Page 209 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

He frowned darkly and leaned forward to put his cup on the small table between them. ‘You have regrets about making love with me?’ His voice was full of concern.

‘No, of course not. I just don’t want you to think I’m desperate to continue our…association. I know the rules, you stated them clearly.’

There was a small pause while he stared at his cup sitting on the table as if it was completely absorbing, although the same frown was on his forehead. Then he drew in a breath, his eyes coming back to hers. ‘I’m only thinking of you,cara. It would hurt you if we continued this for too long.’

How long was too long? A day or two? A week? A month…or more? But those were words she didn’t have the courage to speak out loud. She didn’t want to know the answer, was scared to hear it, so she stayed silent.

Vic rose from his chair and sent his hand through his hair, leaving wide finger trails in the thick black strands. He paced the floor a couple of times in an agitated fashion and then turned and faced her with a tortured expression on his dark features. ‘It wouldn’t be fair to you.’

Addie finally found her voice. ‘What wouldn’t be fair to me?’

‘Asking you to have a fling with me.’

Addie stared at him for a moment, struck speechless all over again. Was he offering her a fling? And if he was, should she accept his offer? She tried to think through the repercussions: the possibility of the press finding out, what her brother and sister-in-law would think, what would happen when the fling ended as it most certainly would do. But then she recalled the magic of being in his arms and her body overruled the warnings of her brain. She sent the tip of her tongue out over her lips, her heart thudding in her chest like an out of rhythm drum. She put her cup down and rose from the chair and went over to him, placing a hand on his strong forearm. Her skin tingled as hers came in contact with his, her lower body smouldering with need.

‘Is that whatyouwant?’ It was a bold question and Addie was proud of herself for asking it.

One of his hands came down over the top of her hand resting on his arm, his grasp warm and firm. His eyes blazed with heat, the same heat she could feel simmering in her body. ‘I want you.’ His other hand came to the small of her back and edged her closer to the hot hard heat of his body. ‘I told myself I wouldn’t get involved with you. I warned myself of all the dangers and yet, here I am, wanting you to say yes.’

Addie leaned into him, her excitement at being in his arms again making her almost giddy. ‘I want you too. So, so much.’

He cupped her face in his both of his hands and bent down to press a lingering kiss to her mouth. She murmured her delight against his lips and his hands moved from her face to wrap around her body, holding her close once more. She could feel every erotic ridge and plane of his body against hers, and it fuelled her desire to fever pitch. A couple of hours ago she was a shy virgin, ignorant of the needs and workings of her body. But Vic Jacobetti had awakened her to a world of sensuality, an addictive world she wasn’t yet ready to leave. His kiss deepened, became more urgent and passionate, and his tongue played with hers in a dance of desire that sent bubbles of excitement through her blood. She linked her arms around his neck, tilting her head to one side as he began to kiss the sensitive skin of her neck.

‘Your skin tastes divine,’ he growled and gave her earlobe a gentle nip that sent a hot shiver racing down her spine. ‘I want to lick every inch of you.’

Addie moved her mouth to his neck, his skin raspy with its masculine regrowth abrading her softer skin in a deliciously arousing way. She stroked her tongue along his skin, tasting the salt and maleness and deciding it was her favourite flavour of all time.

Vic groaned and came back to her mouth with a kiss that set her senses on fire. His hands held her by the hips, holding her against the throbbing need of his body, so close to the pounding pulse of her own.

Later, she could barely recall how they got back upstairs but she remembered a lot of stopping and kissing along the way. By the time they got to his bedroom, she was half mad with lust and it was more than obvious so was he.

He undressed her as she undressed him, quickly, desperately. He knelt in front of her trembling body, tasting the humid heat of her and she whimpered in pleasure. He changed the speed and pressure of his tongue against that most sensitive nub of her flesh and her body suddenly erupted into a cataclysmic orgasm. An ocean broke over her, through her, within her. Waves washed, crashed, pounded and then cast her out the other side. She was breathless, panting, shaking with the delicious aftershocks that rippled through her.

Vic gently laid her back on the bed, looking at her with his dark eyes smouldering with lust. He sourced a condom and applied it, the action so stimulating to Addie, she was ready for him as soon as he joined her on the bed. He anchored his weight on his forearms, gliding inside her with exquisite gentleness but she wanted more. Much more. She gripped him by the buttocks and urged him deeper, groaning with pleasure as he responded to her encouragement with a guttural groan of his own. It was faster than the first time, fast and frenzied with electrifying fusion of their hungry bodies.

Vic lifted his mouth off hers to look at her. ‘Are you sure I’m not going too fast for you? This is only your second time and I don’t want to hurt you.’

Addie pulled his head back down so his mouth was close to hers. ‘It didn’t hurt the first time, so why would it now?’

‘I just want it to be good for you.’

‘It was brilliant for me before. I’m not sure how you can improve on that.’

He smiled a glinting smile. ‘You just watch me,cara.’

CHAPTER TEN

Vic woke justbefore dawn and watched Addie sleeping peacefully beside him. One of her arms was flung across his chest, her head nestled against his shoulder. He breathed in the scent of her, the flowers of her perfume, the fruity fragrance of her hair, and the unique smell of her body.

These days he rarely spent the whole night with a lover because of the deeper level of intimacy it entailed. Waking beside a stranger was not something he enjoyed doing as much as he used to. But making love with Addie was nothing like a casual hook-up, far from it. It was intimate, erotic and tender in a way he hadn’t expected. He had found himself offering her a fling even though he knew it was stepping over a boundary he never thought he would cross.

There were all sorts of complications in becoming involved with his best friend’s sister. Keeping their involvement a secret was going to be difficult and he was uncomfortable insisting on it in case Addie thought he was somehow ashamed of their relationship.Relationship.That was the word he never used in the context of his sex life. But he was already in a relationship with Addie and had been since he had been introduced to her at Marcus and Isabella’s engagement party.

The weird thing was he was the reason Marcus and Isabella got together in the first place. He had never considered himself to be the matchmaking type and he had always kept his private life separate from his public life. But Isabella had been visiting him from Paris where she had been living and she was lamenting the poor state of her dating life. Vic invited Marcus over on a whim, thinking it couldn’t hurt for his half-sister to meet his friend to show her not all men were bastards, and the rest, as they say, was history. Vic wasn’t a believer in love at first sight, but even as cynical as he was, he had to admit his friend and his half-sister certainly fell for each other rapidly. They were only dating a couple of months when they announced their engagement.

And that was when Addie entered Vic’s life.

He turned his head so he could plant a soft kiss to the top of her head. She stirred against him, murmuring something, then nestling back against him like a sleepy kitten. Something shifted inside his chest, a tightness loosening, a locked door cracking open to allow a tiny beam of light into the darkness. Vic gave himself a mental shake. He was getting sentimental over Addie allowing him to be her first lover, that’s all it was. He was in new territory, unfamiliar territory where it was impossible to completely cordon off his feelings. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t feelsomething, but what it was made no sense to him. He wasn’t the falling in love type. He had never experienced the overwhelming sense of rightness other people talked about when they met their soulmate. He had bedmates, not soulmates and he didn’t intend for that to change.

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