Page 39 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

‘You’re probably wondering why I’ve turned up today like this,’ he said, at last.

She shrugged. ‘The thought had obviously crossed my mind.’

Odysseus scowled because he didn’t want flippant evasion, hewantedher to prompt him. To drag the reluctant answers from him, with the determination of someone trying to extract an oyster from its shell. To makeherdo the wanting and him do the giving, so that he would still be in control. But still she said nothing. He gave a ragged sigh as he realised she wasn’t going to make this easy for him. And why should she? ‘I miss you,’ he said thickly.

She nodded. ‘That’s a bit like what you said just before our wedding, when you made it very plain exactly what it was you’d been missing. But this time we’re not going to have sex, Odysseus, no matter how much we want to—because it will only complicate matters.’

She was right. He knew that. He agreed with every word on principle, damn her, yet he had been expecting her to capitulate instantly—as women had been doing all his life. But her face showed no passion, just a soft curiosity shining from her amber eyes. And something about her calm reason made him realise that if he wanted what he had come here for, then she would settle for nothing less than a brutal examination of his feelings.

His feelings.

Something like fear stalled him because all his life he had denied their existence and, to some extent, this had worked in his favour. He’d been able to focus solely on his career. To drag himself out of the sordid poverty of his upbringing and make a new life for himself. But now he recognised that his reticence and closure were no longer working and he had to be prepared to confront all the pain and hurt and confusion if he wanted her.

And he wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything.

Drawing in a deep breath, he prepared to make his pitch—something he had done countless times in his life and yet never had a prospect seemed so daunting and so vital. ‘When I met you that night in Venice, you captivated me—nothing less than that. I was utterly entranced by you. Despite the masks and unfamiliar outfits we wore, the chemistry between us was off the scale. I’d never experienced anything like it and I’d certainly never had a one-night hook-up with a woman before.’ He shook his head. ‘It was incredible and next morning I kept thinking about how I could contact you again but decided against it because…’

‘Because?’ she prompted into the silence which followed, but he could hear the surprise in her voice.

‘Because I have a track record for breaking women’s hearts and I didn’t want my sweet virgin lover to be among their number,’ he ground out. ‘And then I went for my meeting with Vincenzo, and there you were. Dressed in grey with eyes downcast, as if I had summoned you up out of my thoughts.’

‘So it was just coincidence that we ended up seeing each other again?’ she said quietly. ‘A one in a million chance.’

‘Or destiny,’ he demurred, with a vehemence which was growing by the second. ‘Don’t you believe in destiny, Grace?’

‘I’m not sure—and I’m surprised you do, being such a cynic and all.’

‘I’m surprised, too,’ he admitted, with a ragged sigh. ‘I’ve been thinking about the accusations you threw at me on Kosmima and whether or not they were true. Yes, I took you away from my grandfather’s employment, but it wasn’t for revenge.’ He shook his head and stared at her with a sudden intensity which flooded through him like fire. ‘Do you really think I would have asked you to marry me—with all the implications and possible fallout of such a life-changing course of action—just to derive some sort of meaningless satisfaction from having thwarted a bitter old man I was never going to see again? Apart from anything else, I would never allow him to have that much power or influence over my life. It was something else which made me determined to ask you.’

‘What?’ she asked quietly, her heavy lids shading the sudden wary look in her eyes.

‘The fact that you were supporting your grandmother by working there. Sublimating most of your youth and energy in a position of drudgery because you felt responsible for her. I’d never met a woman who was prepared to put someone else’s needs ahead of her own. It made me realise how sweet and good you were. But it suited me to concentrate on our incredible chemistry instead—to try to convince myself that what I felt for you would soon burn itself out. Only it didn’t.’

He walked across the room and picked up the photo from the locker. It showed three generations, grandmother, mother and child. The two women had hair of the exact same colour as Grace and the little girl between them was so obviously Grace herself. He could see the future adult in the child. That shy mischief already in her eyes. That sweet tenderness as her chubby little arms clung on to her mother and her nana. They were all laughing, and a fleeting pang of pain ripped at his heart as he acknowledged something he had never known, something he’d never thought he wanted. But now he did. If she would accept him. Because Odysseus recognised that what he really wanted could not be fulfilled with anyone else but Grace.

He put the photo back down. ‘When you came out to the island, I realised that a very different kind of life was possible with you. But that scared me.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Me, who always imagined I was so fearless. I remembered the chaos of emotions when I was growing up. The mess of my father’s affairs. Even worse was the dull ache of loss which had always served as a backdrop, because I was missing a mother I had never known. I didn’t want the possibility of feeling that kind of pain and confusion ever again, so I pushed you away— thinking that if we kept our marriage on a purely superficial level it would be satisfactory. But it wasn’t. Certainly not for you and ultimately, not for me either. I’ve missed you so much, Grace. You’ve weaved your way into my life, like a thread of gold which makes it shine. I can’t imagine living without you and that’s the truth. I’ve realised I don’t want the empty kind of marriage I offered you,’ he added huskily. ‘I want the real kind. The only kind which works and which is founded on only one true principle.’

He swallowed as he sucked in a deep and unsteady breath. ‘I don’t expect you to believe me,’ he began slowly and then he could hold onto his composure no longer and his words began to crack. ‘But I love you, Grace. I’ve never said that to another living soul but I’m saying it to you now and I mean it, from the bottom of my heart.’

Grace had grown so still that for a moment she felt as if she were suspended in some unreal state between dreaming and reality. Because this must be a dream, surely? To see Odysseus standing before her, all that icy control replaced by a look of longing and, yes, pleading in his eyes. As if she held the key to his happiness in her humble little hand.

It was a lot to take in. In fact, it was a total realignment of everything she had believed to be true. But she knew one thing above all else. That he would never say something as profound as that unless he meant it. He had stripped his emotions bare before her and that must have taken a lot of courage for a man like him. He had spoken poetically and longingly and lovingly. Her heart turned over, knowing that she must treasure his words but that she must share them, too. That he must never be in any doubt about how much he meant to her.

‘I love you too, my darling Odysseus,’ she whispered. ‘I tried so hard not to fall for you because that was what you wanted—’

‘What IthoughtI wanted,’ he negated fiercely.

She smiled. ‘But despite your best efforts to push me away, I couldn’t seem to stop myself, because the chemistry was there for me, too,’ she admitted softly. ‘Two strangers in masks—but once we removed them, those same powerful feelings were there. Maybe it was fate which brought us together that night, but right now it feels like our destiny.’ She swallowed. ‘That we will love and care and commit to each other.’

‘For the rest of our lives?’ he affirmed throatily.

‘Oh, yes, my love. A thousand times yes.’

The sound he made might have been tinged with triumph but Grace didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything right then, other than to hurl herself into his arms as he picked her up by the hips and suspended her in the air—just as he’d done at that masked ball in Venice. And when he set her back down again, he kissed her. Kissed her and kissed her until she had no breath left. And then he was unzipping her uniform dress and tugging her constricted hair out of the tight scrunchy. He was tearing off his own costly clothes and hurling them to the ground until they were both naked on her tiny single bed, his erection hard and proud as it nudged between her thighs, when a scowling look passed over his face.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’ve left the damned condom in my suit trousers,’ he growled.

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