Page 94 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘And it’s not in my interests to keep it secret.’
‘A month. That’s all I’m asking for. A month.’
‘I will give you a week.’
‘But…’
‘A week or nothing.’ He made to walk away.
‘Fine,’ she snapped. ‘A week. But a week from the wedding.’
‘Deal.’ He gave a mocking smile. ‘Our first compromise.’
‘Hardly a compromise.’
‘You should be more grateful—I didn’t need to compromise. I don’t need to compromise on anything. That we’re standing here even discussing this is entirely for your benefit.’
‘No, for ourbaby’sbenefit.’
‘Once you know me better you will know our baby’s security was never in doubt.’
‘If it wasn’t for our baby I wouldn’t want to know you at all.’
‘But you, my angel from Hades, do know me, andintimately.’ He had the satisfaction of seeing her beautiful face contort at the reminder. ‘Any other conditions?’
‘No.’
‘No demands that I be faithful?’ he said with another mocking smile.
Her loathing was so visible he swore he could taste it. ‘I wouldn’t waste my breath.’
He laughed. ‘In that case, I believe we have a deal.’
‘Whoopee,’ she said flatly.
‘It is usually customary that a deal be sealed with a handshake, but in these circumstances I believe a kiss would be more appropriate.’
She shook her head with a sneering laugh and took a small step back.
‘I’m serious, Lydia. We seal the deal and you prove your commitment to us having a real marriage with a kiss, otherwise the deal is non-binding and you have no guarantee I will sign my name on any wedding certificate.’
Her eyes were ablaze with fury. ‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Humiliating me.’
‘Very much so, but not as much as I’m going to enjoy feeling your delectable mouth against mine again, so come here and seal the deal.’ He pressed a finger to the cut her brother’s fist had made on his mouth. ‘You can start by kissing this better.’
Lydia tried to hold her ground but the expression on Alexis’s face was uncompromising.
This was payback. She knew it. He knew it. Payback for her doing the unthinkable and being the one to walk out on the great Alexis Tsaliki when his ego dictated that he play his lovers like a puppeteer until he bored of them.
If he had any idea that dragging herself out of his bed had been the hardest thing she’d ever had to do… His ego would explode.
She was glad, now, that their circumstances had forced her to go against all her instincts and walk away, because she would have given anything to stay in his bed; given anything to have kissed him back and said yes to dinner with him.
She’d never dreamed making love could feel like that. Be like that. Passionate. Tender. Thrilling. Fun. She’d never believed, either, that she could be like that with someone. Alexis hadn’t just stripped her clothes from her but stripped her bare too. He’d peeled away all her layers to reveal the essence of who she was as a woman, a woman who for one gloriously hedonistic weekend had lived only for him. She would love to believe the alcohol they’d consumed and the fact that even talking civilly to each other was a massive taboo had played their part in heightening everything, and maybe they had, to start with, but they hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol once at his apartment and she’d been stone-cold sober when she’d had to physically wrench herself away from him…
During their weekend together, she hadn’t once forgotten that it was her enemy’s bed she’d willingly climbed into, but she had forgotten what kind of man her enemy was. A ruthless man. A man who’d wrested control of his own father’s company against his father’s wishes and, as she’d learned that day, had had no compunction about serving his stepsister to Lydia’s brother on a platter built on a lie.
He was also a man for whom commitment was a dirty word, and why would it not be when he had the looks that would make any passing human take a second look? Combine that with his wealth and you had a man who could have anyone he pleased, and frequently did. If their families’ entwined poisonous histories hadn’t forced Lydia to drag herself out of his bed and walk away, the most she could have looked forward to would have been a couple of dates before being unceremoniously dumped for the next woman to catch his forever roving eye.
