Page 199 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

And now he was off ‘sending an email’. She knew exactly what that was about. In the weeks they had been staying in Vozzano, Emilio hadn’t mentioned the will or Enzo. He’d been fully present in every moment they shared. But today? Today was a reminder of what he was fighting for. It was obvious how much he’d loved his mother and Jasmine understood how devastating it would be for him to know that Valentina would never meet his child. This was one way he could pass that love down to their baby.

This email was important. She couldn’t rest until she knew Emilio was alright.

‘Why aren’t you resting?’

She hadn’t heard Emilio enter, and jumped at his voice. How did he always read her thoughts like that? ‘Does it only qualify as resting if I’m lying down?’

‘No.’ He was carefully holding a tea cup and closing the distance between them. In an impressive show of strength, he pulled her against him and sat them both in the arm chair, sweeping her onto his thigh. In the other hand, he still held the cup. Not a drop had spilled. ‘There, you’re resting and not lying down,’ he said, lips twitching with a deliberately repressed smile.

‘Maybe I don’t want to rest.’ She twisted around a little more and took the cup from him, placing it on the small table beside them. ‘Maybe I want to do something else.’

‘Like what?’ He smiled with darkening eyes. A smile that went straight to the heart of her and made desire rapidly course through her.

God! This man is beautiful.And she wanted him. She didn’t just want the pleasure he offered. She wanted it all. So she leaned in and brushed her lips against his. Pulling away as he tried to kiss her. Teasing him. Challenging him. Wanting him to stop being so careful with her.

‘Belleza, this is a dangerous game you’re playing,’ he said, voice low.

Jasmine grinned. ‘I know.’

‘You’re a siren.’

‘Then stop resisting.’

Emilio pulled away, searching her face. ‘Do you really want this?’

‘Yes.’ She was never more certain of anything. ‘Do you?’

‘Every moment I resist the urge to be with you is torture.Il mio cuore vuole il tuo.’

She loved how his perfect English disappeared when he was overcome. The deepening of his accent, the words, all indicated just how lost he was.

Emilio took her breath away. Made her desperate. She needed to show him how desperate, so she crushed her lips against his, pouring every ounce of this maddening, intoxicating, exhilarating feeling into the kiss, but he threaded his fingers in her hair and took control, slowing this frantic kiss into something sensual. Erotic. Tender.

Every slide of his lips on hers sent a flurry of sparks through her core. It rendered her breathless and, when he tilted her face, trailing kisses along her jaw, Jasmine sighed.

‘Emilio…’

She felt his teeth on her skin then, as if he was trying not to devour her, and she wished he would.

***

Emilio had never felt so owned, so at anyone’s mercy, as he did when she said his name. She had his heart and now she had sunk her teeth into his soul. Emilio knew he would never shake her from his being. Every slide of her lips, every taste of her tongue, every touch of her skin on his was imprinted on his mind. He was Jasmine’s, and he wanted her to be his, despite how unworthy he was of her. Emilio had never wanted anything more than for Jasmine to want him in every way. Heart and soul. Passion and lust.

He turned her round and made her sit her between his open legs. Her back was against his chest, his hardness trapped between them. He wanted her to feel it. To know what she was doing to him. And he was about to make her feel the same.

With one hand on her throat, he held her against him. Soft, gold, curls pressed against his shirt and he kissed her. There was reverence in every swipe of his tongue, while his other hand travelled along the front of her shirt, slowly unbuttoning her satin blouse. Her breathing grew ever more rapid with each one. He slid it off her and dropped it to the floor, exposing her milky skin. The small bump of her belly that just made him even more possessive of her.

Emilio took deep breaths, trying to control his body and how badly it wanted to rip off the rest of her clothes, but that wasn’t what this was. This wasn’t sex. This wasn’t a hook-up. This was how he showed Jasmine what she meant to him. How he would treat her. Worship her.

Biting and sucking on her shoulder, he removed her bra. The strapless garment fell away and instantly his hands were on her breasts. Cupping, kneading, caressing. Jasmine mewled, a sound that had his heart thrumming, and he could take it no more. He placed her on the chair and knelt in front of her, holding her gaze. Making sure she could see in his eyes what he was about to do to her.

He took her nipple into his mouth, making her moan out loud while he undid her trousers. And, sliding his hands under all the layers of fabric, he pulled them away, leaving her naked and panting. Her arousal glistening on her skin.

Emilio trailed kisses down her undulating body, taking his time. Tormenting them both. Savouring the wait, because it would only make his reward that much sweeter. And it washisreward, because pleasuring Jasmine like this was a blessing. A privilege. A prize for some good deed he must have done in a previous life. Certainly not in this one.

He kissed the little freckle above her belly button and then lower and then lower still.‘Sono tua,’he said, and then he kissed the heart of her:I’m yours. Her taste flooded his mouth. He would always crave it and never be prepared for it for as long as he lived.

‘Emilio!’ Jasmine cried out. He barely heard it but still it registered even though he was completely at sea with the pleasure this brought him. That sound would find him no matter how lost he was. He lapped at her slowly, taking that little bundle of nerves at the apex into his mouth. Sucking. Kissing. He never wanted this to end. She cantered her hips against his face desperately and it made him chuckle.

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