Page 44 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

The solid planes of his back, the heat of his body hit her bloodstream as if he were an oral drug she was addicted to.

His whiskey tumbler clanked down on the table as his own hands came to grab her hips. He turned up his head, pushing her back a little. His forest-green gaze pinned her to the spot. “I don’t want our children to be raised by a string of nannies and childminders who will, at best, treat them as nothing but a cushy paycheck.”

It was the last thing she expected him to say. Neither was the delivery soft or easy. Some great emotion pulsed beneath each word. Suddenly, his fractious conversation with his mother looked different in her head. To her, it had always seemed like a mild irritation with his parents. But what if it was something deeper?

Damn it, why hadn’t she asked Maria when she’d visited. Though she wasn’t sure if she’d have told Nyra anything without Adriano’s express permission.

“I understand,” she said, swallowing. His shoulders bunched with tension under her fingers, but she refused to give up the anchor. “And I agree with you.”

“Mama said you’re interviewing nannies and a whole team of people for the nursery in the next few weeks.”

“Yes, to help out as I need them. Twin babies are a lot of work, Adriano.”

“And you know this how?” he asked, almost belligerently.

Smiling, she clasped his unshaven cheek. “From all the materials I’ve been reading. The classes I’ve been taking. Of course, modern medicine is amazing but giving birth and the recovery after is still a big deal. More so with multiple births.”

He frowned. “I didn’t know that you’ve been researching all this.”

“What do you think I do with my days?”

He opened his mouth and closed it. No doubt to swallow the swift retort. For once, she wished he had let it rise.

“Anyway, we barely have had any time to talk about what comes after the pregnancy.” She sighed. “Can I please sit down? My feet are killing me.”

Instantly, he moved back and she settled down on the coffee table with a groan she couldn’t catch. While she wasn’t huge yet, her back twinged at the end of a long day.

Dark eyes drank in every nuance in her face. “Give me your feet.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I’m in a beastly mood,cara. It might be a good idea to indulge me,si?”

“Am I allowed to enquire the reason for this beastly mood?”

“No.”

“Even if I wonder that I’m the cause?”

He glared at her, but his gaze held such greed, such hunger, such naked emotion that Nyra was drenched in it. There was something agonizingly addictive about being the one person who got this less than civilized version of Adriano. The real Adriano. “You’re only partly responsible.”

“That makes me feel much better,” she said, pursing her lips. “I’m desperate to be in your good graces.”

He said nothing, even though that was a supreme effort at flirting on her part.

Holding his gaze, she shifted back on the coffee table. It was quite a feat to raise her feet into his lap without sliding onto the floor in an undignified heap. Really, her center of gravity was a ride these days.

The moment his elegant fingers touched the arch of one foot and pressed, shivers of relief filled her. Leaning back, she threw her head back and let out a soft moan.

God, the man was deliciously clever with his fingers, whether it was her comfort or pleasure that he teased out. Tension released from her as he pressed and kneaded with just the right amount of pressure, giving both her feet equal attention.

And something about his bent head, about the spread of his long fingers on her feet, the utter devotion with which he applied himself to her comfort…unraveled the tight lock she kept on the darkest parts of her past.

“I remember my mother telling us how much fun but hard work Nadia and I were in our early years,” she said after several minutes of simply enjoying his touch. “She used to say I was the easy baby, and that Nadia was a diva even back then. But I think she loved us both the same.”

His head jerked up. “You’ve never mentioned her.”

She shrugged, swallowing the sudden lump in her throat. “If possible, I don’t like to think much of the past. This pregnancy and everything that I unleashed…it’s bringing it all back. The good and the bad.”

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