Page 106 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

‘Not that. I wantyou.’

She’d get no argument from him. Making his movements slow, forcing himself not to rush, he moved higher, nudged her legs wide and settled between them. His eyes closed as a powerful throb of pleasure rocked him. Their bodies, naked together, evoked powerful magic. When he lowered his head to her breast and she wound her arms around him, pressing him close, need rose sharply.

His hand was between them, guiding himself to her slick passage when she spoke. ‘I should tell you I haven’t done this before. It mightn’t be easy.’

Disbelief blasted Benedikt. And the desperate urge to ignore the words and bury himself deep.

He closed his eyes, lowering his forehead to her neck and exhaling slowly. It took a moment or ten, but finally he trusted himself to move. He lifted his head to discover her chewing the corner of her mouth. She looked earnest and adorable.

Adorable? The feisty woman who never conceded a point?

‘I thought you should know,’ she said quickly. ‘In case it’s difficult. It could be…not what you’re used to.’

She was right. He’d never been with a virgin. Having seen the debacle of his parents’ marriage, he’d shied from potentially emotional relationships. He’d only been with experienced women who understood he wasn’t looking for for ever.

‘It could be disappointing for you,’ she murmured.

‘I won’t be disappointed, Annalena. But this may be difficult foryou.’

The idea made his gut churn and a heavy ache settle in his chest. He’d do everything to ensure that wasn’t the case but even so…

‘That’s okay. I know the first time mightn’t be good. But hopefully the time after will be better.’

He rose to his knees, disturbed by her low expectations, even if he applauded her common sense.

Benedikt didn’t want this to be anything less than wondrous for her. He should be pleased she was pragmatic but he wanted, he realised with startling clarity, to see stars in her eyes. He wanted her to come around him, muscles clenching and heart pounding, her cries of ecstasy filling the room.

He wanted Annalena to shatter with delight. Then turn to him again and again and again.

Nothing less would do.

Annalena surveyed Benedikt’s serious expression and wondered if frankness had been a mistake.

She bit her lip and almost…almost wished herself elsewhere. But how could she wish to be anywhere but here, about to have sex with the one man who’d ever roused her to such passion?

‘Why?’ He frowned. ‘Is there someone else? Someone you’ve been waiting for?’

The question flustered her. The head of his erection was notched at her core, the heat impossible to describe, yet he found time to interrogate her!

She shifted and was rewarded by the sight of muscles and tendons in his neck and chest drawing tight. Relief pulsed through her at the visible proof he was strung out too.

‘I was tempted but somehow it never seemed right.’ She’d been raised to think of sex in terms of a committed, lifelong relationship. That and her intrinsic distrust of passionate love, courtesy of her parents’ tragedy, had made her too ready to see flaws in the men who’d tried to persuade her into bed. ‘Maybe my standards are too high.’

‘Or you didn’t meet the right man.’

Benedikt sounded smug, as well he might, looking like some immortal god full of devastating masculine power.

‘You think you’re the right man? You have to prove— Oh!’

He’d flexed his hips and she felt the strangest sensation as her body opened for him. There was weight and heat and a mix of trepidation and thrilling anticipation that tensed her whole body.

To her surprise, Benedikt didn’t thrust further. He lowered his head to her breast, fondling and kissing, squeezing until she squirmed beneath him, inching her legs wider so his solid thighs sank between them.

There, that was better. With one hand he nudged her clitoris, stoking the fire, then pressed in, a little further this time. He was so big, so solid, she didn’t know how this could possibly work, though of course it must.

She was bracing to take him when he withdrew, the heaviness of his shaft shockingly virile against her thigh as he lavished attention on her other breast. Meanwhile his fingers teased and stroked until everything gathered in a rush towards orgasm.

He stopped before she fell over the edge.

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