”

The steel in his words put paid to the final niggle in her head. “Will you fire her, or should I?”

“Where has this lioness been all these months?”

She hid her face in his chest. “Don’t remind me. I was…foolish and naive. Your mother was right about me.”

“Basta, cara!I liked that woman,” he said gruffly. “She was brave and honest.”

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