Page 88 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

He’d risen from his seat, arms folded over his broad chest, all his upper muscles flexing.

‘They’re British citizens,’ she dragged out. ‘You can’t stop me taking them home.’

‘They are half Spanish. They have dual passports and those passports are in my possession.’ He gave a visible deep breath. ‘If you try to take the girls without my permission, I shall notify the authorities and have them barred from leaving the country.’

* * *

Rose felt the blood drain out of her, from the roots of her hair all the way down to her toes as everything fell into place.

‘Oh, my God,’ she whispered hoarsely. ‘You had this all planned.’

His handsome features taut, he inclined his head in agreement.

‘You’ve trapped me.’

‘No. You are free to leave—I cannot prevent that if that is your wish.’

‘But not the girls?’

‘Not the girls,’ he echoed. ‘I would never take them from you, Rose, but I had a sense you would refuse to hear me out so took preventative measures to ensure—’

The roar in Rose’s ears was too loud to hear anything more. She didn’t even feel her feet move. One moment she was on the path, the next right in front of him with her arm raised, shouting obscenities. She didn’t even know what her arm was raised for until Diaz snatched hold of her wrist and, in one deft move, spun her around so she was trapped between the hulking great slab of muscle that was Diaz and the table.

‘Calm down,’ he ordered tersely, his breath hot in her hair.

Hating the thrills careering through her to be held against him like this as much as she hated him, she kicked him with her bare foot. ‘Let me go.’

‘When you are calm.’

She twisted her face so she didn’t have to breathe in his hateful, heavenly scent or have his strong, tanned neck so close to her mouth. The way she felt right then, she didn’t trust that she wouldn’t bite deep into the skin and draw blood. ‘How can I be calm when you’ve effectively kidnapped me?’

Without giving her the space to escape, he loosened his hold and moved an inch back to gaze down at her. ‘This isn’t a kidnap and it isn’t for ever unless you want it to be. All I’m asking for is time.’

‘Time forwhat?’

‘For you to consider making our marriage a real one like my grandmother always wanted.’

But that only twisted her heart into a sharp ball, and she slammed her hand into his chest and shouted…was a whisper away from sobbing… ‘We could have had that. You’re the one who walked away from it without a word of goodbye.’

The intensity of his stare didn’t diminish. ‘I know I did, but now I’m walking back to it and I want you to walk back to it too.’

She kicked his leg again.‘Never.’

She barely registered the stinging in her bare foot from where it had connected to his shin bone for in the breath of a moment she was lifted onto the table with her thighs pushed apart and Diaz filling the space.

‘Stop trying to hurt me,’ he ordered.

‘You’re the one trying to hurtme,’ she half snarled and half cried, skimming his calf with her heel at the next lash of her foot. Hurting her with words that would once have made her heart soar not weep, and hurting her with the closeness of the body that had made such tender love to her, and she pounded a fist into the rock-hard arm that had cradled her while she sobbed.

A large hand clamped onto the top of her thigh and his handsome face closed in on hers. ‘Rose, you need to calm down,’ he warned.

Panicked at how close their faces were, she reared away from him, but, with the hold he had on her, succeeded only in pushing her pelvis forwards. In the beat of a moment his groin was against hers.

Her breath caught in her throat as the world came to a juddering stop.

Every inch of her tensed.

And every inch of Diaz tensed too.

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