Page 31 of Modern Romance June 2025 5-8

She nodded, blindsided by an emotion which felt like more than excitement, more than just fascination. More than just that desperate, undefinable urge to live in the moment and enjoy whatever life threw at you… An emotion that was terrifying.

‘I want to feel you inside me again,’ she said, her heart thundering when approval darkened his expression.

‘You must tell me if it is too much,’ he said.

He hooked her legs around his waist and eased inside her with infinite patience, infinite care, but he didn’t stop until he was seated to the hilt.

She pushed the terrifying emotions back, to concentrate on the rising tension, the brutal bliss just out of reach. He rolled his hips, slowly, carefully, out, then back. Then faster, harder—until all she could feel was the animal hunger, the deep strokes of him inside her, the desperate need. All she could hear was his grunts, her sobs, the slick slap of flesh against flesh. The basic elemental need became so huge, so unstoppable, it was like a runaway train, speeding her towards that desperate oblivion once more.

But as she crashed over, into his arms, and he shouted out his own release, the painful pressure in her chest—the frantic fear that there was much more at stake here already than she understood, or could control—exploded too.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Three weeks later

‘So, you’re reallygoing through with it, then?’

Santiago swung round from the mirror in the small vestry—where he had been checking his cravat—to find his brother standing with his shoulder propped against the doorframe. The casual pose and the relaxed tone, though, was contradicted by the incredulous expression on Alejandro’s face.

About damn time.

Santiago put a stranglehold on the surge of anger and frustration.

His brother’s hair was a mess and his cravat hung around the open collar of his shirt untied. But at least he was here—finally—and wearing the suit which had been designed for him so he could be Cerys’spadrino. It was traditional for a girl’s father to represent her at a Spanish wedding ceremony, but Cerys had been certain her father was not living, from the nightmares she had already dredged up from her past, so Alejandro had agreed to walk her down the aisle. But, as usual, his brother had clearly not understood the gravity of that commitment.

‘You were supposed to be here an hour ago, Andro,’ he replied, attempting to relax his jaw and not sound furious. He did not have time to start an argument. His wedding was due to commence in less than twenty minutes.

His brother shrugged. ‘I got hung up in Girona this afternoon.’

No doubt in some woman’s bed.

Santiago’s jaw tightened, his own sexual frustration adding to his irritation at his brother’s late arrival.

He had chosen not to make love to Cerys for the past few days, to prove to himself that he could control the insatiable desire. But now he was concerned he would be unable to control his physical reaction during the ceremony. Which would not only be humiliating—but had the potential to reignite the salacious speculation about his insatiable sex drive, which this marriage was supposed to curtail.

In the past three weeks it had become a struggle to leave Cerys sleeping in the secluded villa on the edge of the vines each morning at dawn to go to work in thecastillo. And even more of a struggle not to tear her clothes off her as soon as she arrived to join him there each evening. He had even taken to waking her during the night, to have her again. And using sex to placate her whenever the nightmares woke her from dreams.

At least the sex had diverted her from attempting any more conversations about his past whenever they were alone together. Cerys must have heard of the De Montoya Scandal by now—but he had no wish to discuss it. This marriage would finally repair the rest of the damage his father had caused. They could not make their union official in the eyes of the state until Pérez came through with her ID documents. But the detective believed he had found something which might help uncover her identity, which he was bringing to thecastillotomorrow.

With the Isla de la Luna resort due to open in a couple of weeks, his business manager had been overjoyed at the prospect of them honeymooning on the island and Santiago would prefer to have the civil marriage conducted beforehand. The publicity department had a press release ready to go too, which would hopefully put an end to the comparisons with his father once and for all.

It had been important to him to have their marriage blessed in the family chapel, if for no other reason than to prove to himself that he had finally shaken off the shackles of his past. And his father’s crimes.

But the more he hungered for Cerys, the more he wondered if that were true.

Three days ago, he had noticed the bruised shadows under Cerys’s eyes. And he knew they were caused not just by the endless wedding planning and the demands he made on her at night, but also by the nightmares which woke her frequently.

She was emotionally fragile, her memory clearly returning, and yet every time he took her, the need only become more acute—to the point where he had taken to making excuses to snatch stolen moments with her during the day. The soft sobs of her arousal, the feel of her tightening around him, was something he had begun to crave like a drug. Three days ago, he had even demanded she come to his study so he could hand over his mother’s mantilla—the black veil traditionally worn by Spanish brides. Of course, he had no real interest in whether she wore the mantilla or not. But contriving that particular reason to see her had been a misstep, leading to questions about his mother. Which had then led to him ravishing her on the desk to divert her attention again. In the end he had been so ashamed of himself he’d ended up insisting on a three-day separation until the wedding…

But, of course, the three nights without her in his bed had only made his appetite more insatiable.

He sighed. At least this self-inflicted celibacy was due to end in a few hours.

Night had fallen ten minutes ago, and the centuries-old chapel on the vineyard’s grounds—where the exclusive ceremony would be performed—had been full of the invited guests for over an hour.

He had decided against a big society event—partly because the wedding planner had nearly had a breakdown when he had insisted on arranging this blessing ceremony before the Isla de la Luna launch at the end of the month. But mostly because he had always had an aversion to any kind of press attention. They would have exclusive photographs taken on Isla de la Luna, but the press release would only be issued for this event once Cerys’s true identity had been discovered and they could legalise the union.

But he’d also had no desire to wait.

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