Page 99 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
‘Considering that tomorrow I shall be your husband, itismy business.’
‘Okay, well I’ll answer that if you tell me why you’re a serial shagger and commitment-phobe.’
‘Hardly a commitment-phobe when I’m marrying you in a matter of hours.’
‘Yes, but nothing will change for you. You’re not making a commitment to be faithful. You’ll still be continuing your serial shagging ways.’
‘Your opinion of me never ceases to delight.’ Although this was delivered lightly, Lydia detected an edge to his voice, an edge that disappeared when he added, ‘But as you’re the one who has turned down two marriage proposals, I would say that makesyouthe one afraid of commitment, which is a conversation we shall continue later. We’re here.’ They’d stopped by the side of the wide road, the driver indicating to turn into a set of high iron gates that were slowly opening. ‘For now, I remind you that you have committed yourself to me as my wife, in all ways, and now it is time for you to prove it.’
She whipped her stare back to him.‘How?’
‘Generally people newly in love look at each other with love, so you can start with not looking at me as if you want to bash my brains in when we’re in public,’ he answered drily.
She jutted her chin mutinously. ‘I’m not an actress.’
He gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘We made a deal, Lydia. If you’re not prepared to stick to it then tell me now and I’ll have you driven back to the airport.’
‘I’ll stick to it.’
‘Good, then come here and kiss me.’
‘No.’
‘Kiss me or go home.’
‘I hate you.’
‘I know. Now for the last time, come here.’
Jaw clenched, she shuffled across the leather seat to him and twisted to face him properly. The only faint solace she could take at this situation was that this time she was prepared. This time she would keep her composure and wouldn’t give an ounce of herself more than necessary.
‘How do you want to choreograph it?’ she asked tautly. ‘Do you want my hands on your shoulders or shall I wrap them around your…?’
Her words were cut off when a large hand cupped the side of her neck and his mouth swooped onto hers, cutting off her breath with her words as the shock of it raced through her, knotting her stomach and bringing every nerve-ending zinging into tingling life.
With skilled precision, he slid his tongue into her mouth, an arm sliding round her waist, pulling her closer and lighting all those nerve-endings like a match against tissue paper. Lydia, her brain cut off with her breath and her words, melted into him.
Leaning into the kiss, leaning into him, she slid an arm around his neck, and kissed him back, each intimate stroke of their duelling tongues adding to the sizzling excitement building low in her pelvis, would have crawled onto his lap to straddle him if he hadn’t pulled away from it.
Ready to cry at the withdrawal of his mouth, she gazed at him in bewilderment, barely able to think under the heavy pounding of her heart, and found herself lost in the blue-grey eyes probing her with a look she couldn’t begin to decipher.
After what felt like for ever had passed he rubbed his thumb over her cheek and bent his head for one final, gentle kiss. ‘There,’ he said softly. ‘Now you look like you’re in love.’
CHAPTER FIVE
LYDIA HAD NOidea how she was able to move from the car into the secluded, whitewashed villa. Alexis’s kiss had jellified her legs. That he held her hand jellified the rest of her, and she barely heard the names of the staff she was introduced to. There was a deep, throbbing burn between her thighs and she could only pray she would be able to shower soon to wash away the heat coursing through her veins with cold water. The sun currently melting Agon had nothing on the way Alexis melted her.
She was a tinderbox for his touch, she thought despairingly, despairing even more that a simple holding of hands could feel so thrilling and that she was holding his hand as tightly as he was holding hers. She couldn’t even lie to herself that she was holding it so tightly for show like he was. The physical pull Alexis held over her was stronger than her willpower—she hadnowillpower when it came to his touch—and she had to find a way to reverse it, and quickly. Or find a way to dampen it.
So lost in her despairing thoughts was she that when the housekeeper spoke to her, she shook her head to clear her ears because she hadn’t heard a word of it. ‘I’m sorry, what was that?’
There was avid curiosity on the woman’s face…and on the other staff’s too, Lydia realised. ‘Do you have any dietary requirements?’
‘Umm…’ Her mind was so all over the place that she had to think. ‘No. No. I’ll eat anything.’
‘Especially chips,’ murmured the deep voice belonging to the hand holdings hers so tightly, and a vivid memory flashed in her mind’s eye, of Alexis’s seductive eyes gleaming while he’d fed chips into her mouth.
Oh, why, why, why did that fun, gorgeous, sexy man she’d felt such a strong connection to in so many ways have to be her family’s worst enemy, the serial philanderer Alexis Tsaliki?
