Page 12 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘My mind is too busy. I was thinking of the last time I shared a bed on a regular basis… Not a happy place to revisit,’ she muttered ruefully and ready to kick herself.
Sleepy Bunny was confiding Bunny, Sebastian registered, and he grinned. ‘Something bad happen?’
‘My ex had been cheating on me from the start and I was with him for over two years before I found out. How sad is that?’
‘Areyoustill sad about it?’
‘Heavens, no! It’s way over a year since we broke up. I’m only sad that I didn’t catch on sooner. I wasted a lot of time at uni with him when I could’ve been out having fun.’
‘Learn from it,’ Sebastian advised, sliding an arm round her and easing her closer. ‘Don’t get all your hopes and dreams tangled up with one person. It doesn’t work. People almost always let you down.’
And where did that depressing belief come from? Sebastian questioned inwardly, positively chilled by what he had said. People could be fast friends and dependable. Yes. He had collided with a lot of the other sort in life but the few close friends he had he trusted completely.
‘Kiss me goodnight,’ he said abruptly.
‘It won’t stop at one kiss.’
Sebastian laughed with rich appreciation. ‘Is that me or you you’re condemning?’
‘Both of us,’ she traded, her cheek resting against his shoulder, her body relaxing into the heat and the already familiar scent of him. ‘Let’s be sensible.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard a gloomier piece of advice from a woman.’
‘You’re more daring than me.’
‘Daring is more fun,’ Sebastian chided, rolling over and gazing down at her in the moonlight, his tousled dark head descending slowly.
And she knew he was giving her time to pull away if she chose but her brain was preoccupied with wondering if she had hadanyfun since childhood. She didn’t think so, aside from the very occasional night out with friends. She had toed the line Tristram had laid out like that Stepford wife that Sebastian had mentioned, and the memory stung. Her ex hadn’t liked her going out with friends but most likely, she acknowledged now, that had been because he was afraid of her seeing him out cheating on her. It struck her that she had spent most of her life doing what other people believed she should do, first her family and then her ex.
Irritated by that thought that she had never yet claimed the freedom to be herself, she tipped her head back and trailed her soft full lips over Sebastian’s and he took the hint like a trooper. She was a little better prepared for that sensual onslaught than she had been earlier in the day.
Even so, that unfamiliar jolt of pure excitement still shook her up. He was one hell of a kisser. Fingers sliding through her hair, he flattened her to the bed and kissed her breathless. She was conscious of every hard, sculpted angle of his big, powerful physique. A little shiver feathered through her in response to the hard masculine arousal pressed against her. And then before she could even catch her breath, Sebastian was pulling back and settling her back on her own side of the bed.
‘Night, Bunny.’
‘Night,’ Bunny whispered shakily, knowing she wished he hadn’t stopped, knowing she had been burning up to touch him and feel him touch her, but clearly the fun had gone out of it for him. Served her right too for holding so fast to her boundaries. She wasn’t a teenager any more or a born-again virgin. Tristram had taught her a hard lesson but he hadn’t broken her, hadn’t reduced her to a timid woman, afraid of her own shadow or her desires.
Why wasn’t she being honest with herself? She wanted Sebastian more than she had ever wanted any man and she might never get another chance to explore that side of herself with such a perfect partner. Sebastian was experienced, sophisticated, gorgeous… Tick, tick, tick, he checked every box. In addition, she was never going to see him again once they got off the island and wasn’t that even more perfect? Sebastian as a wicked one-off experience? Wasn’t that much safer than attaching all sorts of foolish emotions to how he could make her feel? And then another rather frightening thought occurred to her and she burst into speech.
‘You’re not married or engaged or anything…are you?’
Sebastian froze. ‘Absolutely not. I’d be wearing a wedding ring if I was married and I’ve never seen the point in engagements.’
And all of that was true…totally, sincerely true.
‘I didn’t think so but I found myself needing to check,’ Bunny muttered and, before she could lose her nerve, she slid under the sheet that covered them, small smooth hands travelling across his torso and down a long, powerful, hair-roughened thigh.
And Sebastian jerked rigid with shock, total, complete shock as his somewhat proper, blushing companion set about boldly pleasuring him. Just as quickly he relaxed back in the moonlight, enchanted by her sheer unpredictability and the discovery that she could make him crave her caresses like a narcotic. She wasn’t skilled or practised but she made up for that with enthusiasm. It wasn’t very long before Sebastian was pushing the sheet back, tossing it back out of reach when she tried to hide below it again and long brown fingers settled into the silky depths of her hair to encourage her as his hips rose. He pulled away from her to climax with a guttural groan and flopped back against the pillows.
‘That was unbelievably good. I suspect we’re both stressed as hell in this situation,’ Sebastian sighed as he tugged her back to him. ‘And now it’s my turn.’
‘Nobody needs to take turns!’ Bunny gasped, already embarrassed by the intimacy of what she had chosen to do.
‘I’m eager to touch you, so no invitation is required,’ Sebastian groaned, leaning down to kiss her with languid expertise, his tongue darting, his fingers releasing the buttons on the shirt she wore one by one.
Bunny dragged in a stark breath, insanely conscious of the tightness of her nipples and the heavy ache at the heart of her. He spread the shirt open, kissed her again, slowly, savouring her response. And she thought, This is not me, I am not a fun girl, I’m serious and I don’t fool around.
But is that set in stone? another voice demanded. Or can you go off the rails now and again? She was going off the rails but what did it say about her that she didn’tcarejust at that moment?
