Page 204 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

His eyes smouldered as they held hers. ‘Mine.’

Once Addie left the room, Vic let out a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding. He was at war with himself over whether he should sleep with her. He had a list of reasons not to but since kissing her in the pool, every one of those reasons was overruled by the pounding desire in his body. He wasn’t the sort of man who couldn’t resist his primal needs. There was a time and place for everything, and he had firm moral boundaries over consent. A fling with her would change everything, and not just between him and her but if Marcus and Isabella became aware of it, the dynamic between them all would be irrevocably changed. Never had he been so torn over a relationship. Even using the wordrelationshipwas alien to him when it came to his sex life. Those casual encounters were not strictly speaking relationships—they were hook-ups that had no future, no promises of anything but a good time. But now here he was with the prospect of becoming Addie’s first lover. He had never been anyone’s first lover. He had always been with experienced women, and he was a little overwhelmed by the responsibility, the enormity of what it would entail to be the first person to introduce Addie to physical pleasure. A part of him wondered if she would baulk at the last minute and not show up at his room. He would not pressure her. This had to come from her, there was no way he would coerce her into doing something she wasn’t ready for. That’s why he had suggested his room, to make sure she was one hundred percent willing to take this step. Would she have the courage, the drive and determination to follow through or would she shy away at the last minute. From what she had told him of her past, avoidance was her way of coping with things that threatened her, hence her still being a virgin at twenty-eight. But how long could she avoid the natural drives and urges of her body? She was a young and healthy woman—a passionate woman if those kisses he had shared with her were any indication.

Would she or wouldn’t she follow through? And should he accept if she did?

Addie walked past Vic’s bedroom door five times before she finally got the courage to knock. Her stomach was fizzing with a combination of nerves and excitement.

‘Come in.’ His voice was so deep it sent a shiver over her flesh.

Addie opened the door and stepped inside, softly closing the door behind her with a hand that was trembling. She had nothing but her duckling pyjamas and refused to wear those for her first time with Vic, so had chosen to wear a plush bathrobe she had found in one of the guest bathrooms. She had thought about wearing underwear but changed her mind at the last minute. She had made the decision to sleep with him. This was what she wanted. How better to prove it to him than to be ready for him? And she was ready for him. She could already feel her body preparing itself, the secret scented secretions of female desire.

Vic was standing by the window that overlooked the lake and the distant mountains. The curtains were still open, revealing the long silver beam of moonlight across the water.

‘Hi… Sorry it took me so long to get here.’ Addie smoothed her damp palms over the soft fabric of the bathrobe. ‘I wasn’t sure what to wear.’

Vic came over to her and lifted her chin with his finger, locking his gaze on hers. ‘Are you absolutely sure about this? It’s not too late to change your mind.’

Addie kept her gaze on his, although her stomach was a nest of nerves of excitement. ‘I’m sure that I want you to be my first lover. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be with right now.’

Vic stroked his fingers through her hair, sending shivers coursing down her spine. His touch was so light and yet so enthralling, exciting, exhilarating. ‘You know there’s a part of me that still thinks this is crazy.’ His eyes went to her mouth as if he had no control over their movement. ‘Unwise and reckless, but I want to do it anyway.’ And then his mouth came down and covered hers.

A delicious sensation rushed through Addie at the undercurrent of passion in Vic’s kiss. His lips moved with increasing urgency against hers, drawing from her a response that was as heated and fierily passionate as his. How could she resist such an alluring kiss? A kiss that made every feminine hormone in her body shiver and shake with joy. Her body sprang to life when his tongue demanded entry, sending an electrifying shockwave of lust through her flesh, making her very bones shudder like someone rattling a loosely assembled cage.

Wasn’tthiswhy she had not made love with anyone else? No one had ever made her feel the way Vic Jacobetti did. No one had ever made her feel wanted for her, only for her body or because of who her mother was. But Vic made her feel not only truly wanted, but also safe and understood. His kiss deepened, his tongue courting hers in an erotic dance that sent her heart rate soaring. Desire shot through her with hot darting arrows, making her acutely aware of every secret curve and crevice of her body. Her female flesh swelled and moistened with longing, until the ache between her legs became unbearable. A pulsing ache that craved assuagementnow. Addie had waited years for this moment, and it seemed her body was making up for lost time.

Vic lifted his mouth off hers, framing her face in his hands, his glittering gaze meshed with hers, his breathing as out of whack as her own. ‘Are you still okay with this?’

