Page 20 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
For a moment, she just stared at him in frozen shock. The only sound to be heard was the faint crash of the sea a hundred metres below. Then twin spots of colour hit her cheeks and the pulse at the base of her neck began to flutter wildly. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Deadly.’
‘This is rather out of the blue.’
‘Not for me,’ he practically growled. ‘For me, this has been building for days. One room, Sofia. Yours or mine. You choose. I don’t mind.’
‘No.’
Ivo’s brows snapped together, rejection stinging through him, the confusion now all his.‘No?’
‘That’s right. No.’
‘Explain.’
‘I’ve already shared your bed once, and why would I agree to do it again when you so obviously don’t want me?’
In response to that, Ivo reeled. Not want her? He wanted her so badly he was mad with it. So mad with it that he couldn’t hear the voice in his head that was warning him to keep this about the deal, to remind her of her constitutional obligations, to not cross the line into the personal. The voice that was awash with longings he could never afford to indulge, for the sake of his country and his heart. ‘What makes you think I don’t want you?’ he demanded, too far gone for caution.
‘Well, our wedding night was a bit of a giveaway,’ she said with a cool composure he wished to God he had. ‘The clock struck twelve and you leapt from my bed as if it had caught fire. I understand we’d done our duty—and believe me, I am well aware that that’s all this is about for you. I completely understand that you needed the boost of alcohol to get you through it. But quite honestly I’d expected alittlebit more than a wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. Not that there even was a thank you, come to think of it.’
She paused, took a breath, then, before he could even think to formulate a reaction, continued with her devastating revelations. ‘I get that to you I’m just a brood mare who has some handy professional skills on the side. Really I do. As you so astutely observed before, I signed up to this and I knew exactly what it entailed. You’ve been honest about that from the start, and it was therefore ridiculous to feel hurt, used and rejected. Nevertheless, I did, and quite frankly, it’s all taking some adjustment. I’ll dare say I’ll get over your lack of interest in me personally, enough to be able to do my duty soon, but right now, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to stick to the current arrangements.’
Evidently finished, Sofia lifted her eyebrows, as if inviting him to respond, but, reeling with shock, Ivo could do no more than stand there and stare at her. Her words had rendered him incapable of thought. He was struggling for breath. He felt as though she’d punched him in the gut.
What the ever-loving hell?
Thatwas what she thought?
She was wrong. She was far more to him than a competent PR and the future mother of his heirs. Yes, much of this last week had been for the cameras, and yes, it had caused him an abominable amount of grief, but it had also proved that they were a team. In sync. A partnership that could be dynamite.
As for her view of the wedding night, well, that cut him straight to the bone. He’d hurt her? He’d made her feel used and rejected? How on earth had he allowed that to happen? More importantly, what was he going to do to rectify it?
Ivo wasn’t used to explaining himself. Not only was it the unofficial policy of the royal family never to do so, but also he’d never been questioned about anything ever before, until he’d decided to find a wife. Furthermore, life in the public eye had made him an intensely private man, and he took immense care to keep the majority of his thoughts and opinions to himself.
However, communication went both ways, and if ever there was an occasion to break the habit, this was it. He couldn’t have Sofia continuing to believe he was merely using her when he wasn’t. Where was the integrity and decency in that? Besides, if he stood any chance of finishing this tour with his reputation intact, he still needed to get her into his bed, and right now, that looked as though it was insanely far from happening.
He shoved his hands through his hair and cleared his throat to release the words he was nevertheless going to have to push out. ‘I had no idea you felt that way,’ he said, choosing to ignore the inconvenient fact that that was probably because he’d never asked. ‘But let me clear up a few misunderstandings under which you seem to be labouring.
