Page 18 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

They ate the rest of their breakfasts in silence. He even let her clean up after everything without complaint. If she felt the need to be chef and cleanup crew, there was really no point to stopping her.

Without a word, she began to walk away from the kitchen.

“Where are you going?”

“To my room,” she replied, frowning at him. “I didn’t recall you needing to know my every move being part of the deal.”

He ignored that. “What about a swim?”

She looked at him with that heavy distrust he was beginning to find frustrating instead of amusing, though he had no right to her trust.

“I didn’t bring a suit,” she said.

He let his gaze wander. “Intriguing.”

Was it terribly masochistic that he enjoyed the cool disdain written all over her face when his gaze returned there?

“There is absolutely no need to pretend as though there is anything remotely…physical about this arrangement.”

He let those words settle in the air around them. An interesting point of contention with what he’d said. Not that she didn’twanthim to express physical interest, but that she thought he waspretending.

“You don’t strike me as a particularly unconfident woman, Lynna, so it’s fascinating you wouldn’t think there’d be an honest attraction.”

“You’re a man whore. They tend to like the obvious.”

“Funny, I thought being a whore required likingany and allkinds.”

Her scowl deepened. But she didn’t leave the room, and he figured that was sign enough to continue this conversation. He slid out of his stool, casually walked over to where she stood behind the counter.

Her eyes darted to the exit, but she didn’t take it. She lifted her chin. And stood her ground when he got close.

Fascinating. Arousing. That her eyes had gotten a little wide, her cheeks a little pink. Her exhale was even a little shaky, and he felt it against his face, leaning this close to her. His whole body throbbed with a complicated want that he refused to think of as a complication.

After all, they were married. Why not enjoy a physical relationship?

He took her hand, the left one where his ostentatious ring sat, he used his thumb to move it back and forth. “Do you need to hear me say it plain?” he asked, his voice low and quiet.

She inhaled sharply, and her words were just as sharp. But her hand was still in his.

“I need nothing from you except holding up your end of the bargain,” she said. Clearly, no doubt, but with a hint of a tremor to her voice.

He wanted to press his mouth to the scrambling pulse at her neck, but instead he held her gaze and spoke quietly but firmly. “The bargain is clear. Contract signed. It is what it is, but you and me are something separate.” He lifted her hand to his mouth.

Before he could brush a kiss across her knuckles, she jerked her hand away. “There is no you and me beyond that contract.” She pushed at him, and he gave her the space she insisted upon. Let her storm away. Because he could and would take his time.

And she, whether she wanted to admit it or not, wasnotimmune to him.

Any more than he was immune to her.

CHAPTER SIX

LynnaavoidedAthanfor the next two days. It was cowardly, and shehatedbeing cowardly, but she hated failing more.

Feeling any fissure of attraction for him, just biological or not, felt like a failure, and she needed to get a handle on it before they headed to Athens.

Today.

She did not think she had any handle on it. Which was lowering, but she convinced herself it was simply like learning a difficult cooking technique. Like making a souffle or macarons. It took time, determination, skill andpractice.

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