Page 114 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8
It would be more than a kiss, she knew. She wouldn’t lie to herself tonight. His kiss would be the beginning. It would turn this night from a failure into something else, into something more. Something that was only hers. Something she’d chosen because it felt right, andshewanted it.
She wanted his lips on hers.
His hand slid to her lower back. He didn’t apply pressure. Didn’t pull her closer, but waited for her to lean in. Ready to welcome her body against his.
It had to be now. Otherwise, it would be a betrayal to herself, to the woman she wanted to be. A woman who made choices and stuck to her convictions.
A brave woman.
She placed her hands on his shoulders. Used the solid strength beneath her fingertips to keep herself steady and rose on the balls of her feet.
The tips of her braless breasts brushed against him. Aurora gasped as the touch of him, the feel of him teased her body, made her ache for a firmer, heavier embrace.
Her hands moved to stroke the back of his neck, then moved upwards over his hardened jaw.
She rose as high as she could on tiptoe, tilted her head and offered him her mouth. His hand pressed deeper into the dip at the base of her spine, lifting her slightly to meet him.
Aurora brushed her mouth over his. And it was powerful, intoxicating, the gentleness of it. His mouth on hers.
Aurora felt his breath quicken against her lips.
Her open palms cradled his jaw, and she pressed her mouth to his to finally taste him. To revel in the power, the control, he radiated.
Slowly, she pushed the tip of her tongue into his mouth. Feathered it against the inside of the warm, wet walls.
And he tasted of everything she didn’t recognise, couldn’t describe, but knew she wanted.
‘Ahh,’ she moaned into his mouth.
And he growled. It vibrated against her chest, inside her mouth.
Deeper she pushed her tongue. And there was his. Firmly it moved against hers. Danced to a tune only the two of them knew. And her body started to ache. Her skin. Her breasts.Lower.
Harder she pressed her mouth to his. Needing more. More pressure. More of him. But the lips against hers were unmoving now. His body against hers was rigid steel. Tight.Wanting.
She stopped. Opened her eyes. And there were his staring back at her. Vacant. Empty.
Aurora dropped her hand from his face and pulled away. She lowered onto the balls of her feet. His hand, so strong, so wide, fell from her back. And she felt rudderless.
‘I’ve never kissed anyone,’ she suddenly had the compulsion to explain. ‘There’s never been an opportunity. I’ve never longed for it. Until tonight. Until you.’ She realised she was babbling. Overcorrecting a mistake that had made him stop. She wasn’t sure what the mistake was, only that she’d made it.
Her skin was too hot. Her chest was too tight.
‘Did I—’ She inhaled, made her lungs suck in air. ‘Did I do it wrong?’
A pulse flicked in the side of his cheek.
She stepped back. Away from the man watching her with an expression she didn’t understand.
She swallowed. Took one last look at the masked stranger in the dark who had let her kiss him. And she felt too many things. Not success. Not failure. But something in the middle, where again she stood alone, regret so close to claiming her and this night as a disaster.
‘Goodbye,’ she said as she turned her back on him.
Fingers, firm but feather-light, caught her wrist. She halted. Turned. Raised her gaze to his. And what it was in his eyes, she didn’t know, but it made her gasp with its visceral intensity as he said, ‘Stay.’
Sebastian’s eyes dropped to where he’d caught her. To where he’d wrapped his fingers around her small, delicate wrist and held her to him. And despite everything, every instinct telling him to let her go…he couldn’t.
‘Why?’ she asked. ‘You don’t want me here.’
