Page 37 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

But no amount ofbracingchanged the reaction inside of her. He’d walked down his elaborate stairs in his simple if elegant and well-appointed tux, and she’d struggled to breathe normally ever since.

Sharing the back seat of the car with him. Having him help her out of the car, his hand on her back as he’d guided her into the crowded room of sparkling people. It felt as though someone had shaken up an entire carbonated beverage in her chest, and she was nothing but an explosion of bubbles.

And lower, a deep, throbbingpang.

And maybe all of these things could have been weathered, but people were watching her every move. Her picture was being taken at every angle. She hadknownthis was the purpose of tonight—for people to see and take pictures of her with Athan. So people stopped creating some mystery behind who she was.

But no amount of knowing prepared her for the discomfort that itched over her skin. It wasn’t about confidence. She knew she looked good—Irinka had helped her from afar, and she had hired herownstylist to help prepare for the evening. But that didn’t mean she was simply comfortable with being…looked at? Perceived? Whispered about, quite assuredly.

It was discomfiting, but worse was when it wasn’t discomfiting at all. When Athan kept his hand on the small of her back. When he introduced her to people, procured her a drink, never allowed anyone to separate them for even a moment.

And all those concerns about the wider world around them seemed to melt away.

He was like a mountain, looming there. He was beautiful and made her breathless and there was somethingimmovableabout thisknotthat sat in her stomach, tying tighter and tighter until every faint touch from Athan had her reliving that pantry kiss andyearningfor all that more he’d promised in words, and she’d stopped.

When Athan led her out to the dance floor, she didn’t even notice the flashbulbs. His hand engulfed hers, he drew her close, and it felt as if they were the only two people in the room.

In the world.

You hate him. You hate him. You hate him.Why was that so hard to remember with his hand at the small of her back, with the easy way he swayed her to the music?

“We have danced together once before,” he said, his voice low and rumbling next to her ear. Hehadto feel the tremor go through her. “Do you remember?”

She had purposefully not allowed herself to remember. It had been before she’d left for university. Before he’d betrayed her father. That hazy time ofbeforewhen she had been happy and carefree enough to believe the world was hers for the taking.

Even when the dashing Athan Akakios had stepped in to offer a dance at the party her father had thrown for her eighteenth birthday. He had smiled at her crookedly, and teenage fascination had fluttered there in that moment.

He was older, too handsome to be fair, and she had known his offer to dance was something her mother had finagled, not something of Athan’s choosing. But he had been kind about it.

Even in that moment of thinking he was dashing and fun, she hadn’t had any real dreams of a romance between her and Athanspecifically. But she hated here and now remembering that too much had started in the moment. The belief that it would be silly to waste her time on the foolish boys at school when there weremenout there who knew how to handle themselves. Athan was five years older. He’d no doubt still seen her as a child, but he’d given her a glimpse into what adulthood looked like. How amanbehaved himself.

She’d told herself then and there she would wait for the right man, never waste her time withless.

And at university, in thebeforeof it all, she’d held everyone up to the standard Athan had set that night. Charming and polished and gentlemanly…with just thehintof something like mischief and danger dancing behind all those polite manners.

Not for her. She knew it hadn’t been for her, but she’d dreamed of a time when it might be.

“Your dress was navy blue,” he offered when she said nothing to his original question.

She looked up at him in surprise. Why wouldheremember that?

His mouth was curved, his eyes self-deprecating. “Trust that I did notwishto remember that detail at the time, as you were so young, but it was the first time I had to accept you were no longer…a childhoodbuddy.”

She could only stare at him, as the music drifted around them and Athan moved her through the song. His body in perfect accordance with hers.

He hadseenher in that moment, when she’d been quite certain she’d only been a duty to get through. In the here and now, it left her…rocked, when it shouldn’t. It didn’t matter. After all, look what he’d done after all that?

“Perhaps you should have continued to consider me abuddyand concerned yourself with not betraying my father,” she said quietly. Now wasn’t the time to have a discussion or argument about her father, about Athan’s betrayal, but she needed to put that wall back between them. Somehow it had gotten unsteady, and she needed it strong and sturdy.

“You know, we have not actually ever discussed that.”

Something that felt far too close to fear seized her, but she knew what to do with fear. Stamp it out. “Nor will we.”

He looked down at her, a strange, considering expression on his face. “Why not?”

She could not meet his dark gaze, and the faint look of something thatappearedlike concern, but couldn’t be. Athan Akakios had noconcernsfor her. “It’s over and done. There is nothing to discuss.”

“Ah. Best to box it up, set it away, push it down?”

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