‘Firstly, it was never my intention to hurt you on our wedding night. I was spooked by the strength of my response to you. What happened was totally unexpected. I lost control, which has never happened to me before. It wasn’t part of the plan and it threw me for six. But I didn’t handle it well and for that I apologise. Which leads me onto my next point. Namely that my interest in you isnotpurely practical. In fact, it is anythingbutpractical and has been for days. I want you, Sofia. Like I’ve never wanted anyone before. You’ve been driving me wild ever since we kissed at the altar. It rocked me to my very foundations, which was why I needed time and a drink to pull myself together before coming to your room. But that was a pointless endeavour as it turned out because it didn’t work. Nothing has. This last week I’ve never feltlesspulled together. It’s been complete and utter torture.’
Ivo thrust his hands into the pockets of his trouser and began to pace around the lobby, as if movement would ease the heated restlessness of his body and brain. ‘I’ve tried my damnedest to ignore my desire for you,’ he said, his voice low and tight as he sought to undo the impression he’d deliberately given her. ‘It’s crippling and I can’t afford the distraction. I have work to do that needs my full attention, and you know what happened the last time a king allowed himself to be bamboozled by desire. An attempted coup and the near collapse of the kingdom. You mess with my head. You make me forget who I am. I’m not thinking straight. Yesterday, I fired a bishop. This evening, for the first time in years, I tossed aside protocol totake the airon a bloody terrace. It has to stop. I need it to stop.
‘But getting you out of my system so I can focus on the job isn’t the only reason I want you in my bed,’ he said, on a terrifying roll he could not seem to stop. ‘You asked me earlier if I ever do anything for myself. I said no, and that’s been true for years. Until now. I’m doingthisfor myself, Sofia. I want you forme. Like I wanted those fifteen minutes earlierfor me. Which is all kinds of wrong. I know that, in the marrow of my bones. But at this precise moment in time I don’t care. All I can think about is making the most of tomorrow’s twenty-four-hour break in our schedule and revisiting my original ideas for the wedding night. I want to take things nice and slow and explore every inch of you with my hands and mouth until neither of us can take any more.
‘But I now realise that these desires of mine are entirely self-centred. I haven’t considered yours at all, which is hardly a mark of the respect I promised you, and that’s another apology I owe you. So while sticking to the current arrangements is obviously the very last thing I want, if you do, that’s fine. It’sfine. Really. Truly. I won’t bother you again. You have my word.’
With nothing left to say, Ivo closed his mouth and came to a halt. He was sweating. Breathing harder than he ever had before. He’d never delivered such a long speech without prior preparation. He’d never had such an out-of-body experience. Felt so crazed. So horrified. Or been so desperate for a reaction.
Now was her chance to say something, he thought feverishly, his eyes boring into hers, the tension gripping his muscles so immense it hurt. Anything. But she just stood there, staring at him wide-eyed, as rigid as a statue in the deafening silence that stretched and stretched, and the wrecking ball of disappointment and frustration that slammed into him nearly took out his knees.
‘Right,’ he said gruffly, fighting back the urge to drop to his knees and beg, all out of heat and adrenaline, and needing to get the hell out of here while he still had a shred of dignity and self-possession left. ‘Well. I’m glad to have got cleared that up. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a cold shower with my name on it. Goodnight.’
Sofia watched in a state of utter stupefaction as Ivo clicked his heels together, nodded curtly, then strode across the lobby in the direction of his suite. Surely she’d stepped into a parallel universe these past five minutes. Had that conversation really happened? No. It couldn’t have. She had to be dreaming. But if she was, why was her pulse thundering like a freight train? Why was her head spinning so fast she was in danger of passing out?
Assuming that that conversationhadtaken place, he’d just blown her preconceptions out of the water—the main one being that he didn’t want her. Hedid. Hewantedher. In a way that clearly had nothing to do with duty. He wanted her as much as she wanted him, if not more.
She would never have guessed, she thought dazedly as she tried to process everything else he’d confessed. His façade was as effective as hers, and she’d been so busy protecting herself that she hadn’t given any thought at all to what might lie beneath it. She’d been utterly self-absorbed and as guilty as he was of taking things at face value.
