Page 160 of Modern Romance May 2026 Books 5-8
So she began to unbutton his shirt as his mouth devoured hers. The heat and reaction to his hands in her most intimate places in hisentry wayoverwhelmed every rational thought.
She hadn’t even made it down the row of buttons when he wrenched his mouth from hers, then turned her, hands sure and certain and in control.
She liked that, too. She was so used to being on edge, waiting for someone to land a blow, but she didn’t have to worry here. He had her.
He undid the tie on the back of the dress, smoothed it off of her as his hands followed the trail of fabric all the way down. There’d been no way to wear a bra under the dress, so she was in nothing but her underwear, and he was still fully dressed, only his shirt unbuttoned.
Not that she could see him. He stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders.
“You have bruises,” he said, and she could not quite read his tone. Almost accusatory, but she did not think he was accusingher.
“Pretty much always. Comes with the job.” For the first time in ages, perhaps ever, she wondered what it would be like to walk through the world without some kind of ache or pain or mark from what she’d chosen to do.
He made a sound, somewhat frustrated, then brushed a featherlight touch against the one on the side of her rib cage.
She shivered, leaning back into him once again. He held her upright, gentle pressure on her hips. Then he brushed his mouth across one of the bruises on her side, just above her waist, and her breath caught. So gentle. So strange. So wonderful. She couldn’t see what he was doing, and it heightened the touch, the anticipation.
A featherlight touch across her lower back, along the row of hoops in her ears, then his lips along the side of her neck, then teeth.
“Zervou.” She didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t have the vocabulary for this, for her wants, her needs.
But he did. Surely he did.
“Lie down.”
The order sent a delicious thrill through her, but she was also not very used to taking orders. “Aren’t you supposed to be naked, too?”
“Lie down, Ariadne.”
There was a warning note to his voice that echoed inside her like a throb. So she did as she was told. She crawled onto the bed and lay down.
He stood on the side of the bed, surveying her. His eyes hot and fierce and as weighty as any touch. But he didn’t touch her, and she didn’t reach out to touch him. Something about the anticipation made the ache dig deeper, want more. Something about waiting for him to set the tone seemed like it would make everything that much more…explosive.
After excruciating, wonderful moments of his eyes touring her body, he shrugged out of his shirt. Then undid his pants and pushed them off. He said nothing, but his eyes never left her as he took all of his clothes off.
Unreasonably handsome. Sharp as any blade. Strong and broad and so…big. She had no experience with size, but this felt…impossible.
Wonderful.
He sheathed himself in a condom, never taking his eyes off of her. She felt that gaze like a weight. For a brief moment, the sheer size of him made her wonder if she knew what the hell she was doing.
And then he was ranging over her, that dark, fierce gaze as potent as any alcohol, she was quite sure. Because she forgot her concerns. She forgot everything except the vibrating want in her body.
He’d made her fall apart with just his hand, and that had been a revelation. What might this be?
He did not ask her if she was sure again. Perhaps he could see it in her. Perhaps he did not care. He was just suddenlythere, nudging his way in.
Ari knew all about pain, about letting her body relax and accept. And in doing so, the intimate stretch, the sensuous, slow move from two to one, did not so much hurt as settle. From the knee-jerkI can’ttoyes. This. Always.
And he moved into her, with her. So that they were a wave together, crashing slowly, passionately into shore, into pleasure and dazzling, exquisite falls. Up and over again, and again, and again.
He said her name, a low growl in her ear. She was shuddering, overwhelmed by sensation, by something akin to joy. He pushed deep inside her one last time, shuddering himself.
She had brought a man like Zervou to shudders, andthatwas power.
She closed her eyes. She had put her body to the test time and time again in boxing, pitted herself against others bigger and stronger who had done damage. She knew what it was like to take her body to new heights, new lows.
But never this. Never like this. She didn’t have the vocabulary for any of it, and quite unfortunately felt a bit of an ache, knowing that it could not stand. It was just a rest, a holiday, a little blip in her otherwise hardscrabble life.
