Page 164 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

Jasmine wanted that too, so she let him go enough to reach for the foil packet that sat on the bedside table. He must have pulled it out of his pocket when she was too preoccupied tearing at his clothes to notice. She took the square from him, tearing it open with her teeth and rolling the latex down his length. It made him curse and, before she knew it, she was on her back and panting as his fingers ran through her slickness.

‘Please, Emilio. Stop teasing me,’ she begged. It hadn’t escaped her just how easily he had taken control, but she decided she didn’t care as long as he delivered on this taunting promise of pleasure.

He hooked her leg around his hip and slowly pushed into her, a string of curses falling from his lips, setting a storm of lightning flashing in her core. The intensity was nearly more than she could bear, and yet she chased that feeling. She wanted more.

And Emilio delivered, setting a punishing rhythm that had sweat beading on his brow. Driving them both to the edge of sanity. All rational thought annihilated. Her body existed only in this plane of pleasure.

Just as she was about to lose herself altogether, she heard Emilio curse.

‘Merda!’

Everything came to a grinding halt.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. She was barely able to think. All she wanted was for Emilio to resume, to continue driving them to euphoric heights.

‘The condom broke.’

‘It’s fine. Just don’t stop!’ she begged, thinking of the release that waited just out of reach. Her hips bucked, trying to gain any bit of friction she could find. ‘Please!’

‘Jasmine…’ Emilio panted. She could feel the tremble in his body.

‘I’m on birth control. Please, Emilio. Please don’t stop!’ They both needed this.‘Please.’

And he finally listened, picking up right where they’d left off. Their moans were a melody floating in the air. Their bodies provided the rhythm.

Jasmine wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting to get even closer. Higher. She wanted everything. And that was when she felt every thread in her body grow taut, then snap free in a violent release that erased all sound and sight. But she still felt Emilio. Felt the pulse of his release, the tensing of his body. And the very first thing that penetrated the deafening haze of pleasure was the sound of him growling her name.

Jasmine had always enjoyed sex, but she had never felt anything like this—such utter intensity. Her whole body was sensitized and yet she was completely limp. Spent. Her eyelids were already growing heavy. She heard Emilio murmur her name again, but he so sounded far away…

***

The first thing Jasmine became aware of as she stirred awake was a warm weight against her back. The unfamiliar room around her was nearly black, the only light filtering through cracks around the doors. She blinked away the cobwebs of sleep and realised she was in a hotel room. One she had slept in…with a stranger.

Her heart began to race. What the hell had she done? Memories of the intoxicating passion from the night before came rushing back. She turned to look at the man soundly asleep on the pillows beside hers. Emilio. No last name. Sleep did nothing to dull his beauty or bring any relief from her attraction to him, but he was still a stranger. She never lost control of herself like she had last night.

With as much care as she could muster, limbs still loose with sleep, she climbed out of bed and began her search for her clothes. She didn’t take her eyes off the man in between the sheets, even as she was shoving her legs into her recovered panties.

It’s fine,she thought to herself.We’re consenting adults. We needed a release.But rational thought did nothing to ease the butterflies in her belly when she looked at him, nor the anxiety from having acted so out of character. With one last look at him, she quietly crept out of the bedroom, locating her garments in a trail that led to the entrance of the suite. Once her second stiletto was on her foot, she slowly opened the door and softly closed it behind her.

It was still dark outside. And maybe this encounter could remain there, in that darkness. There need be no guilt for leaving so quietly, because Emilio had wanted this to be a night without strings as much as she had.

No past, no future,Jasmine reminded herself as she made her way to the bank of lifts and hit the down arrow.We went out looking for fun and we found it. But now we put this night behind us and move on.

And, as if the lift had heard her, the doors slid open to carry her away.

CHAPTER FOUR

Two months later

A slideshow ofmodels in various garments travelled across Jasmine’s computer screen as she sat at her desk in a glass-walled office in Style on Point’s loft-style workspace in Manhattan. She was supposed to be looking through the proofs the art department had sent her for their upcoming season catalogue, but she couldn’t concentrate. Not when she was ravenous and exhausted. And when every dark, curly haired model made her think of the man she had met two months ago in a hectic club, who had taken her breath away with hours of toe-curling pleasure.

Pleasure so vivid that even its ghost—the memory of his touch, of his breath on her neck—had her squeezing her thighs together to relieve the ache of want. The same ache that had haunted her since she’d left the hotel.

She hadn’t even looked back as her cab had driven away that morning. It had been a moment to let her hair down, and then it became the past. But her memory of that night stubbornly refused to fade.

Damn it, Jasmine. Concentrate!

She pushed thoughts of Emilio to the back of her mind. She had to be focussed for her meeting—not something she usually needed to berate herself to achieve. Ever since high school, she’d kept careful control over every aspect of her life; it was necessary to attain the strict goals she’d designed for herself.

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