Page 164 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

‘Are you sure? Because—’

‘If you’re going to tell me I can change my mind, stop at any time, I appreciate that, Antonio, I really do. But,’ she said, her body quivering as she inhaled, ‘I want this. I wanta few spectacular weeks—the ones we never had when we first married,’ she said, referring to the lie that they had carved from reality.

‘It will only be days, Ivy. We have so little time.’

‘I still want them,’ she said, a plea in her gaze.

Antonio’s breath caught in his throat. Because he wanted them too. With a ferocity that should have scared him. And perhaps if he hadn’t been half out of his mind with lust, he might have listened to that fear. But instead, he was helpless to resist.

‘Then your wish is my command.’

Her body leaned instinctively towards his, but he shook his head slowly as he raked his gaze over her. Hair dishevelled, lips kiss-bruised, breasts heaving with every inhale—breasts he would come back to, he vowed—but he knew where he needed to be.

His fingers flexed around the backs of her knees and palmed smooth thighs as he ruched the material of her skirt. His eyes on hers caught the moment she realised—caught the anticipation, the shock, the want.

‘Is this okay?’ he asked, sinking to his knees.

She swallowed and nodded, and he doubted she even realised how her tongue came out to sweep across her bottom lip, before pinning it with her teeth. He hid his smile. He’d help her find her voice, even if it was the only thing he could do for her before they parted.

Cazzo, she was beautiful.

He loved watching her every thought pulse in her eyes, her every want. And yes, she wanted this, but not as much as he wanted to do it.

Gently lifting her legs over his shoulders, he settled between them and, unable to wait, he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her core. She shifted restlessly around him, her knickers soaked now from both sides, the faint taste of her on his tongue not even beginning to be enough.

He teased her, thumb pressing against her entrance, blocked by the thin cotton barrier, driving them both wild, until he couldn’t take it any more. Too impatient, he simply moved her panties aside and claimed her with his mouth.

Gasps of pleasure filled the large hallway, melting into moans. His fingers massaged her thighs as he drew his tongue in one long strike across the length of her core, before he teased the little bundle of nerves that drove her wild around him.

He hummed his own pleasure against her delicate flesh as she writhed for him. He hooked his thumb against her entrance, pulling down so very gently, before turning his hand and teasing her with his forefinger. She arched forward, away from the wall, and he reached a hand up to hold her back, his palm flattening on her sternum between her breasts.

She was delicious. Everything about her was a damn delicacy.

A second finger joined the first, and he filled her and teased her with his tongue and his hands. Her pleas became desperate, her moans like music to his ears as he drew her closer and closer to a peak he could almost taste.

Her whole body pulsed with an energy that he felt in his own, throbbed in time with the pounding of his heart. His name on her lips was a mantra in his soul. She was so close, he could tell, all he had to do was… He took that little bundle of nerves into his mouth and sucked, hard, and Ivy fell apart, onhistongue, aroundhisfingers, inhisarms, in the hallway ofhishome. The possessive roar that filled his body as aftershocks flickered through hers should have shocked him, should have sent him running for the hills. But instead, he just wanted more.

Ivy saw flashes of light against the backs of her eyes and for the first time in three years she wasn’t scared, she didn’t fear for her sight, herself or her future. No. Right at that moment, Antonio anchored her in the present, to bliss, to a sense of something that was nearly beyond description. Her bodysang. It had bowed to his name, it had bucked to his command and she was free within that. Absolutely unrestrained and free.

She owed nothing, was responsible for nothing, fearednothing, and it was a liberation her body had known would happen before her mind had. He’d held her as the shocks had receded from her body, cradled in his arms,protected. He’d ensured her pleasure before his own and that made her feel special. Oh, she knew it was dangerous to think like that, but just for tonight, just for now, she wanted to indulge in the fantasy that Antonio was hers and he wanted her just as much as she wanted him.

‘Are you okay,cara?’ he asked, rising to his feet and pressing his forehead gently against hers.

She nodded, and hummed her answer, not quite ready for coherent sentences yet. She looked up to catch the trace of a satisfied smirk pulling his lips, before she was distracted by the intensity of his gaze.

Heat. Heat and more heat. It burned her already sensitive skin and when he pulled her against him she felt the hard press of his arousal against her core.

He encouraged her to lock her ankles around his waist and, once she’d done so, he picked her up as if she weighed nothing. Boneless, she draped herself around him, her head falling forward, her cheek pressed to the crook of his neck, where the scent of his cologne filled each breath. Every inhale brought her back to her senses which, shockingly, were already beginning to want more.

She shifted in his arms and felt the gentle chuckle undulate through him into her. ‘Patience,cara. I’m not going to let the first time I take you be in the hallway, on a side table,’ he promised her.

If he noticed the way she’d stilled at his mention of ‘first’, he chose to ignore it. God, could it be? Might there be more than just tonight? Ivy filed away the thought, along with the hope that flared within her. Just this. Just now, she told herself. That was all that mattered.

He reached the landing and carried her into his room, on the opposite side of the staircase from hers. He laid her gently on the bed, and she marvelled that they were both still fully clothed.

His eyes, hot and steady on hers, teased as he slowly began to undo the buttons of his shirt. She leaned back on her forearms, content to watch the display of masculine beauty. This was for her, for them. Antonio’s near brutal efficiency would have seen all their clothes removed in a heartbeat, she imagined. But he wanted this, she could tell. He wanted her to see him like this.

He threw his shirt aside, letting her consume the sight of him to her heart’s content. He kicked out of his shoes and socks, and the belt slid from his trousers with a slick slap that had her pinning her lips between her teeth.

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