Page 223 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

“I hope that the menu is to your liking,” he said.

And as if on command, the doors opened. Servers came in with trays heavily laden with plates. And the food that was set before them was a culinary adventure like she had never seen before. Yet again, she felt…a sense of deep happiness. Excitement over this life that she found herself thrust into. She hadn’t expected this. And on the heels of that excitement came guilt yet again.

Because she had fancied herself more stalwart than this. She had not imagined that she would be a person who would be so easily impressed by the soft and finer things in life. And yet here she was, simpering over soft fabrics and lovely food.

And just for a moment she decided to let herself enjoy it. Because she was here. Because the decision was already made. Because he was glorious, and because the meal looked good.

And why should she fight it? Why should she fight it when she had already decided?

“You look like you’re waging a war inside your head,” he said.

“I’m not continuing to,” she said. “I promise. I might even relax and enjoy this.”

“Have you ever relaxed and enjoyed anything?”

“Not as a matter of course.”

He chuckled. “Oh, Stevie.”

“Hard work is the most valued thing in my family. It’s the thing that keeps us all going. My dad built his cargo transport business from the ground up. My mom… She raised animals for food at the homestead, she planted a garden, she made bread, she was… She was everything. Everything to everybody.”

“And somehow you ended up doing both her job and his job.”

“Well, I let the farm animals go. Frankly, that wasn’t my calling.”

“Yes,” he said.

“But yes. I did. I did end up doing all of that.”

“And so perhaps you should not be filled with so much consternation over a change in fortune.”

“I don’t trust it,” she said. “Respectfully.”

“I guess you have no reason to trust me. Though, as you pointed out, I was your first lover.”

She looked up at him, trying to keep from blushing. “Yes. Though, you shouldn’t be quite so full of yourself about that. It’s really because I never had the opportunity before.”

“You do know how to make a man feel special.”

“Well, why does it need to be special for you? I’m certain that you deflowered half a dozen virgins in the last week alone.”

“There has been no one since you, Stevie. And no virgins ever. I’m a rake. We don’t go after virgins. It’s kind of antithetical to the whole rake code.”

“I didn’t realize that a rake had a code,” she said.

“I do,” he said. “And it’s one I take quite seriously. Because… You know who my mother is?”

She scrunched up her face, and tried to remember what she had read about Adonis’s mother. “She’s an actress, isn’t she?”

“You really are charmingly unconcerned with popular culture.”

“You really are quite full of yourself that you define yourself as popular culture.”

He laughed. “Perhaps not me, but definitely my mother. She’s Lana Andrews.”

“Oh,” she said. “She was quite famous in the nineties.”

“She would throw herself at a window if she heard you say that. I would like to be there to watch.”

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