Page 58 of Modern Romance September 2025 1-4
Ulysses blinks again, his gaze roaming over my face as if the expression on it is a language he can’t quite read. I shiver under the pressure of it, even as something in me basks in the attention.
‘So,’ he says quietly. ‘Do you think the fault is yours?’
I don’t know why he’s taking this so seriously. It’s just sex and it doesn’t matter. ‘Of course it is,’ I tell him. ‘I’ve just…never liked it. Even before I met John I never felt any kind of…desire for anyone.’ And it’s true, I didn’t.
‘Yet you do for me,’ he points out.
My cheeks heat. It’s hard admitting what I’m feeling, even though I swore I’d be honest. I don’t like the vulnerability of it.
Perhaps sex isn’t as unimportant as you think?But it is. At least, I’ve never needed it to function in my daily life. Numbers give me joy and pleasure and they’re always honest. They’re much more reliable than people, at least.
Then why are you so reluctant to tell him you want him?Maybe it’s a habit I’ve got into; I’m not sure. Yet honesty compels the truth out of me all the same. ‘Yes,’ I say, forcing out the word. ‘I do d-desire you.’
‘So, perhaps it’s not you.’ His voice is patient, calm. ‘Perhaps the problem is that you just weren’t attracted to your husband. And perhaps, if you have a different partner, things might be different.’
He does present an interesting if strangely distressing thought. If the problem wasn’t me after all, but John, then I should have known better. I was stupid to marry him. I accepted that I wasn’t a sexual person; I never questioned it. I never talked to John about it, he never asked me, and I let that go on for…far too long.
God, everywhere I’ve turned these past few hours all I’ve done is find out things about myself and about my marriage that I didn’t know, and that only make me feel even more stupid than I already did.
My throat is tight and my eyes prickle. I never cry, never ever, and I’m not sure why I’m on the edge of tears now, but everything feels too much. There have been too many shocks, too many surprises—and now I’m flying to Athens with a man I hardly know to spend Christmas with his sister and him, after being physically threatened by a man I hadn’t thought was dangerous.
How has this even happened? What did I do to get myself into this mess?
Across from me, Ulysses suddenly sits up and puts his Scotch down for the second time. ‘Come here, Katla,’ he says, my name sounding strangely sensual and exotic in his deep voice. ‘I can prove to you that the fault is not yours if you’ll let me.’
‘What do you mean?’ I ask warily.
‘You’re a volcano, don’t you know that?’ His tone is like velvet, soft yet a little rough. ‘That’s why I want you. Deep down, you’re molten. Deep down, you’re fire. And all you need is someone to melt your ice. I can do that for you. I can show you what you’re actually hungry for.’
My heartbeat is loud in my ears and the hot, tight feeling is intensifying. I’m breathless and there is something needy and desperate in me. My mother named me Katla for the volcano in my home country, but I’ve never thought ofmyselfas one. John once made a joke about my name, saying that I wasn’t dormant but extinct. It hurt, though I brushed it off at the time.
But Ulysses doesn’t think that, he thinks there’s fire in me, and now I want to know why.
‘Show me,’ I say. ‘How?’
The flames in his eyes leap high. ‘I think you know how.’
I think I do too. I’m not sure if he led me to this point, or whether I walked myself into it, but I do know that if I go to him right now, if I let him show me how like a volcano I am, I won’t be the same woman afterwards.
His kiss changed things for me, it woke me up, and I think this will change me too. But…maybe I want to be changed. Maybe I want to be a different woman from the one who nearly let herself get kidnapped by her ex-husband. A different woman from the one who was constantly criticised and belittled by her own mother. Be a woman more aware of herself and what she wants.
So this time I don’t second-guess, and I don’t think.
I push myself to my feet, take a step that brings me right in front of him and look down into his golden eyes. ‘Show me, then.’
CHAPTER NINE
Ulysses
I didn’t thinkshe’d do it. I didn’t think she’d come to me, not after our conversation and my shock at her confession that she doesn’t like sex. She’s almost virginal in her lack of understanding, but that’s not her fault.
The moment she said it wasn’t her husband who was the problem, I knew:hewas the problem. This woman has fire inside her. I knew it the moment I walked into that meeting and saw her sitting there, watching me. I saw it in her eyes; I watched it burn high as we argued tonight in Tanaka’s office, and then in the car on the way here. I tasted it in her kiss. Lack of passion isnotmy Katla’s problem. The problem was her husband. Logically, if she’s only been with one man and thinks she doesn’t like sex, yet professes a desire for me, then yes, the problem is definitelyhim.
I now wish I took the time to punch his head in when I had the chance, but sadly my sister, AKA my conscience, wouldn’t like it. I’m still angry that he made this woman feel as though she was at fault, though I don’t know why she was distressed when I told her that she wasn’t to blame.
And shewasdistressed; I saw how it darkened her pretty eyes. That did something to me—it made me want to know why she was upset, what it was that hurt her and how I can fix it. It’s strange. I’ve only ever cared about the feelings of one person but, apparently, I now care about the feelings of another: Katla.
I’m not sure why or how she’s different from any other woman I’ve wanted in my life, but she is. There is a painful sincerity to her that makes me want to protect her—the world is a harsh place for honest people—and it also speaks to a level of trust she has in me. I know she just told me that she didn’t trust me, but the fact is she does, at least a little, or else she wouldn’t be sitting here.
