Page 199 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

But since she had met Vic Jacobetti, he had awakened something in her, stirring those sleeping needs into fervent, throbbing life.

She stepped into the silky warm embrace of the water, it rippled against her flesh and enveloped her up to her waist. She was standing so close to Vic, she could see the droplets of water in his hair, glistening like a scattering of diamonds on his broad and tanned shoulders.

‘You don’t have any freckles.’ Arrgh. Why couldn’t she think of something a little more sophisticated to say? But it was all she could think of at the time—his skin was perfect, not a spot or blemish anywhere.

One side of his mouth came up in a half-smile, his eyes glinting as bright as the sunlight on the water enveloping them. ‘I happen to like your freckles.’ His voice had lowered to a deep burr that made her skin tingle.

‘You can have some of mine. I hate them.’ She gave a self-effacing grimace and reminded herself to breathe. He was still holding her hand and she was secretly glad of it because right then she didn’t think her legs were up to the task of keeping her upright. The sensation of his fingers wrapped around hers, his hard warm male body within a few millimetres of her, the potent heat of his gaze as it held hers made her feel as if she had entered an entirely different world. A world where she didn’t have to hide or keep on the sidelines. A world where she was free of the shackles of the past, free to embrace the full expression of her humanity and her most earthy needs.

Vic’s gaze meshed with hers and something hot and molten trickled down her spine. One of his hands came to rest on her right hip, the other in the small of her back, his body so close she could feel the warmth of his sun-heated skin. ‘Aren’t they supposed to be kisses from the sun?’ he said.

‘Yes, well, they’re the only kisses I’ve had since I was sixteen so I supposed I should be grateful.’

His dark brows moved together over his eyes. ‘Really?’ His incredulous tone reminded her of what a misfit she was. What other woman of twenty-eight was so inexperienced that she had forgotten what a man’s lips felt like? In fact, no man had ever kissed her, only a teenage boy.

Addie couldn’t stop her gaze from drifting to Vic’s mouth. Its sensual contours fascinated her, and she couldn’t help wondering if his lips would be firm or soft or something in between.

Vic’s eyes darkened to pitch and stayed focussed on her mouth. ‘Addie…’ He released a rough-edged sigh and his hand at her back pressed her inexorably closer. ‘I shouldn’t be doing this.’

‘Doing what?’ Addie breathed in the clean male scent of him, her senses spinning, her heart pounding with excitement and anticipation.

‘I want to kiss you.’

A frisson skittered over her flesh. ‘I’d like you to kiss me.’ Her voice came out as a whisper. A fervent whisper of longing.

‘But that’s all we can do, okay?’ His tone was firm, adamantine, but his eyes spoke another language—the language of desire and irresistible temptation. ‘This can’t go any further.’

Addie moistened her lips, her legs trembling with need. ‘Okay.’

Vic lowered his mouth to hers in slow motion, or maybe it just felt that way to Addie. Time seemed to stand still, the garden around them cloaked in sudden silence, as if nature had taken a collective breath, holding it, waiting for this moment to happen. His lips touched hers in a light as air touchdown, the gentle imprint of his lips stirring hers into pulsing life. His lips moved against hers in a caressing motion, still soft, still gentle but she could sense the banked-down passion in every exquisite movement. His lips moved with increasing urgency against hers, drawing from her a response that was equally passionate—passionate and needy, as if his kiss had awakened something inside her. Something that would not be so easily ignored now it had taken its first breath, stretched and moved its cramped limbs. Desire moved through her body like flashing tongues of flame, igniting her, exciting her, delighting her.

Vic’s tongue stroked the seam of her lips and she opened to him on a sigh of pure pleasure, hot tingles shooting down her spine as his tongue played with hers in an erotic dance as old as time. His kiss bore no resemblance to the rushed and clumsy kisses she had had in the past. Vic’s kiss was leisurely and yet urgent at the same time, evoking a response from her that surprised and delighted her in equal measure. His hand on her hip moved to cup her face, his head angled to gain better access to her mouth, a soft but deep groan sounding at the back of his throat. It thrilled Addie to think she was having this effect on him, that her responses were inciting him to greater passion. She could feel the deep throb of his body as he drew her closer to his hard pelvis. The contact jolted her like a zap of high voltage electricity, sending arrows of heat straight to her core. The hollow ache between her legs became unbearable. A pulsing ache that begged for the possession of his hard male body. An ache that could not be satisfied by anyone but him.

No kiss she had ever experienced made her feel this level of excitement. Every one of her erogenous zones was eagerly awaiting his touch. Her feminine folds were swelling, moistening, the tingling sensation part pleasure, part pain, an intimate torture of primal need.

Vic dragged his mouth off hers but before she could express her disappointment, he lowered it to her neck, just below her ear. Her skin tingled as his lips moved across the sensitive flesh, her desire rising with every slamming heartbeat against her chest.

‘You taste divine,’ he said in a low, deep growl.

‘So do you,’ Addie whispered in delight.

Vic’s hands held her by the hips, holding her against the potent throb of his arousal. The intimate contact was electrifying, and her body craved to be even closer. She murmured a plea for more and his mouth came back to hers, harder this time, the urgent exploration of his lips and tongue sending her senses reeling. Fireworks went off in her blood, explosions and flashpoints and fiery streaks of lust making her aware of her body in a way she had never been before.

Vic lifted his mouth off hers again but this time he moved down from her neck to her décolletage, tracing his tongue over the gentle slope of her breast above her bikini top. Her skin tingled and tightened, her nipples budding into proud points, and she pushed herself into his erotic caress, arching her spine to gain closer contact to the magical stroke of his tongue.

He placed one hand just below her left breast, meeting her gaze with red-hot desire gleaming in his. ‘May I?’

Addie was almost beyond speech, the sensation of his broad hand so close to the globe of her breast making it hard for her brain to function enough to produce an intelligible sentence. But somehow, she managed to whisper, ‘Yes…oh, yes…’

Vic deftly but gently eased aside her bikini top and his glinting gaze devoured her. For a moment, a flood of self-doubts assailed her. Was he comparing her to all the spectacularly enhanced women he had dated? Was he disappointed she was only as nature had made her, and that nature had not been particularly generous?

‘I’m not exactly swimsuit model material…’ Addie filled the silence, her stomach prickling in case he agreed with her…or looked at her the way her teenage boyfriend had all those years ago. With disgust, with disappointment, with scorn.

Vic cupped her breast in his hand, his eyes locking on hers. ‘You are beautiful, so natural and feminine.’

Turned out, her self-doubts weren’t so easily put aside. She barely filled the cup of her bikini; she didn’t have a cleavage because her breasts went outwards, not inwards. She was as small as she had been as a teenager—nothing had changed. How could Vic Jacobetti find her beautiful? ‘You don’t think I’m too…small?’

Vic stroked his broad thumb over her tight nipple, back and forth like a slow metronome, and she gasped in pleasure. ‘I think you’re perfect.’

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