Addie stepped on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his firm lips. ‘More than okay. I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment.’

Vic brought his mouth back down to hers in a lingering kiss that made the hairs on her head tingle at the roots. His lips were magical against hers, they cast a spell of sensual seduction that was irresistible. Each stroke of his tongue against hers set spot fires in her body. Each movement of his lips on hers was a caress and a promise of further pleasure. He walked her backwards to his bed, his mouth still fused to hers, the movement of his muscular thighs against hers making her insides coil in feverish anticipation. No kiss had ever made her feel this level of arousal, of excitement, of bone-deep longing. Every one of her erogenous zones had come to life like he had turned a switch. Her feminine flesh was tingling and fizzing, the sensation like a hollow spasm of part pain, part pleasure, the need so primal and strong she was driven by it in every cell of her body.

Vic laid her down on the king-sized bed and came down beside her, his hand moving down her body in one deliciously slow stroke from her breast to her thigh and back again. Even though she was still covered in the bathrobe, her flesh tightened and tingled under his tantalising touch. He was propped up on one elbow, his other hand moving to the V of her bathrobe near her breasts.

‘May I touch you?’

His voice was husky with desire, and it made her own desire escalate. But then a tiny fear crept up on her…what if he was disappointed by her body? What if he compared her to all the other lovers he had had before? Vic must have seen the shadow of fear in her face for he brought his hand up to the curve of her cheek and cradled it gently.

‘Hey, you have no need to be worried I won’t find you attractive. Can’t you already feel what you do to me?’

Addie could. His body was rock-hard against her thigh, his eyes glinting with unmistakable lust. She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips and gave a flickering smile. ‘I’ve never felt beautiful in my life. It’s hard to feel confident about my body when it’s always been compared to my mother’s perfect one.’

Vic’s gaze darkened as he frowned. ‘You are your own unique person. I find your natural beauty captivating. You don’t need the enhancement of makeup or fancy clothes, although it has to be said at this point, I’m dying to get this bathrobe off you so I can touch you all over.’

Addie shuddered from delight at the erotic promise of his words. ‘Touch me, please?’ She gave her permission in a soft voice, but her body was shouting out for him in so many other ways. Heat pounded through her veins; the searing heat of lust let loose. Her breasts tingled behind the barrier of the bathrobe, her nipples hardening to peaks. Her flesh ached for his touch, her mouth longed for more of his passionate kisses, her inner core pulsed for his possession.

Vic slowly parted her robe, sliding his broad warm hand against the soft flesh of her breast, and she gasped at the expertise of his touch. He bent his head to her breast, his mouth moving around her tight nipple in a teasing touch that sent a shudder of pleasure through her entire body. His hand was gentle, so sensually gentle that she arched up to encourage more of his touch. He lowered his mouth to her breast, licking the circle of her areola and she whimpered as more tingling sensations coursed through her body. He took her nipple into his mouth, rolling his tongue over and around her tightened flesh, making her gasp and writhe with pleasure. Then he drew on her nipple with gentle little sucks that made her mouth drop open in a gasp of delight. He moved to her other breast, subjecting it to the same exquisite torture, sending riotous pulses of delight through her body. Her spine arched some more, her need for him rising like a tide. A flood of desire swept through her, making it hard to think of anything but the need clamouring through her body.

Vic lifted his head to gaze down at her. ‘You are so damn beautiful, your skin is like satin, so soft, so smooth. I want to taste all of you.’

Addie blinked. Did he mean what she thought he meant? No one had ever touched her down there. She rarely touched herself as she had been too caught up in the years of shame she had inherited from her mother’s comments. Her body, her needs had been poisoned by the shame of not feeling good enough, but with Vic, she could feel a few layers of that encrusted shame sloughing away.

She looked up into his eyes, amazed at herself for being so open with him, but hadn’t he made her feel that way? Safe for the first time in her life. Safe to be herself, safe to express her needs and wants, safe to respond to those needs without shame or embarrassment. ‘I’d like you to touch me…everywhere…’ Her voice came out as a husky whisper, a plea for more of his sensual touch.

‘I’d like you to touch me too, but I need to get out of my clothes first. Are you comfortable with me doing that?’

‘Yes, I am. I want to see you,’ Addie said, unashamed of how eager she was to see the male planes and contours of his body.

‘How about you undo my shirt buttons.’

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