Page 109 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
His mouth now snaking up her neck, he found her lips and kissed her passionately.
‘Let’s have this one night,’ he murmured huskily, his fingers skimming down her back to grope the cheek of her bum. ‘Forget the world and our families and just live for now.’
By the time he drove inside her, she’d forgotten anyone else existed but Alexis.
Lydia stood on the balcony of Alexis’s room gazing out at the peaceful lapping of the sea on his private beach. They could be the only two people in existence.
She sighed. ‘Do we really have to go back?’
Arms slid around her waist, a hard body pressing into her back. ‘One day of marriage and already you are selfish for me,’ he murmured, almost purring like a satisfied cat.
She was glad he couldn’t see her expression at his jovial arrogance or he would recognise the truth in his words. ‘As amazing a lover as you are, I was thinking more about everything we’ve got coming for us when we get back to Athens.’
His mouth brushed her ear, a hand cupping her breast. ‘You think I’m an amazing lover?’
A delicious shiver ran up her spine. ‘With all your experience there would be something wrong if you weren’t.’
He playfully pinched her nipple. ‘You do love cutting me down to size,’ he mused, sliding his hand back down to her stomach and resting his chin on her head. ‘I’m not afraid to say that I’m entirely selfish for you and if I could extend our time here then I would, but there are too many fires to put out.’
Lydia’s heart shouldnotsigh at his admittance of being selfish for her. Alexis was sex mad. The difference between them was that she was only sex mad for him and she would rather dye her hair blue than admit this or admit he was the first man to have ever made her climax. Alexis’s ego did not need feeding.
Determined not to let her mood slip, she lightly said, ‘Don’t you employ staff to put fires out for you?’
‘I do, and they’ve been fighting them since we got here, but it’s not fair for me to expect them to do it any longer. I took control of Tsaliki Shipping from my father with the promise that I would turn its future around for the better. Now that things have gone to hell, I can’t leave it to others. It’s my responsibility to fix things, no one else’s.’
Not wanting to think of her brother battling the same fires but with no hope of extinguishing them, Lydia leaned back into Alexis and closed her eyes. It was time to face her immediate future head-on. ‘Where will I go?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When we’re back in Athens. I suppose I should go home—’
‘Your home is with me,’ he cut in firmly.
‘But we’re not going to be announcing our news until Sunday. What am I supposed to do until then? Just hide away?’ She couldn’t be seen around Athens. Her face wasn’t well known like Alexis’s or her brother’s, but all the recent publicity had put her in a spotlight she’d never been under before, and there was always the chance she’d bump into someone or be seen by someone who actually knew her and knew her family. While her parents had been glad of her supposed trip to England and its means of getting her safely out of the media’s firing line, how could she justify being back in her home city and not going home to them? Just to imagine the turmoil they were all going through made her feel wretched. Knowing she’d married Alexis to save her own skin made her feel worse, a feeling that didn’t change when she reminded herself she’d done it for their baby’s sake or when she reminded herself that as soon as she was in a position to help, she’d be there for them.
She still hadn’t checked her phone. Barely a whole day had passed since Alexis had swiped it from her hands and now the thought of scrolling through her messages filled her with dread. Her mother would be going out of her mind.
‘It’s only for six days,’ he said. ‘Anything you need to entertain you by day will be provided.’ He dipped his mouth back to her ear. ‘And I’ll be home to provide a very different kind of entertainment by night.’
Just to imagine it was enough to fill her with longing and for her legs to weaken. The jut of his arousal poking through his shorts and into the small of her back wasn’t helping, and when she clamped her hands to his to stop them wandering back to her breasts, she held them tightly in part to stop herself from dragging his hands back up to them.
‘I still need my clothes,’ she reminded him. As sensually erotic as it felt to wear Alexis’s shirts, she wanted her own stuff.
‘I’ll have them collected and brought to the apartment. Give me your friend’s address and I’ll make the arrangements now.’
‘Is this always your approach to solving problems? Just get on and sort it?’ Not just problems but things he wanted. He’d wanted her and he’d had her. He’d wanted a real marriage and within two days he’d got his wish. When Alexis wanted something to happen, he made it happen.
‘What other way is there to approach them?’
‘I don’t know. Until the war between our fathers hit the news and everything imploded, I lived a charmed life. Everything was easy. I never wanted for anything.’ And, she was starting to suspect, it was fear of actually wanting for something that had stopped her cutting the safety net her family provided. Maybe all this was a punishment for being so complacent about her place in life. ‘What gave you your drive? Why were you the only Tsaliki offspring to get out there and make a name and fortune for himself off his own back?’
He exhaled heavily into her hair and when he spoke, it was without the sensual undertone that had been lacing his voice the whole conversation. ‘Because I didn’t want to be my father.’
That was not an answer she’d been expecting.
‘I grew up wanting to be him,’ he explained quietly. ‘I idolised him. When he divorced my mother and I was told I’d be staying primarily with my father, I was glad.’
‘How old were you?’
