Page 194 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

Of course, purity could also feel punishing, she knew that for a fact. She wasn’t a virgin because of her convictions, but rather her circumstances.

She was too busy for men.

It would be a shame for us to die without sampling another of life’s vices…

She closed her mind off to that. They weren’t going to die. She was annoyed though, that she…somewhat agreed with him.

“Good morning,” she said loudly.

He stirred. And opened his eyes slowly. He looked rumpled, and yet somehow magnificent. A plane crash and loss of blood hadn’t done anything to diminish the intensity of how… How sexy he was. And he really was very sexy. He was…quite beyond anything she had ever experienced before. Granted, her experience was very limited. But she had seen men. She lived in the world. She didn’t have to be a great seductress to know what was out there.

He was spectacular.

She had been ridiculous when she had decided to call him Clem. In truth, she was trying to do something to diminish the impact of him. Her chest hurt.

Just suddenly.

She had been very afraid that he was going to die. When she’d had to put the tourniquet around his leg…

It had been a truly terrifying experience. She had taken a fair amount of first-aid training, but it really hadn’t prepared her for this. It hadn’t prepared her for the reality of somebody bleeding while she tried to stop it…

But there he was. Okay.

Gorgeous.

And they were still stuck.

“Good morning.”

“Sorry. We aren’t rescued yet. But you didn’t die in the night.”

She tried to present that as optimistically and cheerfully as possible.

“I appreciate that,” he said.

“It would’ve been a tragedy.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Are you an evil warlord?”

“No,” he said.

“Then I’m pretty sure it would be a tragedy if you died.”

“Some of my past lovers would undoubtedly disagree with that take.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling unaccountably disappointed. “Why? Are you not accomplished?”

It had been a bold question, and she was not inherently bold when it came to topics like that. But she was otherwise bold, and maybe that was why it seemed reasonable to say out loud.

“Oh,” he said. “I’m very accomplished. It is only that I am temporary.”

“And that upsets them?”

“It has been said.”

“I see.”

---