Page 151 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

A blush rose to her cheeks. What on earth was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she get her body’s reaction to him under control? It was just a pool, after all.

But when he shucked his shirt and his thumbs hooked into his waistband, she turned her gaze firmly back to the pool.

‘You’re wearing a swimming costume?’ she asked in a voice far too breathy for her liking.

‘No, but I am wearing briefs, and cotton dries,’ he said, before she saw him move to the edge of the pool in her peripheral vision. For one, heart stopping moment, he came into unique focus, and the sight of it sent a flare around her entire body, jolting her pulse into an irregular rhythm, before he dived perfectly into the mirror-smooth surface.

Heartbeat pounding in her chest, she thought of all the reasons not to do this. Of all the things that would usually stop her. And thought,Please. Just once. Let me have this.

She stood up, hoping that he couldn’t see the way her legs trembled. She took short careful steps to the edge of the pool, which was silly, she told herself. She could walk perfectly fine, but the knowledge of how easy it would be to misjudge the distance and fall in kept her on guard.

Antonio surfaced powerfully at the other end of the pool and trod water while keeping his gaze on hers. She was thankful that, rather than rushing her, or peppering her with questions, he was letting her adjust to the idea in her own time.

She sat on the edge of the pool, drawing the kaftan over her head and casting it aside, and slid into the pool before she could change her mind. Her fingers white-knuckled the curve of the pool’s edge, anchoring her in place so that she could let herself adjust to the way the water undulated around her.

Breath whooshed out of her lungs as she tried to find her balance on her feet in the shallow side of the pool and ignored the way that Antonio closed the distance between them with a lazy breaststroke.

‘How is it?’ he asked as he stayed a respectable distance from her.

Goosebumps pebbled the skin on her arms as she let the cool water soothe her heated skin. Although the way the water lapped at her made her nervous, she unexpectedly felt relief. There was no falling over here. Yes, she could crash into the side of the pool, but she wasn’t racing the hundred metres.

Freedom, she realised. Freedom in closing her eyes and letting the water move her. In the water, she didn’t have to worry about knocking something over, breaking it, trying to decipher it. If she tried too hard to focus on the waterline it made her a little dizzy, but if she ignored it…yes, freedom, she realised. And with Antonio here, she knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. She knew that viscerally.

She smiled, opening her eyes. ‘It’s amazing,’ she admitted.

He nodded, satisfied with his all-knowing, all-seeing prowess.

‘Don’t let it go to your head,’ she warned with mock severity.

‘My shoulders are strong enough to support my ego,’ he replied easily, his confidence making her laugh.

She skated her hand across the water, sending a sharp wave towards his face and ducking beneath the surface before he could retaliate in kind.

There, sound muffled, water pressing around her head, her giggle emerged as water bubbles streaming their way to the surface. She waited for as long as she could, before gingerly emerging to what she was sure would be a sneak attack.

She frowned, not seeing him in the pool, and then screamed out loud when she realised he was right behind her. He grabbed her waist and she slithered in his hands, nearly swallowing a mouthful of water.

It was the best kind of scare—one that was as much delight as it was heart-stopping and so different to what she’d felt three years ago. Oh, God, it wasjoyous.She spun in his arms to face him, her hand coming over her heart and a smile on her face that made her cheeks ache in the best of ways.

She couldn’t help it, the laugh peeled out of her.

‘Va bene?’he asked, making sure she was okay, and it was all Ivy could do not to grab hold of him.

‘Yes…’ She nodded before realising that she was so close she was practically rubbing up against him.

Now that she wasn’t distracted by her fear of being in the water, all of her senses exploded withhim. She watched a drop of water glide down his cheek from the slicked-back hair, the breadth of his shoulders somehow enlarged by the nakedness of his torso.

Shivers trembled her body, her heart stuttering, and for a moment—just a moment—he looked down at her in the way she’d imagined a husband might, before his eyes became shadowed by a furrowed brow.

‘What is—?’

‘Ms Quell—we weren’t expecting you,’ Antonio stated over her shoulder, cutting Ivy off mid-sentence.

Ivy swallowed. How long had she been standing there? And how much of what had just happened between them had been for show? Just how far was Antonio willing to go to prove that he’d tried to make this marriage work?

As far as it tookwas the answer she didn’t need to search for. Her heart sank as she stepped away from him and to the safety of the side of the pool.

CHAPTER SIX

---