Page 5 of Modern Romance June 2025 1-4

She moved into his arms and the sensation was distracting. No. It was more than that. It waselectrifying. This time, the touch of his hands on her waist felt shockingly intimate—and annoyingly frustrating—as if his fingers were burning through the delicate fabric of her dress and branding her with his touch. Beneath the heavy swathes of silk-satin, she could feel her skin growing hot as she moved in time to the music. How could she have worried about something as unimportant as taking the right steps when dancing with him felt so easy?

She looked up to find his blue eyes studying her with amusement. ‘So what was all the fuss about?’

It took a moment for her to realise what he was talking about. ‘I was asked for my ticket.’

‘Which you haven’t got?’

‘Which I haven’t got,’ she agreed. ‘I’m afraid I’m a gatecrasher.’

‘Just not a very good one,’ he mused.

‘You aren’t shocked?’

He gave an odd kind of laugh. ‘Why would I be? Most of us have had to blag our way into something or other at some point in our lives.’

‘What, even you?’

‘Neh,even me,’ he agreed, his voice edged with a sudden trace of bitterness. ‘So let me give you a tip for next time,poulaki mou. You might as well have held up a placard outing yourself as a trespasser when you arrived. You looked so damned guilty.’

‘I was trying to be confident,’ she confessed. ‘But it’s a pretty intimidating place to walk into and I was…I was as nervous as hell.’

‘But you’re not nervous now?’

‘Funnily enough, no. I’m…enjoying myself.’

‘So am I.’ Odysseus pulled her closer, his heart beating very hard beneath his ridiculously frilly concoction of a shirt. Her shy candour was as enchanting as her neat little body, though his usual preference was for tall and rangy. She intrigued him, because these days he met only supremely successful women, who would rather have died than admit they couldn’t afford a ticket.

His throat grew dry. Her body was pressed so close to his. He could feel the narrow curve of her hips beneath the span of her tiny waist and a surge of lust flooded his body. When was the last time he had danced with a woman? He couldn’t remember. And never like this. Was it the fact that they were wearing so many clothes which added to the intensity of the moment—the constricting layers of satin and lace only adding to his growing frustration?

He wanted to pull the feathered hat from her head.

To rip that scarlet dress from her body and feast his eyes on the soft skin beneath.

The dance had finished but neither of them moved. He didn’t know how long they stood there but as her body melted against his, Odysseus knew if they stayed like that much longer, he might be issued with a public indecency order. So finish it, he told himself sternly. She’s a distraction you don’t need, especially tonight. Send her away and go back to your room to prepare for tomorrow’s grim appointment.

‘Won’t your friends wonder where you are?’ he said.

She pulled away, mortified embarrassment burning her cheeks. ‘Yes, I expect they will. I should probably go and find them. I’m so sorry. You’ve been really kind. I didn’t mean to keep you.’

He wondered what had made her so suddenly servile. ‘You aren’tkeepingme from anything,’ he told her impatiently. ‘I’m just giving you an excuse to get away, that’s all.’

Grace blinked up at him in bewilderment—not sure of what to do next. He might just be saying that to be polite, of course, but he didn’t strike her as a people-pleasing kind of man. Should she play safe and hurry away into the night and forget the way he was making her feel? She pushed the thought away. ‘And what if I don’t want an excuse to get away?’ she questioned.

There was a pause before he tilted her chin with the warm cradle of his palm, so that her eyes were locked in a collision course with his. ‘Are you always so totally without guile, Grace?’ he questioned softly.

‘I’m not sure I know what that means.’

To her disappointment, he let his hand fall. ‘It means that you need to be clear about what will happen if you stay with me, because I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding. We can go through the motions of grabbing ourselves a glass of prosecco, or finding something to eat, or we could dance some more—all of which are undeniably enjoyable pursuits. But ultimately…’ He appeared to choose his words carefully. ‘Ultimately, I want something else.’

‘Go on,’ she encouraged uncertainly.

‘I want to take you back to my room, which is not so very far from here, and then to remove that exquisite but very constricting costume. And then I want to make love to you. All night long.’ His voice dipped with unholy humour. ‘Neh.You look shocked, Grace, and perhaps you should be. Perhaps I am a little too honest for your particular tastes. So why not use this opportunity to make your escape,poulaki mou? Find yourself someone more suitable. A nice, safe man who will take you on three chaste dates before politely asking permission to hold your hand. But I suggest you go now, in case I’m tempted to try to change your mind by breaking the rule of a lifetime and kissing you in public.’

Grace’s lips fell open because in truth shewasshocked—but less by the things he’d just said than the fact that someone likeherwas capable of making a man like him come out with such a passionate declaration. She almost asked whether he was sure he wasn’t mixing her up with someone else, until she remembered Kirsty’s words.

‘And what if I don’t want to go?’ she said slowly.

‘Ah. Then that puts an entirely different slant on the situation.’ The hardening of his lips might or might not have been a smile but when he spoke again, his voice was very definitely edged with a note of warning. ‘But you need to understand that I’m flying out of here tomorrow—alone—and I don’t intend ever coming back.’

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