Page 33 of Modern Romance March 2025 (5-8)

He gathered her to him then, his arms tight around her. Nyra thought she might expire of this affection he showed her in rare moments. “Horny,bella. I’m always horny around you.” As if to underline his statement, he pressed closer, and the hard outline of his shaft against her belly made her breath falter.

Then he pulled away, but his mouth remained at her temple, and for a breathless moment, she felt utterly cherished. Wanted.Needed, even.“You’re…beautiful,mia cara. Even more so, swelling with my children inside you.”

His fingers sifted through her hair, the tops pressing into the base of her neck. “So why did we stop?” she said, burrowing into his neck.

His chuckle moved through her, filling her with a fizzy decadence. “Other than the fact that I’m too exhausted to satisfy you the way I want to? The whole board is still waiting for me outside the doors. I’m possessive enough to not want them listening to the sounds you make when you come. You’re very loud.”

“I don’t want to go back to the apartment anymore,” she said, clinging to his warmth. “I know you have security there to keep the hounding press away, but please don’t send me away.”

“It is the best place for you right now.”

“No, I want to be here. Wherever you are.”

“Nyra—”

“That day after he was sentenced, the crowd came at us outside the courthouse in London. I slipped and fell and someone stepped on my hand. It was the only reason I got away. Nadia…spent an hour looking for me.” She took a shuddering breath. “I don’t want to be alone, Adriano. Neither do I want to be around your family right now. Their discomfort at being hounded wherever they go because of me is completely justified.”

His arms tightened around her and his mouth lingered over her temple. “Bene.I’ll have someone bring you to the penthouse here. Eat and rest. I’ll join you later.”

Looking up, she traced a finger gently over the dark circles cradling his eyes. “You’re the one who needs rest and sleep.”

“Si.But after I deal with what you’ve unleashed.”

“You aren’t angry?”

He shrugged. “You’re right that secrets like that will come out eventually, and then our children might have been affected. I just…would have preferred less doubt and worry for you at this time.”

“That’s not something even you can arrange me for me though,” she said, smoothly pointing out that for all his power, there were some things beyond his reach. Like her heart. “But knowing you’re on my side makes all the difference, Adriano.”

Swallowing at how easily she unmade and remade him, he held her close for another minute.

Chapter Eight

Nyrawokeupto the sounds of the shower running. She blinked and instantly searched the other side of the bed.

The sheets were cool and unruffled while her side of the bed looked like it had been hit by an earthquake. A quick glance at her watch on the nightstand told her that it was nearly two in the morning.

She’d eaten dinner alone, again. Only this time, it was at the penthouse in the skyscraper that belonged to the bank rather than at the castle. After dinner, she’d just drooped and wilted, waiting for Adriano.

Her body had been beyond exhausted, the relief after three days of stress and tension taking her out at the knees.

Sitting up in the bed now, she turned on the night lamp and stared down at herself. Another one of Adriano’s dress shirts tented over her belly. She’d long ago discarded her bra. Her hair had lost whatever silky sheen it had been given after her hasty shower and letting it air-dry. Wavy and tangled, it was out of control.

She braided it quickly and grabbed the overnight bag she’d packed. Her fingers were cold, her sleepy brain slow to respond as she unbuttoned the shirt. Shrugging it off, she pulled on the beige-colored satin nightie she’d picked only yesterday afternoon.

Picking lingerie and sheer, lacy nightwear under Nigella’s gaze had been an exercise in embarrassment. But it was the only way—having Nigella call her personal shoppe—to get her hands on new clothes for this new image she was building.

Her choice had still been the most modest of them all, with the satin fabric simply draping over her curves.

Standing, Nyra studied her profile in the full-length mirror that had been hung directly across from the king bed. Pregnancy had given her skin that healthy glow, and eating well and sleeping on time the last couple of weeks had taken care of the rest.

She looked…pretty, if not ravishingly beautiful as she’d hoped. Her finger skidded across her mouth when she tried to apply lip gloss as a sudden, horrifying thought struck her.

Why did Adriano have a mirror right up against the bed in his bedroom? Was this his love nest?

The lip gloss tube fell from her hand and promptly rolled under the bed as she looked around the luxurious room with suspicious eyes.

For all that he had rarely been caught in tabloids with a partner, even before they’d met, she had firsthand knowledge of how insatiable her husband was. It had been months since they’d been intimate. Rightly or not, he’d thought she’d cheated on him.

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